Medieval Madness Tactics and Strategies

[ParallaxScroll]

A forum member asked about my Medieval Madness strategy, and I saw we didn't have a general MM strategy thread here yet. This is more of a quick overview of what I do rather than a detailed breakdown of the table, but I figure it can serve as a starting point for more detailed strategy discussion. So here's my basic gameplan when I start a new game:

1. Light trolls
2. Get 2 troll bombs (for battle for the kingdom mode later)
3. Light peasant, damsel, catapult, and joust madness
4. Shoot merlin to start 4 multiballs + trolls
5. Defeat the trolls, which starts the 5th multiball
6. Keep hitting the trolls until "master of trolls" is lit (10 hits)
7. Play the multiball madness, focusing on damsel and joust shots - this keeps the balls in the jet bumpers and builds your bonus multiplier
8. When multiball madness is done, play royal madness
9. Light the rest of the lights needed for battle for the kingdom
10. Complete battle for the kingdom using the 2 troll bombs you got earlier

And repeat!

Does anyone here go with a different strategy?

 

[Carl Spiby]

How do you know how many troll bombs you have at any given time?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

It's in the status report.

 

[Bride of Trolls]

I didn't played MM for some weeks, but is there no troll bomb bug on x-box360?

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/761-Troll-bombs-used-automatically

 

[superballs]

I've been able to use any troll bombs i accrue on demand.

A good way to accumulate troll bombs is to try and bounce the ball off of the troll targets into the castle lock. You either hit the target and nothing, lock a ball or actually get the troll bomb from the bounce.

 

[squidburns]

That's a good strategy. Never thought about keeping the troll bombs until Battle for the Kimgdom. Any tips on getting Video Mode? I know when you hold the flipper up when the ball returns on the left it (usually) bounces into the left return lane... Any other thoughts?

 

[ParallaxScroll]

Any tips on getting Video Mode? I know when you hold the flipper up when the ball returns on the left it (usually) bounces into the left return lane... Any other thoughts?

The catapult always sends the ball to the left inlane, so use the flipper buttons to make sure that lane is unlit whenever you make a catapult shot.

A good way to accumulate troll bombs is to try and bounce the ball off of the troll targets into the castle lock. You either hit the target and nothing, lock a ball or actually get the troll bomb from the bounce.

Yep, that's what I do. It's also a pretty safe shot; there's not much risk of it bouncing off something into the drain.

 

[twotontim]

Yep, that's what I do. It's also a pretty safe shot; there's not much risk of it bouncing off something into the drain.

Where do you shoot for on the trolls when you're trying to get into the castle lock? Are you going from the right flipper and trying a glancing shot, or left flipper and bouncing it off the right troll?

I've never managed to pull off either, and don't know which one (if either) should work with practice.

 

[Richard B]

I use a different strategy:
1. Lower the drawbirdge
2. Start Castle multiball
3. During Castle multiball, make occasional shots on the gate, then castle.
4. Pretty much the same strategy as the first post from here on, except I keep re-activating CMB as often as I can (especially once the drawbridge is down). Castles are the hardest objective, while the other shots you'll likely get over the normal course of the game.

 

[ParallaxScroll]

Where do you shoot for on the trolls when you're trying to get into the castle lock? Are you going from the right flipper and trying a glancing shot, or left flipper and bouncing it off the right troll?

I've never managed to pull off either, and don't know which one (if either) should work with practice.

I just aim straight for the castle lock from the right flipper. Make that shot enough times and it'll brush past the yellow target eventually.

 

[twotontim]

I just aim straight for the castle lock from the right flipper. Make that shot enough times and it'll brush past the yellow target eventually.

Oh, for lighting Trolls? Totally.

I guess I misphrased my question, and meant to ask about Troll Bombs. When you're explicitly trying to earn a Troll Bomb, how does the shot work? Where do you aim? Which bounces work most reliably?

 

[ParallaxScroll]

Oh, for lighting Trolls? Totally.

I guess I misphrased my question, and meant to ask about Troll Bombs. When you're explicitly trying to earn a Troll Bomb, how does the shot work? Where do you aim? Which bounces work most reliably?

You can get troll bombs the same way you light trolls. When they're already lit, just hit the yellow standup target 8 more times.

If you're talking about troll combos, those are nice to get but I don't specifically try for them.

 

[thejake01]

At the beginning I go for two castles to light extra ball. Start Castle Multiball to collect extra ball if trolls are already lit. Then I do ParallaxScroll’s list.

I wouldn’t use the list until you get more comfortable with the shots and action though because otherwise you’ll be stuck at the beginning of every game trying to get your troll bombs/destroying castles and never end up shooting for anything else.

Quick Tips:
1. DROP PASS! Let the ball hit the flipper and go to the other side. You don’t want to hit the ball everytime it comes at you going the speed of light or you’re going to lose it, quick.

2. Trolls! When going for trolls hit them from the opposite flipper (left troll from the right flipper and right troll from the left flipper). In the PHoF version I did it from the same side but in this one, you definitely want to go for the opposite.

To light trolls hit the targets the same way, from the opposite flipper. The castle door strategy is good but it's getting to the point where i hit the castle shot dead on a good majority of the time.

3. Destroying Castles:

a. Hit the door from either flipper
b. Once the drawbridge is lowered:
Left flipper: do-able but dangerous! Ball gets a lot more wild.

Right flipper, I can do this all day:
Example:
1. Use right flipper to hit gate
2. Ball comes back to right flipper
3. Let it bounce to the left flipper and go up the left inlane. Can look and feel dangerous sometimes but has proven very safe in my experience
4. Hold the left flipper and let it roll back on over to the right flipper
5. Cradle on the right flipper
6. Repeat until you destroy the castle


4. Video Mode:
a. Stay in the middle as much as possible don’t veer off to the extreme left or right.
b. REMEMBER: You get one “bird bomb” during video mode, if a bird gets a child and is out of reach, use it.

5. Castle Hurry Ups
a. If you can make your shots best time to do it is when Royal Madness is lit, especially if you’re only a couple-few away from lighting the extra ball at 10


6. Holding the flipper to pass
a. Do it! If you hit peasant for example, hold the left flipper up, trap on right, hit peasant again (you can do the same for Damsel too). Helps to practice shots and slow the ball down because this game is FAST!
b. Bounce pass up the inline as described in the destroying castles section too whenever the ball is going too fast. I do it all the time.

Copy/Paste from word formatting didn't translate and got a bit messy but hopefully you get it

 

[Jutter]

Here's the PAPA tutorial for Medieval Madness in 3 parts
(score at the end of the demonstration: 88,902,520)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYXTJNAJFy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab6xvydL-pE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoU6d85s9UE

Me? I just try to destroy as many castles as possible. There's room to grow, because I haven't gotten further than four castles sofar, so I'll stick to getting better at that before I tacticly branch out.

 

[Bonzo]

Here's a link to the same video, but on the original pinball.org site. I read a comment by Bowen Kerins somewhere on pinball.org that said he'd appreciate if people watched the videos there.

http://pinball.org/videos/tutorials/medieval-madness/

 

[Fungi]

Jutter, don't look now, but I think there's an evil clown following you.

 

[ScotchYeti]

I played MM a lot recently and finally won the "Battle for the Kingdom", which is one of the most satisfying experiences in pinball.

The best strategy for points is, as already pointed out, destroying castles. Shoot some ramps now and then to get closer to the BftK and to make it more exciting. If you can reach or even complete this mode then you are in for some big points.

- Castle Multiball can be useful if you are able to reach the "Treasure Room". Pay attention when only 2 balls are left, it's easier to make controlled shots with just two so calm down and take your time. You earn good points (30M+) and an extra ball.
- Royal Madness, when completed, earns you an extra ball and decent points. Personally my drain rate is 50% when I play this mode but I usually risk it anyway.
- Barnyard Multiball is mostly for fun, it's usually not worth much

When I went for the video mode I mostly shot the Peasant and the Damsel ramps and had lots of Hurry Ups. Even if you stack them, the total amount of points is only mediocre so I can't recommend a strategy based on ramp shots.

Nudging is rather easy on the PS3 so the castle is not the target of death as it is in real life. Also, if the ball doesn't make it up the peasant ramp you have to be prepared to nudge (e.g. two light nudges to the left).

 

[Slam23]

I have played a lot MM lately (pushing my score just right over 1B yesterday). A lot of stuff is already covered, here are some things that worked for me, with a newfound appreciation of the Castle Lock Shot:

- If you get proficient with the castle lock shot, you have an excellent strategy for the castles as pointed out already above by Richard while scoring nice points along with it. What is not mentioned in the TPA rules is that you can get an extra ball every time from this mode, only after the first time, you have to complete all stages. TPA rules state that there is only one extra ball to be had, right after hitting the first Super Jackpot. I found this out when I played a game with probably 20-25 Castle Multiballs (after a while I could hit all six lock shots in succession from the right flipper, even rolling shots sometimes), of which I probably completed 2 or 3 through all stages. To my amazement, it lit extra ball again! This is confirmed here: http://pinball.org/rules/medievalmadness.html (scroll down to Castle Multiball). So I actually had 2-3 extra balls for that game.
- You can minimize the risk of playing Royal Madness by doing the following: only start this mode when you have a lowered drawbridge but closed grate. Shoot the first ball straight up between the trolls, if you hit them at the side, no problem, that's what you're aiming for, but even when it's a clean shot, chances are that if the ball returns after hitting the castle, it wil trickle back between the trolls and often hit them both. If you control the ball (which is not hard because the ricochet between the trolls will put it at a safe angle to one of the flippers) and are proficient with the castle lock shot, you can get all the jackpots from that shot. Just do a deadpass from left to right when the ball returns from the lock area and shoot again. I have completed Royal Madness in this way 2-3 times in one long game, without draining.

So to sum up the plus points from playing a lot of Castle Multiball:
- it scores nicely as independent mode, in one game I had the Super Jackpots up to 3.000.000 each. It also put you over 28M quite quickly, earning an easy replay extra ball.
- it give an opportunity to safely hit the castle, helping with the Castle Crusher progression. You can even collect lit Hurry-ups at the start of this mode.
- it can provide a theoretical limitless number of extra balls, but it's not so easy to complete every time (if you succeed btw, jackpots go up with 250.000 for the Knight shots, and 500.000 for the supers)
- the bonus multiplier will go up because a lot of balls end up in the bumper area, especially after reaching the Super Jackpot stage because balls then get feed right into the bumper area from the Dragon/Damsel ramp (as is the case with the Madness Multiballs)
- I also activated it a lot because it's a really good way to collect other lit extra balls too, without activating anything else, i.e.Merlin's Magic (which you can easily spoil on lowering the drawbridge or destroying the gate), and especially Madness multiballs that you don't want to start already because of stacking purposes
- and lastly, just hitting that Castle Lock shot that often gives a lot of useful practice and this helps with hitting it more often in other (Madness) multiballs where you can score the Double Super Jackpots. It is also one of the Battle Jackpots in Battle for the Kingdom. If you miss the shot to the right, you get a free hit to a Troll target, just beware of the rubber post to the left (part of the Peasant ramp) because that can send the ball SDTM at a dangerous speed.

When I apply the things above to my favorite start to the game:
- I start with destroying the first castle as is, if I drain then I start a new game
- I start destroying the second castle up until the grate, then I hit all three Castle locks to start Castle multiball, I destroy the 2nd castle and collect extra ball
- I finish Castle multiball hopefully with a Super Jackpot and collect the extra ball from that, or I start the multiball again (then it's six shots)
- At this point, I probably also got the extra ball from scoring 28M plus
This leaves me with 3 extra balls to really start the game. From there on out, I can choose to destroy more castles whilst playing Castle Multiball, and collecting even more extra balls if I complete the Super Jackpot stages. This is actually my preffered strategy. Or I start building up on the Madness Multiball progression with shooting ramps, loops and the catapult area. The only really hard part after that, is stacking all Madness Multiballs and completing the Trolls in one go.
I still have to win the video mode (thanks for the advice, didn't know about the bird bomb and positioning) and I have to win BFTK, getting really close the last time I got there!
Awesome table....
Slam23

PS I took my own advice today and upped my best score to just under 1.7B. Played BFTK 3 times and still did not complete it. Also 2 video games, also no,win.

 

[oqvist]

How do you activate troll and bird bombs and what is it for?

As for strategy I have no luck at all hitting trolls on opposite flipper. Sure way to drain. I generally just aim for the castle from the right flipper when I got the damn trolls (hate them) tend to hit them enough times doing that anyway and it appears to be quite safe.

I realized I will never complete the wizard goals. 4 to go and they are all impossible. How do you avoid never ever hitting merlin magic before you collected all side missions???? Seems you get no second chance to relit them all.

Another thing that is annoying I spend all the time destroying all the castles. But what happens when you defeat them all??? Absolutely nothing?

 

[vikingerik]

Troll bombs are collected in a few ways. 1. Complete the troll standup targets 8 more times before starting Trolls!. 2. Shoot a troll -> Merlin's or troll -> lock ricochet combo during Trolls!. 3. Random award from Merlin's Magic.

The Multiball Madness rounds can be relit only once you've lit them all and played Royal Madness. It is not easy to avoid hitting Merlin's too early, which is a serious sore point of table design and I seriously dislike MM for this.

Completing all the castles qualifies for the Castle Crusher task, which is a component of Battle for the Kingdom but doesn't do anything else on its own until you complete all five other BFTK tasks too.