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Medieval Total War II: Kingdoms is the first and only expansion for Medieval Total War II which features four all-new campaigns, each with its own period, map, and unique factions. […]
Medieval Total War II: Kingdoms is the first and only expansion for Medieval Total War II which features four all-new campaigns, each with its own period, map, and unique factions. Total War expansions are usually a place where Creative Assembly experiments with some of their more radical campaign ideas and Kingdoms is no different.
The four campaigns are Britannia, the Crusades, the Teutonic, and, the Americas. Each puts its own twist on the standard Total War formula. It would have been easy for CA to just take the units and mechanics from the base game and repurpose them for these campaigns since most of these factions already appear in the base Medieval II.
Instead, CA chose to include different mechanics that serve as experimental ideas some of which would presage the changes to come in the next Total War game, Empire Total War.
Each campaign takes place on a zoomed-in section of the Medieval II map. It’s often the case where Total War plays at its best in these smaller scenarios, though I still do love the sweeping grand campaigns. The focus allows CA to really hone in on the specifics of the conflict at hand, and give the factions more depth than they otherwise would have.
There is also a great contrast between each campaign setting. The lush jungles of Central America are a far cry from the wind-swept hills of Scotland or the scorching deserts of the Levant.
Despite this, the common theme throughout each campaign is the conflict between outside invaders and the natives. This can take place on multiple levels as well, in Britannia, the English will be the invaders for almost every faction but the Norwegians are also launching a full-scale invasion of the isle. In the Crusader campaign, the Crusader factions themselves are foreign invaders, while the Mongols will invade later in the campaign.
Medieval Total War II Invaders might be a better title for the expansion, though this may sound too close to both Barbarian Invasion, Viking Invasion, and Mongol Invasion. Now that I write that I’m beginning to think that creating expansions based on large-scale invasions is a running theme in these early Total War games.
The Brittania campaign is the most ‘vanilla’ of the four campaigns and will see you fighting mostly armies of the same western-European caliber in 1258 across the British Isle. The most interesting dynamic comes from the fact that England, with far superior troops, is overextended and trying to maintain its hegemony across the entirety of the British Isle while dealing with strife at home. The other factions will feature less well-equipped rosters but will have the advantage that England will have to deal with Ireland, Wales, and Scotland at once.
Playing as England you’ll be trying to maintain your holdings across the Isle while simultaneously battling a rebellion at home: The Baron’s Alliance. The Alliance acts as a rebellion faction for the English, when a city or army revolts they will join that faction, instead of just becoming rebels. This forces the English to maintain large standing armies within their own territory, as well as on their borders.
The Baron’s Alliance is also the only faction that can truly challenge England in terms of the quality of its troops. Meaning that the advantage in heavy cavalry and infantry the English possess is now rendered null.
England is the toughest start in the campaign, and it’s an experience close to playing the Western Roman Empire in Barbarian Invasion, as your territories are overextended, rebellious, and underdeveloped. The best way to handle these threats is to use the extensive fortress systems that the English have built to secure your territory.
Fortresses work differently in Kingdoms than in the base game. They cannot be placed but are static features on the map. In return for this, they are now essentially castles, and critically, several units placed in them will not require any upkeep. Using these to bait the enemy into attacking you as England is critical, as you won’t be able to defend everywhere else at once.
The Irish’s main goal is to drive the English from the Emerald Isle. The English own extensive territory in Ireland and will pose a large threat to the Irish. They don’t have the heavy troops of the English or the devastating longbowmen of the Welsh, instead, you’ll have to use skirmish tactics, and take careful engagements to whittle down the English forces on Ireland.
The Welsh are in a precarious position, they’re right next to the English’s main powerbase which means they’re vulnerable but also in a position to strike at England’s heart. The Welsh faction comes closest to the English in terms of troop quality due to their elite longbowmen. In vanilla Medieval II longbowmen were incredibly powerful, and here they’re even more so. The Welsh also have an advantage where if any of their settlements are captured by the English, a Welsh army will spawn to attempt to retake the town.
The Scottish are sandwiched between the invading Norwegians in the north and the English in the south. Their provinces are critically underdeveloped and their troops are of poor quality. Though they will eventually get William Wallace as a unique general.
The Norwegians are perhaps my favorite start in any Kingdoms campaign, they are stuck on the rocky and poor islands to the north of Scotland with few troops at their disposal. They need to secure their power base without engaging the Scottish until their main force arrives. It truly gives the sense of being an invading expeditionary force on campaign, but unlike the Spanish in the Americas campaign, you will not have the advantage in technology.
The campaign also introduced several new features into the game. Culture replaces religion since all factions here are Catholic, and will allow for your faction’s units to be produced in a settlement only once the culture level is high enough.
There are also a number of interesting figures that will spawn throughout the campaign, like William Wallace or King Haakon of Norway.
The Brittania campaign is solid even if it doesn’t do anything exceptionally in terms of mechanics. Each faction plays entirely differently both in battles and on the strategic map, as you try and unify the British Isle.
The Crusades campaign is set in 1174 and brings you to the Holy Land just before the launch of the Third Crusade. The main dynamic here is the endless struggle between the crusader states and their Muslim enemies, who seek to drive them out of the holy land. The other main faction is the Byzantine Empire, which lost a good deal of its territory and is now looking to reclaim it.
The main mechanical focus of the campaign is on unique commanders with special abilities. Instead of just being able to rally troops, these special commanders have either their own unique abilities to cast. This is a change that would become more and more prominent in later Total War games, culminating in the legendary lords of Total War: Warhammer.
Characters can now construct the same sort of permanent stone forts that were present in the Brittania campaign. As the Crusaders you’ll need these to keep your troops upkeep from overwhelming your economy, while also acting as defensive bastions against the constant invasions you’ll face.
The two Crusader factions can recruit either Templar and Hospitaller knights. These are some of the most elite heavy cavalry in the game and have access to other unique holy order units.
Factions also have a “power center” now that acts as their heartland and will allow them to recruit their most powerful units. If a faction loses this settlement then an army will spawn and attempt to retake it.
There are also a few important events throughout the campaign. The Byzantines have their backs to the edge of the map, meaning they’ll only have to deal with enemies in one direction. But eventually, the Fourth Crusade will arrive near Constantinople and immediately besiege the city.
There will also be a Mamluk rebellion in Egypt, the arrival of the Third Crusade, the Turks will receive their Janissary reforms to reflect the rise of the Ottomans, and the Mongols will invade in the east.
The Crusades is the most fleshed-out campaign in terms of new mechanics and events. It feels more scripted than the other campaigns but that also makes it appear more realistic than the other campaigns. It’s also got a great clash of east vs. west in the battles, as you’ll be leading very different armies for each faction.
The Teutonic campaign brings us up to the Baltic coast and follows the Northern Crusades carried out by the Teutonic Order against the Lithuanian pagans. Beyond this conflict, there is also, the expansionist Republic of Novgorod, Denmark, Poland, the Mongols, and the HRE. The map is smaller than the Crusades or Brittania but there are more factions, and they are locked in conflict the entire game.
The campaign features its own unique mechanics for the playable factions. Teutonic Knights will periodically receive Crusading noble armies from western Europe. Campaigning with these armies without destroying them will net you donations from the grateful nobles. Alternatively, if the Lithuanians manage to kill the crusaders the tribes will grant them their own reward.
The Danes can unite the Kalmar union by taking several settlements and killing the Norwegian king. This gives them a new flag and will give you all the troops Norway has under its command.
The Guild system is used to represent the Hanseatic League which can only appear in certain settlements and the city which builds the League’s headquarters will be given financial rewards.
The Teutonic knights present a unique challenge, they are surrounded by enemies and will have to deal with hordes of Lithuanian troops, who will swarm over their small but elite armies. Each Teutonic general has a rank, with Hochmeister being the faction leader. Their strength is in their slow but incredibly powerful knights, and infantry, who can mow through unarmored Lithuanian units.
Lithuania on the other hand is much harder to play as you won’t be given the endless hordes of units that the AI gets. Instead, you’ll have to use your speed and mobility to harass and outflank your enemies. You will get some elite pagan units but you’ll be hampered by not being able to fully upgrade your settlements.
Eventually as Lithuania, you get an event allowing you to convert to Christianity. Taking this will cause massive unrest in your settlements and you’ll lose all special Pagan units but you can now fully upgrade your settlements.
The rest of the factions play mostly like their Vanilla counterparts, with Novogrod being a reskinned Russian faction.
The Teutonic campaign is the most difficult and relentless campaign in any Total War game. You’ll be constantly pressed on all sides while never having enough gold to do everything you want. The biggest problem with the campaign overall is the Lithuanian unit spam, it gets entirely excessive to the point it slows down the game, otherwise, this expansion is amazing.
The Americas is the latest campaign in terms of the time period for Medieval II Kingdoms and it’s also the most unique of all the expansion campaigns.
The campaign starts in 1521 and details Spain’s conquest of the Americas. Spain will have a technological advantage while suffering from extremely low manpower. They will instead rely on native allies supplemented with their European elite units to conquer the new world.
The native factions will be tasked with both pushing out the new foreign invaders while also dealing with their age-old rivals, and the new deadly diseases brought by the invaders.
The Spanish will have well-armored, and technologically advanced units but keeping them reinforced will be a problem. They also have access to gunpowder and cannons, which will help multiply their force advantage.
The Spanish will also be reinforced by Conquistador fleets which spawn periodically and will contain European units.
French and English expeditions will also arrive in the Americas, leading to even more bad times for the natives. The French will appear in the north by Louisiana and the English will appear farther south.
To supplement your forces as the Spanish, you’ll need to recruit the incredibly cheap and fragile native mercenary units. These act as your fodder units, which will hold the native units in place while your cavalry or heavy infantry flank them.
As the governor of New Spain, you’ll need to complete missions for the king of Spain in order to gain more influence with the crown and be granted higher titles. These titles allow you to build more advanced buildings.
I cannot overstate how much I like this mechanic. Not because it is revolutionary in any way but that it actually incentives the player to complete missions. They’re now not just a useless pop-up. I think this title system could have been meshed really well with the Senate office system of Rome Total War and made missions a lot more useful in that game.
Central American natives like the Aztecs will bear the brunt of the Spanish invasion, all the while being locked in a bitter war with their Txacalan and Tarascan neighbors. Instead of disbanding units and exterminating settlements, these factions can sacrifice them to improve public order.
The final major faction is the Apache who can use their Warpath to call for a Crusade on a settlement. They’re also more adaptable than their southern neighbors, if they defeat European armies in several battles they can begin to adopt cavalry and eventually firearms.
The Americas campaign is the most unique of the Kingdoms expansion and consequently are many people’s favorites. For the Spanish, it gives the sense of exploring a new and hostile world, while for the natives it represents the desperate struggle both internally and against these new invaders.
The Kingdom’s expansion is one of the best for the entire Total War series. It provides four unique campaigns, each with its own setting and mechanics but unified by a central theme. No campaign is “the best” by far, though most people will have a clear favorite.
The expansion also greatly expanded the tools available to modders and is now the base for some of the best Total War mods period. Some of these, like Stainless Steel, are massive improvements over the vanilla experience.
From the height of Medieval II: Kingdoms, CA would go on to release arguably its first unmitigated disaster in Empire Total War.
This article is part of a series on the Total War Series you can find the other articles in the series here:
