Hardest and Easiest faction to play as?

[King Otter]

What are the hardest and easiest factions to play as? And I might as well ask what are your favorites

[Avatar]

Totally depends on your playstyle, but England is never a hard faction to use, since they get sick longbow units quite quickly. I'm always wary of playing factions that start around the holy lands, not because of crusades but because of impending mongols and timurids.

[King Of Scotland]

England is the easiest Scotland is hardest e.g - play Scotland.

[Lennert]

Don't you ever get tired of bashing England? It gets old real fast..

Nothing is hard in vanilla, but my favourites are Russia and Portugal so far. Currently playing as Milan on VH/VH and that's a lot of fun aswell, not actually very hard though..

I haven't played as the Turks yet, but I will play as them next and I reckon they are awsome and quite hard because of it's position on the map.

[Silverheart]

Easiest would be either England or Venice, depending on how you prefer to play, since they both get really strong units and have at least one good defensive position from the start.

Hardest is, in my opinion, the Turks or the Byzantine Empire.
They both have lousy starting positions and are surrounded by guaranteed enemies (Byzantines have Turks, Venice and Hungary - Turks have Byzantines, Egypt, Russia and both the Hordes).

But, like Lennert said, nothing is really that hard in Vanilla, only in comparison to the really easy ones...

[Fireright]

Aye, England & Venice probably easiest all things considered, and the Turks one of the hardest. Groovy units but tricky positions. I recall the Turks being rated as hard in Med1 so it's probably the same category for Med2.
Just thinking, wonder they dumped the ratings for Med2?

[Hupsel]

Venice, easy?!?! Your kingdom is divided, you got loads of enemies all over the place, from which 2 field very powerfull horse archer tho which you have no counter in early game.
I would list Turks as hardest faction to play, together with the Byzantines I think. I find England, Scotland and Denmark all very easy to play.

[shikaka]

Venice, easy?!?! Your kingdom is divided, you got loads of enemies all over the place, from which 2 field very powerfull horse archer tho which you have no counter in early game.

But you also get the best militia units in the game from cities, super-wealthy cities, easily defeated enemy who holds super-wealthy lands (Milan), and you main target, who you have to kill for victory (romans) is targeted by turks and hungarians (and sometimes Sicily).

I think Venice is the most noob-friendly country to use, tied maybe with England.



Easiest is England or Venice, hardest (not actually hard) are the Turks. For new players every faction relying on horse archery could be hard.

[Somerandomdude2]

England, Scotland and Denmark all have very secure starting positions. England or Scotland will wipe out their enemy very quickly and have a relatively uncontested British Isles (yeah, it does get invaded every now and then, but this is so much easier to defend against than when the enemy can just march across your borders on land). Denmark has Hamburg fortifying their position, and they're expanding into the British Isles 9 times out of 10 anyway and becoming more secure.
Only comparably safe location is Iberia, but conquering all of that is a lot messier and more time consuming.

Once you've got a secure location to build up in (meanwhile every other faction is beating each other senseless), it's pretty hard to lose.

Hardest in my opinion is HRE. Being surrounded by enemies sucks. France is in a similar situation but anything coming from Iberia or Italy is at a massive disadvantage fighting on French turf (having to travel through mountains, only to run into castles), and England isn't that much of a threat on flat ground, especially when they have, at best, a weak foothold on the mainland. Byzantines are surrounded by enemies but have Constantinople, which is strategically awesome. Milan/Venice taking each other out early gives them a pretty safe spot too, and the same story goes for most factions, but poor old HRE is stuck surrounded by war.
Granted that eastern factions have to deal with potential invasions, but knowing this in advance means they either have to migrate or prepare for it early, and they all have armies strong enough to make up for having to migrate.

[King Of Scotland]

Don't you ever get tired of bashing England? It gets old real fast..

So you think I do it cause to be funny or something? Urm... sorry, I don't need to bash England to be funny, I just don't like it ingame, it's a good country, but I like Scotland more and since we live in a free world, expressing myself if allowed.

[Jambat]

What are the hardest and easiest factions to play as? And I might as well ask what are your favorites

I know this must seem like a complete cop-out of an answer, but I think the easiest and hardest really come down to which armies mesh with each individuals playstyle and which run counter to it.

I favor the more maneuverable armies that usually run at least moderately strong mounted range clusters and usually play cavalry forces with the old Hammer and Anvil tactic. I think the slower and stouter infantry heavy armies that play with the whole come to me/mass frontal cavalry charge forces would probably be the 'hardest' for me since it runs counter to what I am wont to do.

[EmperorDan]

Hardest-Hre [I`ve seen it many times becoming a vassal of denmark]
Easiest-The obvious England
Favourite-Turks[getting the chance to fight the mongols and timurids]

[nhinhonhinho]

Easiest obviously England then Spain
Hardest maybe Russia from begin and Turk in late game (facing 2 horde)

In mods especially SS Khwarezmian is hardest (and most "fun" )

[PrestigeX]

For me the easiest faction to play as is Scotland, because it's easy to take out the english and has easy to defend homeland.

The hardest is probably milan or hre in the beginning, once you get them going though it's not hard at all.

Over all most difficult for me is the Moors, until gunpowder and you get the camel gunners they have mostly light spear men and not such great cavalry either.

[Somerandomdude2]

For me the easiest faction to play as is Scotland, because it's easy to take out the english and has easy to defend homeland.

The hardest is probably milan or hre in the beginning, once you get them going though it's not hard at all.

Over all most difficult for me is the Moors, until gunpowder and you get the camel gunners they have mostly light spear men and not such great cavalry either.

Milan isn't so bad.
Buy/conquer Bologna and Marseille ASAP (I prefer buying, and paying for them over several turns), make sure to keep a big garrison in Marseille.
Conquer Venice (city) as soon as the Venetians leave it relatively unguarded.
Now you have mountains guarding you from France and HRE (who have bigger threats on their hands, and aren't traveling through mountain ranges to duke it out with you, and if they do, use the terrain to your advantage and crush them). Venice (faction) is crippled and is barely a shadow of the enemy they could have been.
Leave Bern and Dijon unless you're planning to expand in that direction (they'll start wars for you).

Next, wipe out Sicily and you get your first castle so you can finally get away from militia (granted Milan has relatively great militia, but there's no substitute for professionals).

There are a lot of small threats to wipe out early, but if you go straight for their throats you'll neutralise them before they have a chance to turn on you, and suddenly you own all of Italy, which especially with the help of your militia garrisons, is very defensible. That, plus you'll be rolling in cash.

[PrestigeX]

Milan isn't so bad.
Buy/conquer Bologna and Marseille ASAP (I prefer buying, and paying for them over several turns), make sure to keep a big garrison in Marseille.
Conquer Venice (city) as soon as the Venetians leave it relatively unguarded.
Now you have mountains guarding you from France and HRE (who have bigger threats on their hands, and aren't traveling through mountain ranges to duke it out with you, and if they do, use the terrain to your advantage and crush them). Venice (faction) is crippled and is barely a shadow of the enemy they could have been.
Leave Bern and Dijon unless you're planning to expand in that direction (they'll start wars for you).

Next, wipe out Sicily and you get your first castle so you can finally get away from militia (granted Milan has relatively great militia, but there's no substitute for professionals).

There are a lot of small threats to wipe out early, but if you go straight for their throats you'll neutralise them before they have a chance to turn on you, and suddenly you own all of Italy, which especially with the help of your militia garrisons, is very defensible. That, plus you'll be rolling in cash.

It was difficult for a while, playing Vh/Vh with a mod (darth 1.4) -- the french kept attacking, and I was hard pressed to repel them because the pope kept threating excommunication even for trying to reinforce a besieged settlement. Then everyone else started to attack me as my papal favor was so low. For many turns my economy was dwindling or even in the "red" ... By training lots of italian militia (with blacksmith upgrade), managing my pavise crossbows carefully, and using my faction leader and heir in battle I was able to save the economy and do well enough in battle.

now it's 1180 or so ... france, hre, and venice are gone thanks to my efforts. Portugal, and england have also been annhilated. I'm able to recruit Italian Cav Militia now, which will help. I'm zero'ing in on the spainish and sicilians now. Spain has tons of jinettes, and mailed/feudal knights - which is a real challenge as I can ill afford to recruit a lot of cav of my own. Sicily isn't a big problem, they just have tons of dismounted norman knights and a few mounted - my crossbows are able to annihilate them.

[Chad29]

The easiest is probably Portugal. It's also my favorite. they get good units and the Iberian Penninsula plus west Africa is the best position on the map to me. Just take over that corner of the map, turtle for a while, and I'm set.

Hardest is quite possibly Egypt. Between crusades and the Mongols and/or Timurids possibly showing up near Baghdad, it's got to be the worst position on the map. Antioch is just too good to let a catholic nation have, though Jerusalem might be worth leaving alone. Not to mention the short campaign objectives for Egypt is to destroy the only two other factions of the same religion as you. That may be historically accurate, but not strategically wise.

England is another easy faction, while HRE is another hard one. I don't know how HRE always seems to be one of the top five powers when they have so many neighbors to fight.

[tudor93]

I don't know how HRE always seems to be one of the top five powers when they have so many neighbors to fight.

because, uhm ...., dohh: this is M2TW; when you play as HRE (or other faction) all your neighbors attack/backstab you, when you play England (for example) HRE allies with all his neighbors against you

[EmperorDan]

because, uhm ...., dohh: this is M2TW; when you play as HRE (or other faction) all your neighbors attack/backstab you, when you play England (for example) HRE allies with all his neighbors against you

when I play as England, I always make an ally out of them so that we can fight together france and denmark...and it works out great...

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

The easiest is probably Portugal. It's also my favorite. they get good units and the Iberian Penninsula plus west Africa is the best position on the map to me. Just take over that corner of the map, turtle for a while, and I'm set.

Hardest is quite possibly Egypt. Between crusades and the Mongols and/or Timurids possibly showing up near Baghdad, it's got to be the worst position on the map. Antioch is just too good to let a catholic nation have, though Jerusalem might be worth leaving alone. Not to mention the short campaign objectives for Egypt is to destroy the only two other factions of the same religion as you. That may be historically accurate, but not strategically wise.

England is another easy faction, while HRE is another hard one. I don't know how HRE always seems to be one of the top five powers when they have so many neighbors to fight.

I agree with Portugal being one of the easiest, but Egypt? That's also one of the easiest in the game the crusades are so fun to defend against haha. The HRE in your games is always on top five? In my games they are always eaten alive by Denmark and Poland, and France is carved between England, Spain/Portugal and Milan.