Medieval II: Total War

Medieval II: Total War

Developers
	Creative Assembly
	Creative Assembly International
macOS (OS X)	Feral Interactive
Linux	Feral Interactive
Publishers
	Sega
OS X, Linux	Feral Interactive
Release dates
Windows	November 11, 2006
macOS (OS X)	January 14, 2016
Linux	January 14, 2016
Reception
Metacritic	88
IGDB	90
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time, Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Free-roaming camera
Controls	Menu-based, Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS, TBS
Themes	Medieval, Historical
Series	Total War

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

General information

Official site for the series

Official forum

Total War Center - A large fan site for the series with an active modding community

Collection of bug fixes for many of the game's issues

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc DRM for the base game, SecuROM DRM for Kingdoms.
Developer website		Collection bundle including all the DLC.
		Definitive Edition.
Humble Store		Definitive Edition.
Mac App Store		Includes expansion.
Steam		Definitive Edition.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

All Linux versions require Steam DRM.

All product keys activate on Steam.

Free demo versions are available from Archive.org: base game, Gold Edition.

Version differences

The Gold (retail) and Definitive (Steam, as of 20 November 2018) Editions include the base game and the Kingdoms expansion pack.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Kingdoms	Comes bundled with the Gold and Definitive Editions.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\medieval2.preference.cfg
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Medieval II Total War/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\saves
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/feral-interactive/Medieval II Total War/VFS/Local/saves

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			UI suffers severe stretching.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		In the medieval2.preference.cfg file, change the line: windowed=true
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Edit medieval2.preference.cfg and add the line borderless_window=true
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, speech, effects and music.
Surround sound		5.1 and 7.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 2, 3 and 4
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese				Japanese release.
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		Hot seat, Versus Native in Kingdoms expansion; use Retrofit Mod for original campaigns.
LAN play		8	Versus
Online play		8	Versus The official GameSpy service is offline; the Steam version was updated to use Steamworks. Mac App Store players can only play with other Mac App Store users.

Issues fixed

Retail base game does not work

The retail version of the base game does not work on Windows Vista and later due to SafeDisc DRM support being discontinued.

Activate the serial key on Steam

Use Kingdoms expansion
The retail Kingdoms expansion is still compatible due to using SecuROM DRM instead. Use the Bare Geomod to play Medieval II's Grand Campaign within Kingdoms.

Restart the SafeDisc service (Windows 8.1 and earlier)
See SafeDisc article.

Reinforcements delayed

Remove reinforcement limit

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open medieval.prefences.cfg. Change unlimited_men_on_battlefield = 0 to unlimited_men_on_battlefield = 1 Notes Only applies to reinforcements delayed claimed due to needing to upgrade the system. This does not affect reinforcements being delayed through random chance (as part of intended game logic), nor does it apply to reinforcements blocked because of insufficient graphics card memory.

Diplomacy bug

Because of a missing semicolon in the game files, the AI hates the human player more if peacefully occupying something than if sacking it. See here or use the Bare Geomod for a fix. This will make diplomacy more viable and decrease the frequency of wars.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Metal support
Shader Model support	1.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Mods

Bare Geomod

Includes a variety of bug fixes and unlocks all factions.

Stainless Steel

A combination of bug fixes, many small mods, better AI and AI armies, more provinces, graphical improvements and many other campaign and battle map changes.

Third Age - Total War

A total conversion mod that brings the game to the world of Middle-earth during the Third Age. Includes both a standard campaign mode and a Fellowship of the Ring campaign that follows the events of the books.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System	6.6g
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	GameSpy, Steamworks

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000 SP4	XP SP3
Processor (CPU)	Intel Celeron 1.8 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	11 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4400 ATI Radeon 9800 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible Shader model 1.0 support	Nvidia GeForce 7300 ATI Radeon X1600 Shader model 2.0 support
Sound (audio device)	100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)		10.11.1
Processor (CPU)	1.8 GHz	2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	32 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM	512 MB of VRAM

Intel HD Graphics 4000/5000 require 8GB of RAM.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 14.04, SteamOS 2.0	Ubuntu 15.10
Processor (CPU)	2.0 GHz	3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	18 GB	35 GB
Video card (GPU)	512 MB of VRAM	1 GB of VRAM

Intel HD Graphics 4000/5000 require 8GB of RAM.

AMD graphics cards are not officially supported on SteamOS.

Nvidia GeForce 600 series and newer require driver version 352.55, AMD Radeon R7/R9 300 series and Intel Iris Pro Graphics require Mesa 11.2 driver.