Using the Cheat Codes in Medieval Total War Vanilla Edition

[Artorius]

Medieval Total War is eminently winnable WITHOUT the cheat codes. It is one of the fairest games in the Total War franchise series. One can win as any faction in any era without any of the cheat codes.

Having said that, there are cheat codes available for those who wish to utilize them. The game in cheat code mode is actually much different. It is accelerated, builds are much faster, and you end up building far more advanced units much more quickly than in the vanilla game. It's just a far different game.

So here goes:

the "cheats" are very precise in Medieval Total War, and have to be entered a certain way.

First, when you load a pre-existing game, or start a new game, enter the following codes, with the earphones on;

1) .deadringer - you should hear the jingle of money, and you will see 1,000,000 florins of money. You should do this one after every turn is saved and completed and your treasury is depleted.

2) .matteosartori - do this once at the beginning, and only once. You will hear a sound and then the Fog of War will be lifted and you will be able to see the entire board.

3) .worksundays - do this once, and only once. You will hear a sound and then all construction will be accelerated so that all buildings will be constructed in just one turn. Importantly, you must have enough funds to complete the construction.

4) At this point, stop entering cheats, but first save your progress and then return to the game in the event of any crash, and and then cycle thru your territories to see what units you can build. In addition to being able to build territories in one turn, .worksundays allows units to be built in one turn as well. Thus ships and two turn build war units can be built in one turn, assuming you have the requisite funds. So order all builds. Do not do your territory builds yet.

5) if it is a new game, be sure to assign all titles and to check that civil order is 115% or higher in all territories. 100% or less will trigger rebellion. You may have to shift armies around. Also, don't forget to move fleets around. Set all taxes on very low, you don't need money. This will keep civil order high. Be sure taxes are manual and not on automanage.

5) Now, you need to do the territory build cheats. save, then return.

6) enter .badgerbunny just once. you will hear a sound. Now you will see all possible construction units and all possible arms units.

7) hit .viagra, then .mefoundsomecu, then .mefoundsomeag, then .mefoundsomeau -- this will give all provinces gold, silver, copper etc. so you can build a metalsmith as well as an armourer in every province. As you conquer new provinces, you may need to repeat this one periodically.

8) save and re-enter the game.

9) building - the first issue is civil order - build in this order - If there is no fort, build a fort. Then, Watchtower. You can skip the initial watchtower build and go to the advanced one. If there is an existing fort of any kind, start with watchtower. so builds will go;
a) small fort (if none)
b) watchtower
c) most advanced civil guard civil militia (not town guard, but the most advanced build) - increases civil order)
d) build fortress (20 year build but only one year in this setup) increases civil order
e) a port if it is a coastal province

10) units - after you build the civil guard, you should be able to build urban militia. After you build the port, you can build the most advanced ship building facilities and eventually build ship units, Galleys in the South, Carracks in the North.

11) You want to bribe using agents as much as possible. If you can't build any units, you can build emissaries in the two open turns until the guard facilities are built.

12) It is essential to control the oceans. Build fleets as quickly as possible and control the seas. This is first defensive to prevent convoy attacks, and eventually offensive to facilitate quick movement of troops.

13) Some cities are better than others - Constantinople, Venice, Lithuania, Kiev, all are coastal territories with excellent trade. Also, the islands are excellent to take over and make into ship factories.

14) avoid war on two fronts. If you are playing the Germans, Byzantines, French, Polish etc. be careful of this.

15) Make treaties and alliances. Honor them. Only make war against one enemy at a time, and destroy the one enemy before going after a second. Be careful who you attack. If you are a Catholic faction, do not attack Catholic faction. If you are an Orthodox or Catholic faction, attack Muslim or Pagan factions. Religion is a huge factor in this game.

16) If you start a war, finish it. Carthago delenda est. Show no mercy.

17) There is one other cheat we can discuss--if you wish to play as the rebel faction, at any point in any game, enter .conan--and you will become the rebels. The rebels cannot build boats, but they can build emissaries and everything else. It's educational to play a game as the rebels.

18) There are many more points to note, but if you play with the cheats in place, the game is very much accelerated, and you need to study faction specific guides for help. Nonetheless, you cannot outpace the civil order of your provinces--you cannot advance faster than the time it takes for a newly conquered province to rise up to an ideal civil order rate of 200%.

Artorius, July 2017

--Artorius

[redraven]

The cheats do make the game run faster though. I like that. :)