Medieval: Total War

aka: Crusader: Total War
Moby ID: 7921
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Description official descriptions

Rewrite 400 years of medieval warfare - from the first Crusade in 1095 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Rule your kingdom and guide it through conflicts and upheavals. With 12 playable factions and 100 different unit types, laying siege and expand your empire throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Prove yourself worthy in the shoes of a famous historical figure (Richard the Lionheart, Joan of Arc, Saladin and Frederick Barbarrosa). Choose alliances well, and enemies with care, Total War shows no mercy.

  • 3D battles featuring over 10000 troops;
  • Different battlefields, from the lush farmlands of Western Europe to the arid deserts of Northern Africa;
  • Command medieval armies of knights, men-at-arms, archers and siege weapons to make their royal family the masters of Europe;
  • Castle Sieges, with a vast array of siege weaponry, like siege cannons, mangonels and ballistae;
  • Over 100 different unit types each with different playing styles including: the English, German, Byzantine, French and Turkish Empires;
  • Engage in historical campaigns including, The Hundred Years War, The Crusades and The Mongol Invasions.

Spellings

  • 中世纪:全面战争 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

179 People (155 developers, 24 thanks) · View all

Project Director
Lead Programmer
Battle Logic & AI
FE Core, Strategy Map UI and Infrastructure
Multiplayer, FE, Castle AI
Historical Campaigns, FE, Agents, Mercs
Strategy MAP AI
Fleets, Glory Goals and Tutorial
VnV's & Heroes
Battle Tutorials & Pathfinding
Battle UI
Events & Installation
Core Code
  • The Shogun Team
UI Graphics & Maps
Battle Graphics, Textures & Maps
Event & PR Drawing, Textures & Maps
Portraits, PR Art & Strategy Map
Glory Art & Buildings
Portraits, Textures & Maps
Design
Writing
Producer
Product Evangelist
Executive Producer
QA Manager
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 31 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 37 ratings with 1 reviews)

Great game which emphasizes much on tactical

The Good
The 3D battle scene, it's truly great. All individual soldiers movement looks real. At the begining of the battle they moved uniformly in their group, later, when cohesion decreases, you'll see them fight individually. The terrain looks very marvelous, and the computer AI uses them well during it's manuever. For example, AI cavalry would try to circle the hill or forest to attack you from the rear, AI will pick high ground to place his infantry and missile troops to force you to fight uphill. The battle sounds, wow, imagine any colossal movies you've ever seen, that is.
Naval battles in this game is calculated by computer, it will be good if in later development player can control naval battles as ground battles. The music of this game, what more I can say, It's beautiful. There are two kind of music according to which faction you play, Middle Eastern or European. During strategical play, random event such as crusades, jihad, re-emergence of extinct nation, mongol invasion etc can turn all your hard earned conquest to nothing. This will force you to play cautiously.

The Bad
The strategy is oversimplified. Basically, just conquer enough number of provinces and you can crush any opponent. It'll be good if there is some disadvantages (say larger corruption level) for larger nations. The politics between nations is restricted to just no treaty, ally, and war. The AI however, inclined heavily to wage war against you. It will only accept peace when truly weak militarily, never counting economic power and reserves in interior provinces, which is to it's disadvantage. There is no control to your economy except just building trading post, farm and mine. Regardless how much your population are, you can train as many soldiers as you like in a province, which is unrealistic. Later in the game, when you (and AI) has so many troops, you can not deploy them all in battle, some goes to reserves. This sometimes gives a headache as an army routing in the first phase can bring fresh reserves to crush the formerly victorious but now tired pursuers. It seems that this game is too much weighted toward tactical (battle) play, while strategical play is not much developed.

The Bottom Line
Greater than any games in tactical play, less in strategical play.

Windows · by a g (2) · 2003

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Medieval: Total War appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Awards

  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2003 (Issue #148) - #8 overall in the "10 Best Games of 2002" list
  • Computer Gaming World
    • October 2004 (Issue #243) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – PC Strategy Game of the Year

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Lady_of_Magick.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Unicorn Lynx, tarmo888, Kabushi, Patrick Bregger, Sasu, FatherJack.

Game added December 9, 2002. Last modified March 23, 2024.