Medieval II cheats

Overview

To enter cheats, first open the console by hitting the ~ key, or the @ key on some keyboards, or the ò key on italian keyboards, or the ñ key on Spanish keyboards, or the ö key on German keyboards. Then you can enter any of the cheats listed in the sections below.

A note on multiword names:

If you need to specify the name of a city, character, etc. that is more than one word then you have to put quotes around it. Use this for characters who have a surname. However, if the character has a preposition in his or her name, such as; "of", "von", "ah", etc... (the preposition is always lower-cased and before the name of a city, region, or country), then you must enter the character's name in the cheat like this, for example, give_trait "Dietrich von_Saxony" <trait name>. Make sure the name is properly spelled and capitalized.

If a character has a first and a last name as well as a name of a city, region or country, you must put an underscore between the first and last name, then a space, and then the second portion. For example: 'Mael Brigde mac Broccin' must translate to 'Mael_Brigde mac_Broccin'.

However, sometimes the game will forget there needs to be an underscore (especially during the first turn), or even if the character has a last name or hails from a certain area, such as a character who gains a title for a last name. If this happens, either save and load to reset, or wait until the next turn. For instance, if Dietrich von Saxony gained a title after his first name, and lost the "von Saxony" part, then next turn, or the next time you reload, all you should have to enter is give_trait "Dietrich" <trait name>. If the character's name contains a dash, be sure to include it. Names such as "Muhammad Al-Mustansir" will work, because of the dash, so don't worry about those. No matter what the character's name is, it is possible to enter the name in a cheat. Just make sure you use the "".

Another simple way to give a character trait is to bring the character out of the city, then highlighting the character card and just type give_trait this <trait name>. It only works when the character is not located in a city or fort.

Strategic map cheats

• add_money <amount>

E.g., add_money 40000. This will give you that much money. The maximum possible you can get from this is 40,000 at a time, but you can enter it many times. Try pressing the "arrow up" to enter the last entry so if you type Enter, Arrow Up, Enter, Arrow Up etc. you have a lot of cash without much typing.

• add_population <city name> <amount>

E.g., add_population London 3000. Adds the specified population (limit is 4000). Negative amounts of population can also be 'added' to raise public order, e.g., add_population London -3000.

• auto_win "attacker/defender" make sure to put the one you want or you could acceidentally destroy a good portion of your army. May result in "draw".

Wins the next automated battle.

• kill_character <character name>

Kills the respective character. May not work.

• process_cq <city name>

E.g., process_cq London. Finish building every building in the construction queue of the city. You still have to pay for the buildings.

• show_cursorstat

Not really a cheat but useful for modding, and moving around characters faster, if you use the move_character cheat. Gives co-ordinates (in x,y, form) and region name of the location under your cursor.

• move_character z,x,y

E.g., move_character Anselm,197,94, Very useful for assassination and emissary missions. Lets you instantly transport a character (z) to any valid point on the map. Use the show_cursorstat cheat to get the x and y coordinates. There are no spaces between the commas.

• toggle_fow

Turns the normal Fog of War on or off depending on initial state. Do be aware that if you have the Fog of War off, and decide to end your turn, then it will take a lot longer to get to your next turn, because the movements of every character on the map will be shown and waited for.

• toggle_terrain

Not really a cheat but useful for modding, displays the information from map_regions, climates, groundtypes and features files overlayed on strategic map. See this post for details.

• create_unit <desired general or settlement> <desired unit's name> <number of units (1-5)> <experience level (1-9)> <armor level (1-3)> <weapon level (1-3)>

E.g., create_unit Jerusalem "Knights Templar" 5 9 3 3. You now have 5 Knights Templar with 9 experience and level 3 weapons and armor in Jerusalem. A note from experience, some unit names are different. Like for instance, if you want Retinue Longbowmen, you have to enter "Dismounted Longbowmen". All names can be found in the "export_descr_buildings" file, under the buildings where you would normally recruit them. See also Medieval II Unit IDs.

• give_trait <character name> <desired trait name> <desired trait level (1-5)>

Incredibly useful, allows you to give any trait to any character in your faction. E.g. give_trait Rufus Fertile 3. This will grant him the "Prolific" trait, and so he will have four kids in no time. The traits can all be found in "export _descr_character_traits" file, which is incredibly long.

• give_ancillary <desired character> "<desired ancillary>"

E.g., give_ancillary Tostig "assassins_blade". The ancillary must be in quotes and lowercase.

• character_reset <character name>

E.g, character_reset Richard. Resets that character's movement points, can be very useful.

Unit creation cheats

These are all basically Timurid or Mongol units, which are devastating on the battlefield. You can use them against the Timurids or the Mongols to even the odds.

Elephant Units

• madras - Elephants, plain no-frills elephants, have archers on their backs, and can stomp, not as fun as the next two can be.
• rogan - Elephant Artillery, elephants armed with cannons, a lot less vulnerable than normal cannons, because they can stomp anyone that tries to attack them
• vindaloo - Elephant Rocketeer, elephants armed with Rocket Launchers, as the in-game description says, they are devestating to say the least. Incredibly fun for blowing apart a grand army or majestic city. Just like all elephant units, can stomp anyone that gets past the rockets, or hasn't run for his life fast enough.

Be aware, the elephants can run amok if they get too spooked, try to keep them from being attacked with arrows, especially flaming ones, and make sure they don't shoot each other. If you ever played as Carthage, Seleucids or Parthia in Rome: TW you know how bad that can be.

Artillery Units

• houston - Mercenary Rocket Launcher - Blasts away anyone unlucky enough to be in their way. The rockets are a bit inaccurate.
• george - Mercenary Monster Ribault, fires about 30 guns on a rack, can be devastating with the right placement.
• istanbul - Mercenary Monster Bombard, the big ol' gun at the end of the intro video. Fires a half-ton cannonball that looks really cool. Will blast a massive hole through an enemy wall with one shot (two for the strongest). You could try using it against an army, but it only has about 20 shots, and is meant for bigger targets.

Remember that unlike elephants, these units are vulnerable to cavalry, so make sure to keep them protected.

Battle map cheats

• jericho - Breaches the walls of the city during a siege.Hardly ever works.

Tips

To make a better chance at calling a crusade send a diplomat to the Pope and give him a gift, then call the crusade.

References

• GameFaqs - Medieval II: Total War Cheats - Medieval II
• Total War Codes - Medieval II Total War Secrets [1]