Poland/Hungary: Play Them!

[ZeroCass]

I've never really had much interest in these two nations but I was doing some custom battles and I've got to say: if you're a fan of elite armies, these guys are for you.

Hungary - The lesser of the two nations brings the second most powerful Catholic cavalry unit in the game: The Royal Banderium; with a plated horse, good discipline, 17ap, 20 def, and "very good stamina" it's a Lancer with a shield and more stamina. Simply meaning it can do everything a Lancer can do but they can do more charges and last longer in a melee with out getting tired. Hungary also has a great mounted archer unit, standard DFKs decent spearmen and of course, the Battlefield Assassin which is a pretty tremendous defensive unit. Plus, they get crossbowmen.

Poland - The most elite roster I've ever seen and I'm surprised I discovered this only recently. For starters, their spearmen are beast. Fully upgraded the Dismounted Polish Noble is 11-18-3 with "Good Stamina". While lacking in dismounted ranged units, they have 3 mounted missiles, one of which is the equivalent of a Spanish Jinete. Onto the second most attractive unit the Poles have to offer, the Dismounted Polish Knight: A Dismounted Chivalric Knight on steroids, these guys are better armored and kills things faster. Fully upgraded DPKs are 17-26-3. Lastly, the Poles have the most diverse and effective cavalry roster in the game. Even their light cavalry are jacked up on something crazy and their Polish Guard is arguably the best cavalry unit in the game outside of elephants (which in my opinion aren't cavalry, they're hacks). They're 1 defence point more valuable than the Hungarian Banderium mentioned above but they look helluva lot cooler.

Once you stomach the early years of terrible units, and terrible missiles, you get the best units in the game. Plus, you're smack in the middle of the map so you can basically ignore other Catholic nations if you want. Pretty fun times

[k_Apollo]

Yeah, you're right, but I prefer Hungary, they just rock, and I like their position .

[{GrailKnight}]

They're good but they don't have good missle units, if they had muskets they would be perfect.

[Goofy]

They're good but they don't have good missle units, if they had muskets they would be perfect.

100% sure that mounted javelinmen are more effective. Although they don't make the enemy to fear.

Poland

+supreme heavy cavalry
+quite good missile cavalry
+serpentines
+good chances of expanding to north

-quite poor infantry


Hungary

+excellent horse archers
+good infantry
+good heavy cavalry (Royal Banderium)
+great light 2H troops
+has good crossbowmen
+serpentines
+hussars (one of the best light cavalry units in the game)
+spies and diplomats from castles

-poor starting position

There it is shortly.

[Aristarchus]

Yeah, you're right, but I prefer Hungary, they just rock, and I like their position .

Except I get tired of looking at those guy in their funny pointy caps!

[Silent Assassin]

PLaying with them was my best campaign, I have done the campaign objectives by holding only 13 regions. How will you say? Vassals my friends and more than one I had Venice, Sicily, HRE, Bysantines and the Turks as my Vassals. So my 5 vassals controlled 32 regions and I 13 and won my campaign

[{GrailKnight}]

Russian Tsar's Guard beat Polish Guard, so i wouldn't say they are the best, very effective though

[ZeroCass]

Russian Tsar's Guard beat Polish Guard, so i wouldn't say they are the best, very effective though

Russian Tsar's Guard beats Polish Guards in cavalry combat but the Polish Guard is still better at what cavalry is made for: charging and destroying infantry and archers. Tsar's Guard may be the best hand-to-hand cavalry in the game but it's 5 charge bonus makes them far from the best chargers.

p.s. My current Polish campaign is being ruined by the Mongolians who have decided to wander around Sarkel (sp?), the South-Eastern most Russian region, instead of taking Antioch like the usually do.

[Kolokotrones]

Yeah Hungarians are awesome. They have excellent and fast cavalry, they can pretty much whip the much slower Germans and French, not to mention factions that don't even have good cavalry, then I just Mongol them. By that I mean I run circles in front of their spearmen firing arrows into them, since they can't do anything about it without sufficient cavalry.

[Fakir]

Polish Nobles are especially effective against the HRE, who rely heavily on armour.

[Imperator Romani]

English swordsmen are definetly the most cost effecient unit in the game. Same as DFK's with one better attack(yea, they're better than DFK's), and only for, wait for it, 170 upkeep. Just pay 40 extra during recruitment, same abilities(you know, bonus in snow, good morale, etc).

Kinda off topic I know, but we were talking about elite armies, and that's England.

[ZeroCass]

English swordsmen are definetly the most cost effecient unit in the game. Same as DFK's with one better attack(yea, they're better than DFK's), and only for, wait for it, 170 upkeep. Just pay 40 extra during recruitment, same abilities(you know, bonus in snow, good morale, etc).

Kinda off topic I know, but we were talking about elite armies, and that's England.

English Armored Swordsmen were my choice for best European infantry until I discovered Dismounted Polish Knights; fresh recruits were pretty much evenly matched with the silver chevron Mongolian infantry units. I do miss having archers that can actually kill things though

[guyyug]

Armoured Swordsmen are praticaly the same in everyway to DPK in stats, with the swordsmen having 150 upkeep and DPK with 225.

Not sure what it would be like with upgrades.

[Fakir]

Yes, that was indeed off-topic.

[{GrailKnight}]

I wish that Hungary had Serbian Knights and/or Serbian Hussars as their mercenary units for custom battles so i could use them for multiplayer, stil it's a good faction, i defeated a russian player with hungary, the odds were in his favor with superior troops but i outmanuavered him

[Theseus1234]

Poland's Roster is great. All-in-all it's strong all around, although there is a noticeable emphasis on cavalry. The one problem I have with Poland is the position on the campaign. You must quickly rush to grab territory from the HRE and possible Denmark, then rush to Hungary's border, and then finally Russia. The choice of enemy is pretty limited to Russia since the others are all catholic and you get to the really spread out annoying territories that no one likes

[SoulBlade]

You can ally with the Hungarian =P

[Rilsaur]

Hungary is my second favorite faction, second only to Russia

[death2u4519]

I am new to this, I have always played as the Western European factions. I'm used to strong reliable cavelry with outstanding charges, heavily armoured infantry, and advanced technoligy and gunpowder.

I am peticurly enjoying my Polish campaign I started earlier today after reading this thread, I love the Polish knighrs and sctrag or something like that is my favorite mounted ranged unit now, It is absolutely perfect for me. (fully upgraded as I have it now) It has mail armour, crossbows that are armour piercing, great stamina, very decent hand to hand combat for how early it comes along and design which is hit-and run speed tactics, and most importantly, I am part Viking and just LOVE that their melee wepon is an armour piercing DANISH AXE!

[SoulBlade]

Strzelcy, yeah they're cool indeed, silver armor and 1-2 silver chevrons own every DFK @ss.