Which faction to play next?

[elbasto]

Hello.

I am new to Medieval 2 (although I played a bit of Medieval I, Rome and of course, Shogun).

I am playing vanilla and although I don't have time to play any mods I've made a couple of changes to the game.
- Raised brigand spawn/pirates value to 99 in order to diminish this nuance.
- Gunpowder discovered on year 2.
- 0.5 years/turn.

I currently have an ongoing campaign with Spain and I just love this faction (I am not a Spaniard) simply because after a couple of your cities reach Huge status and you manage to develop them militarily, you can completely forget about Castles.

Therefore my armies are 4 Gendarmes, 3 Basilisks, 4 Musketeers and 8 Tercio Pikemen. Although I sometimes have heavy losses, I tend to win the large majority of battles and my armies are cheap and relatively easy to reinforce after 1180 (0.5 year/turn, mind you) so once a target is set, Spanish forces are unstoppable.

This game is a macro-management heaven, not to mention I am swimming in florins.


Do you have any other factions to recommend that reward development of settlements as much as this one?

Regards.

[elbasto]

After some research, apparently this is also the case of the Turks with their Jannisary heavy infantry and Jannisary musketeers which seem to be far superior to the Tercios and the Musketmen respectively (although they seem to lack heavy cavalry from cities and flexible artillery).

Also, the Portuguese, which seemed to have similar strengths, require Castles to train their superior pike units, the Aventureros.

[Silverheart]

That would be the Portuguese, since they are very similar (I haven´t played them yet, though).
Also, Milan and Venice get very strong militia units, which means that they can rely on cities alone too. And with a few Merchants guild houses, you have all the heavy cavalry you need.

The Hungarians are also an option, because they get long-range Pavise Crossbow Militia and Hussars.
And the Russians get Cossack Musketeers, Berdiche Axemen and Cavalry Militia from their huge cities.

[eXistenZ]

Every faction has it ups and downs. the italian factions produce very good early city units.

[elbasto]

I am very tempted to start a game as the Turks and rely solely on infantry.

I think that's going to be my next game.

[shikaka]

The Rus has a very good late game roster.
Dvor cavalry (horse archer with armor and AP axes), cossack musketeers, dismounted dvor, cossaks...

[elbasto]

The Rus has a very good late game roster.
Dvor cavalry (horse archer with armor and AP axes), cossack musketeers, dismounted dvor, cossaks...

Do you need castle to produce most of them?

If the faction has a couple of great infantry units produced from cities, it could be interesting.

[Silverheart]

You need castle for Dvors and the Cossack Cavalry, but not for the Berdiche Axemen, Cossack Musketeers or Cavalry Militia.
Berdiche Axemen are available from the second highest level of the town watch,
Cossack Musketeers become available automatically when you build Huge stone wall (if you have gunpowder, of course)
The Russians have a lot of potential, and very powerful cavalry. Their City soldiers are very weak at first, though, and only become reliable once the cities are Huge and well developed.

I´ve been thinking if maybe you should try the Moors. They get mighty strong late in the game, and have the super-sweet Urban Militia, Hashashim and Camel Gunners(castle).

[Rowdytavern]

If you are looking for a faction that doesn't need castles then look no further than Milan as from their cities you can recruit:

Genoesse crossbow militia one of the best missile units in the game
famiglia dugale which are very good heavy cavalry
dismounted broken lances for a solid armored sword unit
Standard of Milan for moral
pikes, muskets, variety of artillery ect the list goes on.

If you like using only cities then Milan is the obvious choice and their central location means you will have many expansion opportunities

[Mik528]

France. Scot's guard for an amazing missile unit with good attack and defence capabilities as well as good morale. Gendarmes France gets. French mounted archers for a ap mounted missile unit. Pikemen aren't as good as Tercio but can get the job done. France starts with more territory better expanding options and if you do own a citadel get some Lancers

[tudor93]

Yes, the Moors are cool, but for me it was very hard in the beggining, but after you conquer the Iberian Peninsula and all Africa it will be a piece of cake; I'm now at war with Sicily, Papal states, Milan, Venice, HRE, England, Byzantine Empire, Poland (I destroyed Portugal, Spain and France) ; I have 200k in my stash and I get 20k every turn, I have only 2 fortresses and 1 citadel; oh yes, I pwn everything that moves; Jihads rock but I'm too lazy to conquer the whole world, so I got bored and started a new campaign

[John Haukewood]

Milan and Venice are my favorites. Great militia, rich cities and instant action. Plus, playing as Milan is the only time I never have to worry about Milan.

[thespaniard]

yeah milan is a bunch of crapy backstabin pieces of crap venice is so much nicer and they get awsome heavy infantry later on though they are from a castle