Creative Assembly’s newest Total War game is the best one yet.

When I first heard the Creative Assembly would be remaking the classic Medieval: Total War, I was a little surprised.  To be sure, the company had switched play styles when making Rome: Total War from a Risk-style map to one involving movement points, but my assumption had been that Sega’s newest acquisition would go on to tackle another period in history (say, the Napoleonic period) rather than potentially messing with a game that is, in my humble opinion, one of the best ever made.  However, at the risk of my fragile fan boy memories, Creative Assembly released the latest incarnation of the Total War series on November 13.  Does the game live up to its heritage of excellent epic strategy games?  We take a look and find out.

• Merchants: Merchants are a new class of agent in Medieval II to go with the priests, spies, assassins and princesses from Medieval I.  Economics in Total War used to be based entirely around acquiring trade rights; now you have the option of recruiting merchants to exploit defined natural resource points on the map – or taking over resources currently controlled by your competitors.  
  
  
• Religion: Although religion made an appearance in Medieval I, it really came to the fore in the Barbarian Invasion expansion to Rome: Total War, where a governor’s religion could have major effects on the stability of a region.  Religion has a similar importance in Medieval II; it’s the basis for revolts, crusades, outbreaks of heresy and witchcraft and persecution by inquisitors, who will happily execute one or your agents or generals if the inquisitor discovers a lack of piety.  I’ve had a few plans fall apart because an inquisitor found one of my men guilty of heresy at an inopportune moment.  Along with the general significance of religion in Medieval II, Creative Assembly added another nice touch: papal elections.  The Pope can promote any one of your priests to the rank of cardinal at any time and any of those cardinals can become Pope – especially if you grease the wheels.  Papal elections are a time for rampant corruption whether one of your men is in line for the throne or not; if you’re not actively buying votes from other factions to support your candidate, chances are a faction in the running will contact you for your support.
  
  
• Invade the New World: With a game that spans between 11th and 16th centuries, it makes sense to include New World colonization efforts as a part of the struggle for dominance, so Creative Assembly expanded the map.  Now you can duke things out with the Aztecs for control of the westernmost part of South America.
  
  
• Castles versus Towns: In previous Total War games, every settlement could build every type of building available in the faction’s tech tree, given the time and funds.  This time around, Creative Assembly added a new element to the construction process: whether or not to make a settlement into a town or a castle.  Towns have an economic and cultural focus; they’re the source for the majority of your wealth-generating activities and the place where you can recruit spies and assassins.  Any military recruitment done in towns is militia-based, which gives you the advantage of free upkeep, even if the overall troop quality is lower.  Castles, on the other hand, have a military focus – better defenses and many more options for higher-quality troop recruitment.  Although there are limited opportunities to convert a settlement back and forth, the key is to figure out a good balance between the two types so you can expand your empire without going bankrupt.  
  
  
• Recruitment Limits: Although in Rome: Total War you couldn’t recruit more soldiers than a region’s population could support, Medieval II adds a new twist: you can’t recruit soldiers if your facilities don’t have the space to support them.  Upgrade your buildings and you can add more soldiers, up to the new maximum limit, or remove the strain on your city or castle by sending those soldiers to a new location.  To counteract the limitation this feature places on your army size (something you’ll be cursing when an enemy overruns one of your territories), the game now features simultaneous recruitment from multiple structures to get more of those soldiers out of the door.  For example: in castles, infantry and cavalry units train in different buildings.  If you have one of each, you’ll be able to recruit a cavalry unit and an infantry unit in the same turn.  Not a bad tradeoff, to my mind.
  
  
• Reactions in Diplomacy: Want to know if the treaty offer that you’re about to make is really as generous as you think it is?  How about whether or not the faction on the other side of the table needs cash enough to give you something even more valuable in return?  The diplomacy system, which has been a part of every Total War game (how else are you going to threaten your enemies?) received a major boost in Medieval II, as the diplomacy screen now features information on what the resources available to the other faction, what they’re most likely looking for and how they’re likely to receive your proposal – before you make it and piss them off.  It’s a big step forward to making diplomacy a much more relevant part of your overall strategy.