Factions in Medieval 2

Overview

There are twenty two different factions in Medieval II: Total War, twenty one that have 'national' identities and one rebel faction.

The feel of each faction in the game is different. The degree of difficulty of the game is greatly influenced by the starting position of each faction. Each faction has its own unique appearance, including differences to the type and appearance of units it can recruit. Each faction has its own set of character names.

Further differences such as accents are leaders portraits are effected by which culture the faction belongs to.

Gameplay elements are effected by which religion a faction belongs to.

Playable Factions

Of the 22 factions in the Medieval II main campaign. Five are playable from the start:

England

France

Holy Roman Empire

Republic of Venice

Spain

A further twelve can be unlocked by either defeating them individually during the campaign or by winning a campaign overall. (See table below for full list)

Five factions appear in the game but remain as unplayable:

the Mongols and Timurids which emerge after the start

the Aztec Empire which doesn't come into play until America is 'discovered'

the Papal States who have a degree of control over the other factions

the rebels or slave faction.

Adjusting the .cfg file manually allows all factions to be unlocked, though some remain impractical to play.

Culture and Religion

The possible cultures a faction can belong to:

• Northern European
• Eastern European
• Southern European
• Middle Eastern
• Greek
• Mesoamerican

The possible religions a faction can belong to:

• Catholic
• Orthodox
• Islam
• Heretic
• Pagan

Assignment

List of factions from Medieval 2: Total War with culture, religion and playable status.
Information taken from descr_sm_factions.txt and descr_strat.txt:

Sortable Factions List

Faction Name	Culture	Religion	Playable
England	Northern European	Catholic	Yes
France	Northern European	Catholic	Yes
Holy Roman Empire	Northern European	Catholic	Yes
Spain	Southern European	Catholic	Yes
Venice	Southern European	Catholic	Yes
Sicily	Southern European	Catholic	Unlockable
Milan	Southern European	Catholic	Unlockable
Scotland	Northern European	Catholic	Unlockable
Byzantium	Greek	Orthodox	Unlockable
Russia	Eastern European	Orthodox	Unlockable
Moors	Middle Eastern	Islam	Unlockable
Turks	Middle Eastern	Islam	Unlockable
Egypt	Middle Eastern	Islam	Unlockable
Denmark	Northern European	Catholic	Unlockable
Portugal	Southern European	Catholic	Unlockable
Hungary	Eastern European	Catholic	Unlockable
Papal States	Southern European	Catholic	No
Aztecs	Mesoamerican	Pagan	No
Mongols	Middle Eastern	Islam	No
Timurids	Middle Eastern	Islam	No
Slave	Northern European	Heretic	No

Slots for the normans and saxons also exist but they are not fully set up in the vanilla game.

Please add any information you can to factions which presently contain little.

See Also

• Medieval 2 Factions Category
• How to Unlock All Factions In Medieval II
• Rome: Total War Factions