Is Poland any good?

[Eupholi]

I am about to start a new campaign, i am sick of playing as the western factions, and want to start as an eastern christian faction, so my question is Poland better than Hungary?

[delra]

First professional unit you can train as Poland is deadly Strzelcy, mounted crossbowmen. This unit makes beginning of the game terribly easy since hit and run tactics with mounted crossbowmen is unstoppable for AI.

As Poland your infantry choice is pretty standard and quite western. No early AP infantry like in Russia, rather medium swordsmen like HRE or France. Pretty much the same for Hungary except their spearmen might be better (can't remember at the moment).

With Poland your foot missile units are early on overshadowed by mounted ones. But late in the game you get standard crossbowmen in your castles which makes fighting heavy HRE armies much easier. Same in Hungarian castles.

Heavy cavalry is pretty much the same, both nations go to the highest tier of cavalry (22 defense ones) and it's hard to tell who's better. Can call it equal.

Now, is Hungary better? Their city roster is stronger since they can train Pavise Crossbowmen there. They don't have mounted crossbowmen though, train mounted archers instead who sadly aren't as effective... so early on, it's easier with Poland. Also Poland has it a bit easier since it's a coastal nation who can easily make Baltic their own sea. Hungary is landlocked and has to get past a few layers of AI cities before it gets some decent sea access. Most of Hungarian cities will be inland.

I compensate lack of decent units in cities as Poland by building Hospitallers everywhere so I get their Heavy Infantry and Heavy Cavalry from every city (makes assembling a black stack of doom quite easy), you can do it as Hungary too. Best guild ever.

Hard to tell who's stronger (aka easier to play as). Poland sucks as far as city roster is concerned (Hospitallers, spear militia, crossbow militia and halberds) but on the other hand early crossbowmen seem to make Polish roster a bit easier on new players. Also Poland is usually wealthier.

Choose yourself, I like both a lot. I don't play Hungary a lot though cause whenever I want some Balkan fun, I just go for my favourite faction Byzantine.

Whoever you're playing, both factions seem to be very reluctant to fight each other despite being such close neighbours (Polak Węgier dwa bratanki?). So whoever you pick, ally and marry your heir to their princess to secure your border from one side and proceed either towards Baltic (Poland) or Balkans (Hungary).

[Vasquez]

Yeah I would go the Byz over the Poles.

[Brewskii]

whats up with all the, is such and such any good? threads? just try stuff out and decide for yourself

[delra]

Poland has one huge advantage over Byzantine. Crossbows.

[Vasquez]

Poland has one huge advantage over Byzantine. Crossbows.

In the early period

[delra]

In the early period

Try crossbowmen and guard archers and see for yourself. :-)

[Caesar Clivus]

Poland has one huge advantage over Byzantine. Crossbows.

[shameless_plug]
That advantage will for the most part be negated in the Basilieia ton Romaion submod. The byzantine will be getting Gasmuli, crossbow-armed Italian mercenaries
[/shameless_plug]

[Disastras]

The question shouldn't be "is Poland any good"? The question should be "are you any good"? Every faction is fun to play for one reason or another. Give it a try, and see if you like them.

[delra]

Yeah. I often switch campaigns and factions. They all seem very well balanced. Of course western rosters are generally bigger and more full but others also have plenty of toys to have fun with.

Moors and Fatimids seem to be the weakest roster-wise but they are also very big and wealthy right since the beginning so they can just flood with cheap stacks until they get their elites later on. Ireland is weak all the time but nobody likes them or plays them so no problem. :-)

Major pain in the ass while playing Poland seems to be weak city roster, it could use a unit or two more (but I have no idea what that might be). Maybe something AP (since Hospitallers already provide heavy swordsmen). Something Boyar-like preferably. Or Pavise Crossbowmen (Poland had those since 13th century)?

[Vasquez]

Well I would look to other arms than engage the Poles in a firefight I would find difficult to win.

[eddy_purpus]

i wanted to play hotseat with norway and lithuania ... obviously alone cuz i like them both ... but norway is not in the hotseat dont know why :S ?

[duda]

I suggest you take either Byz or Hungary, cos Poland is quite similar to HRE for me. Not hte units, but the general invasion strategies, crusading points etc. Byz is a bit hard to play with if you wage war with you neighbors, but usually the neighbors tend to do that for you...Dono, byz is nicer for me, usually in the first 5-6 turns I have venice, so it gets very interesting...

[Badg3r]

i like Hungary
simply because their capital is a fortress
that says something i think

[delra]

Yeah. It says "we could recruit lots of elite armies but we can't afford them cause we're a landlocked faction with castles only". :-)

[Inhuman One]

I personly dislike the christmas colors of Hungary, and poland doesnt look very interesting as well. their units just look dull compared to those of other factions.

[delra]

Italian mercenaries should probably be a unit for every Christian faction on the map...

I hope you won't overpower Byzantine in your mod by giving them too much... Will they still suck as far as spearmen are concerned?

[Stark of Winterfell]

I have to say, the Stlretcky (however it's spelled) is probably one of the best, if not the best basic light cav available. While crusading, I fought a battle outside Gaza and one of those light mounted crossbow units had 90 kills. Fun stuff right there.

[delra]

Strzelcy - it means "shooters" in Polish. And yeah, they are huge advantage to Poland. Plus they have AP axes as their secondary weapons.

Also you get armoured javelin-throwing cavalry very soon (castle level) - Piast Nobles. I don't like the unit since it's not very historic one, but Jinetes (javelin attack 7) and Boyars (javelin attack 8) suck compared to them (Polish ones have javelin attack 9). :-)

Nobles also have 13 defence (Boyars have 10 and Jinetes have ... none?)

Nobles have swords as secondary weapons (7 attack). Boyars have viking axes (attack 3 + AP attribute).

I dare to say that Piast Nobles are the best javelin cavalry in the game.

[delra]

One thing that I forgot about, starting king of Poland has 7 chivalry points which means he gives 3,5% growth bonus to the settlement he's governing. How this is useful?

You can park him in Magdeburg (which you should snatch from HRE) and grow it to Fortress faster than HRE manages to grow Hamburg. This fortress will guard your western flank for the whole game and give you a great strategic opening into HRE's lands if you ever want to conquer them.

Or you can do the same with Vilnus (your first crusade target probably). :-)