Top Ten Favourite Factions

[The Good]

What are your top ten favourite factions in Europa Universalis III? I recently got it this Christmas, and I am enjoying every minute, hour, and day of it.

My Top Ten is as follows, in order:

I. Ragusa

Hard start, but they are a rewarding challenge. They are the only Croatian faction at the start of the game, the year 1453.

II. Croatia

This one is supposed to emerge at one point, but I've played as them before. Cool faction.

III. Sicily

They do not actually control Sicily at the start, Aragon does, but I like to reclaim it back from them in my Sicilian campaigns.

IV. Tuscany

Tuscany is difficult, in that it starts out small, and has many rivals near them. But eventually, I came to control all of Central Italy.

V. Ireland (all of Ireland under one banner)

Each of the Irish factions has a difficult time starting out, but when one unites the whole island under their rule, Ireland becomes one united faction.

VI. Morea (A.K.A. one of the Byzantine Empire's two successors)

This faction is one of the Byzantine Empire's (Roman Empire!) two successors, with the other being Trebizond. I like Morea because of the Graeco Roman culture.

VII. The Thousand Nations of the Persian Empire

In my recent Persian campaign, I conquered nearly all of the Middle East, most of Kazakhstan, and all of the Timurid Empire. Be afraid. The Thousand Nations of the Persian Empire descend upon YOU!

VIII. Makassar (South East Asian empire)

A hard, but relatively isolated starting position. A key to playing as Makassar, is to colonise all of the islands around it, then you will be wealthy.

IX. Great Britain (Scotland and England under one banner)

Once you meet the requirements, playing as Great Britain is really easy. You can even become wealthy by only owning the British isles.

X. Japan

I like their relatively isolated starting position. Owning all of the Japonic islands, you can become a wealthy kingdom.

[hellheaven1987]

1. Castile

Enough wealth to conduct aggressive colonization policy, very little war, Latin tech group.

2. Portugal

Enough wealth to conduct moderate colonization policy, super peaceful nation, Latin tech group.

3. England

Island!!! That is obviously. Besides, it is wealthy, no strong neighbour, and it is fun to see France and its enemies killing eachothers!!

Latin tech group also give some points, and England is most easy nation to achieve Great Britain unification (since Scotland does not like peace).

4. France

Powerful and wealthiest in Europe. Latin tech group.

5. Venice

Strongest and wealthiest in Italy, good for Italy unification + a local bully. Latin tech group.

6. Ottoman

A very interesting nation, Muslim but Eastern culture. Has chance to be westernized. The only trouble is Hungary and Austria (later, Mamulak).

7. Japan

Island and strong economy. A very peaceful but needs a lot of patience to play.

8. Ming

Needless to say, best nation for conquering half of world before 1700s.

9. Brunei

Another island nation with quite interesting strategy.

10. The Knight/Pope/any bully

No obviouse reason, just love to play them.

The list is not following what nation I like first, just factions I like in random form.

[LSJ]

Prussia
I'm mostly attracted by the fact that it historically expanded quite a lot from a tiny state to holding two thirds of what would become the German Empire

Persia
Well, I've always liked Persia. I'm not sure why.

Austria
Its just powerful and fun. You start out small but you can grow to enormous size and power in a short timeframe.

Brunei
A potentially powerful island nation. I get to sit on my island bases building my navy and economy for years, then one day land on your beaches and you die.

Hungary
To unify the Balkans and compete with Austria.

Sicily
When I feel like conquering Italy and North Africa without fighting wars against the Spanish Super Empire, there is no better choice.

England
The British Empire was great and I like making it myself, but better.

Vjayangar
Making a unified India a few centuries before its time is nice. And now I can repel the foreigners and make it great.

Aceh/Artjeh
The same as Brunei, but with a bigger population and more earthquakes.

Russia
Nothing beats the Intercontinental Russian Empire. I especially enjoy seeing Soviet America.

[Atterdag]

Netherlands

Tough to form but rewarding as hell with rich Vlandeern under your belt.
Go to the post your empire thread if you want to see some peaks
And for some very strange reason I like the Dutch. I blame Van Gogh and Rembrandt.

France

Rich and with many cool ways of expansion. South into Iberia, South-west into Italy or North across the channel and into England.
I made all of France reformed in my latest game.. heheh.

Austria

Same as with France. Many interesting ways of expansion. Either east and form the later Habsburg Austria-Hungary or go west and from the Holy Roman Empire a new by taking all of Italy and Germany.
Last time I did this I had some epic wars against France with 100.000 man a side!

Tuscany

Forming Italy with this rich underdog is loads of fun! I hope to do as Ragabash and form a new Roman Empire.

Saxony

I like their position for forming the German Reich.
D. über alles!

Denmark

Because I'm a soft heartened patriot and because I like to beat Sweden.
Besides surrounded by German minors (that sounds soo wrong) Denmark has a good postition to dominate Northern Germany.

Portugal

First nation I played as and one of the best colonial nations in the game.
I always go for the Carribian at first. After that Brazil.

England/Great Britain

Nice island nation. The French possesions are a ***** to keep though.
I had a great game as GB last time. Started off with wars against France together with Burgundy. Gave away the south French possesions, but kept Calais. Burgundty dishonnoured our alliance and I winded up in an Alliance with France which resulted in the collapse of the Burgundian Empire. All of the Duth/Flemish/Wallonian provinces went to me while France too Franche-Comete and some other of their cores.

Russia

Also a nice country to form, but with a bit too boring enemies for my taste.

Savoy

I like the name and their colour.. and I like to form Italy

[King Edward III]

England for obvious reasons and although not a favorite yet, Sweden.

[Savage_Swede]

Sweden FTW. ANd not just because i am, as Atterdag says, a soft-hearted patriot, but also because it has a very interesting position. Once Norway and Denmark are crushed you can grab some nice provinces in the northern HRE, including the COT in Lubeck. Then move on to Novgorod and snatch another COT, then Estonia and whatever else the Knights have there.

What you get is a relatively wealthy empire capable of fighting it out with the dangerous Poland-Lithuania and Burgundy and whatever german states that are in your way.

[scottishranger]

I love playing as Muscovy, then taking over Novgorod, then expanding to take Kazan. After that you pray to god that Lithuania does not attack, then you can expand further east, conquer Sibir and Crimea. After that, take on the Teutonic Knights, then take down the combined might of Lithuania. Very challenging, but it is awesome. I made a some personal goals too, like reaching the pacific in Siberia. At points I owned all of Russia, all of Central America, all of Skandinavia, the entire eastern seabord of N. America and was turnin my might on the Ottoman Empire, determined for Constantinople. For some reason I also owned part of Morocco. It really is just a wast of my resources though.

[hellheaven1987]

Wait, am I the only guy who list a Muslim nation??

[The Good]

^ I listed The Thousand Nations of the Persian Empire.

[LSJ]

I listed three Muslim nations.

[Valentin the II]

I cand believe no one listed these:
Burgundy and Novgorod.
Best freakin nations ever. Period.

[LSJ]

Burgundy, if you start right at 1453, has a great position... You are right next to a bunch of small German nations, you have a good economy, and the Netherlands and Switzerland are right there for the taking.

[Valentin the II]

Imho, every faction with a COT at the start is great.

[The Good]

Sorry, but what is a COT? I'm not familiar with that term...

[Saxon Huscarl]

Sorry, but what is a COT? I'm not familiar with that term...

Centre of trade.

[Fabolous]

I guess I'll catagorize my top ten, though its also in order of my favorites.

The Powerhouse
1. Austria - The title says it all. They're a powerhouse faction, any route is possible. You can go into Italy, you can mess with the HRE, you can go against Hungry and Poland, you can go against the Ottomans, or all 4. All are exciting. More a warmongerer than a trade-diplomacy faction, but it is in a strong enough posistion that you can do that very effectively.

The Trade Empires
2. Mecklenburg - Take over the HRE via trade and diplomacy. Form Germany. Dominate Europe. Very fun, very different than your normal campaign were you take over.

3. Venice - Take over your Italian rvials, again with trade. Form Italy. Dominate Europe... sound familiar? Stronger at start than Mecklenburg, but Italy conquering is less politically interesting than HRE takeover.

Our Friends in the East
4. The Ottoman Empire - Still strong tech level for a non-latin, interesting start posistion. Able to dominate closest rivals, and basically only face competition from Mamaluks, Austrians, or possibly if a Persia emerges.

5. Japan - Our really eastern friends. Isolated start posistion means you have a great deal of freedom, and Japan is strong enough to use it. Just a very different campaign style than anything you can get in Europe.

Middle Rung European Nations
6. Aragon - I've only played them once, but it was a very interesting campaign, and my next campaign is planed with them. Such a variety of options is open to them. They are fun to play.

7. Poland - Your union with Lithunia can turn out very well, and even if it doesn't you are still quite powerful, and are free to fight a variety of opponents.

Form Russia
8. Norvgood - Trade alot, take over Russia, form Russia. You know you want to. Different area of Europe while mantaining Euro advantages.

Be Pope
9. The Papal State - Simply joyous to take over the world as Pope. Very fun images, and they're not that bad in terms of posistion. You can easily conquer Italy, and then expand as you wish from their.

World Conquer
10. Ming - If you haven't taken the Ming and just said screw BB level and tried to take over the world, you've missed some of the best fun you'll ever have.

[Nutsack]

1. The Mamelukes

Great starting position, plus you have easily conquered neighbors to both the south and the east. This campaign still manages to remain quite the challenge because you have a low tech level and are in very close proximity to European (Latin) powers. Using Maghreb nations as a buffer against Portugal and Spain is a sound tactic in this campaign. Also since you are Sunni you have friends in South East Asia that can assist you in exploration. My current campaign is with the Mamelukes (will post pictures in the "Post your Empire" thread later).

2. England

Island based nation. When the United Kingdom is created you will have a strong economy which to use for either conquering the mainland or to colonize. Or both.

3. Novgorod

Novgorod itself is a Center of Trade therefore brings a lot of money to the nation. Having no monarchy can prove troublesome though because it makes it more difficult to make good friends with other nations.

4. Denmark

Denmark begins in quite a tough starting position at the earliest date, but having Norway as a member of your personal union will assist you a lot in the beginning.

5. Teutonic Order

I actually have a campaign where I successfully established safety as the Teutonic Order. I have grown large enough to not be threatened by Lithuania or Poland. Although relatively "safe", the larger European powers such as Austria are encroaching into Germany and are beginning to border me. The Teutonic Order doesn't have many friends to begin with, and gaining more friends is difficult as a Theocracy. My only ally is Sweden.

6. Ottoman Empire

Good tech level for an Islamic nation. Is surrounded by small states therefore may expand quite easily.

7. Venice

Begins with a Center of Trade. Because Venice borders the strong and expansive Austria, this campaign may prove a bit of an challenge.

8. Burgundy

Burgundy's capital is in one of the worst places considering the land it owns. As Burgundy owns most of the lowlands and a Center of Trade they receive huge amounts of money and can easily expand into Germany.

9. Castille

Castille can be a great deal of fun as a nation to use when uniting the Iberian peninsula. Castille is also a good nation as to colonize with.

10. Morocco

I managed to have a successful campaign for a long length of time as the Moroccans. I colonized South America, mostly around Argentina and Brazil. I also almost fully annexed the Inca Empire. Even though I had a large empire, the Spanish and Portuguese were ahead of me in technology and kicked my butt later on (they declared war as soon as every peace treaty was expired). Now when I come think of it, I could always relocate my capital to the Americas and concentrate myself as an Islamic Empire in South America.

[John I Tzimisces]

The ottoman empire is in the eastern european tech group which goes at 90% the speed of the latin tech group, as opposed to the muslim group which goes at 80%. It's a significant enough advantage that they are strong compared to their eastern neighbors...

Campaigns I've enjoyed are Morea, Venice, Tlemcen (Algiers whatever), Ireland, and Muscovy.

[Saxon Huscarl]

I've only played as England/Great Britain, Brandenburg/Germany and Muscovy/Russia. I enjoyed all 3 campaigns though, they are all good factions to play as.

[Aketi]

Well these are the only ones I played yet. All of them in Magna Mundi.

Morea - form rather Greece than the Byzantine Empire. Even though I have achieved this maybe twice I am always so backward technology wise it's frustrating.

Papal States - built a new Roman Empire, convert lots of Mediterranean Muslims. Haha.

Baden - for a super difficult HRE game. I failed.

Bavaria - for another HRE game. Formed Germany.

Sweden - After I have Scandinavia and everything around the Baltic sea I colonize north America. Make the north protestant.

I think I want to try some native Americans next.