**Medieval total war 2**

Nope...I do not dl mods....I can make my own. 

I can try...but I make my own worlds. Fantasy worlds, my novels are put into M2. Just give me a historical date and region of the world plz.

I will have to get to that. Playing the Mongol's sounds good. They got one for RTW but it is not done yet. I downloaded Sicilian Vespers, but I have no clue why it doesn't start up. You have to select the age you want to play in through Dos. They got Broken Crescent, which focuses on the Islamic states from the Middle East up to the sub-continent.

Well, I just got a copy for my birthday (I love gift cards). I can't wait to play it, but I don't have the time at the moment... Maybe in a few days.

Very much agreed there about Sicilian Vespers - it is such an improvement over the original in so many ways.

Hey Any of you ever fought the Timurid Elephants in open battle? what is a good strategy, I usually try to fight them in a town where I can defeat them, but in open combat they outrange my archers.

Thanks Nova, it sounds like a good bet. I'll try it 'out of box' first then I am certain I'll want to get the mod. 

es_bih, thankyou so much for this! What a treat!

Originally posted by Constantine XI es_bih, thankyou so much for this! What a treat!   While looking at the TW forum I noticed the Stainless Steel mod. This looks very good also.

No problem man, tell me how Stainless Steel is if you play it. I played Broken Crescent this morning and it is interesting to play, SV has some better features, however, BC has a interesting groundwork as well. I tried out the Byzantines, and right now Jerusalem extensively and it is challenging, with Jerusalem you have to keep a decent amount of soldiers and take Antioch alongside a heavy focus on your Merchants to gain extra income that is lost through military pay. Richard the Lionhearted arrives in 1192; sadly as your own character instead of as a new faction as it should be.

In Broken Crescent, the Byzantines are a fun faction to play, of course you are lacking all Balkan provinces save for Thrace, and a bit of Bulgaria that you could conquer. In Asia Minor you control what Byzantium controlled at the moment in 1174AD, which is a bit, but you have to economize and raise and army because the Turks expand rather quickly; which could mean a lot of lost income. The islands are rebel regions, and they should be sought out, too.

The units are rather good, and historic. Furthermore, higher quality units will cost a lot of money to maintain.

I played the Abbasid Caliphate, which like the Byzantines in Sicilian Vespers starts out in rather dire conditions, being that you have the Seljuks contorling most of the Caliphate, and you being relegated to control of Baghdad and Basra. However, Baghdad is the economic capital still, and you can earn a lot. With a few conquests I was able to regian most of Eastern Arabia, almost all of Mesopotiamia, and two of the Western most Persian provinces; alongside Somalia, and an Island off of S. Arabia. That enabled me a huge increase in gold reserves that procured me through a few deals with the Ayyubids Mecca, Madinah, and all of N. Arabia as well up to Aqaba. This is by 1210AD or so. The Mongols by then are close to their invasion, so now I am preparing to lose a few provinces and moved a few family members south in case that I am unable to maintain  their onslaught. Although I am allied with the Seljuks they are amassing troops, and if I am lucky the two will exhaust each other, and it will enable me to take at least one of them out.