Hardest Faction to play

[gnhtd]

Minor faction : Crimea khanate / Würtemberg
mayor faction : Prussia / Poland

I can't decide XD

[Tsar Pyotr the Great]

Vanilla- Ottoman Empire
Mod- one of the small European factions or the Mughal Empire

[Oudaaarns]

I only play vanilla so just saying ..

this question depends. do you mean early game difficulty in establishing themselves or end game meeting victory requirements. The answers here seem to mostly point to early game difficulty. Early game difficulty depends on diplomacy which can be different depending on your luck. I'm gonna say the Dutch have the scenario where tons of things can go wrong, not only that but you're the smallest colonial power. Their lack of towns and difficulty in capturing territories with towns handicaps your research and war with france or spain will easily half your overall income.

To top it all off you get an average navy and you are spread thin at the beginning. Ottomans are hard at start too.

End game, assuming you can get there depends on your nation's special units. Maratha easily has the worst army. Not fun trying to get elephants on the enemy with rifles and howitzers ect. then armies with no real advantage like france, Prussia, Russia, UP, US are next. Spain is probably in the middle but I haven't had a fully researched Spanish game yet. Easiest end game is UK, Austria, Ottoman, Sweden. Kind of in that order. If you know how to use each

[Didz]

Glad to see Prussia topping the poll. They pose a significant challenge both geopolitically and economically, which is why I used them as the subject of my beginners guide to playing ETW.

Interesting to see the United Provinces (Dutch) second in the poll. Personally, I never found them that much of a problem, mainly because they have both a powerful opening naval advantage in the 'Fluygt' and a small colonial trade income. The only real challenge was fending the Spanish and French off, in the first few turns. If you are not careful and don't make good use of your fortresses they will snatch Holland and then you are in trouble.

Likewise, the Ottoman's never really gave me a headache. Huge territorial expanses to trade off in order to buy time until you can modernize your army and enemies who normally have too many of their own problems to give you much hassle unless you provoke them.

Surprised Austria, France and Spain are so low in the ratings. Definitely, not the hardest to play but nevertheless each has it's own challenges that I would have thought made them harder than their rating suggests.

Austrian Challenges: No ready access to Atlantic sea ports, therefore trade is a problem. Multiple hostile neighbors, and likely to find itself fighting a two front war very early in the game. Weak and under developed border regions with long travel distances to protect. Weak leadership and government. An unavoidable war early in the game when the Spanish king dies.

French Challenges: A weak and overstretched navy unable to defend it's trade routes and colonial empire. Under developed economy lacking even in a basic road network which hampers trade. A scattered and under developed colonial empire, which merely attracts predators without providing any real income. A useless king and incompetent government. And finally a determination by the game designers to try and force a revolution early in the game that hampers economic improvement and happiness of the population.

Spanish Challenges: A large scattered colonial Empire. Not quite as bad as the French, but still a problem. An under-developed economy, mainly due to the fact that your King is a complete nut-job and has probably been spending all the national income on rosaries and a completely useless government. Possession of Flanders at the start of the game ensures that unless you work really hard to placate everyone you are going to get dragged into a European land war very quickly and probably lose all your trade income. The only way out is to dig in, play for time, try to avoid trouble ,and pray for your king to die as soon as possible. I usually give Flanders away right at the start of the game to France, and let them deal with the flak from the low countries. Likewise, I often sell Florida if I can and concentrate on trying to keep my empire in South America and the Caribbean.

[Goutlard]

Being invaded in VH/VH by Russia that attacks your northern territories, having your trade routes be cut by Morroco and having him prevent you from getting a single fleet outside the Mediterranean, having your Barbary States invaded by Venice and France, England declaring war with no apparent reason, and some turns later landing a major army to conquer Egypt and some regions meanwhile your crappy nearly nonexistent army is mobilized in the Balkans against Austria, Poland and Venice in the north against Russia Georgia Daguestan, in the east against Persia, and in the south fighting to take back the barbary states.. And then to be backstabbed by the unstoppable armies of the Orange Plague that come as the Mongols invaded in Medieval II Total War and struggle to recover from those.

This is how I see difficulty, in VH/VH with an AI mod (otherwise there never is difficulty in Empire Total War...)

[Didz]

But that's just the natural consequence of the diplomatic penalty imposed by the VH campaign difficultly. It would be the same no matter which faction you were playing. Playing on VH campaign difficulty makes the AI behave like an idiot and switches off half the strategy options in the game. Basically it reduces the game to a turn based version of Dawn of War where everyone is out to kill you. Even a one territory state with a one legged grenadier and blind dog will attack you.

[poa]

From my experience, the patched game has a function that makes AI incapable of declare war if i give 'military access',
and auto-resolve impose a difficulty in this game

[English Total War Gamer]

United Provinces for me, if you don't manage your diplomacy correctly you can end up at war with Prussia, Spain and France all in one go. Only starting with 1 region in your home theatre always carries some risks. Spain could be challenging for some in terms of their precarious European situation in Italy and the Netherlands but once you invest in its American Colonies they will generate tonnes of money and from there it's home sailing.

[BlakersVI]

I'm definitely set with Prussia, but the last time I played with France as soon as I began getting close to finishing up my research all of my regions began to fall into chaos and then the French Revolution occured (Even if it was a little early). I think all nations have their moments when they're sort of difficult to play/manage.

[Didz]

Yeah! I get the impression that CA are a bit obsessed with republicanism and the French Revolution seems to be contrived to occur even if it isn't really justified. I don't think I've ever played France and not had at least one revolt. But at the same time I've never had a problem putting the rebels down either.

[poa]

Saxony is my hardest faction, on my 2nd campaign i rage-quit almost at every turn,
i could afford 4 infantry to defend against Hannover & UP armies to the west,
and 10 units to defend against Austrian & Bavarian armies to the south,
those 10 units would also have to fight off Poland as chance would have it,
and was at half strength as i couldn't afford upkeep for full strength.
Not until 1732 when i finally took Austria did i catch my breath and got any measure of income,
but there was only ever 2 turns with a new border before i got yet another enemy or more,
this in spite of playing normal difficulty

[Didz]

Saxony is my hardest faction, on my 2nd campaign i rage-quit almost at every turn,

You must be playing with a mod as Saxony isn't usually a playable faction. It's just a target province for Prussian expansion.

[poa]

yes, i use 'all factions unlocked no FoW' mod as base

[Venomousmonkey]

There was this one time when I was playing as Savoy that Spain and France both declared war on me one turn after I declared it on Genoa. The Papal States (How they're listed in my mod) also declares war on me followed by their ally Venice. It wasn't a save file I like to remember. I always have a tough time keeping France on my good side as Savoy.

That's the most difficulty I've had. But then again, I've never played as Russia for a full campaign or the Ottomans.

[Garion555]

Prussia for me. The age-old "attack something" something strategy can cause some very quick headaches, as trying to take neighbouring territories means attacking big nations or small nations with big friends.

I started with Prussia due to it's easy-to-oversee 2 provinces (as I learnt the game mechanics), but I had to do some significant diplomatic ground work before I even considered attacking Poland-Lithuania and joining my two territories with West Prussia. Got Sweden and Russia on my side so when I attacked, Poland was very quickly fighting battles on multiple fronts.

I have to disagree - the best policy is to knock Poland out of the game within the first 10 turns. I have a slightly different approach to this than the following thread, but in my experience, this SHOULD work too: http://etw.heavengames.com/articles/...ampaign-guide/

I tend to use the extra cash to appease Austria and certainly focus on artillery research, but other than that, I agree almost totally

Hope this helps you and the other people who find Prussia difficult!

[poa]

same as @garion555, i'm getting the impression those who think preussia is difficult are those that turtle,
while those thinking its the easiest faction are those that take advantage of the given plug bayonet and awesome justice minister
to blitz Poland & saxony out of the game within 10 turns.

the only changes i made to that guide was to build an indiaman instead of a sloop since its cheaper upkeep,
and maxed out tax before the blitz so i could add courland to the list of conquer.
Today i would leave courland until they finished the high lv government building tho.

If you want to know the true meaning of misery: try out saxony without giving military access
as i write this i'm actually getting the idea to try that hell again, and this time spend all money on blitzing preussia out right from start

[Scipio236]

Prussia hardest faction to play? It seems to me a good campaign... Also, depends of the pretentions

[Batur Atilla]

You have to be kidding with the Prussia...

It is definitely the Ottomans!

Lets take a look on them (VH/VH)

12 regions, 2 protectorates (one of them holds three regions), 7500 bucks to begin with, handful of trading ports and lots of land neighbors to trade with... seems good, doesn't it?

If only.

They have NOTHING in those regions! + no technologies!

Most cities do not have even basic barracks built, no foundries, there are no roads, no industrial buildings, no farms, no mines (if they are they are just empty spots, or very underdeveloped). The cities are unwalled, except for Istanbul, and there is virtually NO public order, which forces you to have taxes at average most. No colonies too. Oh and CRAPPY government! Pathetic monarch, who gives me -10 on diplomatic relations (new prime minister brought it down to "just" -8) + all ministers get "morally impaired" after few turns and are as good as useless again.

Their units are CRAP! Some weak melee infantry, two kinds of mobs and pathetic isarely musketeers that are the equivalent or worse than the militia of western factions, but you cannot afford them anyway and can only build them in Istanbul. They have no Navy to speak of, where westerners have sixth and fifth rates, you have galleys with like 2 guns aboard. Even an Indiaman could beat them...

And you have such jolly neighbors.. Huge Russia whom you are already in war with, Austria, which has full stacks almost instantly and wages war on you by the 3-4th turn, Persia which attacks you almost instantly too.

Most of my initial funds went to promoting several regiments of generals with bodyguards (800 g each) to repel first Persian invasion, then Austrians started to raid my economic buildings permanently with their blasted pandours which you can get rid of with just artillery or cavalry, but you do not have any of these initially! And there's more! Not only they have line infantry which is better than anything you can get to field, they have 150 men in each regiment instead of the usual 120!

Of course the Crimean Khanate (one of the protectorates) got destroyed like on second or third turn - which gave the Russians access to the Black Sea and I had to give two years income to build few ships to destroy their naval presence, secure ports and dedicate few to permanently raid their port every turn in order for them not to do that again.
And the Barbary states? They do nothing except for fielding cheap galleys and sending them out one by one, then letting themselves eradicated by Morocco!

Next thing you know, the Venetians attack Athens from Morea, you hardly repel them and take Morea in quick counterattack and bam! -6 public order even if you exempt the region from paying taxes => Greek rebellion! I managed to quell it somehow and the blasted Venetians sent a full tack of ships to pirate my trade. Oh, by the way - yes sure I had like dozen trade partners the first turn, but you only get goods from 1/4 of those as rest of the ports of the nations you trade with is either blockaded or raided permanently due to all the petty wars fought all over Europe.. and the rest is further reduced by corsairs from all your sea bounded enemies (which are all). Your Mesopotamia port also gets raided instantly by Persians, who attack over the border regularly. No money to fund industrialization or economic buildings, or farms or roads, because every last penny goes on armies and their retraining after battles. I actually found myself recruiting the mob with pitchforks regularly (and they did the best job overall in the "army")

Once I thought my borders are secure, the Poles conquered Hungary, declared war, another rebellion in Transylvania which I snatched from weakened Austria and suddenly naval invasion by Venetians in Bosnia, full stack of line infantry and artillery out of nowhere on my shore. Had to withdraw my pathetic little border army if I didn't want my ass kicked... then Persians returned again with dervishes and hacked through my poor isarelys like knife through butter (not to mention the isarelys and azzars (something like firelocks) only fire like each tenth bullet in rain and most of them fired miss anyway. If I hadn't built walls around Damascus (at the expense of one years budget..), Mesopotamia would be lost (which is as good as lost anyways since the whole countryside burns.

And I didn't mention the constant sabotages by enemy rakes and religious unrest caused by Austria's catholic missionaries, Russians trying to get by the black sea with just few mobs and isarelys to hold them back and a pathetic income somewhere between 2500 - 4000, which is as if you had nothing when you have to manage 13 regions.. and I did not mention yet the war with Georgia on the east border.. more line infantry scorching my countryside.

While playing the Ottomans, I felt like I was playing Byzantine empire from M2TW.. except on some freakish difficulty when all have top tier units except for you... and they are all armed with firearms (you are not), but hey! you can build few archers in the east, so fear not!

Also I, first time since I started to play ETW, had to actually fight inside non-walled cities using buildings for cover (it is funny how fast they crumble when enemy has few regiments of artillery ). And had to hide between buildings to defend against an enemy superior both in numbers and technology..

And it is just the year 1708! Been playing it like 3 or 4 days!
With vh/vh Prussia it took me maybe couple of hours to get to this year... and it was far easier with their superior land armies and few initial territories to defend while having the same basic funds as Ottomans have for 12 regions (and a larger income than Ottomans have from 6 times the regions Prussia has! )

So yes, Ottomans are the most hard and challenging!

look http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-With-Ottomans

[Sir Adrian]

If you think the Ottomans are bad play Poland or Austria

[poa]

Poland: just swap west with east preussia, ally preussia and dont bother if they declare war on protectorates,
after that its perhaps the easiest of all major factions

Austria: sell Silesia to preussia, sit back and get cannister, pick off attackers as they drop in