As of today, what is the favourite faction of TW players?

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Including all factions, even ones that need to be modded, which is your favourite faction?

[343Hellrazor]

I really like venice they have a powerful starting position if you work fast taking genoa or Milan and Sicily

[misafeco]

1. Venice, 2. Turkey, 3. HRE.

[TheEmperor]

HRE, because of their position on map & units.

[Ventos Mustel]

HRE because Reiters. If Kingdoms factions were included I would have said Ireland

[Beckitz]

Venice because the Caracco standard closely resembles the Great Cross mercenary unit. Truly though I'm just happy to play. ~Bobsy

[The Master of Albion]

Holy Roman Empire is my favourite conquerd all of Europe with them xD, but i also like Spain, Hungary and the Byzantines, about kingdoms i love the Welsh and the Apacheans.

[PontusTookEgypt]

I like England due to their starting position (since once you've taken out Scotland you can can just splurge out from your corner) and because they have some strong infantry and archers.

[Silverheart]

I prefer Venice as my favorite, since they have a very well balanced and varied roster - strong basic militia, with pikes and halberds readily available, and also a nice mix of different heavy infantry, cavalry and missile troops. Even their available artillery is top-notch and with great variation.
Combine that with a starting position that allows for many different kinds of gameplay and routes of expansion, and which can be pretty challenging at times, and you've got a heck of an enjoyable faction to play as, right there

[kael_butcher]

Playing Venice now and enjoying it very much.

[shikaka]

Byzantium and Turks. (voted byz)

Mostly because of the difference in enemies. Byzantium/Turks have an enemy who use horse archers (egypt), an enemy who uses mass militia and crossbowmen (venice), and 1-2 who use lots of knighs (Hungary and Sicily).


To a latter extent this is also true for Poland: they face a steppe army (Russia), a mounted knight+spearmen army (HRE) and the axes of the danes. I also like Poland because of their unique roster (weak spears, fine cavalry, very good auxilia cavalry, rugged/dirty looks)

[FootSoldier]

Russia is my current favourite, and has always been near the top of my list. The reason is the superb horse archers - the best in the game - and the ability to dominate with these from the start.

In the early game Kazaks and Boyar Sons will take down any lumbering heavy infantry army the Danes, Hungarians or Poles can throw at them with minimal casualties. Dismounted Dvor are the best archery unit in the game, and double as heavy infantry if need be. Mid-game an army of Dismounted Dvor can destroy anything, including the Mongols, who tend to show up in this period. They destroy any DFK Hungarian army were you to choose them instead of the horse archers to fight with. At this point you are spoiled for choice.

Dvor are the best mounted archers in the game. Combined with the fast Cossack Cavalry nothing can touch Russia late game. Tsar's Guard are a super tough heavy cavalry unit at this time too. If you can hang on for the Timurids the Boyar Sons make a late comeback as their javelins are the weapon of choice against the Elephant Artillery units. They slice them to pieces. By this time you will also have Cossack Musketeers (second best in the game after the Turk's Janissary Musketeers.) Dismounted Dvor and Cossack Musketeers can simply outshoot the Timurids, and the Musketeers will rapidly send the Elephants amok. By now you are even more spoiled for choice.

That said, I also enjoy Venice, France (for their late game units), the Turks, the Byzantines and the Hungarians. Note the horse archer bias. Sicily has a good mix, too. I'm not really into heavy infantry factions, but the Danes are good early and Spain from mid to late game.

[Granatenwerfer]

I like Poland very much - and England. Basically all factions where archers have sharpened stakes.....an ultimative weapon against all kinds of horse or elephant units (immediate death) :-)

[BatGoat]

I like Poland very much - and England. Basically all factions where archers have sharpened stakes.....an ultimative weapon against all kinds of horse or elephant units (immediate death) :-)

I like those kinds of archers, too. Exploitative, sure... but soooo much fun!

[Granatenwerfer]

I like those kinds of archers, too. Exploitative, sure... but soooo much fun!

Exploitative? Hmmm...........sorry, can't agree. Please don't forget that this archer unit is actually quite weak: attack value 5. No armor piercing. That means you can use this unit only in the early game against unarmored units like peasants, woodsmen and similar units. If I let arrows rain over well-protected enemies like Mongols, nothing happens. Nearly no casualities.
If that unit had not the sharpend stakes feature I would not build only one unit, at all.

[Steward Denethor II]

Spain, because they have good troops of all types, and their Javelin Troops, ships and Conquistadors are awesome.

[lolIsuck]

My favourite faction is probably France although for the first part of the game they have an incredibly mediocre and uninteresting roster. Their later roster is epic and very complete though. Venice and Denmark are close contenders, I like both factions in terms of playing and available roster.

Exploitative? Hmmm...........sorry, can't agree. Please don't forget that this archer unit is actually quite weak: attack value 5. No armor piercing. That means you can use this unit only in the early game against unarmored units like peasants, woodsmen and similar units. If I let arrows rain over well-protected enemies like Mongols, nothing happens. Nearly no casualities.
If that unit had not the sharpend stakes feature I would not build only one unit, at all.

All english longbow units have armour piercing and missile damage of 6 to 8 (not counting Sherwood archers at 13) as well as great range so they're worth it/OP even without the stakes. The Polish unit is indeed crappy but they're basically militia and the Polish do have the OP strzelcy. And stakes are heavily overpowered, one unit of archers with stakes and your siege battle got a whole lot easier, with one unit deploying stakes you've in most cases destroyed their entire cavalry force and killed their general, which also negatively affects the other troops.

[Granatenwerfer]

...The Polish unit is indeed crappy but they're basically militia and the Polish do have the OP strzelcy. And stakes are heavily overpowered, one unit of archers with stakes and your siege battle got a whole lot easier, with one unit deploying stakes you've in most cases destroyed their entire cavalry force and killed their general, which also negatively affects the other troops.

I don't believe that stakes are heavily overpowered. It is now historically correct, that stakes kill horses. It makes no sense to limit sharpened stakes to the open fields in the game, because the AI can walk around such kind of obstacles and hence sharpened stakes would be totally useless. And futher more something must be a good weapon to kill elephants.

You are right regarding England. Good and strong units, also worth selecting in my next game.

[lolIsuck]

My point is not that stakes kill horses but that stakes in M2TW kill every horseman and there is no way to remove them. It'd make sense that infantry could remove/destroy them or that at least like in Empire a stake disappears after a horseman runs into it. And the AI is dumb enough to impale themselves in the open field as well, I don't use them often but I remember I killed an enemy king with some awfully placed stakes.

[Flinn]

stakes are OP, just consider this: they can impale cavalry even if they run into them from the back side (so opposite to the where the pointed edges are aimed at, actually); this is that kind of broken thing that is hardcoded and cannot be changed, sadly.

definitely: Venice and Sicily are my picks, though I also liked to play "cornered" factions like Denmark and Moors