Faction recommendations for a new player!

[Rivera]

Hey all, I have successfully installed your mod and now wondering which faction would offer me an interesting campaign. Would be nice if you also specified why the faction you suggest makes an interesting faction to play as.

Factions I would not like to play are:
England
Scotland
(please do not suggest these 2)

Thanks in advance.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Depends on what you like and what is your playing style.

[Stath's]

Byzantines.

Beautiful new units, relatively challenging to beat Turks and Hungarians, trouble with Crusaders' armies.

Khwarezm, Genoa, Kievan Rus.

New factions, new units, new territories.

HRE.

Large Empire, fun to manage, enemies from everywhere.

Teutonic Order.

Bring a catastrophe, a menace to the late campaign factions!!!


Byz my choice

[tudor93]

Yep, pick the Byzantines. They are fun and easy, perfect for a beginner.

[The Kybrothilian]

That is, if you play early era. Late era isn't so easy with ERE...

I'm not sure, but Hungary should be a great starter faction if you go for late era. The fact that you can go for the rebel Greek provinces, that will then bump you a lot of cash will give you a great advantage.

[sandymoo]

I think lithuania is a fun country to choose if you want a ton of war going on all over. They also have very unique units, although they do take some time to get going before you get the really nice ones.

[GiddeeUpp]

Try playing the Danish for pure infantry fun, or play as lithuania, rus, or hungary for horse archer madness!

[Rivera]

I am thinking about Teutonic Order and Byzantine (late era) right now. So is Byzantine empire fun late era as well ?

Also I might have mislead some people here, I am not a new player to TW, played all games since Rome, just new to the mod Stainless Steel.

Thanks for the suggestions, will appreciate some more !

[Rivera]

I am thinking about Teutonic Order and Byzantine (late era) right now. So is Byzantine empire fun late era as well ?

Also I might have mislead some people here, I am not a new player to TW, played all games since Rome, just new to the mod Stainless Steel.

Thanks for the suggestions, will appreciate some more suggestions!

[Rivera]

Sorry for double post, not able to delete it myself for some reason.

Anyway how viable horse archers are in the mod? I have heard they don't have much ammo in the mod. Hungary does sound interesting though and Denmark too.

[GiddeeUpp]

i find they have more ammo then you should truly need. They are pretty dominant in early era for sure when used properly

[Loriann]

ERE is also fun in late Era but there are more challenges, you have to reclaim Constantinople

[TsarBG]

Try Poland in early era (haven't tried late era yet). You can war with your neighbors to the east (Novgorod, Kiev, Lithuania) without interference from the Pope, plus you have plenty of opportunities to control the church by sending your priests east. The HRE is usually hostile towards you about 40-50 turns in, so if you want take on a larger, more powerful faction then this is an interesting choice, as they will challenge your expansion. Your neighbours to the east provide good meatshields again the Mongols and timurids. Hungary will usually accept an alliance so they can guard your southern border. Haven't tried the Spanish factions in this mod, but they shouldn't be too much different from Poland position-wise (Moors to the south). See what works for you.

[Rivera]

Yeah Poland does sound interesting might try it. Poland has strong cavalry right ?

[TsarBG]

Yes it does. They get some stronger cav later on, though you can build piast nobles early on and start with a unit of them. They're quite strong compared to other units that early ingame.

[Rushwithoutmercy]

I would get used to the game before embarking on late game Byzantine, since you need to be experienced, at least for VH/VH.

[philipjd]

Late Byzantines is a very difficult campaign at the start - you need skill and luck as well as an understanding of the game mechanics.

Egypt is a good learning faction in early, as can the Moors be. Kwarez's is also good, but you need to be strong for when the mongol hordes arrive in circa 1200!

[Engie]

A lot of people have said the Byzantine Empire and I'd agree that they are a good faction for someone who is new to Stainless Steel so I would highly recommend them.

I'll suggest the Republic of Novgorod though because they are isolated at the beginning of the game (apart from the one border with the Kievan Rus) so you shouldn't have too much trouble early game plus they also have an interesting play style if you are bored of conventional warfare as they utilise a lot of strong cavalry and skirmisher cavalry units.

[Mr.Lannister]

England and Scotland...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yes, i was joking, but at the same time it is true, those are quite easy, just eliminate the other faction and you can have plentiful years of peace and money, and aside from those two... maybe Spain or Frenchies, or HRE,...

[Rakoua]

I always found Aragon early era quite interesting. If you're not experienced you probably won't be forging a huge empire in the first 80 turns but it's gonna be more fun and less tedious than some other factions. Byzantium is fun (I love their units, especially those cheap spearmen and archers). Never had problems with them in late era VH/VH, and I'm sure the people here will help you if you find yourself in some bad situation. Kiev is also pretty fun if you don't mind the long distances; you can get some pretty awesome empires going.
Italians are quite fun too, but their options for expansion are quite limited. Sicily can only expand south if you don't want other Christians to attack you, but you do have a nice opportunity to crusade. Venice does get the Balkans as a nice expansion point, but that leaves their capital on the very edge of their empire, which can be problematic. Genoa is, unfortunately, forced to attack France or HRE, unless you do some crazy naval stuff like invade Iberia or Britain.