Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition: Complete Guide

A campaign and battle guide for Medieval II and its Kingdoms expansion. It covers the campaign map, settlements, agents, the Pope and crusades, battle tactics, faction picks, late-game threats, and how to mod and run a 2006 classic on a modern PC.

Researched September 2026. This is a finished classic (the Definitive Edition bundles the base game and Kingdoms) and has had no gameplay patches in years. Check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Pick one of the five starting playable factions. In the Grand Campaign you start with England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain or Venice. Other factions unlock for later campaigns when you defeat them.
• Choose Short or Long campaign. Short wants roughly 15 settlements and the elimination (or outliving) of specific rivals. Long wants 45 settlements including Jerusalem. Your win conditions are shown at campaign start.
• Cities make money, Castles make soldiers. Keep most provinces as cities for income and a few as castles for good troops.
• Keep the Pope happy if you're Catholic. Excommunication makes you a target.
• Build farms, markets and roads early for income, then ports and merchants for trade.
• Win battles with combined arms. Spears hold, archers soften, cavalry flanks and charges. Don't lead with your general.
• Watch your family tree. Generals and heirs have traits that make or break provinces and armies.
• Expect big late-game threats: the Mongols and later the Timurids arrive from the east, and gunpowder and the New World open up in the later centuries.

The Campaign Map

Settlements

Type | Good for | Notes

City | Taxes, trade, population growth, merchants and priests | Can be converted to a castle and back

Castle | Top-tier military units, strong walls | Weaker economy and limited growth

• Public order drops with high taxes, big populations, religious unrest and distance from your capital. Use garrisons, churches, entertainment buildings and good governors.
• Build order for a new city: farms/land improvements, then markets/roads/ports, then religious buildings for order and conversion, then walls if it's on the border.
• Taxes: set them per settlement. Low taxes grow population. High taxes pay for wars but risk riots.

Agents

Agent | Job

Diplomat | Treaties, trade rights, alliances, bribing settlements and armies

Princess | Diplomacy plus marriage to bring generals into your family

Spy | Scouting, seeing inside settlements, opening gates during sieges

Assassin | Killing agents and generals, sabotaging buildings

Merchant | Earning money from resources, and taking over rival merchants

Priest/Imam | Converting populations and fighting heresy. Can become a Cardinal (Catholics)

Merchant tip: park merchants on distant, high-value resources (gold, silver, ivory, silk). Protect them from rival merchants, who try to acquire them.

Religion, the Pope and Crusades

• Catholic factions have a Papal standing. Don't attack other Catholics without cause or ignore the Pope's requests, or you risk excommunication, which invites everyone to attack you.
• Your Cardinals vote in papal elections. Getting your candidate elected makes relations much easier.
• Crusades are called by the Pope against a target (often Jerusalem or a Muslim city). Armies that join get recruitment and movement bonuses as long as they keep heading to the target.
• Muslim factions can call a Jihad through an Imam.
• Heretics and witches appear in low-religion regions. Station priests there and build churches to push your religion back up. The Inquisition can put your own family members on trial if they aren't pious.

Family, traits and dynasty

• Generals get traits from their actions. Winning battles builds command. Executing or releasing prisoners affects Chivalry vs Dread. Governing in certain buildings has its own effects.
• Chivalry helps with city growth and army morale. Dread lowers enemy morale and keeps order through fear.
• Retinue members (advisors, bodyguards, relics) add bonuses. Some can be moved between characters.
• Adopt good captains when you're offered the chance, and marry princesses to competent generals.

Battle Tactics

Unit roles

Role | Examples of use

Spearmen/pikemen | Hold the line against cavalry. Some can form spear walls or schiltrom.

Heavy infantry | Grind down enemy infantry. Swords and axes cut through armour.

Missile infantry | Weaken enemies before melee. Some longbowmen can plant stakes.

Heavy cavalry | Charge into the flanks or rear of engaged infantry, then pull back and charge again

Light/missile cavalry | Harass, chase routers, kill enemy archers

Artillery | Sieges and breaking formations. Gunpowder units arrive later.

Rules that win battles

• Charge, then withdraw. Cavalry does most of its damage on the charge. Pull back and charge again rather than leaving them stuck in melee.
• Flank. Hitting from the side or rear breaks morale fast.
• Take the high ground. Units fighting uphill are at a disadvantage.
• Keep your general alive. His death is a big morale hit.
• Use guard and skirmish modes so archers don't wander into melee, and so units hold formation.
• Hide in forests to ambush, and watch out for enemy ambushes.

Sieges

• Build siege equipment (rams, ladders, siege towers) during the turns you sit outside, or bring artillery.
• Spies inside the settlement can open the gates.
• Defending: fight at the gate and on the walls, keep a reserve in the town square, and remember that holding the town square wins the battle.
• Starving a settlement out takes turns but costs no lives.

Faction Notes (Starting Five)

Faction | Strengths | Starting advice

England | Longbowmen, strong heavy infantry | Secure the British Isles, then push into France

France | Excellent heavy cavalry, rich land | Don't go to war on too many fronts in the middle of Europe

Holy Roman Empire | Large, rich, strong troops | Surrounded by enemies. Manage the Pope carefully, since the HRE often clashes with Rome.

Spain | Rich Iberian land, good mix of units | Push the Moors out first, then look to the New World later

Venice | Trade, a strong navy, rich cities | Trade across the Mediterranean and expand into the Balkans or Italy

Kingdoms Expansion Campaigns

Kingdoms adds four new campaigns on expanded maps:

• Britannia: England against Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Norway in the British Isles.
• Teutonic: Northern Europe and the Baltic, featuring the Teutonic Order.
• Crusades: the Middle East and Holy Land.
• Americas: the conquest of the New World.

Each has its own factions, units and scripted events. Kingdoms is also required by many mods.

Late-Game Threats

• The Mongols arrive with huge horse-archer armies from the east. Hold chokepoints and castles with strong walls, and fight with spears and missile units. Don't meet them in open-field cavalry duels.
• The Timurids come later with elephants and gunpowder. Artillery and disciplined spear lines help.
• Gunpowder becomes available after a campaign event. Upgrade your castles and cities to use it.
• The New World opens later. The Aztecs are there, and colonising pays well.

Modding and Modern PCs

• The Steam Definitive Edition includes Kingdoms. Mac and Linux ports are by Feral Interactive, and Feral also released the mobile version in 2022.
• Popular total conversions and overhauls: Third Age: Total War (Lord of the Rings), Stainless Steel, Bellum Crucis and Broken Crescent. Follow each mod's install instructions. Many install into the mods folder and need Kingdoms.
• Widescreen/high resolutions work, but UI scaling is dated. Some players use community fixes for crashes on large battles. Keep backups of your saves and your data folder before modding.
• Save often. Long campaigns on an old engine can crash. Rotate a few save slots.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Turning every settlement into a castle. Your economy will collapse.
• Attacking fellow Catholics carelessly and getting excommunicated.
• Leading with your general's bodyguard. A dead faction heir can wreck your dynasty.
• Leaving cavalry stuck in melee instead of charging again.
• Neglecting public order until a city revolts.
• Ignoring merchants and trade. Ports and trade rights are some of the biggest money-makers.
• Expanding east without preparing for the Mongols.

Advanced Tips

• Bribe small rebel towns with diplomats early. It's often cheaper than a siege.
• Stack merchants on remote high-value resources once your own traders can defend them.
• Use crusades as free movement to reach far-off targets, then keep what you capture.
• Keep a "garrison governor" with good governing traits in your richest city.
• Sell off and demolish buildings that conflict with a castle/city role when you convert.
• Kill the heir. Assassinating an enemy's faction heir or leader can throw them into chaos.

FAQ

What's in the Definitive Edition? Medieval II plus the Kingdoms expansion and all feature updates, as one Steam product.

How do I unlock more factions? Defeat them in the Grand Campaign. Beating a faction unlocks it for future campaigns.

How do I avoid excommunication? Don't attack other Catholic factions without good reason, obey or satisfy Papal requests where you can, and build churches to raise your standing.

When do the Mongols show up? They're a scripted mid-campaign invasion from the east. Build up your eastern defenses before then.

What are the best mods? Third Age: Total War for Lord of the Rings, Stainless Steel for a deeper historical overhaul, and Bellum Crucis and Broken Crescent for alternative overhauls.

Is Total War: MEDIEVAL III coming? Creative Assembly announced it at the December 2025 25th Anniversary Showcase. It was in pre-production, which the studio said meant years from release.

Sources

• Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition on Steam
• Steam news (25th Anniversary Showcase, Medieval III, sales)
• Medieval II: Total War on Wikipedia
• Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms on Wikipedia