Top 5 City-only Factions

[USSJ]

lets say you cant use castles in a campaign. who would you lead into battle?
i think milan will get number 1 for most but im interested in you guys thoughts.

[Silverheart]

I would go with:
1. Venice - good city roster, with long-range crossbows, strong spearmen, carroccio standard and pike miltia, and good cannons and musketeers later on. In the bigger citites you can also recruit good heavy cavalry. Although Milan is the better choice, I'm still putting Venice first because I like them more as a faction
2. Milan - same as with Venice, though slightly better crossbowmen and infantry, and the Famiglia Ducale are really tough.
3. Spain - city roster includes basic units for every role; spearmen, swordsmen, crossbowmen, skirmishers (Jinetes, from the bullfighting arena), with some of the best musketeers and pikemen in the game available later on.
4. Byzantine Empire - basic troops for every role, complemented by some heavy infantry. If you focus on getting merchant's guild houses, you get a basic Cavalry Militia unit as well.
5. Turks - with horse-racing tracks you get access to some basic cavalry early on, and later on you can get some great troop combinations via the various janissary troops.

Though obviously Portugal, the Moors and Russia deserve at least an honorable mention.
France can also be a fun faction for city-only campaigns, if you can survive long enough to get Voulge Militia and Catapults.

[USSJ]

cool. thanks for the reply, friend.
i agree france should be mentioned as a potential city only power.

[krazyfilmer123]

All Muslim factions get good footsoldiers from cities. Saracen Militia can come in handy in Egypt and Turkey early in the game, while Moors get some solid Urban Militia infantry. Italian factions get themselves good crossbowmen and militiamen as well

[lolIsuck]

Late-game france's city roster blows most others out of the water, the problem is of course that you're stuck with crappy militia for a large part of the campaign.