Faction Choosing

[stevieshae]

So I know to some veteran players, this may sound stupid, but I have not yet found a action to stick with past 60-90 turns. For example I like the units of the roman empires(Good Armour, clean, strategic)(However 2 years of Latin in high school kinda gave me some background knowledge)) So for the most part I like to be able to distinguish my troops. I like to be able to tell which men are fighting for me, not a ghetto of men. Don't get me wrong The longabeards have me going the furthest, but the play style is more interesting. So can someone in plain an easy detail, for a noob like me, explain what factions I might want to inquire more on?

[Cayo_Julio_Cesar]

Well.

Romans are extremely hard, both of them. well more Tedious than hard actually, the WRE is just masochistic and the ERE is actually almost as hard because the Sassanids are stronger than both romes together because they have no corruption and many puppets, so they can literary field 20 stacks against you every 5 turns or so.

I had a fun campaign as the Ostrogoths, but still most of the campaign was defending against everyone, the AI is really aggresive on this game, and corruption punish expansion alot, so there's nothing much you can do but turtle and grow slowly , which means defending against infinite stacks.

I'd say try any of the great migrators , you can have a nice campaign there, don't try the romans unless you are a veteran or ahve the patience to play literary 1000 manual battles in a single campaign.

[stevieshae]

Thanks cayo, what about the sannids? i have heard they are pretty laid back and you can stack units?

[Crouchy23232323]

As above, I am enjoying a campaign as the Ostrogoths. Access to the migration mechanic, a decent roster and the kicker for me being - if you take a Romanised settlement with Roman buildings which troops can be levied from, you have access to those troops. So your unit variety is good, both Ostrogothic and Roman.

Your starting position is right in-between the WRE and the ERE, I decided to settle straight away, and explore the migration mechanic on another play through and I'm really enjoying it. Non-aggression pacts and trade agreements with factions to the North, already fought off 5 doom stacks of Huns, (they ran away but will be back), at war with both the ERE and WRE, have expanded to Ravenna and now have my sights on taking Italia. The Alans have created a buffer between me and the ERE for the most part but my next move will be to deal with the liberated Macedonians who I am also not on friendly terms with and either make them a tributary state or raze their territory. Probably the former as it will act as another buffer state while I deal with the WRE.

I couldn't recommend this faction enough. (The only one I have played campaign as though!!). It costs a LOT to convert a City/Town's main building (first in the tile) - usually 7-9000 so spending some time sacking, looting and building up some bank prior to settling may be a wise move.

Whatever faction you choose have fun!

[diamutene]

Franks. Balanced(good infantry and cavalry) army i think. Go Gaul and build Francia.

[C.Maximus]

Sassanids are a cake walk, I played a good 40 turns of them to get a handle on the new features (religion, crazy amounts of food, governors, family... ect) but got pretty bored with them as my clients were just curve stomping everyone who even vaguely threatened me. I decided to try my old BI favorite faction and dove into the Saxons. I did not like the holding they started with so what I did was relocate to GB by abandoning the settlement and doing a mass invasion of GB (I hit a little more north then the Saxon's did historically but oh well... I attacked in summer so it worked out) Anyways... I am doing pretty well right now holding all of GB and having the Franks, Gauls, Jutes, and Alans as my Clients and I just started spanning my kingdom to the mainland.

I really like this new system, crafting my kingdom in GB I like assigning governors and sort of planting the seeds of feudalism. I renamed my cities to old Saxon names and am starting the age of kings like in history (though I did slaughter the Scots, Irish and Welsh >.>)

All my nomad campaigns ended in me being chased to all ends of the world by huge barbarian alliances.... and I have yet to try the Romans....

[C.Maximus]

Here is a really old.. really old (maybe 80 turns back from now) look at my Saxon campaign.... Love being able to re-locate homes.. VH VH

[stevieshae]

Wow you guys gave me a lot more help than I thought. I am more interested in heavily armored units, I have been playing sassids with radious mod + units mod, and I have had some fun, however, you do not get the "beast mode" units until a few upgrades, than, like you said, you curve stomp everything. Maybe il give the OS a try.

[krigalo]

Just FYI, its called curb stomp, not curve stomp. (Don't look it up if your squeamish)

[the_mango55]

Sassanids are super boring to play.

My current ERE game is a lot of fun, if you can save up your money as the ERE you won't ever have to worry about money again because they make 5% of their treasury every turn as interest. So if you have 200,000 in the treasury, you will get 10,000 extra every turn on top of what you get from taxes and trade.

[stevieshae]

my phone tends to auto correct things it wants to?

[Viva Espana!]

Man, I still haven't had a war with the Sassanids as ERE. Granted, my standard policy has been to pump a big ol' army into Edessa or Antioch and then deal with barbarian hordes, and marry any eastern princesses I can. But still. Nothin'.

[Lugotorix]

I've had fun as the Ostrogoths for the reasons already stated, and of course enduring, which is a task on Hard, and the Langobards and Vandals. Franks are fun also if you want an advanced roster. Next stop, ERE.

[Arimahn]

Here's my two cents on some of the factions:

WRE: Hard but manageable with a variety of tactics. The base units are rather boring and sometimes outclassed by more specialized barbarian units like axemen but the buildings are much better, so their economy will be stronger. I HATE managing large empires though so I avoid playing them too much.

ERE: See above. Has the best cavalry unit in the game (Tagmata) and the 5% interest can snowball into a state where money becomes irrelevant. Again, huge empire and tedious to manage so I avoid them for the most part.

Franks: Probably the most balanced roster in the game right now. Their infantry is varied and solid, Germanic archers are among the best in the game, obviously they get Frankish Lancers and such plus Germanic melee cav is also very good. Lots of directions to expand towards. Make friends with the Romans, beat up barbs. Beat up the Romans, become friends with your fellow Germans. Your choice.

Northmen: Terrible starting units, so-so roster later on. Jutes are probably the best with their huscarls. Geats are great in winter but their effect can be copied easily via army traditions. Danes are probably the most boring of the three. Overall very similar to the Germans but with less options all-around. Pretty meh.

[stevieshae]

Thats my issue with ERE, I like handling the big armies but with Radious you loose so much money, but I like the added units from radious, so is that worth the trade off?

[Generaal Van Heutsz]

I'm playing as the franks because in most tw games the dutch are not represented except as a rebel province and I like to play with my own peoples but otherwise I would have chosen one of the great migrators, since they introduce a new unique feature to the tw series

[Bramborough]

Others have already mentioned Ostrogoths, just adding my 2 cents in support of that faction. Worth mentioning; even if you don't keep captured Roman buildings and go with an all-barb settlement build, Ostros still retain access to a few Roman units. Comitatensis Spears are nothing special, but they're not garbage either, and are slightly cheaper than the comparable Germanic Spears. Ostrogoth barb-settlement garrisons, moreover, still provide Roman melee-infantry units (Cohors, Legio, etc), although they're not recruitable into field armies. These provide some pretty tough defense; have managed a couple of times to fend off a full 20-unit Hun stack with garrison only, in a Level II minor settlement. A testudo'd Legio unit at the top of a ramp can hold off the hordes for a long time.

In first campaign, I also liked the Saxon infantry roster once I got up in to mid-tiers. Although they're not one of the Viking Forefather factions, Saxons are extremely similar, with a Nordic (rather than Germanic) unit structure. As Arimahn mentioned, starting options are lackluster, but with upgrades, Saxons get some good units. The mid-tier Hearth Guards are good (not great) on their own merits...but are excellent for the upkeep price; probably the best "value-for-money" unit I've yet encountered. The Saxons' Achilles Heel lies in longer-range missile infantry; while they field a varied selection of quality javelin units, they do not have access to upgraded archers, and no crossbows at all.

[SharpEyed]

well good to see some ppl like me, I mean sharing the same option that game is mostly boring and goes with defending.. or easy conquests against Romans. both boring.

I didnt play with much factions tbh (I loaded them,but didnt see worth to play or so), but i liked Geats and Alamans, didnt try Langobards after Alamans because will be pretty similar, same for other Vikings.

Roman Empires will go with defending mostly, or for a while at least, even u have the Radious mod (enemies will make more armies anyway..)

Sassanids, well, u are in the money, but seemed to be boring as well..

Franks and Saxons could be, but again will be similar to other Germanic factions

Waiting for a playable African or Britain factions yet, but I dont think they will bring much joy anyway..

[HippieGunner34]

I can give info on the tow campaigns I have played, WRE and the Alans. WRE is tough, lots of battles like plenty have mentioned. You have to do it though to whittle down those stacks and then strike out with your own. I just hit Attila's birth, 20 turns in. The best thing you can do is decide early on where your core is going to be, and focus on that economically.

As for my alans campaign, that one has been super fun. I kept one horde behind to settle in Sarmatia and another to Spain. The whole thing has been an entirely unique TW experience.

Whoever you play as I recommend lots of ambushes and night fighting. You can really whittle down some stacks and get more fights that are one stack vs one stack.

[craziii]

the most interesting campaign has to be the huns. your job is to roam the campaign map and be a pain in the butt to everyone else, you can never settle down be evil! a completely new way of playing the game. the fact that ca added horde buildings = one of the most brilliant gameplay ideas ever.

this is actually an even bigger change than sea landings on the battle map.

the new huns gameplay requires some learning