Just like in real world, in Medieval II Total War Economic power is very crucial to gain total victory. In this article we will talk about how to maximize your income source in Medieval II, economic buildings in Medieval II, how to optimize your troop and how to use your merchant effectively.
Income Source in Medieval II Total War
Income have three factor in Medieval II Total War, tax trade and farming. In Medieval II, both tax and trade are affected by population. For example, your trade income will booms while you have lots of population (lets say 20000). Farming income is pretty much the exact same regardless.
The priority of your income source may be vary depending on your geographical location and this will affect your construction focus. For example Byzantine empire tax and trade income are bigger than their farm income. So you should focus more on building merchant wharf etc.
At the beginning of the game, where population is low, farming and tax are the primary source of income. But as cities grow, trade income rise steadily, and could be your main income source. This mean early farm building is critical to boost your income and population.
Generally landlocked settlement has lack economic capabilities. It is a good idea o turn those settlements into trainers. You still be able to get decent income from those settlements by building roads and market.
Economic Building in Medieval II Total War
There are five major economic building in Medieval II, farm, roads, merchant wharfs, ports and markets. Every upgrade of the same types provide same income boost, so grain exchange that cost 600 provide the same income boost as a great market which cost 4800. So the early building is more important than buildings beyond 3200.
For example: Lets say every market building increase income by 100. So a grain exchange will pay itself off in 6 turns, market in 12 turn and bazaar in 24 turn. But great bazaar and grand bazaar will pay themselves off after 48 and 96 turns, this will waste your time.
Troop Optimization in Medieval II Total War
At the beginning of the game, the best idea is to take all those units you start off with and attack. Gain new territory mean more income source. If you don not want to start the war, disband them and replace your garrison with town militia ( free upkeep) You can replace town militia with spear militia only if you can upkeep them for free.
Build a lot of watch towers, with no fog of war in your territory, you can get early warning to know when you are about to attack. Train additional units only after you get warning.
In any case, you only need 1, or at most 2 armies on the field early on. And these armies only need 6-8 units each:
Italians factions: 4-5 Italian spear militia, 1-2 knights or light cavalry, and a general.
Spain/Portugal: 5-6 jinetes (with blacksmith armour), 2 spear militia, general
Other Catholics: 1-3 mercenary spearmen, 1-2 archers/crossbows, 2 knights.
And put such an army on the defense (with 2-3 extra spearmen militia, or 2 spears with 2 archer/crossbow militia), and you got an army that would beat any the AI would use.
Note that all these armies I listed either use mercenaries (can hire them anywhere instantly), or take around 1-2 turns to train up. Disband when unnecessary, train when necessary.
Militia are awesome because they're basically 0 upkeep troops. If your faction gets good militia like Italian spear militia, Saracen militia, or pike militia (later on), you got a huge advantage.
Merchant In Medieval II Total War
Place your merchant on the top right of a resource. For example: as the English, send him down to the Cornwall area, you will find 2 resources that are both tin. Order your merchant to march to the top right of the tin and he will say "excellent sire, we will start sending these to England at once" or something along those lines... and you will get a merchant trade route.
A merchant is also can be used as assassins with a passive job. When they take out other merchants, you get anywhere from 500 florins to in the thousands. Just like assassins, the odds are stacked against you so build a few of them that you are willing to lose and just go after the same target over and over again. If the merchant does fail, he usually does not disappear. You will also notice that merchant level up much faster when you use them to take out other merchants instead of sitting them on resources. Finally, a higher level merchant will make more sitting on the same resource that a lower level merchant makes.
