Crusades can only be launched with the permission of the Pope (usually only against non-Catholic or excommunicated Catholic provinces), and all crusades are dependent upon the continued succession of the Papacy, such that if the Pope is conquered, the crusade will automatically disband. A crusade is the only army that can peacefully cross a foreign province (but only if the faction permits it to pass, otherwise a battle will ensue). Once one has been constructed, it can be targeted at a province, have more soldiers added to it, and sent forthrightly.
As ports are normally destroyed during conquest of a province, it may be impossible to retreat after invading across the seaĬrusades can also be 'built'. In order to transport troops between provinces separated by an ocean a player must have control of the province from which the army will embark, have constructed a port in this province, and also control the sea lane connecting his province to the target province.
Ships can attack other ships, but all sea battles are simulated by the computer. A faction with a sea lane to a foreign port might gather intelligence on the port, land troops there, or gain income through trade. The usefulness of ships revolves around securing 'sea lanes', controlling the seas between one's own provinces and those abroad. Ships can be built and used to control the various sea-regions. Royal units without a king or prince can also be trained normally, but are expensive and (with the exception of Boyars and Kataphraktoi) under-sized compared to other cavalry units. The unit type for these 'royal units' is fixed for each faction: the Catholic factions all have Royal Knights, with the exception of the Swiss, who have Swiss Armoured Pikemen Byzantine Emperors and princes fight as Kataphraktoi princes of Novgorod or Russia lead Boyars and Muslim factions have Ghulam Bodyguards, or Sipahi for the Ottoman Turks.
#MEDIEVAL TOTAL WAR 1 FULL#
Fights take place on a 3D battlefield, with full tactical control given to the player (although battles can also be automatically resolved from the campaign map, speeding up games with extremely large confrontations that sometimes result in hours of battles per turn).įaction leaders (variously called kings, emperors, sultans, khans, khalifahs, doges, grand princes or dukes) lead elite units of their own, as do their sons and brothers. Military units consist of up to 100 men (on default unit sizes), with cavalry units usually 40 strong, and certain infantry and foot archer units 60 strong, and are grouped into armies that can fight to control provinces. Most of the time these units appear in the form of Orders of Knighthood (Knights Templar, Teutonic Knights, Hospitallers, Knights of Santiago) and can be recruited only in conjunction with a Crusade. Some special unit types shared by only a few factions, such as Knights Templar, are also called 'unique', though this is not strictly true. Many unit types, such as Spanish Jinetes or Polish Retainers, are called unique units and are restricted to a single faction other units can only be trained within a single province, but can be created by any faction holding that province. More economic buildings such as Trading Posts, Farms or Mines, generate more money from trade, farming or mining, while military buildings allow the training of more advanced unit types. There is no specific technology research as such, but certain advances (most notably gunpowder) do become available over time. Each province can construct buildings and train units. There are hundreds of buildings and units in the game which are all connected. The existing Europe-Near East campaign is also expanded with new units, and three formerly unplayable factions are made available to the player.Īn indirect sequel, Medieval II: Total War was announced on Januand released in mid-November 2006. Players can either try to unite the people of the British Isles, or simply conduct raids on coastal settlements by taking on the role of the Viking invaders. VI featured a new campaign map of the British Isles along with Scandinavia, and start the game in an earlier period of history (the main game runs from 1087 to 1453, while the British Isles campaign of the expansion runs from 793 to 1066). MTW was followed by an expansion pack called Viking Invasion ( VI).
#MEDIEVAL TOTAL WAR 1 SERIES#
MTW was the second game in the Total War series from The Creative Assembly, which includes Shogun: Total War, Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War.