Best economy,roster,starting position

[slayer92]

What do you think guys?
1)Which faction has the best starting position?
2)Which faction has the best overall economy?
3)Which faction has the best roster?

[.L.]

England, Denmark, and Turks?

[diez]

1.england and scotland,they just fight with themselfs or ally and nothing stops em...same with denmark
2.byzantium...many coastal cities,and constantinople,will give u a huge income.
3.early era:byzantium,maybe england
high era:byzantium,england,spain,maybe moors
late era:spain portugal,venice,milan,turks,russia

[.L.]

Dude he's asking for overall.

[=Bright=]

Egypt and the Turks have the best economical position, IF they manage to take the whole Levant and Cyprus.

Russia IMO has the best late-era roster. Musketeers, strong archers, strong artillery and devastating cavalry.

[Bozzy73uk]

I reckon england and denmark great economy and good units like the longbow for the english who can deploy spikes great for the mongels n timmie. English also good to learn with if your new to game not many attack you.denmark for there shock troops axes and swords not great cav though but ok

[Primo]

I think Venice. Maybe it is not the best overall position, but its the nicest start to play.

[13lackGu4rd]

statements like "best" are very subjective by nature, it's hard to know what the OP wants to hear without any solid criteria to base his question on. for example:
1) I could argue that England has the best starting position because it's the safest and with a solid size and economic base.
However I could also argue that the Byzantium has the best starting position because you're surrounded by easily conquerable enemies(before they AI builds up meaningful resistance), and these enemies sit on very rich territory(coastal trade around the black sea, the middle east, Egypt, etc).
2) I could argue that Milan has the best economy simply because it doesn't need any castles at all, and as we all know cities generate much more income than castles.
However I could also argue that Egypt has the best economy because the Nile region is 1 of the richest on the map, and because they conquer all the Levant early on(another very rich territory).
3) This is the most problematic question, as the "best" unit of any kind is already too subjective(and without proper tests to give accurate results). Than there's this "little" thing called player preference, which obviously isn't little at all and has a huge impact on your success/failure. One could abuse Longbowmen and stakes on hills and walls all day long, another could send hordes of terrifying French/HRE knights to sweep through opponents, another can send hordes of elite Horse Archers backed by heavy Gunpowder troops to create a massive kill zone(Russia, Turkey, etc), and there are many more possibilities.

[Aeratus]

1. England, followed by Spain
2. Egypt
3. Russia, followed by Turks

[eXistenZ]

Russia is quite a fun faction. Lots of provinces to take, economy can be good if you manage it properly, and especially the late unit roster is strong.

offcours, there isa chance the mongols come your way. but then again, when playing as egypt or turks thats the same.

kind of meakes me wanna play MEII again.. but i still got a lot of games to finish

[Alfred K]

England has definetly the best starting position. Russian economy is good (lots of fur) and Novgorod is a major trading city. Also Russian roster is very good and playing as them will mean a very interesting campaign when the Mongolians come in.

[In3x]

1. Venice, Milan or Sicily
2. Ditto
3. Don't care

[crzyrndm]

1) Denmark for me. With the Arhus, Olso, and Stockholm & preferably that castle south of Arhus it's almost as safe as england, and no need to maintain a navy for crossing the channel.

2) Denmark or Byzantines. Turtling with only the three cities mentioned above, I managed to have over 100k surplus inside 50 turns. I think I was actually losing money after capturing stockholm at turn 40 (because of the cost of developing it). From there capture Britain, and the russian/french coast for massive income (6 cities over 7000/turn income in the region). Byzantines have Constantinople, and can easily expand into the holy lands for lots of cash. Only problem is how close some of the trade resources are to your capital.

3) Completely dependent on player preference. Russia gets lots of high powered troops, italians have their militias, denmark the overwhelming infantry, etc.

[PrestigeX]

I'm going to pick Egypt and Denmark

for all categories -- Economy , Roster, and Starting Location. Both have unique, powerful, and inexpensive unit rosters - Egypt's Cavalry will dominate, Denmark's Infantry will punish all others.

Starting position - Egypt takes over the entire mid-east - okay, may have to risk Crusade here and there, but those aren't too bad usually. Economy booms very fast.

Denmark just has to take Hamburg, and can convert every other settlement into a city ... baltic trade -- Britain Invasion, take out the two factions there b4 they get started... Peasants and Spear Militia vs... Norse Swordsmen? hmmm wonder how that'll turn out =P

[Nanaki404]

1) Moors (getting Timbuktu early is great)
2) Milan (all cities)
3) uh, very subjective... I'd say France (chivalric knights, lancers, aventuriers, scots guards)

[Nazgûl Killer]

1) England - The best starting position tactically and economically, dominating sea trade at the Northern sea and being secluded from most other factions makes the British Isles the ideal starting position, easily defended and highly profitable.

2) Venice - Probably the best economy I've seen in the game. Highly reliant on trade and major bonuses due to their position in Italy, allowing you trade with approximately 10 different factions (HRE, France, Poland, Hungary, Milan, Sicily, Papacy, Byzantium, Turks and Egypt). Venice is probably the only faction in this game that I never struggled with monetary-wise.

3) That's a toughie, but I'll have to say the Holy Roman Empire. I love the whole Imperial-European heavy armor army, the Holy Roman Empire has incredible soldiers (Especially in modifications) and their Teutonic Knights are truly a force to be reckoned with.

[Gallus]

1) Venice
2) I think Venice
3) that would be Venice

end of discussion

[Piazzo Cappiaro]

1. Spain. (In my current campaign, by turn 50 I had 127,000 gold)
2. England. (Longbowmen, great gunpowder units.)
3. Sicily. (Can expand in any direction.)

My experiences, gentlemen