Easiest factions?

[Vladimir Malikov]

Who do you guys think are the easiest to play? How about the hardest? ^_^

[Gaul]

Ireland is probably one of the hardest. For all around ability, play as France or the HRE.

[PhilipO'Hayda]

Ireland is probably one of the hardest. .

I've played as Ireland and we don't get anything till 1200
so what I did was United Ireland, buy a boat for 1000. put my diplomat and others on it. and wait to get stong.

[Caesar Clivus]

Easiest by far is England. You start with a good castle (Nottingham) and once you take out Scotland and Ireland, you have a nice secure base to build up your economy and your armies before unleashing them on the world.

[Vladimir Malikov]

Ahhhh, I see!

I think the Fatmids may be just as easy as England, for their economy is just massive. O_o

What do you guys think about Sicily, Venice, HRE, Byzantines and Kievan Rus'? I am looking for an interesting campaign to do....

[Caesar Clivus]

Byzantines are very interesting to play. Sandwiched between catholic and muslim nations and bound to be attacked by both make for very interesting campaigns in my experience.

[Kaledon]

I'd mention two of my personal favorites, the Seljuk Sultanate and Lithuania... But they aren't exactly easy factions. Hehe ^_^. Anyway, I'd say that England, Sicily, and Norway/Denmark are some of the easiest factions. They all have the advantage of having a great defensible position to start. As well, they all have generally easy to use troops. Bow focus, infantry focus etc. Takes less experience than a horse archer or light cav faction for instance.

Anyway, if you're looking for an interesting campaign out of the ones you listed... I'd suggest Byzantines. That is mostly due to my preference for eastern factions, though ^_^.

[Awellesley]

I think Norway is also fairly easy. Denmark tends to ignore you (in my experience), letting you take a good portion of Scandinavia. Then-move towards the British Isles or Denmark...and the world is your oyster. Hard factions: Kiev, Ireland, Knights Templar (or KOJ or Crusader States).

Each of the factions you mentioned are interesting for different reasons.
Sicily-you have to expand without upsetting the Pope-which means East towards Byzantium or south-west towards Africa. Either one puts you in the path of a strong opponent.
Venice is probably the strongest of the factions mentioned because they have strong late units and good Italian militia units.
Byzantium is one of my favourites because you will almost inevitably fight Hungary, the Turks, Egypt, Kiev, Venice etc. If you like defending yourself on a diplomatic island, they can be fun.
HRE has similar issues as Denmark, Poland, Venice, Hungary and France are all likely to attack you at some point. However, you are catholic which means some of these foes may get excommunicated-leaving you to ravage their lands with impunity.
Kiev-somewhat isolated with an interesting mix of units that are not overly strong in cities.

[Ichon]

Moors are quite easy as well due to position and divided opponents in Iberia. I actually think Aragon is easy but not sure if everyone would agree but it has strong roster and easy expansion into rebel regions with being isolated away from Moors attacks early by Castile and Portugal.

Easiest-
1. England- position, roster, economy
2. Moors- position, economy
3. Egypt- position, economy
4. Danemark- position, economy
5. Norway- position, economy
6. Aragon- position, roster
7. Sicily- position, roster, economy
8. Novgorod- position
9. France- position and roster
10. Venice- position, roster, easy alliance with Pope

Hardest- more tough to decide as it depends alot how a campaign plays out. The top 5 in the running for hardest are usually...

Lithuania, Teutons, Ireland, Genoa, K-Shah/Byzantines

Cumans and KoJ can be tough as well depending much on how you play the starting turns. Cumans... easy in early era, very hard in late era, almost need a migration unless you preparing for Mongols immediately.

[Vladimir Malikov]

Ahhh I see, thanks for the reply's guys! Another question... I have 6.2, and the only submod usable is the RR/RC mod correct? If someone does not mind, could you please tell me abit about this sub mod? Is it worth it? Does it make the game a lot more difficult? Does it make the AI play smarter in anyway? What exactly does it add? (I checked the submod, and a lot of it is gibberish to me, so if you do not mind abbriviating, that would be great. )

Thank you all for your time!

[Ichon]

Ahhh I see, thanks for the reply's guys! Another question... I have 6.2, and the only submod usable is the RR/RC mod correct? If someone does not mind, could you please tell me abit about this sub mod? Is it worth it? Does it make the game a lot more difficult? Does it make the AI play smarter in anyway? What exactly does it add? (I checked the submod, and a lot of it is gibberish to me, so if you do not mind abbriviating, that would be great. )

Thank you all for your time!

Well there are more submods for 6.2 but RR/RC is the main one. 6.1 has the most submods for sure though.

RR/RC basically makes the better units more difficult to recruit and raises costs for many units as well introduce more unique rosters for most factions. So if you are used to making 8 heavy Cavalry and 10 light cavalry in an army it is almost impossible to do that in RR/RC without a huge empire or playing horse faction.

The units are also phased in and out over time... the first 150 turns or so you get fairly basic units and as you build your cities you can recruit better units but around 1300 the first shift in units away from feudal types to more professional and finally the last shift is pure professional and many gunpowder units. Your basic militia stays constant a long time but if you get some super experienced light men at arms for example eventually that unit won't be able to get retrained as it is considered obsolete. A few other units like that as well...

Mercenary rosters also worked on a bit so what you can recruit and where is thought at as well if you capture regions that produce units you can't normally get, a few of those units are tied to that culture of the region and the new owners can eventually recruit them. So if you are successful in war vs Moors you can eventually recruit camel riders and desert archers in your castles in N Africa.

[Vladimir Malikov]

Sounds very interesting & realistic!I may give this RR/RC thing a go then. ^_^ I actually dislike Cavalry, unless I am Poland, so it works out in the end. ^_^ Hahahaahahahahaha.

Thank you! I would +REP all of you, but I cannot yet... I will not forget though!

[cezarip]

Moors are quite easy as well due to position and divided opponents in Iberia. I actually think Aragon is easy but not sure if everyone would agree but it has strong roster and easy expansion into rebel regions with being isolated away from Moors attacks early by Castile and Portugal.

Easiest-
1. England- position, roster, economy
2. Moors- position, economy
3. Egypt- position, economy
4. Danemark- position, economy
5. Norway- position, economy
6. Aragon- position, roster
7. Sicily- position, roster, economy
8. Novgorod- position
9. France- position and roster
10. Venice- position, roster, easy alliance with Pope

Hardest- more tough to decide as it depends alot how a campaign plays out. The top 5 in the running for hardest are usually...

Lithuania, Teutons, Ireland, Genoa, Castile/Byzantines

K Shah and KoJ can be tough as well depending much on how you play the starting turns. Cumans... easy in early era, very hard in late era, almost need a migration unless you preparing for Mongols immediately.

MM, I do not know about Ireland. When I played it I had it easier as when playing England. The Ostmen Light Infantry annihilate anything England or Scotland can send against you in the early era. Plus the position is very advantageous. Unite Ireland and from there go against England.

[StupidAlarmClockGuy]

The English are probably the easiest to play, for aforementioned reasons.

Hardest faction IMO is the Cuman Khanate, especially in Late Era. You've got some of the least valuable territories in the game since they're not largely settled, you've got to take quite a hike to get from place to place, and being pagan doesn't make it any easier. But back to LE, it's ridiculous for Cumans. You start off with angry Mongols at your doorstep, but unlike Khwarezm you don't have the money to throw around to build up a big army, and you don't have the buildings to get a particularly good army either (and even if you did, how far would it really go?). Plus you don't have any large, starting stacks.

Their roster needs to be expanded & improved a bit, I think.

[Caesar Clivus]

Their roster needs to be expanded & improved a bit, I think.

They have a new roster in the RR/RC compilation.

[Ichon]

The English are probably the easiest to play, for aforementioned reasons.

Hardest faction IMO is the Cuman Khanate, especially in Late Era. You've got some of the least valuable territories in the game since they're not largely settled, you've got to take quite a hike to get from place to place, and being pagan doesn't make it any easier. But back to LE, it's ridiculous for Cumans. You start off with angry Mongols at your doorstep, but unlike Khwarezm you don't have the money to throw around to build up a big army, and you don't have the buildings to get a particularly good army either (and even if you did, how far would it really go?). Plus you don't have any large, starting stacks.

Their roster needs to be expanded & improved a bit, I think.

I think early era Cumans are very easy... rebel regions to expand into quite easily and a long time before any faction takes an interest in you.

The late era is completely different though. Not only Mongols start right on your doorstep but the area to expand into is more developed and different religion which it takes your shamans forever to travel to. I've tried that campaign twice and the first time in late era it was really frustrating... for every city I capture the Mongols take one of mine for a long time and then finally simply the distances and weird AI moving armies inefficiently give some breathing room. The 2nd time I went for Novgorod immediately and it worked better but still it's quite difficult campaign.

[Ichon]

MM, I do not know about Ireland. When I played it I had it easier as when playing England. The Ostmen Light Infantry annihilate anything England or Scotland can send against you in the early era. Plus the position is very advantageous. Unite Ireland and from there go against England.

Well I actually think all of the British isles faction are almost equally easy but I see more threads about what to do with Ireland I assume many people have troubles and it is hard to think which are the most difficult factions since it does depend alot how the campaign goes... sometimes Genoa is really easy as well but other games I've had France and HRE ally and come after me in the first 10 turns. The one time I played Ireland I had Scotland actually land some units right when I started fighting England and that made it more difficult so I put it in there. Also Byz in the early era is usually quite easy... later era is it more difficult.

[Mogons]

If you dislike cavalry, you might like playing as Denmark or Norway. Of the two, Denmark is the easier one, since you can take Hamburg as your first conquest which provides you with a nice defensive strongpoint against the HRE. Your priests can gain rank easily converting Stettin, and you can spend your time conquering the rest of Scandinavia. If you beat Norway to the rest of the north, they'll always attack you at some point, earning them an excommunication most of the time. Then you can wipe them out.

Ireland is much harder, but also infantry/missile instead of cavalry. The one advantage of Ireland is that eventually either Scotland or England is going to get excommunicated for attacking the other, allowing you to make war on that faction and gain a strong foothold on the English island. From that point, it's as easy as playing England, especially if you took Wales early after Dublin.

[akarivn]

I'm playing Kingdom of Heaven Sub Mod as Mongol (The Golden Horde). It's not really hard, but it's tiresome. You must fight all the battles while trying to save every single coin of your poor economy. You start with big money, but by the 10th turn, there won't be half of it left because of upkeep cost only.

So far, England is the easiest faction to play. In the KoH, Jerusalem and Antioch is nice as well. They have some good troops and are loved by all the Catholic World.

[Grouchio]

Has anybody tried playing Hungary? I think it's really fun, especially when you decide to send an army for Volga Bulgaria and fight the cumans!

200th post!