Games Provide a Healthy Dose of History

Religion Plays a Major Role in ‘Medieval II’

BY THOMAS L. MCDONALD

April 26-May 2, 2009 Issue | Posted 4/17/09 at 6:01 AM

Although “empire-building” strategy games almost always include some element of faith, they rarely explore the subject in any depth.

One of the few exceptions is the “Total War” series, a sophisticated line of historical games for the PC.

Begun 10 years ago by The Creative Assembly, “Total War” games have tackled the Roman Empire in “Rome,” the Middle Ages in “Medieval” and “Medieval II,” Sengoku Japan (roughly the 15th through 17th centuries) in “Shogun,” and now the 18th century, with its world-spanning empires, colonization and revolutions, in the latest entry, “Empire.”

The hallmark of the “Total War” series is its two levels of play. At the highest grand-strategic level, you control conquest, diplomacy, construction, economics, taxation, education and the other engines of civilization across a vast map in turn-based play. This is a deliberative, intricate system designed to simulate the elements, nations and personalities that shaped history.

For “Empire,” this means building up colonies and then riding out the upheavals of revolution as people throw off the bonds of monarchy.

The second level comes into play during battles, as the game zooms into a real-time, lavishly detailed 3-D tactical battlefield game. These are huge encounters featuring thousands of riflemen, musketeers, cavalry and artillery fighting over detailed landscapes or laying siege to enclosed fortifications and cities.

The camera can zoom all the way back to see the entire battlefield or right down to ground level to see a single man. There’s great attention to detail, with realistic tactics, leaders, weapons and uniforms.

To emphasize the importance of navies in this age of sail, real-time naval battles are also included for the first time in the “Total War” series.

Religion is still a factor in “Empire,” but it’s not the all-pervasive element it was in the last “Total War” game, “Medieval II.” In “Empire,” the historical religion of your nation or leader generally determines whether your people are mostly Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Hindu or Muslim. If you conquer a region with a different dominant religion, you’ll have trouble controlling it at first — until you level the holy buildings, replace them with those of your own faith, and send out priests or imams to convert the people and combat heresy.

For a more complex handling of religion in history, gamers should take a look at “Medieval II,” which remains a beautiful, cutting-edge piece of software. (Since “Empire: Total War” is designed for advanced computers, users might find “Medieval II” runs better on their PCs.)

In “Medieval II,” religion plays a dominant role in all the actions and decisions of empire, for both Catholic and Muslim nations. As designer Dan Toose remarked, “A strategy game in a medieval setting that doesn’t consider matters of faith would be taking away some of the greatest challenges rulers of the time faced: how to be seen as an angel as you conquer like a devil.”

The main religions of “Medieval II” are Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim. Paganism is on the decline, and heresy represents outbreaks of opposition to the dominant religions. Heresy is a force of chaos in the game and must be dealt with by the tools of the time: trials and assassination.

If heretics are allowed too free a hand in your realm, you can expect a visit from the Inquisition. Once the inquisitors start looking for heretics, they often find them in high places, perhaps even among your family members and generals, with executions quick to follow.

Although, in reality, executions by the Inquisition were far fewer than the popular imagination would have you believe, it’s an effective way for the game to eliminate key people from your empire as a punishment for failing to pay attention to faith.

Since, historically, heresy was the root of a great deal of civil unrest in the time period covered, it’s an important part of simulating the tangled politics of the Middle Ages.

The Church and the pope figure large in “Medieval II.” Priests help keep heresy down, and if they are in a major church (such as a cathedral), they emerge as bishops. If a priest is particularly pious, he may be chosen by the Church to fill one of the seats in the sacred College of Cardinals.

A cardinal develops a unique personality, with various traits emerging that might make him papabile (called “preferati” in the game) at the next conclave. Generally, only the three most pious cardinals are in the “running” for pope.

If your faction has a cardinal in the college, it will be able to vote in the election and haggle with other nations for their votes. If things get particularly cutthroat, a faction might even choose to assassinate a “preferati” to make way for its chosen candidate.

A friendly pope is an important factor in “Medieval II.” Catholic nations cannot attack each other with impunity. They need approval from the Church or their leaders (you) risk excommunication. An excommunicated leader is very unpopular among both his people and other nations, and he can count on a hard fight to stay in power.

Additionally, only the pope can approve a crusade, which brings with it certain bonuses and benefits. Taken together, these elements offer a remarkably complex recreation of Church history and politics.

Although the “Total War” games carry a Teen rating for alcohol and tobacco references, some mild language, and battlefield blood and violence, they are not gratuitously graphic or offensive games. All of the “Total War” games are permeated with a healthy dose of history (real names and events common), making them excellent teaching tools.

Granted, it is possible, in theory, to assassinate a pope or even wield undue control over the Church, but one need look no further than the Avignon papacy to see that such things were sadly possible at the time.

Thomas L. McDonald is

editor-at-large of Games magazine and a catechist in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.

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