Help me choose my first 6.2 faction.

[Concrete]

Greetings neighbours.
I've downloaded SS 6.2, and will play it in a few days(when I get my computer back).
Have enjoyed 6.1 for the short while since I discovered SS, won long campagins as both the Templars and Teutonic knights on vh/vh... but I digress.
Where were we?
Ah yes, make a deal.
Anyways: As I'm moving up to 6.2, I presume that voids my saves(which doesn't matter even if it carries on saves, I wont lose anything spectacular, and I want to start fresh).
As I prefer Early era, that is what I shall choose from.
My favorite choices at this point in time are:
(In no particular order)
Sicily.
ERE.
Khwarezmian.
Norway/Denmark. (I'm thinking Norway, but I don't know the differences between them and Denmark(if any) except starting position)
Kievan Rus.
- So they are factions who aren't particuarly difficult. Which will help with the hike up in difficulty.
Furthermore, they are more or less factions which are new to me. (Having never played Khwarezmian, any of the Italians or the Byzantines(even in vannilla), and only having played Denmark and Russia in vanilla.)
So the task I ask of you, fellow SS players, is to alleviate my ignorance.
Of the factions stated above. (Once again: Kiev - ERE -Khwarezmian -Sicily -Norway/Denmark)
Might the kind community answer my many questions.
1) Might people elaborate on the military forces of the aforementioned factions?
(How cavalry/HA concentrated is Kiev)
(Are the Byzantines really that good early/bad late(being quite good and quite bad respectively))
(Just a complete elaboration on Khwarezmian armies)
(Is Sicily as milita/city reliant as Genoa and Venice? (Not including Norman Knights of course)
(How are cavalry and ranged for Norway and Denmark? And more importantly; besides starting location, how different are the two?)
2) A simple overview of these factions, starting location(early era), military strength through the eras, etc. etc.

A great many questions to answer, but if one person merely answers one part(and asking for more is rude), then I shall greatly appreciate it.
If you've any questions to ask me, then shoot, I'll be here(every now and then).
Cheers in advance.
- Turkey.

[meese]

I'll just comment on Sicily and the Scandanavians. Note that I play with RR/RC which has 6.2 in it.

Sicily -
What sets sicily apart from the other Italians is probably their stronger early roster and position. Sicily is pretty easy to defend (I've never actually been attacked there) and you're free to attack pretty much anywhere via the ocean - Greece, Africa, Holy Lands - while being pretty sure that the rest of Italy won't come down stomping on you (they're busy fighting their own wars). In fact, if you want, you could even go up and take over Italy which would secure your income. So basically their position (and thus economy) is almost as good as it gets.

Militarily, they're stronger than the others early on. They have the norman knights and muslim archers to back up the standard armoured spearmen/light swordsmen and it works really well. From the cities they're just like any other italian. As to whether or not they're militia reliant..I'd say it's about the same. You can only recruit so many units from the castles after all, and your militias are pretty good so you may as well use them well. Later on, the sicilian roster falls a bit short compared to venice but you do have access to the sword and buckler men which make good light infantry. Aragon and Spain are the only other factions that can recruit them. All in all, sicily starts strong then ends up being pretty standard.

Norway/Denmark -
if we start with the differences between the two, I'd say the only major difference is how you start off, and even this is negligible. Norway starts off with a castle whereas denmark starts with cities. Norway may face a sea invasion from the british isles (it has happened before!) whereas denmark has the HRE to contend with. But really, as either of the two, your goal will be to eliminate the other so it doesn't really matter.

Unit-wise, you probably know they have good infantry. Archer-wise, they're pretty terrible but with an AoR system you can probably recruit longbowmen from england (I can anyway). In terms of cavalry, they're pretty average. The huscarls are armour piercing but have far less armour than feudal knights and I've often found the huscarls on the losing side, but you should be able to recruti feudals anyway. I suppose one great thing about these two factions is that you're able to recruit the war clerics (both dismounted and mounted) from cities and they're really good. In all, they scale through the eras pretty well, the danes picking up the obudshaer halberdiers, but like sicily do better early on when the vikings are at their peak. A must-do is to get rid of the french and germans because lancers and gothic knights will be your ruin.

[Abyrvalg]

Greetings neighbours.

Greetings, Supreme Turkey Lord

As I prefer Early era, that is what I shall choose from.
My favorite choices at this point in time are:
(In no particular order)
Sicily.
ERE.
Khwarezmian.
Norway/Denmark. (I'm thinking Norway, but I don't know the differences between them and Denmark(if any) except starting position)

Kievan Rus.

Well, it is not advertising, but...
If you like Byzantine, you MUST (of course, in my opinion) install RR/RC, since it has excellent CBUR (Complete Byzantine Unit Roster), otherwise you'll play with old stupid vanilla units.
Believe me, units in CBUR are one of the best ever created by any mod's teams . And it is not just mod with new models, it is historically accurate roster for this faction.

If you want to play Khwarezm, again, you MUST install RR/RC since Khwarezm will inevitably encounter Mongols, and RR/RC has excellent (again, yes ) Mongol units from Rusichi mod instead vanilla ones.

And if you want to play Kievan - again RR/RC because of (again!) Rusichi units, now for Russian factions.

And, I repeat, units in RR/RC are not just new models on battlefield, PB did a lot of work to make faction's rosters historically accurate and balanced same time (it is not easy work). All factions, not just aforementioned ones

(Are the Byzantines really that good early/bad late(being quite good and quite bad respectively))

Well, I'll talk about RR/RC, can't remember how it is in vanilla SS.
Yes, their units are good early, because Byz has both good heavy cavalry and missile cavalry and has decent infantry. Although main early Byz ploblem is a lot territories to defend, and even with huge income from Constantinople your army will eat tons and tons of money, forcing you to conquer more and, in turn, to defend more again
Later their units become obsolete in terms of stats, and you should develop new tactics for old units of suffer military defeats.
It is historically accurate.

(How are cavalry and ranged for Norway and Denmark? And more importantly; besides starting location, how different are the two?)

In short, they are better with infantry than with cavalry.
They have a lot of AP infantry, most units are well armored. Therefore, this factions rock at sieges and in prolonged melee If you as commander will be successful in stopping enemy charge, these descendants of vikings will chop a lot of knights for you
In RR/RC, IIRC, Norway lacks some cavalry in mid-game but has better artillery later.
Nord archers are actually melee infantry with bows, but thanks to their armor they still could surprise enemy archers.

In terms of cavalry, they're pretty average. The huscarls are armour piercing but have far less armour than feudal knights and I've often found the huscarls on the losing side

Lol, I never bothered to recruit them. With their low charge value they should be used as melee cavalry but they lack armor for this task.
I don't know, may be someone was more successful with this unit.

[meese]

Lol, I never bothered to recruit them. With their low charge value they should be used as melee cavalry but they lack armor for this task.
I don't know, may be someone was more successful with this unit.

Heh..I only used them just so I could have a few more cavalry units because the feudals have such a low replenishment rate. The dismounted huscarls are nice though

And I guess RR/RC is more of a flavour kind of mod. Some love it, some don't. You might be able to download the smaller mods included in the compilation but they might not be compatible with each other

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Following the endorsement example of others here....Sicily...FTW...Max out the Armour on your Italian Militia and ground the rest of Europe into the ground. Your Norman knights will ensure nothing gets past your city walls. If your going for max difficulty, beware the Pontiff and place him somewhere safe like Innsbruck after you take Rome. good luck let us know how it goes and throw in a few pics if you can...

[Concrete]

I'd love to, and will do.(Screenshots that is.)
I'll probably get to play on Saturday, (would be friday, but friends and I are going to town, I'm buying and am going to take up the guitar. )
I've always wanted to play an Italian faction, others just took precedence over them. (Plus, I don't like Venice's starting position awfully much, and Genoa... lets just say I played as France once.)
Khwarezmians interest me alot, I'll certainly get around to playing them at some point. I'd just like to know their ins and outs better. (Although my ignorance of the faction doesn't mean that I don't know about the Mongol invasion. )
Byzantines also interest me alot, they strike me as quite different from most other factions. And having an early game advantage, should balance out all those people who want you dead, which keeps it from getting boring anyway.
Norway and Denmark sound like fun, as I love infantry. But... I don't think they would be a blast against the eastern european factions.
Which leads me to Kiev, which I only wanted to play for HA spa- uh, I mean...
No, Kiev sounds fine, without a need to abuse the ai with HA.

[Concrete]

Cheers for the information so far.
I might have a looksie at RR/RC, but the changes don't seem too appealing.

[meese]

Heh..the Khwarezmians are meant to be one of the harder factions because of the mongols and even harder with RR/RC because of the Timurids

[JorisofHolland]

Denmark and Norway have very few differences, I believe Norway has King's Hirdsmen and Denmark doesn't. Norway starts with a bad economy, but if you take Groningen and Flanders, you'll have that problem solved in no-time. Denmark has a better economy, but there are no castles in the area (only a few wooden castles) unless you assault Hamburg and thus the HRE, which might be fatal in early game.

I also strongly recommend that you upgrade to RR/RC, although the choice is yours, of course

[Concrete]

Bah, you've got me, I'll download RR/RC, as I've heard nothing but good things.
And if it doesn't work out then I'll simply remove it.

[meese]

The Hirdsmen simply can't compete with the Obudshaer in my opinion When they (hirdsmen) are available, so are dismounted feudal knights. Granted, the latter are worse but not by much. Yet there are no other halberdiers available when the obudshaer enter the fray and unlike the viking axemen, obudshaer can hold the line -very- well.

Anyway, here's a taste of viking strength in the latter stages of the game!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Have fun with RR/RC!

[PerXX]

the Obudshær are awesome!
Generally I prefer Denmark over Norway (but then again, I'm danish, so I'm a bit biased ). They've got some pretty awesome infantry available at all times. Viking raiders, Huscarls, Viking swordsmen and axemen early on. Later, Men at arms, Halberd men at arms, and Obudshær available at castles, and also good city units - Swordstaff Militia, the armored priests, and handgunners.
With a templar/hospitaller guild, and a foothold in England for Longbowmen, you've got your weaknesses - cavalry and archers, well covered.
Very importantly though, rename Arhus to either Århus, or atleast Aarhus!

[JorisofHolland]

Denmark is way better than Norway. That's why Norway is so much fun to play
Lemme explain that to you. Playing as Norway, you will quickly reach your best units. Whilst this gives you a temporarily advantage, other factions will continue advancing, gaining better units. So one day your mail-clad hirdsmen will have to fight pikemen formations. This adds to challenge, because you'll either loose more men (if you're unlucky) or you'll have to employ more men (which comes down on the same).

[Halbard]

England is quite fun. Longbowmen FTW!!!

[gluteus maximus aurelius]

The Kwazzies are awesome!! In early campaign you have plenty of rebel settlements to gobble up before taking on either the Fatimids or the Turks and then becoming a superpower. Your units are great, although some claim they're far too similar to Western factions and are therefore dull. They have great infantry, particularly the dismounted ghulams who have AP ability and will thrash most other melee inf into a pulpous mass. You get some pretty decent heavy cav too and some good heavy horsearchers, the only thing they lack is good gunpowder units (if thats the sort of thing you're into). All in all, pretty awesome. The only thing you have to worry about is the appearance(s) of the Mongols, but you have all the units you need to balls them up, and once they're gone you're free to carry on rampaging through Europe. I think the Timurids also appear in 6.2 so you may also have to watch out for them, with they're deadly elephant artillery and silly beards

[Darkie]

Go for england! Why? You're on an island, scotland is easy to conquer. You don't need a big military force in the beginning to survive and the units are awesome. English knights, Heavy swordsmen, Retinu longbowmen etc.

[Fremen Jones]

Go for england! Why? You're on an island, scotland is easy to conquer. You don't need a big military force in the beginning to survive and the units are awesome. English knights, Heavy swordsmen, Retinu longbowmen etc.

As first faction I should also take England .. A great way to learn playing ..

Do you have much experience playing M2?

[Gogolometro]

If have a bit trust can start Venice. Is hard to fight with greeks at start but will be intersting to make the republic a colonial force. In terms of troops nothing to worry, they got all, archers, xbows, cavalry and infantry. No problem here. No problem in using militia or castle pro troops. They get tech fast, money and no potential friends but many enemies. If you will dominate balkans and Italy, nothing will stand in your way.

[JorisofHolland]

I think the Timurids also appear in 6.2 so you may also have to watch out for them, with they're deadly elephant artillery and silly beards

RR/RC includes the Timurids in the favor of Ireland, in 6.2 there still is Ireland.

[soulson]

Venice is a fun faction. I always stay on the good side of the HRE, keeping trade with them will give Venice way more money needed to fight the Greeks.