Favorite Faction?

[MaximiIian]

im new, so i dont know if this has been discussed to death.
but, anyway:

which faction in MTW or VI is your favorite to play.
for me, its either the HRE or Scotland.

[Lee1026]

Italy of course - they have good troops in every single catagory. Gothic Knights rock, and so do Italian Inf and they have everything that other catholics have i.e. pikes and crossbow. and their location is awe inspiring for trading.

[barbarion horde]

The Golden Horde, their cavalry is incredible

[MaximiIian]

yeah, yeah, the horde is alright.
i whupped thier asses as russia, but they were hard to take down.

i once played as italy, and i conquered the germans, the hungarians, the poles, the danes, the papists, and sicily. i pwned all of entral europe. then the turks and alomahads who had taken western and eastern europe, respectively, allied and jihaded me.
******-ers attacked me on two fronts, and whittled me down to rome. there, the pope returned an rebelled, after who the hell knows how many years, and promptlu outnumbered and whupped me. three-on-one!!

[general maximus decimus]

The almohads, english or byzantines. But I usually only play like 200 years, so I don't really get to use the late era units.

[Justinian]

Any small, "underdog" faction, like Aragon or Sicily.

[Harðurāðaz]

Danes,Italians

Turks and Hungarians

[Hanno the Navigator]

The Turks. Underdogs at first, r0x0rs from the High period on. Or the Almohads, but they became too easy to play for me soon with their awesome militia. Can't say I like the Christian factions at all, with their over-eager cavalry. I'm a cavalry dude, so riders charging without orders tend to ruin my battle plans.

I remember that one battle where I eliminated an English crusade near Trabzon with the Turks while outnumbered 5:1. I had massive losses, but my lines held and the crusaders were scattered and all but wiped out. It all came down to my favorite unit, the Turcoman Cavalry: time after time I had them smashing the Crusader's flanks , then retreating after they brought up their spear-armed troops in defence and peppering these with arrows. I really love these dudes, employed correctly they are perhaps the most superior unit in M:TW, as they have the means to take on any other unit: enough melee strength to rule over light cavalry and light infantry, sweet bows that can deal with the heavier troops or spearmen and all the speed needed to evade knights. Pinning a unit of knights with spearmen, then hitting them from the back with Turcoman Cavalry will usually cause all but the most experienced or elite knights to retreat or even rout.

That being said, I tend to win defenses against much worse odds in R:TW than in M:TW. In Medieval, I could most times consider the game lost when the enemy had 3:1 or better superiority, while in Rome, I win defensive battles against a 9:1 or even worse superiority more often than not. I guess that's because in Rome, the diversity of units is so much higher and because cavalry/chariot archers can fire on the move, giving them a badass advantage. In a battle between mounted archer-armies in R:TW, you need superiority in numbers and/or quality to win, as these guys simply let themselves not get caught usually. Cowardly? Maybe. Mean? For sure. But history is written by the winners.

[I_dunno]

I like the English or the French.

[MaximiIian]

if ya like playing an underdog faction, just select one of your provinces, and type ".conan."
you'll automatically turn into the rebel factions.
now, THAT is one big-****** underdog.

[mbrasher1]

For me, in XL mod (much better campaign AI than vanilla), the Germans, Spanish or Turks. I agree that Turcoman horse rox.

On battle odds, I believe that the MTW battle AI is superior to that in RTW. Fight a few battles and see. in RTW, you can advance and hold, peppering the AI with missiles. It will not react by charging you or moving into woods or otherwise disrupting your attack. So my battlefield tactic is to advance all my units; hold within missile range; use all my missiles; advance on the flanks.

RTW is frankly, boring to me. The SP is not challenging and the AI bites. MTW's AI can actually deal you blows. Battlefield-wise, it is better dealing with missiles. Campaign-wise, the XL mod keeps the AI factions competitive longer.

[MaximiIian]

yep.
once i was fighting the english who had occupied france. i had 800 troops coming in, all pretty ****** good units. the english carrison was eight troops. not eight units. eight troops total. they had about 5-7 valour per person.
i god massacred, we only killed one guy.
'course, i didnt command it personally...
but, day-ammm!!
i got my ****** whupped.

[Rutilius Rufus]

Well take a little consolation in the fact that they will end up in the looney bin when they tell that story to their friends. Hehehe

[MaximiIian]

heh.
anyway....

H.R.E is my utmost favorite to use.
Deutschland Uber Alles, baby! :cool

[DragonMaster]

Intalians, Russians and THOSE ROCKIN-KICK-AR**ES English! oh yeah

once i was playing whit them, and started war whit françe, i received the warning, after 3 years i was excumonitated and that pope started a crusade against me, well, i figthed to the death, whit Germans and Spanish persuing my newly aquired territorys in françe.

i remenber my biggest figth, it was in that campaig, i lost, but i destruyed most of the German crusade to my OFFICIAL army (the biggest one, i usally make one or two in M:TW and in R:TW) destroy them. oh infantery in front, cavalary hided and ready to attack the rear, and the king and the archers behind the infantary, GermanKiller:total war! sorry Hapsburg, i dont know if your Doutch, but...

[Hoglerdanske]

The Byzantines, HRE, Denmark (national pride i guess :rolleyes ) and the Turks!

[Adrian Laguna]

Italians - Insane amounts of trade money (untill your empire gets too big anyway), and some very decent troops. I always end up conquering most of the world with armies consisting of: 6 Italian Infantry, 6 Chilvaric Men-at-Arms, 2 Arbalesters, and 2 Heavy Cavalry. By the time I get Gothic Sergeants and Gothic Knights, any other world powers that might have formed are utterly screwed.

Turks - Awsome troops, armies consisting of Futawa, Gazi Infantry, Saracen Infantry, Turkoman Horse, and Armenian (later Gulam) Cavalry are you bread and butter world conquering troops. For the end game when there is ussually just you, two half-dead minor players, and another big supper power (why can't Rome ever be like that?), you get Jannisary Heavy Infantry, Futawa (I don't train Jannisary Infantry since I can't train them at the same time as JHI) Kwarziam Cavalry, and Siphai de la Porte. These heavy-weights can really tear holes through the enemy.

Danes - Nothing impressive in for the mid-game, or the late-game. However, the early-game advantage given by Vikings and Longboats is incredible. Plus, if you get Scotland and Ireland early the advantage increasses thanks to Highland Clansmen and Gallowglasses. By the time all those units are obsolete one can easily be Lord and Master of Russia, the British Isles, half of the Iberian Peninsula, parts of Egypt, and most of Europe's Northern Coast.

[sponge_bob]

spain
spanish jinetes do so well in the early game i can take all of almoha empire + most of france in the early game at VH thank to those fearsome warrior

:lol so much good time playing this game i dont know why i stop i get more fun playing mtw then rtw

[dashidash]

the egyptians were always great for me, they have medium-type units in the beginning, and their strenght really lies in numbers. ally yourself with the turks and byzantines, then have fun crushin the almohads. as far as catholic factions go, i'm a fan of the spanish. they have a weak position at first, but their knights are awesome. plus, they get inquisitors earlier than anyone else, so you can have alot of fun wiping out your enemies' generals and they can't do a thing to stop you (except of course...kill the inqusitor)

[Fiachdubh]

In VI the Irish, at first the lack of archers drove me mad but once learned to use the Kerns, Dartmen and Bonnochts they are just great fun, VI in generall just seems more brutal and dirty then main campaigns. In the original campaigns Im looking forward to playing as the Hospitallers or Crusaders once Ive finished the early era XL with the Irish. Far more enjoyable then Rome.