is Medieval 2 good or should I get another TW game instead? is

It's fun but old, so be ready for a shit ui and all that.

it's really clunky and can often feel unresponsive, if you're being charitable then you could describe it as a weighty rts

it's a good game but it might need to some modding to be worth bothering with these days, you need kingdoms to run most mods so definitely pick that up if you're going to buy it

recommended mods include stainless steel 6.4 and the third age, there's lots of mods for the game though so there's likely to be one made for a period you're interested in

you might be better off with a more modern tw game though, shogun 2 is one of the best modern tws and a great entry point into the series so if you want to play something a bit more up to date then go with that

Best in the series. Can't go wrong.

With mods.

>>377554889
>>377553940
thanks anons, I guess I'll wait for a sale and grab shoung, also, should I get vanilla or FotS?

Medieval 2 with the Stainless Steel mod is perfection, you can't play it any other way OP.

It has some damn excellent total conversion mods such as Third Age: Total War and Stainless Steel and you need Kingdoms expansion to play most of those (new campaigns are also okay). As far as I'm concerned, it's worth it for that alone.

The base game is a more difficult matter. I don't think there's anyone who'd question its superb attention to detail and character (things like music, cinematics for assassinations and various in-game events, dynamic general battle speeches based on their traits, that sort of thing) and there's a lot to be said about some of its gameplay elements in comparison to more recent Total War games (pool-based recruitment, general/governor trait and retinue acquisition system, combat engine resolves combat more based on individual soldiers acting in the battlefield rather than combat being resolved based on unit stats, leading to behaviour like a surrounded soldier dueling against one guy in the enemy force). However, being an older game it's worse in some aspects (like interface) pretty much by default and while the mechanics are good in principle, often times they just don't work. For example, Total War hasn't ever been known for good AI but in Medieval 2 the campaign AI just uselessly shuffles units around dividing their forces never being able to mount an assault, the combat AI may just forget about some units and they end up being stuck, and the unit AI (which affects player-controlled armies as well) is also glitchy, like pikemen simply not using their pikes.

There's a lot to like about the game but besides total conversion mods (which may improve aspects the game is already good at further while managing to resolve some of the technical difficulties) and exploring the game will be enjoyable for anyone, but for extended play I don't think it matches up to the more polished "modern" titles (Shogun 2/Attila/Warhammer) or Rome 1 which is somehow a more polished/functional game despite being older (although some issues still apply).

>>377555793
>>377555795
>Stainless Steel
does it make the game hard or easier? should I play vanilla first and then SS? and also, do you get to play as the same nations in SS or do you play as new ones too?

>>377553051
Depending entirely on what time period you like;

Shogun 2 for Weeb
FotS for Guns and Weeb
Rome 2 for Ancient Rome
Attila for fall of Rome (also best overall historical TW game)

For most people M2 is still playable because of nostalgia, we can look past the awful camera, shitty UI and buggy gameplay because we are used to it. But for a new player its pretty awful as a game.

>>377555795
I would point out that in SS I have found the AI quote formidable, especially in army company. As France I employ almost entirely heavy shock cavalry, and when I face the English their typical combo of shit loads of spear and heavy infantry and longbowmen never fails to present a challenge, and the ai is just as formidable on the map. I think the point here is mods are necessary but the experience is definitely worth the hassle.

>>377555995
>Rome 2
wasnt it shit or something?

>>377555989
It makes the game harder.

If I recall correctly, most of the nations in umodded game aren't available in the beginning but you can unlock the rest of them by defeating them in the campaign (or by editing a single plain text file). Stainless Steel has a few more factions, but the rosters are for the most part quite similar.

>>377555989
SS has new nations and is harder, but you can choose the level of AI campaign aggressiveness through it. Vanilla isn't even playable in comparison to it so I'd start there.

>>377556182
It was at release, its fixed now.

Its just like any other TW game.

>>377556184
shit, should I get Attila + AoC or FotS then? the other anons say they are easier

>>377556182
At launch it was, but patches have fixed basically everything. One of the best Total Wars in my opinion. Shame it didn't get another 6 months in development, but still very good. Too much DLC though.

>>377555592
Both. Vanilla takes place in a very interesting setting and has some great mods (TROM 3 or The Sekigahara Campaign, but it may be hard to find links to it nowadays since a lot of mods got nuked), it also comes with ROTS which is pretty good too.
FOTS is seen as the most complete, but really if you're gonna play Shogun 2, you might as well play all versions since they're all pretty different from each other.

>>377556334
In my personal opinion (although one that is quite widely held) Shogun 2 and its Fall of the Samurai stand-alone expansion in particular offer the finest Total War experience unmodded. In the end your preference in setting counts for just as much as any of the quality differences between games, but if you don't mind Feudal Japanese or Boshin War (a few years after American Civil War with gattling guns, railroads, breech-loading rifles, ironclads and such like) setting, Shogun 2 is a good starting point.

However, it should be noted that it doesn't render Medieval 2 obsolete. It's fun to try things out even if it's clunky in comparison, and some of the mods offer much more than any of the unmodded Total War game (while managing to overcome some of the problems in the base game, like how >>377556151 observed in regards to SS). Should you decide to try Shogun 2 first, if you like it, you probably want to give Medieval 2 a try as well.

>>377556867
>(although one that is quite widely held)
Well you're wrong. On /v/ there is this baseless assumption that S2 is the best TW game

But the fact is Attila/Rome 2 beat it by miles, so does TWW.

S2 has no unit diversity, one of the worst campaign map mechanics of any TW games, and the whole shitty realm divide. Only someone who really likes Japan (aka weebs) could like S2.