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With Thanksgiving break coming up, you have to make sure you're prepared and have all your essentials. I'll be headed to my grandparents' with the family to partake in some delicious Thanksgiving turkey and so forth, and afterwards maybe watch a little football. Unfortunately, that still leaves another three or four days of break unaccounted for. So I figure this would be a perfect time to break out a game that I haven't had time for in awhile and I think deserves a little attention.

This Thanksgiving, I'll be playing Medieval II: Total War, along with its expansion Kingdoms which came out about a year ago and three months ago respectively. For those of you familiar with the Total War series, I'm sure you've at least heard of this one, and if you're a fan, I'm sure it's already part of your collection.

For the rest of you, I'll give a little detail. Medieval II is the last in the Total War series developed by UK company The Creative Assembly. The games take place in various time periods when an entire country or continent is thrown into an epic struggle. Previous games included the Sengoku Jidai period in Japan, The Middle Ages and Crusades, and the rise of the Roman Empire. Medieval II takes another stab at the Middle Ages and even includes the discovery of the Americas.

Medieval II is like two games in one. The first game is much like a game of risk. There is the main campaign map which is made up of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and some of current day Russia. Cities and castles dot the map, allowing you to produce your armies and fuel your economy. Cities serve as economic centers and give you upgrades and technological advances but are hard to defend while castles can have walls up to three deep and produce the best troops in your army, but produce little money to keep your war machine going. Your armies are represented by small playing pieces that you can move each turn. If you're familiar with the game Civilization you have an idea of what the campaign map plays like. The goal, of course, is to take over the map, and that's done through battle. However, when two armies meet, there are no dice rolls or stat comparisons to go through. The map zooms down and you control the battle in real time. You have a wide range of units to use, ranging from the basic infantry and archers to the elite cavalry and cannons, but you only have what you brought with you to the battle. The battlefield looks just like the campaign map does, including any terrain features like rivers, bridges, and mountains. Nearby armies can also engage in the battle and you can have a allies as reinforcements or face off against two opponents.

The expansion adds four new mini campaigns that play out the same as the large campaign, but on smaller maps and with unique factions and units. They include the conquest of England, the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Crusades, and the Teutonic Knights' purification of Lithuania. These new campaigns bring new units and more detailed maps.

What makes Medieval II so good is the realistic and strategic gameplay elements. Unlike other real time strategy games, your troops behave more realistically. If they are outnumbered or taking heavy damage, they will retreat. They won't simply stand up to a cavalry charge or charge into a rain of arrows and cannonballs. There are no magical or fantasy creatures in this game, just gritty swords, bows, catapults and, eventually, primitive gunpowder. Good generals have the ability to increase morale and the overall effectiveness of your troops, but bad ones can cause even the most crack troops to fold under pressure.

Of course, like any game that requires strategy and cunning, the computer opponents can sometimes seem a little stupid. Although the game is a definite improvement over the previous games' AI, there's always some to be desired. Then again, that's why you have multiplayer. Playing a human opponent adds a whole new level of unpredictability to the equation.

The game also does a good job of being historically accurate. Although some things are embellished or altered for the sake of gameplay, the game tries to stay true to the history books.

If you're a hardcore first person shooter fan, this is probably not your cup of tea, but if you have some time and like to develop grand strategies and be an armchair general, give this one a try. If you're like me, you'll find yourself at 1:00 a.m. saying, "just one more turn."

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