Your experience in-game

[stefano89]

What faction you like the most? Which one you hate the most? What is your strategy in-game and how do you coordinate your attacks and manage your cities?

Personally, my favourite faction is England. I'm a turtler, and I always try to respect alliances and try to be a chivalrous knight who respects the enemy. I rarely exterminate settlements or enemy armies, because I want to respect the enemy, and I think it's much more competitive letting the enemy to live on. I rarely hire mercenaries, and I always have a genuine army from home. Never adopt men-of-hour or accept strangers into the family (except for marriages with princeses). The faction I hate the most are the Moors or Milan... because they just back-stab you everytime. As for battle strategy, I love to just sit there and stack 7 to 8 retinue longbowmen and watch the enemy melting... before they reach my lines about 1/3 or 1/4 is already rotting in hell!

[King Yngvar]

Prefered faction: Norway because I'm a patriot, I still dislike their skins and unit roster though. Even if that is not KK's fault but rather CA copying the bodies of armoured spearmen giving them round shields and axe/sword. In addition to the idiotically named Sami Axemen (sami were not warriors!) and Gotland footmen (Gotland is in Sweden!).
Most hated faction: Knights Templar due to the historical inaccuracy.
Most hated faction when accepting the fact Knights Templar is in: None, the more the merrier, just more for me to slaughter.

I prefer to unite Scandinavia as quick as possible (which means rushing Denmark before they can respond). After that, turtle for a few years until the opportunities of crusade arrive. In which case I will set out with as many men as possible, on my way to the holy land I loot and kill every infidel/excommunicated catholic in my path, sacking their cities, destroying their buildings and selling their provinces or give them to the Pope for relations. The only diplomatic relation I really care about is the Pope, due to his ordering of crusades. To maintain this good relation in the start I bribe him alot, during crusades I give him infidel cities. Once the game is really going and I have superb assassins I kill off the pope and every living cardinal that does not belong to me. Once that process is on it does not matter what I do to my fellow catholics, once the pope starts disliking me I kill him and place a new pope puppet. I had one game where I was about turn 100, almost every christian faction was excommunicated due to their wars with me (which I had started of course), I used crusades against my fellow christians.
To keep the game interesting and my empire managable I never bother expanding beyond Scandinavia and holding either Britannia or the Balticum(with chunks of Germany). I keep the wars fun by having no need to place garrisons after taking cities, I just exterminate population, destroy every building and move on.
When the Mongols arrive they will understand that we have much in common

I never adopt because I hate how it screws the family tree, in the end you can't see who is son of who.

Battle strategy: Well, in battles I would actually prefer being the Turks and do constant hit and runs with horse archers. Norway has no choice but to charge forward.

[stefano89]

I double that. Relations with the Pope always maxed out, and if I can I always try to crusade, not much with England though because the distance is too long, and when I reach the Middle-East, most of my army has deserted...

[Mafiozo]

Fav Fac: Templars- although historically inacurate i am huge fun of them since i wrote cousins final exam on college of history and archeology about them, even today i dunno why i did it . Also find them to be the best challenge.
Dis fac: Don't have one, prolly Templars also cause they totally suck when led by AI .
Well i am with them totally bloodthirsty, in first two to five turns i take Gaza or Cairo and then all hell brooks loose in East. With this strategy all depends how good you are on battlefield. My score is prolly 3-5 enemy for one my men. And it also depends upon Turks, how early they decide to attack you, those horse archers are really annoying. That's prolly it, well if i think better Spain is also fun if u attack Portugal,Moors and Aragon in same time. I just love this total war

[King Yngvar]

Dis fac: Don't have one, prolly Templars also cause they totally suck when led by AI

I used to give them more starting armies before the Jerusalem emergent script was released.

I don't like to play as factions without family trees anyway so I saw no problem in powering them up a little.

[Mafiozo]

I used to give them more starting armies before the Jerusalem emergent script was released.

I don't like to play as factions without family trees anyway so I saw no problem in powering them up a little.

I usually like to help them myself, mostly launch crusade against Jerusalem, Alexandria or Cairo, i also conquer few more Egyptians cities and give them, in this way i help them and also get one powerful general, mostly my prince, have a nice family line after such campaign.

[King Yngvar]

Yes well the only thing that bothers me is that they don't actually have a family tree. It is impossible. It does not show...

[finsternis]

I am not sure which fraction I like more. I like the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. I like them both because of their awesome history. My campaign strategy is to try to be honorable but should the occasion arrive, I'll be a devil. Also, I love taking control of the papacy (when I'm playing a Catholic Fraction) when I am playing a none catholic fraction, then I just like to keep the pope on my good side. In battle, I like to put my archer/crossbowman in the back of a line of strong footsoldier. When the enemy attacks, my footsoldiers hold them in position while my arrows kill the rear of the enemy and my calvary destroy the sides and back.
I don't really hate any fraction. Milan does back-stab everyone, but I like them while I have them in my side.

[Tsarsies]

favorite faction; either egypt or russia. russia takes a little while to get the ball rolling, so much open space between settlements and every settlement NEEDs to be self sufficient (unlike say the HRE or French who have settlements near by to re-deploy from if need be). i generally charge westward first, destroying lithuania, poland and hungary (which is where i draw my western front). i ally with the byzantine ASAP and plan on making that a game long alliance (if they need aid, i send it pronto), i can generally rely on them for the same purpose. i generally leave the turks, egypt alone unless the byzantine need assistance against them. i kill of the rus or whatever they are called (never paid attention to their name ) as soon as i have my western front fortified. then i sit back and build defensive fortifications and forts in expectation of the mongols, whom i ally with and force them southward or i destroy them if they refuse to go wheee i need them. and THAT is when the russian campaign begins for me
as for egypt, i just love them for the challenge thhey bring against the catholic nations, i expand eastward, then north, allying with the turks until i have a firm foothold, the i backstab them and continue north. drawing my western front at constantinople. generally takes a little while to get that far depending on crusades called against me. but i primarily build a decent navy, split them up and have them all over the mediteranian as spies, with 3-4 stacks of ships placed strategically to destroy any enemy fleets. egypt to me are a very naval force, i luanch many attacks from the sea with them. and generally do alot of raiding into the sicilian area (take the settlement, destroy it and move on, and let the rebels reclaim it). which keeps a very nice money flow coming in for me.

most hated faction; i kinda like all of them.

When in battle, i have a couple of suicidal units, just to make sure the enemy is drawn out. i leave my archers wide open (unless i am russia or egypt, in that case, any foot archers i get i generally protect and keep well experienced). i have 2-4 cavalry ready to flank any attack on my archers which generally scatters the enemy and saves my archers. i have 2 cavalry held back where i send when i need them. and i favor pike over sword. just because i like to draw the enemy to me then use heavy cavalry to flank. if i am raiding then i use alot of horse archers.

i generally play as england when testing scripts.

[Aldwen]

My favorite faction is Ireland as I am half Irish. Sicily is a good second.

Generally my strategy has been a noble and turtlely one. Ireland usually takes a while to get going and you tend to be stuck on the islands for quite a while. I always ally myself with Scotland and that is usually a game long alliance. After getting a foot hold in Ireland I move on Wales and usually have to declare war with England. Scotland is usually already waring with England so our combined forces push them off of the island with ease.

After England is knocked off the Isles I usually leave them alone and focus on building my settlements up. I tend also to leave most of Europe alone. I never really have much of a reason to attack anyone, so I don't. After establishing myself financially I either join, or call a crusade to the holy lands. Once I eventually reach there is when the "real" game begins for me. Egypt and the Turks have always proved to be a challenge. The survival of the Templars also plays a huge part in how hard that challenge will be. If they're still around I always ally with them and assist them whenever they need help, they often return the favor.

I do try to avoid destroying a faction completely. Usually I try to force them into vassalage and if they wont accept that I just place a decent garrison on their borders and beat them back whenever they try to rise up.

As for the faction I dislike the most... I suppose it would have to be Genoa because of how crazy they seem to be. At one point they had conquered most of Europe, beating the French and English down to only a few provinces, even the HRE was struggling against them. I intervened however and carved a destructive path through their lands and weakened them enough so the other factions could regain their footing. They're still holding on, but they haven't enjoyed such power since then.

[Laconian]

Fav faction - Probably Byzantium becuase of my Greekiness or the Kievan' Rus' as I'm really getting into the campaign. In my current Kievan Rus' campaign I have consolidated control of the general area around Kiev and have now expanded in Asia Minor taking Sinope and Trezibond as well as fighting the Turks.
Disliked faction - Turks as I usually fight them and 90% of the time I own them.
Battle tactics - I love my horse archers. Especially as the Byzzies I stack up on Vardariotoi and own all the Hungarian and Venetian infantry with them. I also love flanking as it is easily my fav melee tactic. Infantry decoy in the centre of the enemy line while cavalry flanks and when the cavalry's in position. BAM! Just today I routed 2 units of spearmen in 10 secs by flanking them with Armenian cavalry.