Historical Inaccuracies in Medieval II

Overview

Various criticisms about Historical Inaccuracies have been made about Medieval 2: Total War.

Whilst the game is obviously designed around a historical setting, certain compromises were made to balance good game play versus total historical realism.

Main points of criticism:

• Certain Cities with wrong names for start date.
• Incorrect Faction Leaders for start date for certain Factions
• Incorrect Faction Name or city occupancy for start date.
• Geographical inaccuracies such as city placement or faction placement.
• Full plate armour shown for generals when it wasn't available till later in period.

In some cases the reasons why the game would not be designed for total historic accuracy can be easily imagined, for example:

The name "Budapest" is used for one city when in fact the settlement there was three separate cities (Buda, Óbuda and Pest) until quite recently.

Three separate cities would not fit on the map properly in terms of game play and Budapest is the name most players would be familiar with.

Generally speaking the inaccuracies seem to be aimed at including factions, characters and place names that the non-historical minded player would tend to be more familiar with, rather than those strictly present at the start date.

Specific Issues

(this section needs fleshing out)

Mods for Greater Historical Accuracy

As with Rome: Total War the modding community has produced or is in the process of producing many modifications designed to enhance the historical accuracy of the game in some way.

Released mods that deal with specific aspects are:

• Character Names Project - which gives more authentic period names (with proper spellings and accents, etc.)

• Xenophonia - Replaces several factions' speech with their native languages, making them speak e.g. German, French or Italian instead of broken English.

(more mods that deal with specific aspects should be added here)