Originally developed by
The Creative Assembly
Developed for Mac by
Feral Interactive Limited
Published for Mac by
Feral Interactive Limited
This document is intended to help you answer any questions that you may have about Medieval II: Total War™
Higher system requirements for the v1.1.2 update are needed to resolve an ongoing issue in macOS 14. This means that macOS versions prior to macOS 14, as well as some older graphics cards, are no longer supported.
If you are no longer able to play the game after updating to v1.1.2, roll back to the prior version as follows:
Launch Steam.
Right click the game in your Steam Library.
In the dropdown that appears, select Properties.
In the new window that appears, select the Betas tab.
In the Betas tab, click the dropdown and select mac_1.1.1 - macOS 13 or Intel GPUs only.
The game will update.
Once the update is completed you will be playing v1.1.1, which is the version that you were playing before update v1.1.2.
Note: If you are using macOS 14, you will still experience stability issues in v1.1.1 when a video plays in the game. To work around this, you must delete non-gameplay critical videos from the game's data by following the steps below:
Launch Steam.
Right click the game in your Steam Library.
In the dropdown that appears, select Properties.
In the new window that appears, select Installed Files → Browse.
In the Finder window that appears, navigate to Medieval2Data → localised → en → data → fmv → event.
Delete all of the video files from this folder by dragging them to the Trash.
Now, in the same Finder window, navigate to Medieval2Data → localised → en → data → fmv → faction.
Delete all of the video files from this folder by dragging them to the Trash.
Launch the game. The pre-game Options window will appear.
Select the Support tab, then select Open Preferences Folder. A new Finder window will appear. Before continuing, close the pre-game Options window.
In the newly opened Finder window, look for a folder named cache. Delete this folder by dragging it to the Trash.
Relaunch the game.
The game should now run without issue, though without non-gameplay critical videos.
If you have purchased Medieval II: Total War Collection, you already own the Kingdoms expansion.
Otherwise, you can purchase the expansion from its page on the Steam store:
Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms
Playing Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms
The Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms expansion contains four new campaigns that can be played in either single-player or “hotseat” multiplayer mode:
Each campaign also includes a number of new scenario battles and maps for custom battles.
Once you have purchased Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, a dialog will appear each time you launch Medieval II: Total War, giving you the opportunity to select whether you want to play the base game or one of the Kingdoms campaigns.
A glitch sometimes occurs during the campaign tutorial that makes it impossible to order Rufus to board the fleet when your advisor tells you to do so.
If this occurs, move the fleet back and forth along the small stretch of coastline south of William the Conqueror's location, until it has run out of movement points. You can then end the turn by clicking on the highlighted hourglass icon.
Once the new turn begins, you will be able to order Rufus to board the fleet.
How you play a multiplayer custom battle on Steam differs depending on whether you want to host a battle or join one.
To host:
From the Main Menu, select Multiplayer.
Select Online Battles.
The Lobby will appear. Select Host Game.
The Host Game screen will appear, from which you can adjust the game setup. Enter a game name, then select Custom Battle.
The Choose Conditions screen will appear, on which you can adjust the battle's settings, including choosing a map. When you're ready to proceed, click on the Next button.
The Customise Battle screen will appear, on which you can select your faction and team. When you're ready to proceed, click on the Next button.
The Select Units screen will appear, on which you can add units to your army. When you're ready to proceed, click on the Next button.
The Player Waiting screen will appear. When all the players are ready, the battle will begin.
To join:
From the Main Menu, select Multiplayer.
Select Online Battles.
The Lobby will appear. In the list of available games, highlight the one you want to join, then click on the Join Game button.
The Customise Battle screen will appear, on which you can select your faction and team. When you're ready to proceed, click on the Next button.
The Select Units screen will appear, on which you can add units to your army. When you're ready to proceed, click on the Next button.
The Player Waiting screen will appear. When all the players are ready, the battle will begin.
How you play a multiplayer scenario on Steam differs depending on whether you want to host a battle or join one.
To host:
From the Main Menu, select Multiplayer.
Select Online Battles.
The Lobby will appear. Select Host Game.
The Host Game screen will appear, on which you can adjust the game setup. Enter a game name, then select Scenarios.
The Select Army screen will appear. Select the army you want to use, then select Start.
The Player Waiting screen will appear. When all the players are ready, the battle will begin.
To join:
From the Main Menu, select Multiplayer.
Select Online Battles.
The Lobby will appear. In the list of available games, highlight the one you want to join, then click on the Join Game button.
The Select Army screen will appear. Select the army you want to use, then select Start.
The Player Waiting screen will appear. When all the players are ready, the battle will begin.
Yes.
However, you must first enable the secondary click function on your mouse or trackpad. This will enable you to perform a right-click by clicking the right-hand side of your mouse or trackpad.
To do this, follow these instructions:
Open System Preferences ( Menu → System Preferences).
Select Mouse or Trackpad (depending on which you are using).
Select the Point & Click tab.
Check the Secondary Click checkbox.
Finger "gestures", which are used by Magic Mice and Trackpads to switch between windows and applications, can disrupt your game if used inadvertently.
To disable them, follow these instructions:
Open System Preferences ( Menu → System Preferences).
Click on Mouse or Trackpad (depending on which you are using).
Select the More Gestures tab.
Uncheck all the checkboxes.
Recent versions of OS X include a feature that makes the mouse pointer larger when you shake it quickly from side to side, helping you to locate its position on screen.
To turn this feature off, follow the steps below:
Open System Preferences ( Menu → System Preferences).
Select Accessibility.
Select Display → Pointer.
Disable the Shake Mouse Pointer to Locate checkbox.
The dock or notifications may occasionally appear while you are playing Medieval II: Total War, or the desktop cursor may replace the game cursor. This can disrupt a game.
You can prevent them from occurring by checking the Hide the Dock (disables notifications) checkbox in the Medieval II: Total War pre-game Options window. To do so, follow these steps:
From the Medieval II: Total War pre-game Options window, select the Display tab.
Check the Hide the Dock (disables notifications) checkbox.
Yes.
To run Medieval II: Total War in windowed mode, follow these instructions:
From the Medieval II: Total War pre-game Options window, select the Display tab.
Check the Run in a window checkbox.
Click the Play button. The game will start in windowed mode.
NOTE: Enabling windowed mode may decrease the game's performance.
Yes.
If you have a Retina display, you will be able to take advantage of the extra pixels by running Medieval II: Total War in native resolution. This means that the game will display one pixel for every pixel on your display.
To do this, follow these instructions:
From the Medieval II: Total War pre-game Options window, select the Display tab.
Select the largest resolution from the Resolution drop-down menu to play the game in native Retina resolution.
Click the Play button. The game will start in native Retina resolution.
NOTE: In many cases, increasing your game's resolution will impact upon its performance.
Short Apple keyboards do not have Home (↖), End (↘), Page Up (⇞), Page Down (⇟) or Delete (⌦) keys.
In order to use game commands that are mapped to these keys, you will need to use the Function (fn) key as follows:
Home (↖) = Function (fn) key + Left Arrow (◀) key
End (↘) = Function (fn) key + Right Arrow (▶) key
Page Up (⇞) = Function (fn) key + Up Arrow (▲) key
Page Down (⇟) = Function (fn) key + Down Arrow (▼) key
Delete (⌦) = Function (fn) key + Backspace (←) key
By default, macOS uses the F keys to control items such as volume and brightness. To use an F key for a game command hold down the fn key, then press the F key you wish to use.
To automatically enable the F keys, follow these steps (depending on the version of macOS you are running):
Open System Settings ( Menu → System Settings).
Click on Keyboard.
Select the Keyboard Shortcuts button (macOS Ventura).
Click on Function Keys (macOS Ventura).
Turn on Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.
The F keys will now work without using the fn key.
By default, music playing in iTunes will be paused when you start playing Medieval II: Total War.
To turn this feature off, follow the steps below:
Double-click on the Medieval II: Total War application icon. The pre-game Options window will appear.
Select the Extras tab.
Uncheck the Pause iTunes while playing Medieval II: Total War checkbox.
Select the Play button to start playing.
To turn this feature back on at a later date, simply check the Pause iTunes while playing Medieval II: Total War checkbox and then select the Play button.
Your saved games are stored in your game's preferences folder.
To open this folder, click the Open Preferences Folder button in the Support tab of the pre-game Options window.
To take screenshots while playing Medieval II: Total War you should use the following key command:
Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + P
When you press all three keys at once, a single image of the on-screen contents will be saved in the Feral Interactive folder in your computer's ~/Pictures folder (the "~" symbol refers to your home directory).
The JPEG image contains metadata in a string in the following format.
GameName/Version Number (OS Version; CPU Speed; Installed RAM; Video RAM; Current Graphics Card)
For example in Medieval II: Total War the string might look a little like this:
Medieval II Total War/1.0 (macOS 10.15; 3.0; 8.0; 4.0; AMD Radeon R9 M395X)
This information can be easily removed by exporting the screenshot into a different format using Preview or another image editing tool.
NOTE: None of the metadata stored can be used to identify the user.
No. Medieval II: Total War has been tested with the basic formatting option for Mac OS X, which is HFS+. This system is not case-sensitive and identifies files by name without checking capitalization.
The capitalization of filenames is not consistent throughout the game. While this will not always prevent the game from running on case-sensitive file systems, it may lead to crashes and other unpredictable behaviour.
If you have to run a case-sensitive setup and you experience problems with Medieval II: Total War, please install the game on a standard formatted partition or read/write disk image. In most cases this will allow you to play the game on your machine.
There are several factors which have an impact on the speed at which Medieval II: Total War runs. Please see the Medieval II: Total War Performance Tips section in the ReadMe for ways to increase the speed at which the game runs on your computer.
Please read the technical support information in the ReadMe; this tells you what to check and if necessary, how to contact Feral Technical Support with your issue.