From the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire until the Age of Exploration, this time has become known over the years as the Middle Ages. During this period there was tremendous religious and social upheaval as the Roman world faded into the past and the rise of two of the world's most influential religions occurred - those being Islam and Christianity. The dynamics of the clash of cultures between old world and new, as well as religious and cultural differences, brought about an era of constant warfare over much of Europe as well as North Africa and the Middle East. Players can now step into the role of leaders of these nations in Medieval II: Total War.

MTW2 is a turn based strategy game of the Middle Ages through the early years of the Age of Exploration. It also has a real time strategy element as players have the option to resolve combat in real time on separate battle screens that are different from the campaign map. The dual nature of the game has become a trademark of sorts to the Total War series and players can disregard the real time element if they so choose. They can also use the game simply to fight famous historical battles, so there is considerable versatility in this game system.

MTW2 is very similar in feel and layout to Rome Total War of several years ago. Players of that game will have no trouble at all moving into the medieval era of this game as it is modified to suite the new time period quite well. There are a number of changes in the game, but these are cosmetic in nature as the gameplay is virtually identical. Players should note there are some nice options and changes as well so it's not a complete clone with a few new units and changes.

Play of the campaign game revolves around capturing 45 cities within the game time limit and thus becoming the undisputed leader of the world. You can only select from a handful of countries at first as many nations are locked from being played until you destroy them in battle. The catch is you have to take their last city to unlock those nations, so it's not enough that you play and some nation you never fought is wiped out. You have to do the killing to play that nation.

The nations you can select at first include the English, who have excellent ground troops and archers but weak Cavalry. Each nation has its own units that are usually similar to other nation's forces with variations. The proper use of force combinations is very important in this game. Unlike RTW you cannot simply assemble twenty heavy cavalry into a huge wedge and destroy all on the battlefield. Against pikes and archers such tactics will destroy your army before very long and the battle will be lost.

The other at start nations include the French and Spanish as well as the Venetians. The number of cities each nation has at the start is not identical but there are many rebel controlled cities that can be captured early to quickly build your kingdom into a world power. This is not as easy as it might seem as you can be attacked at any time and from any direction and there are few safe areas of the map to play on.

A new concept of this game is each province can either be a castle or a town. You can change them back and forth for money but you lose buildings as each track can only build castle buildings in castles and town buildings in towns. This is important as towns earn more money and produce cheap infantry but castles produce cavalry and all the best military unit types. You will need to have both towns and castles in your kingdom and you can only repair damaged armies in the correct type of building, so castle units can only be repaired in castles and town units in towns.

As can be expected religion plays a huge part in the game. The Pope takes the place of the Senate from RTW and can send you on missions as well as punish and reward your faction for its actions. The Pope will also call for peace among Christian kingdoms and if you defy him he may excommunicate your king that will cause unrest in all of your provinces. You can recruit priests to convert populations and they take on another new foe - heretics. Heretics can convert your holy men as well as be destroyed by them, but defeating them and their female counterparts - the witches - will make your holy men more pious and effective.

As your holy men age and gain piety they may be elected to the College of Cardinals. This body elects Popes from one of the Cardinals and you can end up controlling a friendly Pope if you have plenty of Cardinals and people respect their abilities. A friendly Pope is a true asset, making it much safer for you, and making it easier for you to get him to declare crusades against enemies of your choosing.

The Pope will call a crusade from time to time. A specific city will be the target of it and you must join the crusade or suffer disfavor in the Pope's eyes. To join you will have to commit a leader and at least eight combat units. One they are on crusade their movement value is doubled and if they actually take the target they will get a huge combat experience bonus. But if you move this army further from the target city any turn soldiers will desert from your units as they think you lack piety.

Each unit in the game has combat and moral values and these are augmented by leaders. Leaders include the king and his relatives as well as men who can be adopted and who marry into the family. You can even send princesses out to act as ambassadors as well as marry rival leaders in other factions. If they accept you gain those leaders into your faction. Leaders are always valuable as they often increase revenue in provenances and make it very difficult to bribe units into desertion.

Each turn you can give orders to each city and castle to build units and buildings as well as recruiting new units and repairing damaged units. Most buildings take several turns to complete and you can stop construction and get your money back if you so choose. You can also sell buildings for cash if you are in economic trouble. Economics is important in this game because if you are broke you cannot recruit units or repair units nor can you construct any buildings.

Units have a fixed movement value and can only move so far each turn. During a turn you can attack any enemy army in range. Sometimes enemies will retreat before combat. Combat almost always increases the abilities of leaders. You can resolve combat quickly with an odds of winning comparison being shown to you before you try. Sometimes you can win a field battle by direct command that you would lose in the quick battle. Provinces are a little more difficult. It is always a minimum two turn process to take even undefended areas. First you must place the place under siege and build siege equipment. Each turn you have the option of assaulting or maintain the siege. Cities and Castles can only survive a fixed number of turns under siege until they surrender.

Garrisons in besieged cities will often try to break the siege if the odds are near even. Sieges can be quick resolved or can be fought on the battle map. Once the battle is resolved you have the choice of killing some, none or a lot of the population that brings different amounts of cash. This was a violent age and mass executions are usually the best options as cities and towns can experience unhappiness.

Combat on the battle map is quite different and done in real time. You set your troops into formation and you can make tactical orders about how they move and attack. You can hide in forests and flank enemies as well as unleash flaming arrows or devastating cavalry charges. The battles are on a timer but there is plenty of time to get the job done.

Overall this is a solid game but it is resource intensive. As the game progresses it starts to lag and slow down significantly. Unless you have a top processor and lots of RAM this game will seize up on you and not play smoothly. As a sequel in the Total War series to RTW it's a worthy addition; I could have covered quite a bit more of the details of the game like diplomacy, the Mongols and so on but I will let players themselves discover these things. A good effort overall if somewhat unrealistic at times.

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