MEDIEVAL 2 TOTAL WAR: Call of Warhammer - BOTET
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General / Tips
I have been searching the web for information on this game: Medieval 2 Total War, for the mod called "Call of Warhammer" and/or with the campaign called BOTET (Beginning of the End Times.) I could not find all the information that I wanted and ended up compiling some data myself. I wanted to share it to help others find this information. This applies to v1.5 Public Beta of BOTET.
I have started playing the High Elves campaign and I can point out some useful tips for new players:
Overall
- I suggest you alternate between the following (presented in no order here): retraining, economic buildings, happiness buildings, training new troops, upgrading your troops, improving your navy's size, religion buildings. Focus a bit more on the economic buildings early on to snowball your economy and don't forget your navy.
- To build the best units available, you will have to chain build many buildings. This takes time. Plan ahead.
- To build the best units available, you will need to have cash but the main issue is the time to build. You cannot speed that up.
- When an enemy unit reaches the side of your city but doesn't attack (because it's path got blocked), you can just send archers and shoot and then retreat before taking damage, thus damaging the enemy for free. But it will accumulate your "battles lost."
- You can build watchtowers with your armies in the middle of the world map to extend your visual range. They cost 200 gold.
- Sometimes the auto-battle will yield great results and saves a lot of time.
- It's okay to lose a Spearmen unit or an Archer unit from time to time but roughly 90% of your troops should stay alive and be retrained.
Economy
- You can leave a Castle without any units inside as you can't adjust it's tax rate so Castles are more riot-proof than cities.
- When you capture Enemy cities, you will find some structures that bring nothing to you. Sell those and you will roughly get a 3000 gold per city (plus what you get for Occupying or Sacking.)
- When you have multiple leaders in a single city or castle, some of your leaders might offer discounts on buildings or training/retraining. But the governor of the city might have no discount. So to get your discounts, get the current governor right out of the city. Make sure your new governor is the hero that gives the discount now. Pay for the building / troop. Then bring the other hero back inside the city. Sometimes, you can forget this but over time, the difference will show.
Religion
- I can't tell if keeping a Priest in an Army or inside a city has a particular advantage. But I like to send my priests out to explore and also to find and kill heretics on the world map (no battle needed.) The religion of the world will slowly change when you conquer cities (and hold them), build religion buildings, have Piety with your governors and have Priests.
- Your religion as the High Elves is the Pantheonic Mandala. The Dark Elves follow the Cult of Khaine. The Lizardmen follow the Old Ones.
Navy
- I suggest you invest in your Navy overtime to build it up and to really control the seas. It makes conquest much easier when you can embargo the enemy's ports while dropping troops lightning fast from ships. This is how I crushed the Dark Elves, by quickly moving troops to siege multiple cities with small armies all at once. Then some of those sieges led to capturing the cities and by selling the buildings you get money to fuel your aggression even more. If the Dark Elves then recapture their city, they'll have to deal with unhappiness.
- So the important point is that your Navy is a critical part of your overall success.
- There are 3 ship types available, each costing the same upkeep. So even the best ship (Man O'War) costs as much upkeep every turn as the worst ship (Independent Ship). Ships of the Line are in the middle.
- I like to use "local fleets" of damaged ships to ferry units from Anlec to Arnheim. When conquering the Dark Elves, this ferry activity is crucial. Later on, another ferry fleet is assigned to the inner sea and that helps to bring troops to Lustria faster.
- Initially, to supplement your need to ferry troops to Naggaroth and back, Independent Ships do the job of costing little to buy. But over time, remember that the upkeep is the same for an Independent ship as for a Man O'War.
- Build up your infrastructure to be able to build Man O'War. By turn 31 I had a single Man O'War and 4 Ships of the Line and 5 Independent Ships (4 of which were given to me by a Mission reward)
BOTET - Archaon - Chaos Undivided - Crusades
- There are many scripted events in the campaign. I do not know all of them at all. I read somewhere that at turn 60 Chaos Undivided would really start raining down troops on the world. Maybe is that when Archaon enters the scene, I don't know. Up to date, I have focused on capturing all of the Dark Elves territory and rebuilding (ports and some mines). I have established multiple trading rights with other good civilizations, including the Lizardmen but they ended up attacking me! At turn 31. So finally I have set upon conquering Lustria also. They cannot stand in the way of our quest to stop the End Times. Archaon must be stopped! For Ulthuan!
- Around turn 18 I got told that Chaos Undivided was calling a Conquest on Middenheim. By turn 28 they had conquered it.
- Around turn 60, another crusade was launched against Altdorf.
Buildings of the High Elves
Sorry for the formatting, I could not import the table directly here. I will format it later.
Cost Name Turns Type Req
4300 House of Shield 3 Army Building
4000 Smithy 2 3 Army Building Smithy 1
4500 House of Youth 4 Army Building
5200 House of Spear 4 Army Building House of Shield
5000 Fletcher’s 4 Army Building
5000 Weaponsmith 4 Army Building Smithy 3
5000 Smithy 3 4 Army Building Smithy 2
6000 Smithy 4 4 Army Building Smithy 3
3500 Elven Bowyer 4 Army Building
7200 House of Sword 5 Army Building House of Spear
7000 Smithy 5 5 Army Building Smithy 4
5800 House of Swiftness 5 Army Building House of Youth
4900 Elven Practice Range 5 Army Building Elven Bowyer
9000 Smithy 6 6 Army Building Smithy 5
8100 Halls of Bravery 6 Army Building House of Sword
6900 House of Honor 6 Army Building House of Swiftness
5700 Archery House 6 Army Building Elven Practice Range
9500 Halls of Heroism 7 Army Building Halls of Bravery
8400 House of Dragons 7 Army Building House of Honor
7000 Archery House 4 7 Army Building Archery House
15000 Beastiary 10 Army Building
2400 Smithy Army Building
1500 Market 1 3 Economy
4000 Mines 3 Economy
2500 Market 2 4 Economy Market 1
6000 Mining Network 4 Economy Mines
8000 Jeweler’s Shop 5 Economy
16000 Mint 5 Economy
4000 Market 3 5 Economy Market 2
6500 Warewhouse 5 Economy Merchant Warf
5500 Market 4 6 Economy Market 3
6700 Docklands 6 Economy Warewhouse
7500 Market 5 7 Economy Market 4
5600 Merchant Warf 7 Economy
9000 Dockyards 8 Economy Docklands
1000 Land Clearance 3 Farming
3000 Fisher’s 3 Farming
4800 Crop Rotation 5 Farming Communal Farming
6500 Irrigation 6 Farming Crop Rotation
9000 Huge Farms 8 Farming Irrigation
3000 Communal Farming Farming Land Clearance
2500 Brothel 3 Happiness
3900 Inn 4 Happiness Brothel
5500 Entertainment 3 5 Happiness Inn
7200 Entertainment 4 6 Happiness Entertainment 3
8900 Pleasure Palace 7 Happiness Entertainment 4
4200 House of Philosophy 5 Happy/Econ
4000 Art Gallery 5 Happy/Econ
5800 Hall of Philosophy 5 Happy/Econ House of Philosophy
6500 Tower of Philosophy 6 Happy/Econ Hall of Philosophy
7200 Great Tower of Philosophy 6 Happy/Econ Tower of Philosophy
6000 Artist’s Studio 7 Happy/Econ Art Gallery
1200 Shipwright 2 Ports Port
2000 Dockyard 4 Ports Shipwright
3000 Naval Drydock 5 Ports Dockyard
2500 Port 6 Ports
3200 Elven Shrine 4 Religion
4600 Elven Sanctuary 5 Religion Elven Shrine
6100 Elven Temple 6 Religion Elven Sanctuary
7300 Elven Great Temple 7 Religion Elven Temple
1500 Paved Roads 4 Roads Dirt Roads
2500 Highways 6 Roads Paved Road
4500 Ballista Tower 5 Wall
2000 Wood Pallissade Wall
3000 Wood Wall Wall
