BradyGames Medieval: Total War Official Strategy Guide features complete coverage of the twelve factions and tips for commanding each. Detailed maps help you find their way through each area. Battle tactics are provided to ensure victory in castle sieges and more. Comprehensive structure and resource data.
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BradyGames Medieval: Total War Official Strategy Guide features complete coverage of the twelve factions and tips for commanding each. Detailed maps help you find their way through each area. Battle tactics are provided to ensure victory in castle sieges and more. Comprehensive structure and resource data.
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Activision, Inc., headquartered in Santa Monica, California, is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted revenues of $620 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001. Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's World Wide Web site, which is located at http://www.activision.com.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
103 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth Buying ...,
By
This review is from: Medieval: Total War(TM) Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
That's the first question I have when I consider this sort of computer game strategy guide: Is it worth buying?In this case, the anwer is a qualified "Yes!" The guide does have quite a bit of valuable information that will quickly help you make the transition from clueless newcomer to well-read newcomer. There's sound strategic advice on maintaining your kingdom, raising taxes, planning conquests, and a lot of solid tips on becoming a capable king. So in the sense of saving you some trial and error, there's valuble, time-saving help here. However, I think you'd get the same benefit just fumbling around and making mistakes on your own. If you already play the game fanatically (as I do), then you may just enjoy the book as a good read and an opportunity to pick up some useful gameplay tips that might have eluded you for some time. This is especially true when the book covers the real-time tactical combat aspects of Medieval:Total War. Here the author includes statistical information on all the troop types from peasant militia to chivalric knights (i.e., he doesn't just give you the useful, but somewhat vague, comments that the game does: "Has irresistible attack," "vulnerable to missile fire," "strong defence.") There is also an extensive discussion of both how to maneuver your troops, commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of various soldier types (for example, how peasant militia should not be lightly disregarded, as they can serve as cannon-fodder, spear-carriers, etc. Yeah, sounds harsh, but they're only electronic images, remember?). Most valuable to me was the explanation of how the real-time game mechanics worked, how the animations gave extra battle clues, and so on. For example, simple information on how "loose" formations were vulnerable to direct melee assaults because enemy formations could surround individual troopers, but were valuable for allowing skirmishers to withdraw through the formation with less delay. Or how staying in formation, rather than "engaging at will" increased unit morale and effectiveness, as soldiers support and encourage each other. There's also building information and statistical information on their value, as well as a collected list of such things as the effects of various personality "quirks" that your king may develop over time like being "addle-brained" or "impetuous." You could get all this information on your own if you are willing to spend quite a bit of time at the TotalWar.com forums, but the book saves you that time. If you're on a budget, or simply a careful person, don't buy the book, it's fun but not crucial. I'm glad I bought it since I'm fascinated with the game and want more. The book is fun to read, thought-provoking (in that, when I disagree with the author, I try to think of my own alternatives), but it doesn't have as much charisma as I would have liked: I'd have liked vivid drawings, more opinionated gameplay advice, more...exuberant writing. It was the age of knights, castles, religious wars, diplomatic marriages, and more - so live it up.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Have for Any Total War General,
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This review is from: Medieval: Total War(TM) Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
Strategy guides for video games tend to be... well, horrible. Particularly for a game such as medieval total war, a truly grand strategy game with vast scope and depth, strategy guides tend to be more the manuals that the game SHOULD have shipped with. That's because game manuals tend to be absolutely useless now-a-days. Total war, is an exeption in both cases.
This strategy guide is simply a must-have for any true fan of the game. Sure, you can get by without it. The manual for total war is actually pretty good as far as video game manuals go. But the strategy guide expounds on every aspect touched by the manual and offers a more comprehensive look at the finer points as well as some aspects that are completely absent from the manual but are quite helpful. If nothing else you'll want to shell out the money for this simply for the unit specs. The guide gives you a detailed look at every unit in the game (this guide predates the expansion pack though, so only the original units are shown). This is a GODSEND! You get the exact combat values for each unit, along with information on how to effectively use each unit type. There's also a nice look at the TW combat system and how it works to use these numbers, as well as bonuses and other modifying factors such as terrain, woods, etc etc. If that wasnt enough they also take a look at morale and all the variables that play into it. This is pretty detailed and nitty gritty (hopefully they didnt leave stuff out!). Now anytime you fight a battle you thought you had in the bag and lost for reasons unknown you can take a look at the intricacy of the TW combat system and find out why! This is a game that NEEDS a strategy guide as there are many complex elements and strategic and tactical variables. Things like morale, command, vices and virtues, weather, terrain, fatigue, weapons, armor, formation and more can greatly impact the outcome of a battle. Remember one things that seperates TW from an RTS is that even a group of lowly peasants (the weakest unit in the game) can defeat a group of Royal nights (the strongest) if other factors are just right (I've seen it happen myself). That's what makes this game so amazing and so deep - and that's why u need this book if you ever REALLY want to know the game well (the game itself only gives you very vague ideas of a unit's abillities EX "strong charge, weak defense"). There's also some nice walk throughs for the historical battles, some useful tips, a full list of vices/virtues and thier effects, a list of titles, a quick overview for basic strategies to playing each faction in the full campaign, and some other goodies. Could it have had more? YES! I would like have seen a more comprehensive look at the combat system and an indepth assesment of each unit in addition to the stats. Also the tips and tactics are pretty simplistic. They could have gone into a much better analysis of battle tactics and formations. They never go as far as they could, but as strategy guides go, this is one of the better ones. Kudos to Brady Games for thier work and one can only hope the upcoming guide for "Rome: TW" from Prima will be as good. I also reccomend you go read Sun Tzu's "The Art Of War" And either "On War" or "The Principals of War" by Carl Von Clauswitz. These will help you improve your tactics and generalship greatly as the designers made the game to mirror many of the real world concepts laid out in these works.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
NO LONGER AVAILABLE,
This review is from: Medieval: Total War(TM) Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
I orderd this guide two weeks ago only to be advised that it is NO LONGER Available. Seems to me they ought remove it from their list.
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