Creative Assembly shipped Medieval II in November 2006 and folded the Kingdoms expansion plus every later patch into the free Definitive Edition on 20 November 2018. The Grand Campaign covers 1080 to 1530 across 112 regions and roughly 225 turns, with 21 factions of which only England, France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and Venice are playable on turn one. Kingdoms bolts on four more campaigns: Britannia, Teutonic, Crusades and Americas.
These tips go beyond the basics. They're the strategies experienced players use to play more efficiently, the hidden mechanics most people miss, and the optimizations that compound over a full playthrough. If you're just starting, check our beginner's guide first.
Essential Tips
1. Decide your castle to city ratio before turn 30
Decide your castle to city ratio before turn 30. Castles are the only settlements that train real professional units, cities pay for them. Two cities per castle keeps a 20 unit stack funded without going into deficit around turn 60.
2. Send four to six merchants to the resource clusters at the far ends of the map
Send four to six merchants to the resource clusters at the far ends of the map. Silk in the east and gold in West Africa produce far more income per merchant than anything inside Europe, and a merchant with high finance skill can take over a rival merchant and steal his trade post.
3. Longbow stakes only work if the unit is stationary and facing the charge
Longbow stakes only work if the unit is stationary and facing the charge. Deploy them, do not move them again, and let the enemy come to you. Moving a stake unit forward removes the stakes permanently for that battle.
4. Read the Pope's favour meter every turn you are at war with a Catholic
Read the Pope's favour meter every turn you are at war with a Catholic. Two ignored warnings equals excommunication, and the cure is a large donation to the Papacy plus a ceasefire, both of which cost more than simply picking a Muslim or Orthodox target instead.
5. Assign your worst general to sit in a rebellious city and let him grow Dread
Assign your worst general to sit in a rebellious city and let him grow Dread. Public order from fear scales with the garrison and does not need a cathedral, which frees the building queue for economy.
6. Trebuchets cannot fire while an enemy unit is within their minimum range, so keep a spear unit in front of them and pull the trebuchets back once the sally begins
Trebuchets cannot fire while an enemy unit is within their minimum range, so keep a spear unit in front of them and pull the trebuchets back once the sally begins. A siege lost to your own artillery being overrun is a full stack wasted.
7. Build a Merchants Guild in a high trade city as early as you can
Build a Merchants Guild in a high trade city as early as you can. Guild buildings raise merchant skill on recruitment, and a starting skill of two or three is the difference between taking a rival trade post and losing your merchant to him.
8. Time the gunpowder switch
Time the gunpowder switch. Once Serpentines are available, stop building trebuchets entirely. Cannons reduce a stone wall in two or three volleys, which turns a four turn siege into a one turn assault with far fewer casualties.
9. Retrain damaged elite units in a settlement with the right barracks tier rather than recruiting fresh ones
Retrain damaged elite units in a settlement with the right barracks tier rather than recruiting fresh ones. Retraining keeps veteran experience chevrons and armour upgrades, which compound across a long campaign.
10. Move a priest into every province you plan to invade two or three turns ahead
Move a priest into every province you plan to invade two or three turns ahead. Religious unrest is the single largest public order penalty after conquest, and a province already at 60 percent your religion revolts far less often.
Advanced Strategies
Build Optimization
The difference between an average build and an optimized one is massive. See our builds guide for full breakdowns.
For England (A-Tier):
- Focus on Castle and city settlement split combinations for maximum output.
- Core gear: Longbowmen
- Stat priority: Offensive stats first
For France (A-Tier):
- Versatile approach that handles any situation.
- Core gear: Feudal Knights
- Stat priority: Balanced stats
Mechanic Interactions
Understanding how Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition's systems interact is where the real optimization lives. Our combat guide covers this in detail.
Castle and city settlement split + Papal favour and excommunication: Castles train knights, spearmen and archers, while cities generate trade income and cheap militia. Combined with Papal favour and excommunication, the pope keeps a favour rating on every catholic faction and attacking a fellow catholic drains it fast.
Chivalry and dread general traits + Crusades and Jihads: Generals drift toward Chivalry or Dread based on whether you accept surrenders, exterminate captured populations or execute prisoners. When paired with Crusades and Jihads, the pope names a target such as jerusalem or antioch and any catholic faction may join.
Gunpowder arriving mid campaign scaling: Gunpowder shows up after the Mongols and Timurids invade, around the halfway mark of the Grand Campaign. Serpentines and Basilisks flatten stone walls that trebuchets only chip, and Janissary Musketeers punish the deep infantry blocks that win fights in the first hundred turns.
Equipment Efficiency
| Equipment | Best Use Case | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Longbowmen | England holding a ridge against knight-heavy armies | English bows outrange every competitor and can hammer stakes into the ground that stop a cavalry charge dead. |
| Feudal Knights | Flank charges into archers and units already wavering | Mid tier heavy cavalry available to most Catholic factions once a castle has stables. |
| Pavise Crossbow Militia | Milan, Venice and Sicily defending walls and streets | Italian city militia that carries a large shield it plants in front of itself, so it wins missile duels against ordinary crossbowmen and survives counter fire. |
| Trebuchet | Cracking cities in the first 100 turns | The workhorse siege engine before gunpowder, capable of dropping gates and towers and of lobbing diseased cattle over the wall to start a plague inside the settlement. |
| Janissary Musketeers | Turkish armies breaking massed Crusader infantry | Turkish gunpowder infantry with punishing damage and a morale shock on impact, gated behind Ottoman gunpowder buildings and slow to reload. |
Location Efficiency
British Isles (Turns 1 to 40): England, Scotland and the Welsh and Irish rebels share a small island chain. Once Scotland falls there is no land border to defend, which is why England is the standard first campaign recommendation.
France and the Low Countries (Turns 1 to 60): Dense, wealthy and crowded. Paris anchors the region while Bruges and Antwerp carry the wool and cloth trade that funds a knight army.
Iberia (Turns 10 to 90): Three-way pressure between Spain, Portugal and the Moors, with a sea crossing to North Africa that decides who wins it. The peninsula is poor early and rich once the mines come online.
Italy and the Papal States (Turns 1 to 120): The richest square of the map and the most politically dangerous, because every war here is a war next to the Pope. Milan, Venice, Sicily and the Papacy fight over a handful of provinces.
Anatolia and the Levant (Turns 20 to 225): Where the Crusades land and where the Mongols and Timurids arrive later with gunpowder and elephants. Byzantium, the Turks and Egypt all want the same handful of cities.
Mistakes Even Veterans Make
- Converting a castle to a city because the income looks better, then discovering you have no way to train knights anywhere near the front.
- Ignoring the Pope while grinding Milan or Venice, getting excommunicated, and losing three provinces to a Crusade in the following ten turns.
- Marching a Crusade army in circles or parking it for a few turns, which triggers mass desertion and turns 20 units into 6.
- Recruiting stacks of peasants because they are cheap. They rout early, drag the whole line with them, and still cost upkeep every turn.
- Leaving conquered cities with tiny garrisons and no priest, then losing them to a revolt while the field army is 15 turns away.
Pro Quick Tips
- Decide your castle to city ratio before turn 30. Castles are the only settlements that train real professional units, cities pay for them. Two cities per castle keeps a 20 unit stack funded without going into deficit around turn 60.
- Send four to six merchants to the resource clusters at the far ends of the map. Silk in the east and gold in West Africa produce far more income per merchant than anything inside Europe, and a merchant with high finance skill can take over a rival merchant and steal his trade post.
- Longbow stakes only work if the unit is stationary and facing the charge. Deploy them, do not move them again, and let the enemy come to you. Moving a stake unit forward removes the stakes permanently for that battle.
- Start with France, switch to England when ready
- Invest in Longbowmen above everything else
- Clear areas in order: British Isles → France and the Low Countries → Iberia → Italy and the Papal States → Anatolia and the Levant. See our maps guide
- Castle and city settlement split + Papal favour and excommunication together are stronger than either alone
More Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Guides
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Overview
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Best Builds
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Tier List
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Walkthrough
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Beginner's Guide
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Weapons Guide
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Combat Guide
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Boss Guide
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Maps & Locations
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Crafting Guide
- Total War: MEDIEVAL II Definitive Edition Classes & Characters
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