Which Faction for Britania

[Carpathian Wolf]

England:

I considered them but something tells me this will be TOO easy. Wales is out if you kill 3 settlements, Norway is a spec, Scotland shouldn't be too much of a problem. Ireland might be since everything rebels in two turns but I can always come back to that later. When does the Baron Alliance emerge and are they even much to worry about? Historically I can just go and attack anyone. Not like some of the other factions which wouldn't make much sense if the Irish invaded Scotland all of the sudden.

Scotland:

Played with them a bit and I like their pikes, but there isn't much cavalry on the isles that I much need to worry about. The William Wallace thing is pretty cool though I didn't play for that long. When does he show up? The thing that turned me off was that the English never came to attack me.

Wales:

I played a bit longer with Wales but I got a bit bored of their lack of selection when it came to units. I just wish they had more variety. Maybe i'll give them another try but i'm not too sure.

Ireland:

They seem to lack diversity in units as well. I'm not sure what the Irish faction is trying to pull military wise. They seem sort of based on skirmishing with a few shock infantry thrown in but no archers. I'd probably play this a bit to get "my island" (cue crazy Irishman from Braveheart) but then i'm not too sure where to go with it.

Norway:

I like this faction a bit more since you get to make enemies of everyone, you have a large diversity of units, great navy etc. The sucky thing is you really need to work on economy during the first 20 some turns. It's also fun to make outragous demands to the English to hear their voices whining that they were insulted, then me sacking some city and getting out of there before the authoraties that probably have no patience for my shinanigans show up. For Norway I probably need some tips on what I should take first. Maybe some land in Ireland? They're rich for some reason right?

[Antagonist]

Historically I can just go and attack anyone. Not like some of the other factions which wouldn't make much sense if the Irish invaded Scotland all of the sudden.

Firstly, if you're looking to avoid implausible outcomes, you have to take into account what would have happened in other circumstances, not just what did. England's strategic goal of conquering the isles is obvious, but I don't think it's fair to suggest that the only "historical" options for any others are ineffective raiding for the Norwegians and purely defensive fighting for all the others. Scotland invaded England as much, if not more, than vice-versa, and within the time period they invaded Ireland as well. Wales allied with the Baron's Alliance and would have cheerfully taken the fight into the "Lost Lands" if they were divided enough. And Irish forces had dominated the Irish Sea and preyed (albeit with varying degress of frequency) on the west coast of Britain for almost a thousand years, they would not have hesitated to do so again if English power on the east coast of Ireland were broken. Their are logical avenues of expansion for all the factions.

When does the Baron Alliance emerge and are they even much to worry about? Historically I can just go and attack anyone.

The William Wallace thing is pretty cool though I didn't play for that long. When does he show up?

The Baron's Alliance don't show up as a scripted event, they're more like a shadow faction which appears when English provinces rebel. They can be anything from a minor inconvenience to your biggest rivals, depending on when, where and in what strength rebellion strikes. Wallace, IIRC, shows up between 20 and 30 turns in with his army of highlanders, a welcome boost. The Welsh "special ability" is scripted reinforcements which appear when major western English towns are captured, or when the English take the border settlements (though it only works with the patch) Norway gets a series of reinforcements in the first few turns, culminating with the arrival of the King. Only Ireland seems to lack any kind of special scripted event of this kind.

I played a bit longer with Wales but I got a bit bored of their lack of selection when it came to units. I just wish they had more variety.

Have to say I disagree, the Welsh may not have quite as broad a selection as the English or Scots but they have some very good units. In particular it's worth pointing out that Wales and Ireland are unique factions, whereas the other 3 are basically straight from vanilla (Norway has a few new units but is mostly a reskin of Denmark) Admittedly their rosters are designed with specific balancing in mind though - the Welsh have strong defensive infantry and archers, but little offensive ground troops.

They seem to lack diversity in units as well. I'm not sure what the Irish faction is trying to pull military wise.

Again, I think they're stronger than you realise, but Ireland in particular have a time issue - in the early game their roster is weak, but progressively improves relative to the other factions, until their late game units which are extremely powerful. Taken overall I think they're intended to be a polar opposite of Wales - a dynamic army with powerful skirmishers and shock troops (both infantry and cavalry) but poor defensive infantry (they have only 1, mediocre, spear/pike unit) They come into their own in the late game with units like the Muire, Lord's Retinue and particualrly Mounted Calivers, which are almost absurdly powerful in the unmodified game.

For Norway I probably need some tips on what I should take first.

Their do seem to be better solutions than just attacking Scotland, which is difficult to maneuver in and has plenty of starting troops, trying to establish a foothold in Ireland isn't a bad idea, it's certainly rich enough to use as a base when attacking Britain.

Antagonist

[Tricky557]

hehe, well he just gave you great overviews of all the factions, so take your pick.

[Yojimbo]

Wales are awesome with their longbows. all you really need are them and spearmen.

[Dewy]

England:

I considered them but something tells me this will be TOO easy. Wales is out if you kill 3 settlements, Norway is a spec, Scotland shouldn't be too much of a problem. Ireland might be since everything rebels in two turns but I can always come back to that later. When does the Baron Alliance emerge and are they even much to worry about? Historically I can just go and attack anyone. Not like some of the other factions which wouldn't make much sense if the Irish invaded Scotland all of the sudden.

Scotland:

Played with them a bit and I like their pikes, but there isn't much cavalry on the isles that I much need to worry about. The William Wallace thing is pretty cool though I didn't play for that long. When does he show up? The thing that turned me off was that the English never came to attack me.

Wales:

I played a bit longer with Wales but I got a bit bored of their lack of selection when it came to units. I just wish they had more variety. Maybe i'll give them another try but i'm not too sure.

Ireland:

They seem to lack diversity in units as well. I'm not sure what the Irish faction is trying to pull military wise. They seem sort of based on skirmishing with a few shock infantry thrown in but no archers. I'd probably play this a bit to get "my island" (cue crazy Irishman from Braveheart) but then i'm not too sure where to go with it.

Norway:

I like this faction a bit more since you get to make enemies of everyone, you have a large diversity of units, great navy etc. The sucky thing is you really need to work on economy during the first 20 some turns. It's also fun to make outragous demands to the English to hear their voices whining that they were insulted, then me sacking some city and getting out of there before the authoraties that probably have no patience for my shinanigans show up. For Norway I probably need some tips on what I should take first. Maybe some land in Ireland? They're rich for some reason right?

Sounds to me that you play easy. If you play VH england attacks you in the first 5 turns as Ireland and Scotland. Ireland has archers, they have longbowmen play more then 5 turns will you.

Norway will always lose if they attack Ireland, unless its E/E. But you should play VH/VH to get any fun out of Kingdoms. Irish have surived 200 of attacks from vikings and 100 years of english for a reason, they will put a hugh dent in your army, and before you have time to get more men into Ireland they have wiped out your army and attacked your alnds beware

But like i said doesn't really matter if you don't play on VH/VH, any lower it is a push over and not fun.

[Carpathian Wolf]

Sounds to me that you play easy. If you play VH england attacks you in the first 5 turns as Ireland and Scotland. Ireland has archers, they have longbowmen play more then 5 turns will you.

Norway will always lose if they attack Ireland, unless its E/E. But you should play VH/VH to get any fun out of Kingdoms. Irish have surived 200 of attacks from vikings and 100 years of english for a reason, they will put a hugh dent in your army, and before you have time to get more men into Ireland they have wiped out your army and attacked your alnds beware

But like i said doesn't really matter if you don't play on VH/VH, any lower it is a push over and not fun.

No I don't play on easy. I usually keep the battle difficult as is because the morale of the enemy troops gets stupidly unrealistic. If I want to make it harder for myself I go into battle with too few units etc and keep it realistic. The game play is either hard or very hard.

I've started a campaign with Ireland and i'll play around with that a bit. I love the "occupied" feeling and i'm running around the island setting up ambushes. Like a haiduc in the Balkans against Ottoman Turks .

Afterward I think i'll try Scotland and then Norway.

[frontier-auxilia]

Craze Irishmen lobbing off heads while drunk on Guiness is made of win.

THIS IZ DUBLIN !!! CHARGE

[Steel of Fury]

England! It's much tougher than you think!

[Dewy]

And so are babies, give me my Guiness before i spit on your grave

[Judgement Day]

i think you should be england is cool to have archers

[Bowden]

I'd go with Norway.

Here are your hints.

First of all, you should place your merchants near the textiles at Stornoway, Wick and one should descend to Wales for the Gold near Pembroke (which is southern Wales). Then you might want to ally up with the Irish, and get some nice trade agreements. You could consider getting trade agreement with Wales and England, but for the time being I'd go with Wales. You do need to wait with the diplomats though, unless you want to ship them out from Kirkwall, which takes a hell of a lot of time.

Up next is the preparing the invasion near Glasgow. For some ridiculous reason, AI always leaves Glasgow next-to empty. Preparing from your capital, Castle Town, you should get some Svenner, huscarls, norse archers and some norse swordsmen to get a foodhold on the mainland.

When the reinforcements arrive you should either take Inverness with it, or the many rebel settlements on the islands and in the highlands. Doing the latter will eventually provide you with about 800~1000 income per island, and on long terms even more. If you take Inverness however, any threat to the north is reduced by a lot. I'd go for the islands though. I suggest you convert any castle at the islands to cities, as well as Inverlochy and eventually Dumfries. I'd wait with Dumfries for a while though, since Scotland tends to try to take it.

In the meantime you've probably acquired Glasgow, and you should immidiatly make it your capital, as any troops get recruited there, and the textiles where your merchants are going get about 20/30% more income. Since Dumfries is now isolated, why not helping the Scots out by taking it?

When King Haakon arrives, make two invading forces: from the about (I do not know the exact numbers) 5 Viking Raiders, 4 dismounted Huscarls, 3 Gotland footmen, 4/5 Crossbowmen, 3 Svenner and 2 Huscarls, you should get 2 Viking raiders, (1 Gotland footmen) and 1 crossbowmen-unit to Aberdeen. The bloody lot of em go to the Scottish: Perth. Since there will be around 3 full stacks running around at the Stirling plains, you might want to hurry. Also, I suppose that you build some Svenner at Wick, for charging down William Wallace when he emerges (in my game, his bodyguard was 60 highland nobles). He didnt stand a change, since I surrounded him with about 12 Svenner and charged him to death. He was the first to fall and the rest of his army was broken in no-time. However, when this is done, there should still be a highly-guarded Inverness, some stacks near Stirling, and a near-to deserted Edinburgh. Only take Edinburgh if you feel you can lose some men at Perth. By this time you should have little to no money issues since you have your merchant at the gold near Pembroke, and some nice textile merchants up north. However, you should build as much merchants as you can. With Perth as capital, the Dyes in northwestern Ireland give about 100 per Finance, the Silver in southeast Ireland about the same, and the Gold in southern Wales gives about 200/300 per Finance level. However, be wary of that you never have two merchants in the same province dealing the same stuff.

Also, make sure you always fight ONE faction at a time. I'd stay allied with the Irish for as long as possible, since then you have a secure border to the east. Once Scotland has been dealt with, go south. I suggest taking Lancaster first, and ally up to England/Baron's Alliance whoever hasn't control of it. Taking Lancaster first means you have a Castle/Fortress down there, being very helpful. Pay attention that you do not border Wales yet. Just take out England/Baron's Alliance out settlement by settlement. If it's England you're dealing with, you should take any settlements north of the Lancaster-York line. These include Carlisle and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.


When you're up to the next stage, give a shout in this thread here.

[Iceclaw]

Its incredibly fun to wipe Wales out like squishing an ant, and then sailing to Ireland and befriend them, then turn against them and slowly wipe them out.
Throughout the whole campaign I was allied with Norway, and somewhat with Scotland. After taking Ireland and suppressing the Barons Alliance, I loved building armies and sacking settlement after settlement on the shores of Scotland. Eventually, they would become so vulnerable(being surrounded by England and Norway) I made allegiance with them and joined them in the struggle against Norway, who were rising in power.
I haven't finished yet, but Scotland stands on the brink of destruction and betrayal, and I will grieve for them... they have been through too much. Norway will be a struggle, to fend of alone, knowing that they have the greatest navy and stronger units.
I sometimes feel sympathy for them, making friends, then attacking them, then befriending, then extermination. They only made allegience with me because they knew they couldn't topple my Empire.

Basically I am saying that its fun and somewhat easy swiftly destroying nation after nation with England.

[Haakon]

My latest strategy for Norway (started playing Britannica last night, first time in ages)

I was unable to ally with anyone, I barely got trade agreements. Scotland marches over the border and attacks, and I fend them off each time even though being hopelessly outnumbered. For the first time in a mtw2 game, I relied on light cavalry. My last battle was my 200+ army against Scotlands 700+ and I got a decisive victory. Their army consisting of hoards of spearmen and highlanders as well as archers, mine of (from what I can remember) one unit of huscarl, one unit of sami axemen, two units of crossbow millitia, a few viking raiders and a few svenner. I had the advantage of defence though, I was garrisoned in a castle.

Economy wise I had a +2-700 income for each turn, barely enough to retrain my fallen units in that region north of Iverness. the first wave of reinforcements I received I used to take the rebel Island on the western coast of Scotland. I also uppgraded Arran to a fort as soon as the game started, making it easy to defend.

So all in all I used all my time holding off Scotland, and when king Håkon arrived I raided most of Scotlands larger cities and took and held most of her castles. When William Wallace appeared Scotland has a few villages and one city left. William took Iverness, but for some reason his main army headed south afterwords while he was alone in the castle. With three units I took the castle and killed William. I have now destroyed the Scots and are allied with England. Wales have gotten pretty powerful, they control large parts of the south and they will be my first raiding target as soon as I have built a few blitz raiding forces.

Ireland seems to be doing nothing at all but turtle its way in to power as usual. They are neutral to everyone and only enemies with rebels.

[madrush]

England- greaty heavy infantry and OK heavy cav in the late game, large faction. Hard to maintain.
Ireland- wide verity of infantry but little to start with. Gets stronger in gunpowder age
Norway- STRONGEST faction great infantry and cav through game mediocre gun powder units
Scotland- almost no cav to choose from, must struggle with norway and england
Wales- great archer units and desent cav/infantry units must struggle with englang, almost no gun powder units

I prefer to play Norway, can declare war on anyone and win fast

[2-D Ron]

Noticed how fast England falls apart especially when the Baron's alliance happens.
They're stuck in Castle Forts all over the map and about 2 settlements left before I got to them with Norway.

Gotta love those Gotland Footmen

[madrush]

not for me england always ends up beating the BA

[Muagan_ra]

I find the Irish military to be very good, as it happens. Tough heavy infantry, a decent solid spear unit, standard archers, great cavalry, gunpowder units (including the fabulous Mounted Cavaliermen...) and artillery. What exactly are they lacking?

[madrush]

I find the Irish military to be very good, as it happens. Tough heavy infantry, a decent solid spear unit, standard archers, great cavalry, gunpowder units (including the fabulous Mounted Cavaliermen...) and artillery. What exactly are they lacking?

pikes, like their scots cpunterparts

[Muagan_ra]

pikes, like their scots cpunterparts

Pikes are overrated, never found them to be tremendously useful to be honest.

[madrush]

Pikes are overrated, never found them to be tremendously useful to be honest.

BUT they did tremendous damage to enemy units....from a distance. If you put pikes into a circle and musketeer units in the middle, you can become a god on the battlefield