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Medieval II Total War: Kingdoms

by Sega, 2007, $29.99.

One of the best strategy games of 2006, Medieval II Total War, gets an expansion pack, with an enormous amount of new content. As if the original weren’t massive enough— with real-time battles involving thousands of controllable soldiers and units, dozens of nations and factions, numerous time periods and historic scenarios, and a turn-based strategy map that encompassed nearly the entire world— Kingdoms ups the ante by adding 13 factions, more than 150 soldier and unit types, 50 building types and four campaigns.

First is a Crusades campaign. In 1174, Jerusalem and Antioch, both aided by the knightly orders of the Templars and Hospitallers, attempt to expand their borders into Turkish and Egyptian territory. Next, during their 1250 campaign, the Teutonic Order wages war on Lithuania and the rest of pagan Eastern Europe. Third comes Britannia, where England rules over numerous conquered nations in 1258. Its forces are spread too thin, however, and Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Norway strike back. Finally, there is the far too lopsided New Worlds campaign, in which Spanish conquistadors duke it out with the Aztec, Maya and Apache tribes for the Americas’ bountiful treasures.

 

Originally published in the December 2007 issue of Military History. To subscribe, click here