What's your favorite faction? (Campaign or MP)

[Lord Raneus]

Pretty self-explanatory; what is your favorite faction in Stainless Steel? I came into this mod playing Denmark, and although I dislike their new colors on plainclothes units such as Raiders and Militia, on the armored ones (Huscarls, etc) they look quite good. However, I play Norway more than Denmark now; they're virtually the same and I prefer the Norweigan colors. I suppose what attracted me to the Norse factions in the first place was their solid, intimidating infantry, and even though I was underwhelmed by Norse Axemen they're still a really fun army to use, particularly Norway, which does not have a somewhat useless unit as its faction unique one. I love the Shieldwall ability, if for nothing else than that it looks great and gives my beloved Norse infantry something cool to do.

That said, I've found myself growing more and more attached to the Byzantines lately. I love the visual appeal of Cataphracts, and the Byzantine units' shields. There's really nothing like watching Cataphracts plow into Feudal Knights as Byzantine Lancers in shieldwall rush into the enemy infantry lines. They look SO much better than M2 vanilla, and I'm coming to love them as a faction, their campaign is great too.

So, which faction do YOU prefer?

[TSD]

Byzantium due to the Roman Legacy. Its always fun to reclaim the Roman Empire.
SS made them alot more enjoyable to look at. Also, I thought it would be interesting to mod a "fantasy" faction into SS, Involving a piece of southern Italy that remained in traditional Roman hands, slapping a medieval twist on classical Roman weapons and armor.

[strife1013]

Look at the Sig!! need I say more?

[gewehr36]

Look at the Sig!! need I say more?

Great faction to play as. I love taking over the HRE with them and turning them into a war machine similar to that of the Third Reich.

[Chief Astook]

Im a norway fan too, then the british isles factions, then sicily

[Aldwen]

I'm a big fan of Ireland. I love starting off in a terrible position then having to work my way to the top. Plus with a gimped unit roster you really have to fight tooth and nail as the years pass and everyone else gets sweet units.

Norway and Sicily are also my other favorite factions.

[RollingWave]

Moors, if only their roster didn't suck so much after RR.

Since I'm sort of Pagan by defination. I'm liking the Cumans and Lithunia a lot too Cumans are hilarious as their basic HA just destroy huge armies time after time. Lithunia is fun due to it's horrifically difficult starting power.

[Point Blank]

Moors, if only their roster didn't suck so much after RR.

Since I'm sort of Pagan by defination. I'm liking the Cumans and Lithunia a lot too Cumans are hilarious as their basic HA just destroy huge armies time after time. Lithunia is fun due to it's horrifically difficult starting power.

RR didn't make any changes at all to what units are available in the Moorish roster.

[RollingWave]

RR didn't make any changes at all to what units are available in the Moorish roster.

except that before i could have Hashashim running around in 10 turns instead of 100+ and Camel gunners a couple of turns into gunpowder instead of about about another 100 + turns

it's not really RR's fault that the Moor roster set up that way though. (i love the mod BTW, the armies are a lot more realistic this way) there's some roster changes that should be made so they don't need to run around with a berber / desert archer army while others are running around with Chivaric knights etc... the set up makes Moorish army incrediablly bad as their later selection pass desert archer / Berber spear is just awful relative to the tech tree and some of the other implements in SS and Total combat combine to make them just bad (TC nerfs Christian guard big time.. that makes sense though, removing recuritment ability from racing track also hurts how Moors can run their army as it's silly that the only Moorish cav ends up being your general and the very few arab cavs that is about as effective as mounted sergents. the only unit that saw some benifits is the Taureg camels where they're upkeep is no longer in the realm of the crazy)

So I take it back, it's not really just RR that makes the Moors army very difficult to run, it's the combination of SS/RR/TC

[Point Blank]

except that before i could have Hashashim running around in 10 turns instead of 100+ and Camel gunners a couple of turns into gunpowder instead of about about another 100 + turns

it's not really RR's fault that the Moor roster set up that way though. (i love the mod BTW, the armies are a lot more realistic this way) there's some roster changes that should be made so they don't need to run around with a berber / desert archer army while others are running around with Chivaric knights etc... the set up makes Moorish army incrediablly bad as their later selection pass desert archer / Berber spear is just awful relative to the tech tree and some of the other implements in SS and Total combat combine to make them just bad (TC nerfs Christian guard big time.. that makes sense though, removing recuritment ability from racing track also hurts how Moors can run their army as it's silly that the only Moorish cav ends up being your general and the very few arab cavs that is about as effective as mounted sergents. the only unit that saw some benifits is the Taureg camels where they're upkeep is no longer in the realm of the crazy)

So I take it back, it's not really just RR that makes the Moors army very difficult to run, it's the combination of SS/RR/TC

No doubt the Moors could do with a revised roster. Also, will change RR so that Hashishim are available from start, as apparently they were around mostly in the 11th and 12th centuries. That will help the moors, egypt, turks, and kwarezm.

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Since I am a fan of trying to fight off history in such games( for example I would be trying to prevent the Roman repuplic from becoming an empire in a Rtw setting, but trying to prevent the fall of WRE in the BI timeline)

1. Byzantines.
2. Kingdom of Jerusalem
3. Moors. (Not sure if their unit roster is a welcome challenge or an annoying headache though )

[The Noble Lord]

Hi,

1. Kingdom of England
2. HRE
3. Byzantine Empire
4. Fatimids
5. Spain

CHEERS

[♔The Lizard King♔]

I'd have to say Ireland. I like staying a tiny island nation, with a small army. Over time, that army gets more and more experienced, so my tiny army can take on the whole might of Europe! Hahahaha..... er ha. *hem*

[Banzai!]

England for the speeches.

[biscayzacu]

This one


<<<


and this one vVv

[PeteSKTemplar]

I also like to play as Novgorod faction for the Dvor cavalry looks just astonishing when fully upgraded (Kievan Rus doesnt have armoured horses just riders). Pity Berdiche axemen are not so armoured as they look and militia crossbow could have long range but afterall I play them for most.
Second faction would be Kingdom of Jerusalem or Teutonic order (the toughest units from all SS IMO) as my nick says pity in the case of first they have no late armour improvements (dont know why).
The third most attractive faction I am just about to play soon will be Kwarezmian Empire. Their cavalry and units are among the nicest I guess (and according to stats among the most efficient too).

[DenniZ]

England!

[themoob]

I think I'd have to say my favourite is Sicily. A well balanced, if small roster and awesome looking norman knights make me happy. Of course, I made Norman Knights a whole lot tougher than normal, but even before that

Sometimes it's Poland too, who have more choices in regards to their roster, but starting campaign for them is simply annoying because of the lack of proper heavy cavalry for a while.

[-Amon-]

with bloody Janissaries, The seljuks !!

[FriendoftheDork]

I'm actually not sure yet. I've played England, France, Spain, Venice, Byzantines, Turks, Scots, Ireland, Wales, Kievan Rus, Teutons, KoJ and the Egyptians.

All were fun to play except Byzzies in vanilla. I've played Spain twice but I was actually a bit disappointed in them in M2TW compared to MTW. Jinetes are still nice though.

So far I've only tried the Rus in SS so I guess that's my fav so far Nice Druzhina cav, some horse archers, dismounted Boyars and excelent gunpowder units... even if I'm yet to get the mounted ones (there simply is not enough population growth in either the Kiev castle nor the Lithuanian one... I must capture Greece to get a Fortress.