Isolationist Kingdoms

[Exarch]

i love to turtle
could anyone please recommend me a good faction which has quite an isolated starting position where i wont have to go out of my way to defend my areas?
any tips on turtling would be helpful indeed!!
thanks

[Theseus1234]

russia is obviously one such kingdom, but their land is large and over-stretched

denmark might be the best faction to do that with, seeing as they have one border at the start, and can quickly take all of scandinavia, creating a power base

[cankles]

England are good turtlers. I like the portugese to, but it can be a bit of a tough fight at the beginning.

[Theseus1234]

cankles has a point.
anyone that starts with an island can easily turtle
milan, for example, can move to ajaccio and build up there

[cankles]

Ya milan is really good, and so is venice. I don't remember if they start out with Iraklion though.

[Theseus1234]

they do
you know what would be interesting? an island based nation!
if you were like the turks, you took cyprus, iraklion, ajaccio, and the british isles, then invade wherever you want! COMPLETE POWERRR

[eisenkopf]

they do
you know what would be interesting? an island based nation!
if you were like the turks, you took cyprus, iraklion, ajaccio, and the british isles, then invade wherever you want! COMPLETE POWERRR

how about sicily? it's exactly that - an island based nation. you could exchange Naples for another province (or play LTC early era), although it is very well defensible (suggestion from another poster, can't remember name here: conquer Bologna, gift it to the pope = land barrier). convert Palermo to a city, and you'll have some funds. for the conquest of the other islands of the mediterranean, your militia units suffice. you won't need a citadel in the game, because Norman Knights become available already at the fortress level (i think...).

[homefry]

Spain. Once you capture the iberian peninsula, you're set.

Park a navy army at the gateway to Africa and you only have the north (France) to worry about. The only thing is that the AI will blockade your ports. But that's it.

[jman47]

one thing to point out though just to warn u is that the AI loves to attack for no reason, so be prepared just in case.....

[Keeper of the Keys]

Scotland Play Scotland

[Hobbes]

Russia is quite isolated and so is denmark. England and Scotland are good turtlers ,too. But whatever you do, do NOT play as the HRE.

[cankles]

Russia is quite isolated and so is denmark. England and Scotland are good turtlers ,too. But whatever you do, do NOT play as the HRE.

HRE is probably the worst turtler nation. And egypt is pretty bad to because of the mongols and timurids.

[Old Geezer]

Spain and Portugal are good choices. Once you take the Iberian Pen. you don't have to worry much about any serious incursions and you can easily reach Timbuktu for the gold and take Marakesh on the way. You will have so much cash you'll think you are a Northern Italian Faction. (Especially if you exploit and put a reliable unit on the gold and load it up with merchants. Just make sure your leader has high authority so the unit will not rebel and build stuff to keep good control in the region.)

Scotland and England are probably next best, but you really need to take Amsterdam and Bruges to get a strong economy. The Danes can be a problem if they are strong, so you might want to send 3 assassins over to destroy their buildings and kill a few hapless generals. The Scots are my absolute favorite (with the secondary weapon removed) because of their pikemen, Border Horse, noble archers, noble swordsmen, highland swords, and mortars. Add to these Hospitalers and the Timurids and their elephants are hopelessly outclassed. But if you are Scotland you'll want to move your capital - probably to down around Paris eventually.

My next campaign which will start this weekend, God willing, will most likely be as the Portugese or Spanish - I may have to flip a coin. I have played both before and enjoyed each immensely.

[NobleNick]

My vote, too, goes to England:

1.) Best starting position for a turtle faction.
2.) Excellent and well balanced military

[Larsen]

England is the best for sure. I think the British Isles have 7 settlements. Just turn all of them into cities and you'll have an isolated economic powerhouse. I've never had anyone attack the island. Denmark is also good, but you only really have 3 settlements in Scandinavia.

[Exarch]

ok, a q. regarding the spanish peninsula, is it better to go with spain or portugal?

[cankles]

ok, a q. regarding the spanish peninsula, is it better to go with spain or portugal?

Spain seems to be more popular, but I like portugal's units, and it is a fun challenge uniting your terratoies agains the moors and spanish.

how about sicily? it's exactly that - an island based nation. you could exchange Naples for another province (or play LTC early era), although it is very well defensible (suggestion from another poster, can't remember name here: conquer Bologna, gift it to the pope = land barrier). convert Palermo to a city, and you'll have some funds. for the conquest of the other islands of the mediterranean, your militia units suffice. you won't need a citadel in the game, because Norman Knights become available already at the fortress level (i think...).

They are still connected to the peninsula by one of those green things, so they don't really count. You can still reach them without use of a navy. But they are a really good faction.

[eisenkopf]

They are still connected to the peninsula by one of those green things, so they don't really count. You can still reach them without use of a navy. But they are a really good faction.

that greenish thing is indeed very annoying from a geographic point of view. nevertheless, one ship "parked" there and you have effectively an island...

although i agree that with improved (non-vanilla) AIs, island invasions by the many mediterranean factions have increased. because sicily is in the middle of things, it's not really isolationist ... although isolationist is actually a state of mind, you could play any faction in an isolationist way... maybe the original poster rather meant "isolated" kingdoms (sorry for being a nitpicker, can't help it )

[Exarch]

that greenish thing is indeed very annoying from a geographic point of view. nevertheless, one ship "parked" there and you have effectively an island...

although i agree that with improved (non-vanilla) AIs, island invasions by the many mediterranean factions have increased. because sicily is in the middle of things, it's not really isolationist ... although isolationist is actually a state of mind, you could play any faction in an isolationist way... maybe the original poster rather meant "isolated" kingdoms (sorry for being a nitpicker, can't help it )

that's ok
but i really appreciate all your help guys

@cankles
i've been inspired to play portugal now

[Kip]

lol, no one ever suggests the Moors, even though they have the same Turtle strategy as Spain/Portugal.