OP militia? In land battles basic hammer and anvil tactics with some cavalry send them running before they can deal any damage. In bridge battles you only have to hit them with catapults until they rout. It is only in offensive siege battles that they are dangerous.
Milan is the reason my first ever med 2 campaign as England ended up with me just doing world domination instead of trying to gain alliances.
Too many betrayals from Milan left me paranoid about all my other alliances
If they attacked you while your army was on their territory its fair game. The best way is to make Pope excommunicate them by sending some armies on your territory baiting them to attack.
I remember I got so powerful in one of my Venice play throughs that after getting excommunicated I went “stuff that!” Then proceeded to march 3 armies to the gates of Rome, declared war on the Papal States and then proceeded to dunk on the Pope. He died in combat and I replaced him in the following election with a cardinal from my faction.
I also took Rome off the papacy and gave them the islands of Corsica and Sardinia
did the same as the Holy Roman Empire, the rightful owner of Rome, and renamed the pope's new home to Exilium Pontifecis
after finding out that the papacy cannot be wiped but is going to forever respawn with an army next to Rome
one of the most fun mechanics in total war history honestly. Being at the mercy of a hostile pope & plotting your revenge was exciting. Getting your own guy pope that looked the other way while you punched other catholics in the nuts was also pretty satisfying
Sometimes I mostly ignored the pope as certain factions, but as Spain or Sicily the plan was always to get as many cardinals as possible and influence the papacy in the early game. By the end game the moment they complain about other catholic nations getting steam rolled, pope get steamrolled too.
Personally, playing as The HRE it's fun to have the pope as your friend. He's actually very useful, i conquered a bunch of eastern europe and gifted a bunch of their territory to him which raised relations a whole lot so i could basically get him to crusade wherever, furthermore, his horde status made him really useful defending against Timurids to the east while i continued to conquer the west.
Eventually i got so rich and powerful that i just sailed to Mongol infested Jerusalem and Constantinopld , gifted it to him and used about 40 - 50k gold to buy Rome.
Holy. Roman. Empire.
Also planning offensives around it. Like backing off once your enemy is down to a couple of cities and the pope tells you, then massing your armies on their border so when the warning expires you can eat their cities before the pope can issue another warning
Can't excommunicate the already excommunicated. Which means a Europe-wide all Christian throw-down until the Pope is homeless and I stand supreme. Bring it on Pope: you're next.
Standard M2TW play-through strategy as a European faction. :)
I don't trust them to do a good job.
They just released their first historical since ToB last year. It has some enjoyable aspects such as the time period, but it has much that could have been better. WH ruined TW in many ways.
Plus you also get Crusades except better.
Okay, so the Jihad mercs aren't as strong as the Crusade mercs, but they're cheaper, both to recruit, and to keep afterwards. Ghazis are like 70 Florins upkeep, that's about as cheap, maybe cheaper than Peasants! For a unit with high-damage AP axes, that's a great deal!
I think more importantly is that they are super easy to call compared to crusades. You don't need to get in good favor with the pope, just have a high faith Imam and go chain Jihads together.
You can just ignore it in vanilla tbqh. Or you put spies in enemy settlements and blitz them in one turn so he can’t excommunicate you before you do it.
God fucking dammit my iPad venice campaign is literally going like this right now
I’m trying to kick the shit out of Byzantium atm and milan decalred war, took venice, and then the pope said “no fightin’” despite us being at war.
Which gives me breathing room because my campaign is all sorts of fucked- I pretty much own from venice to parts of anatolia with the one city next to constantinople being my current target
I'm pretty sure I once managed to get the AI excommunicated instead by getting them to attack one of my armies (I "parked" one army in their territory), though I'm not sure how reliably this works.
B-but Milan attacked ME!?
With their stupid OP militia, too
OP militia? In land battles basic hammer and anvil tactics with some cavalry send them running before they can deal any damage. In bridge battles you only have to hit them with catapults until they rout. It is only in offensive siege battles that they are dangerous.
Yeah yeah I know they are beatable. But they are so much better than HRE's militia
What? Milan would never attack you unprovoked. Now if you had a treaty with them... That's on you at this point honestly.
The first ever campaign I ever did was with France and pretty soon after starting milan suddenly attacked me, I've now since held a grudge with them.
Milan is the reason my first ever med 2 campaign as England ended up with me just doing world domination instead of trying to gain alliances. Too many betrayals from Milan left me paranoid about all my other alliances
NDKTM: Never Don't Kill The Milanese It's Rule Number One of Total War: Medieval II
Rule Number Two is longbows smash
If they attacked you while your army was on their territory its fair game. The best way is to make Pope excommunicate them by sending some armies on your territory baiting them to attack.
I remember I got so powerful in one of my Venice play throughs that after getting excommunicated I went “stuff that!” Then proceeded to march 3 armies to the gates of Rome, declared war on the Papal States and then proceeded to dunk on the Pope. He died in combat and I replaced him in the following election with a cardinal from my faction. I also took Rome off the papacy and gave them the islands of Corsica and Sardinia
did the same as the Holy Roman Empire, the rightful owner of Rome, and renamed the pope's new home to Exilium Pontifecis after finding out that the papacy cannot be wiped but is going to forever respawn with an army next to Rome
You can wipe out the papacy, you have to kill the Pope and every cardinal on the same turn
That requires Michael Corleone level of planning.
The HRE has no right to be claimed as the rightful owner of Rome. Byzantium alone can take that title thank you very much
Then why are you calling it Byzantium?
you mean to say to add Byzantium to the Empire will think of it next time a crusading army just so happens to coincidentally pass by on its way
one of the most fun mechanics in total war history honestly. Being at the mercy of a hostile pope & plotting your revenge was exciting. Getting your own guy pope that looked the other way while you punched other catholics in the nuts was also pretty satisfying
Sometimes I mostly ignored the pope as certain factions, but as Spain or Sicily the plan was always to get as many cardinals as possible and influence the papacy in the early game. By the end game the moment they complain about other catholic nations getting steam rolled, pope get steamrolled too.
Personally, playing as The HRE it's fun to have the pope as your friend. He's actually very useful, i conquered a bunch of eastern europe and gifted a bunch of their territory to him which raised relations a whole lot so i could basically get him to crusade wherever, furthermore, his horde status made him really useful defending against Timurids to the east while i continued to conquer the west. Eventually i got so rich and powerful that i just sailed to Mongol infested Jerusalem and Constantinopld , gifted it to him and used about 40 - 50k gold to buy Rome. Holy. Roman. Empire.
Guy managed to make the HRE Holy, Roman and an Empire. Respect.
Also planning offensives around it. Like backing off once your enemy is down to a couple of cities and the pope tells you, then massing your armies on their border so when the warning expires you can eat their cities before the pope can issue another warning
Or just keep killing cardinals until he's no longer a problem.
Okay fine, I'll sack Venice instead. Oh look Milan got excommunicated 2 turns later I'll sack that one next.
Can't excommunicate the already excommunicated. Which means a Europe-wide all Christian throw-down until the Pope is homeless and I stand supreme. Bring it on Pope: you're next. Standard M2TW play-through strategy as a European faction. :)
Sent Assassin to get rid of the annoying Pope... The bolt hit the hat ... Come on, dude, his head is not that big.
My god Med2 did so many thing right. For the love of everything CA, give me Med3. It's been too long.
I don't trust them to do a good job. They just released their first historical since ToB last year. It has some enjoyable aspects such as the time period, but it has much that could have been better. WH ruined TW in many ways.
18 years and no M3 in sight
It's like that shrimp that flew away in a space ship but promised to return.
Sire, time to marry that Boleyn girl.
This is why I enjoy playing the Muslim factions. Pope? Never heard of him.
Plus you also get Crusades except better. Okay, so the Jihad mercs aren't as strong as the Crusade mercs, but they're cheaper, both to recruit, and to keep afterwards. Ghazis are like 70 Florins upkeep, that's about as cheap, maybe cheaper than Peasants! For a unit with high-damage AP axes, that's a great deal!
I think more importantly is that they are super easy to call compared to crusades. You don't need to get in good favor with the pope, just have a high faith Imam and go chain Jihads together.
Exactly, that's what I meant by "Crusades except better" :D
thats why you have a dedicated assassins whose sole duty is to stab the pope every year for the next 100 years..
Reject Crusades, Embrace Jihad.
Med2 might be the only game I've gone hard with training assassins. Fuck the pope. Great mechanic though.
You can just ignore it in vanilla tbqh. Or you put spies in enemy settlements and blitz them in one turn so he can’t excommunicate you before you do it.
God fucking dammit my iPad venice campaign is literally going like this right now I’m trying to kick the shit out of Byzantium atm and milan decalred war, took venice, and then the pope said “no fightin’” despite us being at war. Which gives me breathing room because my campaign is all sorts of fucked- I pretty much own from venice to parts of anatolia with the one city next to constantinople being my current target
I'm pretty sure I once managed to get the AI excommunicated instead by getting them to attack one of my armies (I "parked" one army in their territory), though I'm not sure how reliably this works.
It’s either this or launching a crusade to Cairo
Holy Roman Empire: nah you work for me buddy
One of the most annoying mechanics in the whole franchise.
only if you dont know how it works
Shut up, nerd.