Top 5 Hardest/Easiest Factions

[AchillesXX]

Heading says it all. Personally, I find it easier to pick hard factions than easy ones. Feel free to disagree. I haven't even played a campaign with all of these factions, so I could be wrong.

Hardest:
1. Armenia
2. Bactria
3. Pontus?
4. Thrace?
5. Gual?

Easiest:
1. GCS
2. Macedonions? (easy after first couple of years?)
3. Carthage (rubish soldiers, but great location)
4. Romans (hard start, but easy afterwards)
5. Seleucids (I found the campaign easy by focusing on the western half at the expense of the east)

[TM Is Back]

Well....

H1-5
Armenia, Bactria, Pontus, Saba, Iberia

E1-5
Romans, GCS, Macedon, Carthage, Trace

[death to the romans]

that's very encouraging my armenia campaign
but it is a hard faction, I agree with that.

hardest:
armenia, bactria, iberia, saba, pontus

[TM Is Back]

I don't say Armenia is hardest They are all the same for me. It just depends on how the AI is behaving in every campaign. That depends the difficulty.

[silentsam74]

I don't say Armenia is hardest They are all the same for me. It just depends on how the AI is behaving in every campaign. That depends the difficulty.

Thats probably the best answer. Also, any campaign can be won with the correct level of management. I had a Bactrian campaign in which I was eaten alive. The next attempt I was better prepared and had captured every territory north to south from the easternmost border up to Seleucia.

hardest:
armenia, carthage, iberia, ptolomies, pontus

easiest:
Romans, GCS, Macedon, Germania, Gaul

[_Lacedaemonian_]

They are all the same for me. It just depends on how the AI is behaving in every campaign. That depends the difficulty.

Agreed.

Hardest (tested on VH/VH settings):

1)Armenia
2)Bactria
3)Pontus
4)Seleucids
5)Romans
6)Saba

Easiest (tested on VH/VH settings):

1)Macedons
2)Ptolemies
3)Greek city states
4)Carthage
5)Parthia
6)Iberia

The rest I haven't tried em, so I have no opinion.

[Lord Dakier]

Wow Armenia and Bactria are my favourite factions lol. Bactria just get swallowed and need continuos defence in sieges atleast until they occupy furhter lands. Armenia I have not used much in XGM. Infact I'm going to start my journey on Baktria. It is going to be a DiD (Dead is Dead) story based from the perspective Perseus. The 10 year old grandson to the faction leader at the start. He leads my battles.

With Bactria though the problem is generals. You dont get an adoption very often and Perseus last time I was Bactria had two girls I think. I like to keep the thrown in the bloodline.

[Publius Quirinus]

If I'm allowed to include provincial campaign factions:

Hardest:
1) Massilia (Gauls and Iberians first, then Rome. Ouch.)
2) Bosphorans (attacks from both Scythia and Thrace can wear you down)
3) Baktria (hordes of Seleucid phalanxes and Parthian horse javelins. And eastern towns everywhere.)
4) Pontus
5) Armenia

Easiest:
1) Pergamon (solid financial core, multiple 'easy' targets-- either Macedonians, or Seleucids and Pontus in Asia Minor)
2) GCS (Greece is rich. Plus Spartans.)
3) Macedonians (the Gallic horde at the start is pretty much the only difficulty hiccup in an otherwise easy campaign)
4) Saba/Cyrenaica (take Egypt = win)
5) Germania (okay, I never played this past the 250 BC mark, but no early opponents, plus cheap armor-piercing troops :o )

This is me playing on M/M and reduced reduced bonuses, though.

[13lackGu4rd]

I agree with you that Germania is very easy. you have a huge territory to expand into, from Eastern France Scandinavia and into the Western Steppes. to the South you can get pretty close to Italy while still only fighting rebels. than when you finally engage against the Romans you have your armor piercing troops which just tear the Roman armored units apart. especially your Skirmishers that have armor piercing maces once their javelins have been thrown, and of course the various axe wieldiers.

I found Syracuse to be very easy as well, once you drive the Carthaginians and GCS out of Sicilly you're free to expand anywhere you wish. mainland Greece, mainland Italy, Anatolia(modern day Turkey), North Africa, etc. either way you choose to go you will engage against enemies already fighting other more "serious" opponements so your path should be clear, at least in the begining of your invasion, which gives you plenty of time to set up your economy along those newly conquered cities. than Hoplite defense can hold off any number of enemies, V shape right outside the Gate and any other place enemy rams are headed to(assuming walls are below Stone Wall). if you insist on getting Stone Wall and up than you'll need more Archers and use your Syracuse and Sicillian Hoplites(those that cant use Phalanx Formation) on the walls or just fight in the streets.

I'm surprised all of you rate Rome as an easy faction, seeing as the begining of the campaign is pretty tough, right from the get go you've got Pyrrus, Gauls and the Roman Rebels, than Carthaginian stacks landing on your shores and than depends on where you choose to expand you aquire more and more new and usually powerful enemies.

Carthage can go both ways, depends if you wish to fight the Romans early and defend your island cities(can be very tough when the Romans land their stacks on your tiny islands) or if you give up some of those islands to Rome and focus on Iberia or Africa. sometimes Rome will be satisfied with a few islands of yours and will leave you alone afterwards, sometimes they'll try and go for Carthage once they get those islands. also losing those islands will hurt your economy, and despite it being strong you have a lot of cities to develop and not that much money early on...

Egypt has a very tough battle with the Seleucids early, and depending on how well you did there your campaign can be very easy or very tough. the Seleucid Elephants can really devastate your armies if they survive the initial battle, and than you can be screwed, if not than you can mass up your armies and blitz the Seleucids who scattered across a huge area, hence will have trouble defending against you if you focus all your forces there.

also I have no idea why you guys rate the Sabians as hard :o in the begining you only fight rebels, than you can go for either Egypt of Carthage while they'll be busy elsewhere and catch them with their pants down. once you capture their key cities they'll be devastated, and finishing them off should be easy. also you start at a very resource rich area so your economy will be booming right from the start.

[Spartan198]

I agree with you that Germania is very easy. you have a huge territory to expand into, from Eastern France Scandinavia and into the Western Steppes. to the South you can get pretty close to Italy while still only fighting rebels. than when you finally engage against the Romans you have your armor piercing troops which just tear the Roman armored units apart. especially your Skirmishers that have armor piercing maces once their javelins have been thrown, and of course the various axe wieldiers.

As far as Germania vs Rome goes, there are 3 critical passes between Italy and Europe that you can blockade and essentially cut the Romans off from expanding northward.

[Barend]

Egypt has a very tough battle with the Seleucids early, and depending on how well you did there your campaign can be very easy or very tough. the Seleucid Elephants can really devastate your armies if they survive the initial battle, and than you can be screwed, if not than you can mass up your armies and blitz the Seleucids who scattered across a huge area, hence will have trouble defending against you if you focus all your forces there.

I just started a new Ptolemaic campaign, and found it rather easy. TSE moved it's starting army in Antioch (with the elephants) to somewhere else, and I invaded Antioch, Damascus and Tarsus with so many spies that all he gates were opened. I'm still waiting for the Seleucids to come back with many troops, so everything is going very smoothly.

I also found the Armenian campaign not that difficult. You can defend against the TSE by blocking bridges and take Pontus in the same time. When you have done that, just move to Antioch and Seleucia and you're set.

[TM Is Back]

Well, the problem with Saba is that capturing the key cities of PTE and TSE is the hard thing Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia all have the garrison script. The army that it spawns is far stronger then anything you can put on the field. You really have to use all your skills for Saba. Of course if you use spies to pass the script, the campaign looses it's difficulty. Btw.. booming economy? I don't know how hard your playing but on H/H, even my economical way of playing does not let my economy "booming".

[AchillesXX]

Booming my Saba economy isn't. I am playing on VH/VH (see my AAR I will update in the next hour or so). I control the EK cities in Africa and I control all of Arabia. I can barely support one full stack and one 2/3 stack. They are seperated on either end of Arabia trying to hold off my neighbor's expansion. Yeah, I would say I am poor at the moment.

[Scutarii]

Easy: GCS, Maks, Scythia (HA spam is so easy), Partha (ditto), Carthage (still my favourite)

Hardest: If we're not including provincials: Pontus, Armenia, TSE (the sheer management nightmare at the start is hard enough to prevent me from trying them), Baktria, and maybe Saba for a lack of a better answer.

If we do include them, I'd say Massalia is the hardest, then Cyreneica, then Pontus, Armenia, TSE.

[magraev]

I play with Bactria at the moment, and they are quite hard I think. Apart from being landlocked in eastern terrirory the infantry-options at a later date seem particularily poor - no elite phalanx, no swordmen. Why don't they get en equivalent to armored phalangites, hypaspists or silver shields?

[death to the romans]

because historically they hadn't any elite phalanx (there aren't any sources that give a note nof them). as swordsmen they could have used Indians, as the greeks favour the spear over the sword.

[magraev]

Well the game isn't only about historically correct depiction of events. That would make for a boring game indeed, with the same winner every time - Rome. I've seen other mods (RTR to name one) where hypaspist swordsmen are available to all successor-states.

I just think, that if bactria managed to develop huge cities and barracks, why shouldn't they be capable of producing elite phalangites - like Greek City States, Seleucia, Macedon, Egypt and even Pontus can. It's just annoying. About elite swordsmen I'm not so adamant - I like the agema hoplites just fine, coupled with thorakitai. When that is said the only other phalanx-based nation that doesn't have swordsmen are Egypt (i think).