What is the strongest nation/faction in Empire Total War?

[I WUB PUGS]

British economy and impossible to conquer them, Prussian Army, but nothing is as horrifying as late game stacks of Marathas. Oh the video game blood I have spilled in India. Stack after stack after stack being sent from Boston/Philadelphia, Britain and whatever I can come up with from India itself to be thrown into the grinder against the Orange Menace.

France normally does okay or the UP knock them out and then Spain will conquer all of Western Europe and then I as Britain have to conquer it all to set the balance back where it needs to be.

Basically Britain has too many advantages but Prussia is king of the battlefield.

[Generaal van Holland]

I think Great Britain. In all my campaigns they grow enormous. In one of my campaigns I play as France and they are my allies, but in the meantime while I was conquering territories in Europe they conquered almost whole of the Americas, except for some Islands and my own territories. They're also the most ruling faction in India in that campaign. They arrived very early in India, took Calcutta and defeated the whole Mughal Empire in 5 turns or something, which I think is quite impressive for an AI.

[EnsignElliott]

In most of my games Britain and France actually do very badly (unless I play as them). The strongest powers always seem to be Spain, the Marathas and Sweden. Spain usually takes North Africa, most of South/Central America and works its way up through Florida and the Mississippi. They also have a very powerful fleet with sqns of Galleons popping up in all theatres. The Marathas take India easily and then move into Turkey and the Balkans. Sweden usually takes out Prussia, the smaller German states and most of Russia.

[Holman]

NAVAL POWER:

very easy question indeed. but there is a different brance of naval power
MASTER OF TRADE: Dutch, Spain (possibly brits also ?)
MASTER OF NAVY : British, France, also Spain(early game)

LAND POWER:

Land power can be vary, depend on a situation, setting, and quality of the troop
but among the most well train troop is the Prussian, British, France.
austrian also have strong troop, but unlike other. austrian have 150 men instead of standard 120s

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

as you can see above, usually the higher the upkeep meant the better is the troop.

ECONOMY POWER:

I don't know much about this but i'll guess the Dutch, due to their massive trading skill (and famous Dutch east indie)

DIPLOMACY POWER:

[megaprime]

Austria; Nothing beats the air riflemen. An army made entirely of them can take on any other army, regardless of it's composition.

Yeah except you can only have two of them

[megaprime]

Sweden is powerful both in game and historically but throughout the campaign you will almost always have some level of trouble with your economy (also historically accurate). Prussia can be the easiest or most annoying campaign with its advantages (especially early in the campaign) but fully useing those advantages to conquer both Poland and Austria (as well as some minor German nations) can come to haunt you as the negative effect of territorial expansion wil make sure you have very few friends, if any, with a nations feelings towards you is at best indifferent. You will not believe how desperate I am in trying to avoid war with other nations, Russia especially.
The Marathas have benefit of have only one real enemy early on (Mughals) who are very weak at the same time. Once India is conquered make trade agreements with as many nations as possible and keep things like plantations well upgraded and watch the treasury overflow with money (It eventually got to the point where I had millions). The main problem for the Marathas is in its armies. They are even weaker than the ottomans. But with all the money the best way to do it is by treating quantity as a quality with armies stacked with bagir infantry. They are pretty good when it comes to artillery with some very heavy artillery like the ottomans, but the Marathas lack howitzers. In short, this is a faction where you will probably be hitting the 'auto-resolve battle' button a lot.
I have yet to seriously play as Great Britton or many other factions that people are saying are the most powerful.

[driecken]

Prussia, hands down. None above and no one even close. They have the best army of them all, they have plenty of expansion options and only two real enemies; Great Britain and Russia. Since the Marathas easily gets strong the can be a threat in the late game, but their lack of advanced infantry tactics and light infantry ensures that Prussia steamrolls them.

I would agree here, if we are talking units Prussia FTW.

I also like to make the world England though, so Britain as well.

[misterwowo]

What is the strongest nation/faction in Empire Total War?

I would say that if you unlock all the faction the easiest is maybe Great Britain and I also played for maratha is also easy and if you unlock all you should play for Persia and Spain.

[The Norseman]

Really? It seems like most of you have only played the huge faction e.g France, Britain, Prussia etc. Have no one ever tried Sweden? The Swedish start-regions such as Finland and Sweden are very prosperous regions and as Sweden you can capture Norway from Denmark after maybe 2 turns, and Norway is an economical powerregion in ETW since it is pretty far away from the mainland Europe so it can build its TWO mines, commercial port, a factory of your choosing and 3 other regions which are usually used for universities, lodges and farms. AND Ingria is also an excellent military region and taking the region east of Ingria usually only takes 2 turns as well. So after 2 turns you already have 6 regions, all of whom are very rich and 5/6 regions have mines so huge income from that. After 2 turns you already match other big nations such as Russia, Prussia, Netherlands, PolandLith. Using the swedish navy you can easily capture Copenhagen after 2 more rounds and peace them. Then you can use your ships to pick of 3-4 prussian regions and offer tech+some payment and they will peace you. blablabla make allies BAM AFTER ONLY 6 turns in you own all of Scandinavia, a bit of russia and all of Prussias regions. From there expansion is a piece of cake. Sweden is one of the best nations imo. It is basically Prussia, only with scandinavian regions.

[poa]

@the norseman: what difficulty are you playing ?

[The Norseman]

VH/VH always!

To be fair the only real difference is when you step up from easy to normal, VH and H are pretty much the same, except for a more tendency to break alliances in VH and a smarter AI that takes advantage when you are at your weakest. Also many people dont understand the power that comes with making big nations your protectorates. Say if for example Berlin is one of Prussias last regions and you have destroyed their armies, all you need to do is to siege it for 1 turn, next turn they will sally out and you will beat them, but let a FEW MEN survive on the Prussian side, so that they only have like 2 units left altogether, then you offer them all your technology, military access (even though it will automatically be given but i think it increases a positive response) and perhaps some money and they become your protectorate and helps you in war no matter what, and with a big region such as berlin they can create a lot of troops and start crushing any enemy, they can pretty much hold of nearly all of western europe for you while you can, as sweden, focus on finishing off Russia!

[poa]

well the reason i ask is
1] vh is very expensive, so how can you afford to take on Preussia in addition of the rest initially ?
and
2] on h/vh, there is no two consecutive turns with a neighbor without a new war,
so: you would then, in addition to being at war with russia, denmark, and preussia,
also find yourself at war with hannover, westphalia, saxony, poland, and last but not least GB,
so how do you fund suppression in addition to multiple fronts ?

[The Norseman]

I usually ally up with the non-Prussian allies so I DONT have to fight on that many fronts, and once ive made either Prussia or one of the german nations my protectorates they usually do most the fighting, and i supplement them with my newly aquired technology so they have the edge over the enemy, Colonial factions such as France and GB usually only have 1-2 stacks on mainland europe and France usually uses its one stack against GB and the last one for any enemies elsewhere, thats because they have to use their money on their colonies because of native american factions and the thirteen colonies etc. GB never really fights at all, they only use ships and block traderoutes etc. which can make a huge impact on your economy, which is why when i plan to make a war make sure to see how much i make from trade and try to build buildings that make me self-sufficient and not so reliant on trade agreements. During war period i usually raise taxes to high and my tech is always focused on economical factors so i get a huge advantage economically. Also you can sell technology for 500-1000 gold PER TECH, how many factions are there in the game? you do the math, i focus a lot on tech because it has huge value as i am always 1-2 turns ahead of everyone tech-wise so i sell them the tech 1-2 turns before they aquire it themselves, and they will still overpay for it even though they are just 1-2 turns away. And if you have say 3 normal techs and 1 rare you can even trade it for some regions, such as a russian region. Alternatively you can sell military access to your land for 250-500 gold per nation, this way I earn thousands of thousands of gold each year. I usually dont need more than 6 line infantry 2 arty and 2 cav units to win against a full stack though, but I always try to make them attack me if possible. If you take out their arty they will attack you because the AI knows you will just camp and shoot at them, which is why i often target their arty first if i am attacking. In some regions which are poor there isnt any use taxing them because you only get about 200 gold from it, so i exempt certain regions from tax and BAM 5-10 turns I can now build a factory and earn 1500 gold per turn instead of 200. Remember that most faction such as Prussia are already at war with France and Poland-Lithuania etc. so I dont have to fight them all at once, they fight between themselves.

There are also a lot more tactical decisions you can do to avoid being fought from all sides, example: In Prussia capture Konigsberg, gdansk and Krakow, then gift Krakow and gdansk to for example Spain, that way Prussia wont be able to attack you because they would have to declare war on Spain to get military access and they usually never do that until like 5 turns, and within that time you will have replenished your troops, retrained, repaired buildings and be ready for another war. Prussia will declare on spain and have to fight the units spain has recruited and their armies are worn down, thats when I attack and destroy them, BAM they have no armies, are at war with Poland-Lithuania, GB, France, Spain, Me and probably Russia and only have 3 regions left and nothing to defend it with. I siege their capital, offer all my tech, a lot of money, military access and demand them to become my protectorate. From there on they will start to rebuild and recruit maybe 2 stacks and defend your western and southern fronts while I can take Moscow. Fighting russia is basically capturing their outposts in the back of the map and giving it to austria or ottoman empire who russia will be declared war against and now they are fighting 3 fronts and are soon dead. On average in the first 10 turns as Sweden I earn about 7000 - 10000 gold which is more than enough to raise 2 stacks.

Also on VH/VH factions arent THAT stupid, if they see you are allied to GB, which is easy for Sweden, they wont attack you. Or you can be allied to Austria, doesnt really matter as long as they are close enough.

[poa]

well, the day wont come when i sell military access, -after the patch, AI is unable to declare war if it has MA,
do you say you ally with Poland ? how is that possible when you are already at war with Russia ?
what does it take to ally GB ?
I also noted duly the terrific tech advantages AI get on vh,
i immediately began infantry research on turn 1, and began faster research tech on turn 4,
......so when my universities finally completed the building that can recruit light dragoons,
-> Russias only school completed the very same building
i dont trust GB for a single second on h/vh myself so this is my final solution on the brit issue
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-opening-moves

[The Norseman]

Well I usually build as many universities as possible to begin with so I do get more tech faster than them... Dont know why it isnt like that for you, if that is true
And allying Poland was just an example, I meant really any nation close to your enemies, and any enemy can be convinced to break alliances if you give them what they want, aka maybe tech, money, mill access and even a region.

[poa]

i'm interested in the specifics in this Sweden campaign: do you ally Poland ?
or do you accept fronts here too ?

the only way i have found not to automatically get into war with poland is by selling off Estland on turn 1,
and no matter how i look at it, getting yet another bunch of fronts by taking East Preussia would bankrupt me,
tho in truth i autoresolve which takes economy difficulty to entirely new heights

[The Norseman]

I have never really had a problem with Poland-Lithuania, as they are usually on the brink of destruction so I usually just do a landgrab then either finish them off, peace them or try to force them into being my protectorate. You can convince poland into breaking the alliance with russia using tech, mill access and maybe some money, though that is something to be done BEFORE you war Russia or one of their allies. Alliance is broken and if you then are hostile to Prussia which they also are, you have a common enemy and the chance for an alliance seems to be higher. I usually have 6-7 units in estland and they wont declare on me. Alternatively you can trade estland for another russian region.

[Didz]

Really? It seems like most of you have only played the huge faction e.g France, Britain, Prussia etc. Have no one ever tried Sweden?

I've played Sweden, it was fun. In fact, I've played full campaigns with every one of the vanilla factions. But I wouldn't have said that Sweden was the strongest nation/faction in Empire Total War, which was the question put above.

[The Norseman]

Top 2 atleast for me. GB and Sweden, depends really, if GB gets the thirteen colonies or you play a mod and you have to take it. Britain is probably the easiest faction to defeat in the game, only need 1 stack for London and 1 for scotland and Ireland. GB dead = all americas regions rebel and you can just send 1 stack to the americas to take them all Inhabitants seem to be more happy to have a real government rule them rather than rebel so they dont riot. Another advantage with sweden is being protestant, so taking over any region in america is easy.

If you want to kill GB even faster you can trade regions for scotland or ireland (never tried this, but enough tech,money, regions should make it possible.