What are (in your opinion) the Best 5 Factions in the game!

[penquin11]

Simply put the question is what are the best 5 factions in MTW2 or Kingdoms (or any any mod)
Let the Voting Begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Vampire1016]

Byzantines!!!!

[PlPs]

1-I think Turks are the best. their cavalry forces are excellent and Janissary corps are the best (Musketeers archers and heavy infantry)
2-Mongols, they have great cavalry and archer units
3-Timurids, they have great cavalry and archer units
4-Byzantine, their mercenary forces (I mean non-Byzantine ethnically forces) Vardariotai, Varangian Guards etc. are really good
5-Holy Roman Empire, their armors really good all of Hre units have good armor points

[Theseus1234]

In no particular order:

1 - Milan/Genoa, because crossbows > archers and Italian city states rule.
2 - Denmark, because their units are great for a heavy infantry guy like me, and their cavalry are decent. Very good all-around mix of units, both early and late in the game.
3 - Poland. The first faction to really open me up to horse archers and their potential. Their infantry is also decent, so after this point I began to mix my armies more towards a balance, and less towards infantry.
4 - Novogord, because it's like Poland and Denmark combined.
5 - Aragon. The Iberian factions really turned me off because of their emphasis on javelins, but then I got interested in Aragon as an underrated faction. I recently fell in love with them and started an AAR with them (in the sig if you want to check it out). What I like about Aragon is that they have the prime Iberian javeliners (Almughavars) but also strong cavalry (Gendarmes) and infantry (Dismounted Knights of Montesa, other Iberian infantry, and Basque archers). In fact, their only weakness seems to be their position and their lack of early-period spears.

[spH3RiCal]

For SS 6.2
Byzantines - My favorite faction, great armies, great position.
KoJ- 4 words. "Cannons of Holy Sepulcher"
Ireland - I just like them. They stay on their island and dont harm anyone, good peaceful lads..
Turks - Damned horse archers.. Always a problem when playing with Byzantines.
Novgorod - Awesome unit's design (in SS 6.2)

[Kripox]

Anything with extreme horse archers. There's no getting away from it, HA heavy armies are the best in open battles. Wish the heavy cavalry and the heavy footsloggers performed the best, but I can live with it. At least heavy inf is king in sieges.

For my favorites:

France: best selection of Western Knights, the coolest guys of the period, along with a varied roster that has top notch late infantry, superior archers to England, xbows on the level of the Genoese or better, lots of artillery, Voulgiers and other goodness. I also like the campaign, and I have a love for them as they were my first try at M2TW. Only game I really love those Frenchmen.

Norway: a mix of patriotic fervor, love of Vikings and a preference of big burly blonds with huge axes, along with a very enjoyable campaign in both SS and Kingdoms seals the deal.

Scotland: highlanders, uber pikes and the ability to squash England right off the bat appeals to me.

Portugal: extremely powerful non-HA faction.

Venice/Milan/Genoa/Sicily/Papal States: I don't know exactly what I see in the Italian factions, but I love them all. Norman Knights, Venetian Heavy Infantry, Swiss Guard and Genoese Crossbowmen are my favorite units from the peninsula.

[micheljq]

1. France, good start position, low quality troops at the beginning but will get superb troops like the Scots Guard for example, who can match the english longbowmen.
2. England, one of the best starting positions, a lot of longbowmen and available soon. Good infantry like the billmen, etc.
3. Holy Roman Empire, bad quality troops at the beginning but 5 regions to start and later high quality troops.
4. Mongols, unstoppable war machine, they chrushed me once.
5. Timurids, another dangerous horde.

[Paladin94610]

England - I loved those longbowmen since I play AoE II and even more when I read about English victory at Agincourt.
HRE - One of a few factions that gain acess to gunpowder cavalry. And it is a great figure in Medieval world. And they have lovely Teutonic knights.
Venice and Genoa(Milan) - Good trading empires which prefer urban armies instead of feudal ones.
Spain - I have to apply a very different style of European warfare in early game. ( Use of javelins is very prominent in Iberia)

[total war lover]

why can't i vote on this poll?

I think the best 5 five factions are:
-England:great longbowmen and a strong variaty of infantry
-Byzantium:good variaty of units and good starting position
-Turks:excellent horse archers
-Russia:just a cool faction
-Venice:good late period units

[k_Apollo]

Sicily: I just love how you start. You can just do almost everything. Go to Spain and try to get a rebel settlement, just get Tunis and the islands near you, going into Italy... Of course Vikings OWN .

England: I played Age of Empires II way too much some years ago, and here the longbowmen also kick ass . England is a great allrounder. I played them in my first game of M2TW .

The Turks: I just love to play with their troops and start so close to Antioch, Adana & Aleppo. The challenge is just great. Backstabbing Egypt, Byzantium, crusaders and hordes to keep off.

Moors: I loooooove Timbuktu/Jihad-playing. They're just so pro. Camel Gunners, enough said .
My second campaign I played, was a tough one, as I got crusaded all the time for killing Spain & Portugal and Milan & France were banging at the borders all the time.

Eastern-European factions:
Hungary/Poland/Russia; great troops, great place to start, just fun

(Denmark
Infantry & their Archers. Those archers are some heavy inf basicly.

England - I loved those longbowmen since I play AoE II and even more when I read about English victory at Agincourt.
HRE - One of a few factions that gain acess to gunpowder cavalry. And it is a great figure in Medieval world. And they have lovely Teutonic knights.
Venice and Genoa(Milan) - Good trading empires which prefer urban armies instead of feudal ones.
Spain - I have to apply a very different style of European warfare in early game. ( Use of javelins is very prominent in Iberia)

Haha, AoE II ftw , by the way, just play Regicide instead of campaigns

[Old Geezer]

I see not many have played as Poland or Portugal. Or, if they did, they were not very cognizant of the power of these two factions.

[RollingWave]

In the context of vanilla it's Moors / Russia / Turks / Egypt / England

For SS, the 3 faction I played extensively were Moors / Lithuania / Cuman.

[King Of Scotland]

1. Scotland
2. Scotland
3. Scotland
4. Scotland
5. Scotland