Are there any factions that you have a soft-spot for or factions you simply cannot play?

[Yomamashouse]

When playing RTW/EB the only factions I can play are Rome, Gaul, the Britons, the Germans or the Greeks.

I play the barbarian Germans and Celts because they are my ancestors; I play the Romans because they are the faction that became the dominant power in the era RTW depicts; and I play the Greeks because they have always been a favourite of mine - their culture produced a lot of admirable thinkers and was one of the founding civilizations of Europe.

When it comes to other factions I just can't connect with them and don't enjoy conquering the known world with them.

Anyone else have faction preferences like this?

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Whenever there are games that feature the United States (Like, Empire) I find it hard to play any faction but them. Or, if I do play another faction, I can almost never conquer them.


Also, if I play one campaign, and Im allies with a certain faction, and they turn out to be really good allies, I almost always ally with them. Same goes for terrible factions. (Shoni!)

[Admiral Piett]

Any of the nomadic horse archer factions.

Also, Epirus, Pontus, or Bactria.

[Zimmy]

In Rome, it was Greece. In Medieval 2/Stainless Steel, it was Sicily.

I hate playing as Turkish and Arabic factions, because of the color green. Every single game has Arabic factions as a shade of green. It makes me want to vomit. Fashion 1/10.

[Ichon]

I was very partial to Pontus in RTW though I can't remember much about them in vanilla I know in RTR and some other mods they were my favorite. In vanilla RTW Germans, Romans, and Carthage were my favorites. MTW2 I enjoyed Lithuania the most and went right to mods without playing many other vanilla factions. ETW was UP for sure though I also enjoyed Sweden, and any of the Italian factions. NTW I actually enjoyed France the most though I had some good campaigns with Austria and Ottomans. Shogun 2 my favorite faction is probably Uesugi or Tokugawa.

It is difficult to think of factions I hate to play, only England of MTW2 and Spain of ETW come to mind though Hojo seemed to be the faction that always screwed my plans the most in Shogun 2.

[AngryTitusPullo]

I simply could not play any others than Rome. I have no interest in playing others.

[Asgaroth]

I always play as everybody. More or less.

Because every faction has a different starting position and different challenge to bypass.

I can't wait for Rome II because in it factions will be more unique, like in culture and units for now. And that is one more reason for me to try out other factions as well.

[gaunty14]

Hellenic factions, in any RTW I find I rate a mod good or bad depending on how good the Hellenic factions are presented.

Roma Surrectum = awesome
Diadochi TW = awesome

I tend to avoid eastern factions as I dislike using mobile cavalry/light infantry

[IronBrig4]

I never liked playing as barbarian factions in RTW because there was so little you could build. One of the best features in RTW was zooming in on a city and seeing it grow from a tiny village to a thriving metropolis. You couldn't do that playing as the Gauls.

[Anna_Gein]

In Vanilla Rome Carthage Greek and Seleucid.

But with mods, every faction was so unique and so detailed I play them all.
That is the reason why I hope CA will put equal effort to all faction and support modding.

I found it was really interesting to play a faction I don't know it's history. So I would find some information about same while playing before searching on my own about their history, their culture ...
I supposed that is what I like about games based on history.

[JefferyFrank]

I like to play as the Roman factions, but I find them over powered compared to the others, so I don't feel I've accomplished as much when I win a battle as Rome. On the other hand, I do enjoy playing as Germania, Macedon, the Selucids, and the Carthaginians for their different play style and the fact that I find it more challenging to play as them and feel like I have really accomplished something great when I take down a mighty Roman army.
I enjoy strong infantry factions over all else. While I don't consider myself a bad cav commander, I tend to stay away from the cavalry/chariot focused factions because I love to spend my time managing my infantry, not microing my cav in circles.

[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]

In vanilla i didn' like the gauls and the germans which were to much fantasy like. Can't remember if we had a iberian faction but even in mods i played never iberians, but still loved iberian units of Carthage my favourit faction of all times. In mods like EB or RTR i liked Ägypt and Macedonia and the germans. The Seleucids were to multiethnological and to much away from the trouble. I hate to march my troops all across persia

[hochmeister devin]

I cant play rome, they were just too roman... Yet greek factions are the ones i played the most, they have my favorite combenation of units which are phalanxes and heavy cavalry, and i always loved unifying alexanders empire. The big reason why i hate playing rome is they dont have good cavalry or phalanxs and i dont pike swordsmen that much, so i just hate there roster, and i felt there troops were OP in vanilla (they were).

In medieval 2 i played loved play as sicily and byzantium, especially in stainless steel. For some reason id always marry my sicily princesses to HRE generals and kill of my norman once pretending that the germans conquered sicily.

In empire i love play as spain prussia and russia but, hated the marathras . Spain because there a major naval power and are in a good position to take over the americas and middle east, prussia because play very hard revolutionary republic as them is insanity, russia because i can conquer all of europe easily. I hated the marathras because they always conqered india then didnt do any thing, such a let down.

In napoleon in was britain and russia. What id do is let napoleon conquer all of europe except for my land then fight a counter attack against him till i conquered france proper.

In shogun 2 i hated the mori hojo and loved the oda ikko ikki and the green guys on kyushu (name escapes me atm). For no particular reason either.

In fots there all meh.

[rogergargantua]

Rome:TW (diadochi mod / Europa Barbarorum)
Love playing as the Romans or Greeks. I'm pretty much not interested in other factions. The Romans because they were so well organised and love their culture.
Greeks because, well...they are awesome!
I didnt bother mch to play Barbarian factions or those eastern factions.

Medieval2:TW (mod stainless steel)
Spanish factions / Teutonic Order. Teutonic order have those powerful knights that look like demons! Very epic!!
I once played as Egypt aswell....but their roster was just boring imo.

Empire:TW (darthmod)
I usually play as Prussia! What a blast! Its really tough at start but thats the fun part! You really have to struggle to become a dominant power. They have excellent infantry.
As second faction, I usually take Spain. Fun to get South-Americas. Once conquered i just sit still and only act as peacekeeper in the world. If another faction agressively expands their borders, I send troops to push em back.

Overall: I usually prefer factions who have elite units. Most factions have em...but then i prefer the ones who have to best knights/infantry/marksmen, etc.

[Ariovist]

In Rome I i played as the Romans (Julii in this case) for quite a long time.
I simply could not stand playing the unhistorical Germania or Gaul.

Hopefully in Rome II the other factions get more love, as i'm interested in playing one of the Greek city states here as well.
I'm not so keen on Horse archer factions - but i can't really say why.
Infantry it has to be;-)

[Lacedaemon]

I always had a soft spot for the Seleucid Empire(Mainly because everyone else annihilated them within the start of the game) and Carthage. I always kinda hated playing as the Britons and the Gauls, as the style of attacks I employ normally require the units not to randomly run forward. I dont really 'hate' them, just strongly dislike there strengths and weakness's.

[Futski]

In the older ones, i got no problems. I find all the Rome factions interesting, but some of them neglected(Every other faction besides the Hellenic, Carthage and Rome) in terms of building and unit roster. But hopefully the mods fix those minor problems.
The same goes for Medieval 2.
But in Empire, i just can't play as Sweden. I don't know if it's some kind of patriotic feeling(I'm Danish, and the Swedes weren't our best friends in those times). And it's kinda sad, because people say Sweden is a fun nation to play as. I know it's stupid, but i'm not doing it.

[Luminous Smurf]

I had a book once called Rome and her enemies, since reading that i realised the sheer amount of different peoples that Rome conquered, when they appeared over the horizon into your ancestral lands and offered you peace it came with huge taxes and the humiliation of subjugation, if you refused not even the dogs of your village were spared, for example some Germanic tribes were much derided by the Romans for not building anything and "living like wandering beasts" in the forests, what the Romans failed to tell was that such was the extreme persecution of these people that they couldn't stay in one place to build anything, they had to keep moving with a nomadic life-style or be targeted for an attack, if you kept moving you could survive.

I've always loved using any non-roman units, it feels like i'm sticking it to the super-power of the day, Rome was magnificent, Rome was impressive, Rome was advanced, but they were also ironically barbaric in ways that the people they called barbarians were not, anyone who learnt about their games from real historical sources and not from films like gladiator will know what i'm talking about, they were pretty sick.

I choose Iberian tribes first as that is my ancestry, after that Germans, after that any other tribe will do, but Rome? no, i avoid playing them if i can, they are fun as heck don't get me wrong, but they are the dark empire to my mind, an irresistable force to die gloriously against, i'l enjoy using them when the game comes out, but i'l very much be looking forward to the use of European tribes and eastern powers.

(by the way this got nothing to do with modern day Italy, i could sing all day about italy's great things, culture and music, art etc, so please don't misunderstand, i talking about the Roman empire of old only, in Medieval 2 kingdoms i always played as the Indians against the Conquistadors, i like to back the little guys, David against Goliath

[Vaskill]

I usually play the Celtic/German peoples as they are also my ancestors. I also like play the Eastern European peoples as well. I have a soft spot for Pontus though because they are the only Middle Eastern Faction that interests me. Egypt and the others not so much. I'll eventually play Rome but probably last.

So probably in this order

Gaul
Germanic Tribes
Briton Tribes
Irish Tribes "not going to happen but it's the thought that counts"
Iberian Tribes
Pontus
Scythia/Sarmatian Tribes
Rome

[maxlurifax]

I loved elephants in rome so I played carthage and seleucids alot.