Milan (M2TW Faction)

Milan (M2TW Faction)
Name:	Duchy of Milan
From Game:	Medieval II: Total War
Religion:	Catholic
Culture:	Southern European
Playable:

Overview

Milan is an Italian faction that begins with the cities Milan and Genoa under its control. These homelands are surrounded by mountains to the north and west and the Mediterranean sea to the south, making it relatively secure from surprise attacks from the more powerful Holy Roman Empire to the north or French Kingdom to the west. Its weakness then is the other Italian factions - Venice may be a tempting target for early expansion if marching over mountains to attack powerful factions isn't your idea of fun.

With Venice taken, the Eastern approach into your northern Italian heartlands will be just as secure as to the east and north, and, so long as the faction isn't excommunicated, the Papal States should prevent Sicily from invading from the south, meaning that, thanks to the richness of the northern Italian provinces, Milan will grow into a rich, and therefore powerful empire that is both secure from attack and has lots of options for whom it should unleash its armies on.

Another option (that the AI seams to take a lot) is to push into France early on, due to the french units in the early period being relatively weak.

As with other Italian factions, these armies are likely to be composed of quality militia units and various castle-trained troops to augment the armies, and fill in roles that the militia cannot perform, Bern, north of Milan, is a good target to produce troops for this purpose. The gunpowder selection includes both musketeers and monster ribaults. As a trading faction, ships are of a very high quality.

Unique units

Genoese crossbowmen can be recruited, in both militia and castle-trained variants. These are pavise crossbowmen that can fight in melee if the situation is desperate enough for them, and have a strong defense against other missile attacks. Units men trained in castles are a lot stronger at both shooting and in a melee than the militia trained men. Famiglia Ducale, which are heavy cavalry, can be trained in cities.

In most cases, Milanese battle strategy will be conventional, and focussed on defensive battles, with Genoese crossbowmen, artillery or musketeers skirmishing in front of a line of Italian spear militia, with both dismounted and mounted units on the flanks and a Carrochio standard positioned behind the main line of militia. Milan's obvious weakness is missiles, which are able to cause many casualties against this defensive strategy. Factions with heavier infantry such as dismounted Gothic knights or Janissary heavy infantry can also easily defeat Milanese infantry in melee.

Milan also has a fairly strong cavalry lineup, with Familgia Ducale and Broken Lances in the high and late periods. Though hardly on par with Gothic Knights, they get the job done.

Milan as an Opponent

Milan when controlled by the computer tend to be aggressive and traitorous, and thus should not be trusted, even if allied with them.

Medieval 2: Total War | Factions:
Aztecs | Byzantine Empire | Denmark | Egypt | England | France | Holy Roman Empire | Hungary | Milan | Mongols | Moors | Papal States | Poland | Portugal | Russia | Scotland | Sicily | Spain | Timurids | Turks | Venice | Rebels