hardest faction starting position on the campaign map?

[blace]

which faction do you guys think has the least desireable position on the campaign map and will be the toughest to start out as. i'd imagine point of place would be given to one of the single region starters surrounded by factions like averni, suebi, parthia or one of the greek city states

[baldrick13]

probably epirus as they are sandwiched between all 3 of their enemies (sparta,athens and macedon)

[♠ Thomas Cochrane ♠]

probably epirus as they are sandwiched between all 3 of their enemies (sparta,athens and macedon)

and Rome.

[✠Ikaroqx✠]

CA said Sparta is one if not the most difficult faction.

[BATTERIES]

Iceni

[simonsimons]

Iceni

Erm, they will probably be the easiest.

[Lavrentivs]

I'd say Epirus too. Not only will it have to deal with the Greeks, but then the Romans too, which is annoying because I want to be Epirus in my second playthrough and I want to be allies with Rome (I think going to war with Rome will be inevitable, but I'm such a Roman fanboy it'd feel wrong killing them ).

[Rupertel]

depending on how the Seleucid Empire & Satrapies system works, I'd go for Parthia - completely surrounded by larger nations and nowhere easy to expand.

The 3 factions of the greek cuture DLC pack seem to be pretty hard as well, for all your aforementioned reasons.

[Candy_Licker]

Certainly Epirus and yeah, CA has confirmed that Sparta will be difficult. Parthia could be tough too depending on how strong/stable the Selceucid Empire with all those vassals is.

[Derkon]

Personally, based on Jack Lusted's Macedon Campaign playthrough I would think that Macedon or any of the Greek City states (Athens/Sparta/Epirus) will be amongst the hardest.

The reason, each of these playable factions are practically on top of one another at the start of the game so, for the player choosing to start as one of them, you will need to quite swiftly get a grip on the region or risk being embroiled in a two or even three front war and getting quickly swamped.

It looks like most of the other factions have a certain amount of room to breathe and expand their empires before clashing with the big players.

In the Med Rome and Carthage are likely to clash with each other in Sicily, but each has plenty of scope for expansion elsewhere (particularly Carthage) before this becomes an imperative.

The celtic/barbarian tribes (Iceni, Arverni and Suebi) are all likely to have a start point which will see them "uniting" their neighbouring tribes under the one banner to establish something resembling ancient Briton/Gaul/Germania.

Egypt is quite far removed from centre stage and as such playing a campaign as them would likely start out with consolidating their position and expanding eastwards into the middle east. Conversely, one would suppose that the Egyptian campaigner could expand westwards for a while before clashing with the Carthaginians.

For the final two "eastern" factions, Pontus and Parthia are also quite remote from centre stage. As such, early games as them would probably run in similar fashion to Egypt. For Pontus, the danger is that one could become the filling in an Egypt/Parthia sandwich. Parthia, meanwhile can probably happily go about building itself an empire before it is likely to come into contact with the big guns! Both however, are likely going to have to deal at some stage with a reasonably powerful (but non-playable) Seleucid empire!

So, in summary, starting as any of the factions based in Greece/Macedon will probably rank amongst the most difficult of starting positions.

[Gelston]

I think any of the factions in Greece will be difficult at the beginning of the game, some obviously in a better position than others, but if you play a Greek faction, be ready for war at the onset of your game.

[Fishdawg]

One of the Greek dlcs

[Lugotorix]

Epirus. Epirus has the votes. Ironman difficulty.

[groovyjohal]

Judging from Lusty Jack's latest playthrough, Epirus is gonna triple teamed within the first two - three turns in the game

CA says sparta is tough but it seems their tough situation comes from lack of early expansion possibility and lagging behind other factions in the long run while epirus starts ou in a potential fight with three major factions right from the get go - turtling early on / diplomacy with the macedons seems to be the wise course for them.

[Coleus]

All of the Hellenistic factions will struggle, with the exception of Egypt. The only benefactors will be the Romans as they swoop in to finish off the remains of the Greek armies.

At least, that's what I'm banking on as I'll be sending my legions directly to conquer Greece to fund my conquest of Carthage.

[Troabarton89]

Haven't seen much from the Iceni. I'd imagine that might be a little tough, though ambushing a load of ambushers will be fun

[DogSoldierSPQR]

I got a feeling, that on harder difficulties, the Iceni. They're trapped on an Island, with other factions just like themselves. It's just like fighting yourself haha
It shouldn't be much on easier difficulties though.
If you mean in general, it's got to be Epirus. Potential for things to go wrong for Macedon though. If they fall out with Sparta, Athens tries to break free and Epirus is still hanging around, things could go bad.

Rome has a good starting position.

[youngfool]

It has to be Sparta, as her soldiery tradition grant Spartans to wield military supreme, dilemma has her to be surrounded by 'allies', making it difficult for her to expand. Alone with its weak economy due to its military culture, Sparta has to be the most challenging faction.

[Silius Saurus]

My vote would go to Epirus; the other Greeks hate their guts and the Romans are on the other side.

Not an enviable position.

[ScytheRayne]

I'd like to see what sort of bonuses each faction receives, but I would also have to say between Epirus and Sparta.... those two seem to be in the least enviable positions. Epirus being more modern than Sparta in terms of their military and administration, but stretched between Greece and efforts in Italy in the beginning. I could see them trying to court Syracuse, the Etruscan League or even Carthage into a military alliance if a player wanted to be able to shore themselves up in their Greek territories before expanding further in Italy.

Sparta though... like a few others have said, military focused with a skeleton economy and probably a small population to draw upon for military service, doesn't really allow for the usual gung-ho approach. Diplomacy and development will be key there, imo.