Guides.

4. Moving to intermediate
-Links to more advanced stuff
5. Appendix
5.1 Hotkeys
-Battle map
-Campaign map
5.2 Multiplayer
-basic do’s and don’ts.
5.3 Modding the missile units
-Step by step guide to basic missile stat modding
5.4 Unit size chart
-How many men are in each unit type at each size setting
5.5 Cheat codes and command lines
-Cheats for medieval and Vikings
-Command lines for Vikings
6. Credits

4. Moving to intermediate.
If you have mastered everything I have covered in this guide then you are ready to move on to intermediate. Congratulations!

You should start by looking at this
table of contents as it contains a lot of advanced information. You should also consider reading the forums on the two sites mentioned at the start of this guide, as there are many helpful articles and interesting ideas on them. You need to continue practising to get better but you are over the hardest part now so things are smoother from this point on.

For information and tips for any of the units in Shogun, medieval and Viking Invasion look at the Complete Total War Unit Guide

5. Appendix
Here's some useful information that doesn't fit anywhere else.

5.1 Hotkeys
Battlemap
P = pause
G = Group
Backspace - Halt (cancel the given order)
R - Rally (use this to avoid hitting the wrong button on the interface - rout is right next to it)
C - Close formation
L - Loose formation
W - Wedge formation
S - Skirmish mode (apply for skirmish troop)
F - Hold Formation
E - Engage at will
H - Hold position.
A - Fire at will (apply for skirmish troop)
Control+W = withdraw
Control+R = rout
SHIFT + DOUBLE CLICK = waypoint with the unit running.
Alt+hold right mouse button = Change troop facing
Multiple units selected and Alt+RMB = Change facing for all units while maintaining formation.
Multiple units selected and ALT+left click = Move all units while keeping formation, spacing etc
- and + on numpad to change camera angle
Mouse wheel to zoom (camera elevation).
Press "Escape" while dragging out a formation will cancel the action.

Campaign map
V = display sea zone status
C = hide castles
Shift = display province loyalty
Space = skip tour
Mousewheel = zoom
1 and 3 keys on the numpad to zoom if you don't have mouse wheel
M = merge armies/merge units
Escape = main menu
Enter = end turn
Ctrl + A works on the camp map to select all units in the unit review panel

5.2 Multiplayer
I don't play multiplayer so you can thank Cheetah for this section.
Eleven do’s and eleven not to do’s of MP

DO’S
· Always respect the rules the host set forth. If you don’t agree with these rules don’t join the game.
· Always ask if you don’t know something, and always help if someone ask something from you.
· Always communicate with your allies.
· Always help your allies.
· Always tell your allies when you are going to attack.
· Always count the number of units in the opposing army.
· Always study carefully the composition of the opposing armies. You can learn a lot this way.
· Always group your units according their tasks: archers, melee infantry, reserve cavalry, etc.
· Always pick your army according the climate. Don’t bring heavily armoured troops into a desert battle, etc.
· Always buy valour to your fighting troops to avoid the „my soldiers did not fight” syndrome. Morale is the most important part of the battle; valour 0 troops run too easily.
· Always pick a good general, usually an elite troop with high base morale (for example: chivalric knights, Ghulam cavalry)

NOT TO DO’S
· Never flame your allies or your opponents. Even if he/she picked a wrong army, made a wrong move, was routed off quickly, etc.
· Never leave alone your allies. An ally worth more than any hill or nice terrain feature.
· Never stay put. Don’t be afraid to move.
· Never rush in the first 5 seconds of the game. Always take your time to survey the deployment of the opposing armies and that of your allies.
· Never put your money in a few “überunits” (for example, v3 or v4 chivalric knights). Try to spread your investment evenly amongst your melee units.
· Never buy an army composed of only one unit type (i.e. only infantry, only cavalry, etc.). Under most of the circumstances a mixed army of ranged units, melee infantry and cavalry out performs any of the one-unit type armies.
· Never buy siege engines like Mangonels, ballista, etc.
· Never lead the attack with your general.
· Never attack one by one, attack in groups.
· Never chase a cavalry with your spear units.
· Never focus your attention on one unit. Try to rotate your attention between the different parts of your army as frequently as you can. Keep an eye on the unit icons. There should be no idle units.

5.3 Modding the missile units.
DISCLAIMER: You mod your game at your own risk – if something goes wrong don’t blame me. I have given these instructions according to what I did with my own game so they should be accurate, however this does not give you the right to blame if you mess up. If something does go wrong you should be able to use your back up file (which I tell you to create before you do anything) to repair everything, if that doesn’t work come to the org and ask one of the many modders for help. END DISCLAIMER.

Since my old link to a topic on this broke I’ve written this appendix to replace it. This section is intended to be a simple guide to modding the missile unit to make them more accurate, deadly and generally more useful. It only covers altering the projectilestats file so you won’t find out how to add new units or anything complex like that, try the org’s Dungeon if you want to do that.

Firstly you will need to download the Gnome editor from the org, you can find it here. The file is called Gnome editor V2.0 by Lord Gnome. Secondly you will need either the Viking Invasion add-on or the 1.1 MTW patch – if you don’t have one of these you will not be able to mod the projectilestats file. Before you start you should create a backup of the unaltered projectilestats file in case you mess up or wish to revert back to the original. To do this go to your MTW main directory and look for a text file labelled PROJECTILESTATS, it looks just like this example. Right click on it, select copy and then right click on your desktop (or in another file away from MTW and the editor) and select paste. Voila, one backup!

Now you are ready to begin so install the gnome editor and start it up. Click on Load file on the bottom bar. Then choose PROJECTILESTATS from the list and click OK. The projectilestats file will now open and you will see a long list of each type of projectile (e.g. shortbow, longbow) along with its various statistics. I will now walk you through altering the longbow to be more accurate.

- Locate longbow on the far left hand list (it’s number 2), now look across it’s statistics until you find the column headed ‘accuracy’ (column 6) and click on the box. This will highlight the boxes containing the words longbow and accuracy so you can check that you have the right statistic selected. As you can see longbows have a default accuracy of 0.6, it is very important that you do not alter these numbers too drastically as you can make missile units so deadly they make every other unit obsolete and ruin game balance so badly you won’t want to play. Never take an accuracy stat up to whole numbers, even 0.90 is far too much for serious gameplay.

- Now that you have the longbows accuracy selected all you need to do is edit the numbers in the same way you would edit text. For this example hit backspace once to delete the 6, you should leave the number at 0. for now. We want longbows to be slightly more accurate so type 78 in to replace the 6, the final result should look like this 0.78 and that’s it, you are done! Simple wasn’t it?

- Now to save your work, click on save file as on the bottom tool bar and type in a name in the save as box. Make sure to call it something different to the default files and your back ups or you will overwrite them and put yourself in a bad position. I recommend calling the file beginner mod so you know what it is, I shall refer to this file as beginner mod from now on for ease of reference.

- Installing your mod is just as easy. First copy beginner mod to your desktop using the same method you used to create the back up at the start of this guide. Now right click on your copy and choose rename, you should call it PROJECTILESTATS – exactly the same as this, capitals and all or else it will not work. After renaming the file right click on it and select cut, now open up your MTW main directory and select paste when you are in the same folder as the original PROJECTILESTATS file. Right click in the folder and select paste, if you have named your mod correctly and you are putting it in the correct location you should be asked if you want to overwrite a file with this name that is already in that location. Choose yes. Now all you have to do is test your mod, so load up the game and try out your unit. If you feel the accuracy still needs tweaking you can come back to the editor, open up your original beginners mod file (this is why you created a copy before installing the mod) and edit away. Editing other missile units is exactly the same as editing the longbows so you can play with their accuracy too, don’t touch any of the other statistics apart from accuracy as they are too advanced to fiddle with in this guide. If you want to alter range etc take a look at the projectilestats topic in the orgs dungeon here

frogbeastegg’s recommended accuracy stats
The following list is the accuracy stats I use in my frogmod, they are better than the defaults but at the same time they do not make the missile units over powered. All of the missile units retain their original uses and none of them become obsolete when you get access to newer units so gunpowder has a use but it does not replace crossbow types or normal bow types. I DID NOT WRITE THE GUIDE BASED AROUND A MODDED GAME so don’t worry about any of the advice being wrong.

Longbow 0.73 (Used only by Longbowmen)
Shortbow 0.62 (Used by most normal archers)
MountedLongbow 0.58 (Used by all mounted archers)
Arquebus 0.30
Handgun 0.10
Ninjastar 0.50 (Not used in the game so I left it)
Javelin 0.15
Grenade 0.03
Crossbow 0.68 (Used by infantry x-bows and mounted x-bows)
Arbalest 0.75

I haven’t modded any of the siege engines or castle defences as they function nicely in the defaults.

frogbeastegg’s other missile related mods
I altered some of the other missile unit stats as well here’s a list. You edit them in the same way you edited the accuracy stats so if you want to make your game match mine….

Javelin = Range to 2500 (This enables the AI to use javelins effectively while keeping their short range.)
Crossbow = Reload to 10 (This gives them a slight advantage over arbalesters giving them a purpose)

5.4 Unit size chart
This chart shows how many men there are in each type of unit on each of the unit size settings in MTW.

On small size: Bodyguards 20 cavalry 20 infantry 30 spears 50
On default size: Bodyguards 20 cavalry 40 infantry 60 spears 100
On medium size: Bodyguards 20 cavalry 53 infantry 80 spears 133
On large unit size: Bodyguards 33 cavalry 66 infantry 100 spears 166
On huge unit size: Bodyguards 40 cavalry 80 infantry 120 spears 200

5.5 Cheat codes and command lines
These are included for reference; sometimes cheating is the best way to test out ideas if you are short of time. It can also be fun, not all cheats make your game easier.

Cheat codes must be entered exactly as they appear here - including the full stop before and after the code. You must enter them on the campaign map screen.

Cheat codes
.worksundays. = fast build mode. Must have all your build queues empty for this to work.
.badgerbunny. = all buildings and units are available. You can still only build the units relevant to your faction, even though you appear to have all types available.
.deadringer. = gives 1 million florins
.conan. = take control of the rebels
.matteosartori. = reveal the whole map
.viagra. = puts iron in all your provinces
.mefoundsomeau. = puts gold in all your provinces
.mefoundsomeag. = puts silver in all your provinces
.mefoundsomecu. = puts copper in all your provinces
.kidsmode. = makes the AI very easy
.nuttermode. = makes the AI aggressive
.unfreeze. = produces an heir for your faction. The heir will be born as you hit ‘end turn’.

command lines for MTW
These are not exactly cheats; instead you add them to your MTW or VI shortcut. Right click on your shortcut, and then choose properties. In the target box you should see something like:
"F:\Program Files\Total War\Medieval - Total War\Medieval_TW.exe"
if you have plain MTW or
"F:\Program Files\Total War\Medieval - Total War\Medieval_TW.exe" –strictserver
if you have both MTW and VI. To add a shortcut you must leave one space after the “ mark, then enter the command line. To use multiple command lines just leave a space between each one and remember to include the – at the start of each successive line. Choose to save your changes and exit the properties box. Then start the game with the shortcut.

-ian - debug mode, runs in a smaller screen, you can move the camera about more in the battle maps to get close up views, you can disable the AI or switch factions using the number keys. The A key allows you to put the game on auto run.

-loyalty:X - sets the auto tax to maintain X loyalty where X is the number you want. Always use more than 100 at the very minimum unless you want a lot of rebellions. I recommend 120 for a reliable income and reasonably reliable loyalty or 180 to maintain very high loyalty and rarely see a rebellion.

-strictserver – a multiplayer related command that is on by default for all VI installations. Just leave it alone.

-green_generals – for VI only. When a general dies his replacement won’t be identical to him in stats, vices and virtues. Instead the new man will be slightly weaker.

6. Credits.
In alphabetical order:
adi for some suggestions.
Apache for some suggestions.
Celtlan for some suggestions.
Cheetah for loan of his armies and suggestions, also for the multiplayer section.
Gregoshi for pinning the entrance hall version of this guide.
Inigo Montoya for pointing out the need for a guide like this, and some suggestions. Inigo also edited pictures 2, 3, 7, and 8.
jaggy for some suggestions.
jaren for some suggestions.
Kristaps for some suggestions.
Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe for some suggestions.
Ludens for some suggestions.
magnatz for pointing out open office.
Monk for some suggestions.
motorhead for some suggestions.
Old Bald Guy for some suggestions.
o_loompah for some suggestions.
Pdifolco for some suggestions.
pdoan8 for supplying the list of hotkeys.
Quokka for some suggestions.
RabTheRab for posting the unit dismount guide and saving me hours of research.
Razor1952 for some suggestions.
Simon Appleton for pointing out an error and some suggestions.
Swordsmasterfor some suggestions.
TosaInu for increasing the size of this topic so I could add in a lot more information. He also provided the host for the pictures (along with the org), and encoded the HTML version of this guide.
Total War.org for hosting this whole thing.
WarHawk1953 for some suggestions.
Yoko Kono for some suggestions.