Medieval II: Total War On Linux, Plays Fine With RadeonSI

Combat:

Combat is handled in one of two ways, auto resolve or manually. If you're not very tactically minded, or you just hate real-time combat, auto-resolve is handled by numbers and by the types of units that each side are deploying. It's a numbers game, but nothing in Total War is 100%. Even a 90 percent success chance still has a 10 percent chance at catastrophic failure.

Manual is the way to go if the odds aren't in your favor, or if you just want more control over things. The fight will begin with each side choosing where to deploy troops within their respective zones. After the deployments are done, the battle begins. Each set of troops is better against different sets. Cavalry is good against infantry, spear-men are good against cavalry, archer's with fire arrows... well they pretty much trump everything. Beyond what beats what, each set of units also has a morale rating. The higher the rating the more of a beating they, and their allies, can take before they route. Killing an army isn't the only way to get them to flee the field-- if you can do the shock'an'awe tactics, you can make the enemy retreat out of sheer fear with minimal bloodshed on both sides.

Unfortunately, combat can't solve everything. Play as the English and want to take over the future UK? You'll have to go through Scotland-- which will anger the Pope. Anger the Pope and he'll threaten you-- stop attacking Scotland, pull your troops back, or he'll excommunicate you. Now you've got an angry Scotland, and an angry Pope. Pull back and Scotland will just attack you in return. Keep pushing and the Pope will call a crusade against England and everyone else is now on you. It's a delicate balance.

The Verdict:

Medieval II: Total War, and its Kingdoms expansion are in an... interesting place in the Total War series. They are running on the old engine and therefore lack some of the more interesting portions of modern Total War games. There's no researching, no naval battles, the economy system is frustratingly opaque and the way things are presented are not always clear in their consequences.

In some ways Medieval II is more simple than the more modern Total War games, that makes it easier to pick up. In other ways its frustratingly more complex, making it much harder. I came into the Total War series not all that long ago, at the recommendation of the friend. He brought me into the series with Shogun 2 and that made it infinitely easier to pick up Medieval II.

If you're looking for a new tactical game to pick up, Medieval II is definitely one of the better titles in the Total War series overall. More recent Total War titles like Rome II and Attila, both of which are available on Linux, haven't been as well received as previous titles. Meanwhile Total War: Warhammer, coming out later this year, is looking to have a Linux version right off the bat. I came away with good impressions from Medieval II, despite the flaws. It's nice to see where the series has come from when compared to Shogun 2, it gave me more appreciation for it.

That being said... Feral, if you're taking requests, please bring Shogun 2 to Linux. You would win a lot of fans for doing so.

Medieval II: Total War is available on Steam for $19.99, or $24.99 with the Kingdoms expansion. I highly recommend the Kingdoms expansion. It doesn't change the core mechanics of the game, but I enjoyed the factions and regions much more in the expansion, over the base game.