Your opinions on which is the hardest faction on RTW vanilla?

[JaytheGreat]

I just recently started to play RTW vanilla again after reading that last year it was a decade since one of my favorite games came out & read that a new mod was released ready for download for this grand spectacle I have decide to pick up the game & started to play again before I tried out Rome:Total History, which I don't know anything about the mod but I read good things about it & can't wait to try it out. So I just wanna know what experience RTS players think is the most challenging campaign in RTW vanilla? In my own personal & well meditated opinion I think the Druid culture of Britannia are the most difficult faction to play in vanilla for many reasons... But everyone has their own opinion & I won't mind to see if I'm wrong, so lets get a real discussion going on to find out which is the really the most difficult faction in RTW vanilla

[Bonez]

I seem to remember that Spain (Iberia, whatever it is called) poses a pretty good challenge because they are relatively far from civilization, Carthage not really counting due to the terrain involved, time taken, and them being wiped out by Romans if left long enough, and their troops roster is completely terrible. They have an underpowered Hastati unit, Bull Warriors as their only infantry of any power and literally 12 units you can recruit total. Once you remove the units that are relatively generic (Peasants, war dogs, etc..) you are left with less than 7 unique units. No artillery are among those, no heavy cavalry, and appearing to have no true heavy infantry aside from the aforementioned Bull Warriors.

[shikaka]

Either Spain or Numidia.

- the romans are easy
- factions with falanx are out (battle winning unit)
- factions with horse archers are out (battle winning unit)

That leaves us: Spain, Numidia, Gauls, Britons, Dacia

- gauls are out because of the best starting position in the game, also units are at least mediocre (swordsmen+archers+medium cav. Good enough)
- britons are out, safe position plus quite good units (swordsmen, head hurler, chariot)
- Dacia would be a good contender, if Macedon was not a pushover. Their biggest problem is their lack of early income. Unit roster is very good. (really, try it: chosen archer, chosen swordsman, falxmen, noble cavalry)


So Numidia or Spain?

Both are poor, but Numidia can easily sack the carthagian cities to raise funds (spain can sack gaulish cities which are poor).
The best bet as spain is to spam bull warriors and the cavalry. You CAN win, but it will be hard to retrain (bull warrior - temple unit). Numidia is harder to use properly the Spain (javcav, skirmishers, late legion and desert spears)... But if you actually can use them, Numidia is more verstile.
Oh, also Numidia is not locked at lvl 3 settlements, easier to manage large empires.


I would say Spain. Dacia, Gauls, Thrace and Britons are actually quite good in campaign, despite their unpopularity.

[TsarBG]

Rebels

Probably Numidia though.

[War lord]

Though RTW isn't a hard game at all, I'd say Numidia. Every other faction has some "Ace in the Hole" unit, a positional advantage, or some variation on the above. Numidia is situated in the middle of a desert, their standard infantry is outclassed by that of the surrounding Nations and their elite infantry are essential Principes but with a longer recruitment cycle and dreadful Morale. They also lack any real mounted strike force, their Camels are only passable in a fight and will be outclassed by Elite Cavalry or prepared Infantry and while Numidian Calvary are the best in their class, they're still light cavalry in a game that favors heavies.

Spain has Bull Warriors as an Ace in the Hole against the Romans, Numida has nothing.

[Aurion]

I'd say Numidia. Bad starting position, and their roster is just...ugh. All the other bad start factions reward you with a really good unit roster for sticking with them.

[Kensai Of Carthage]

Campaign: Numidia.
Multiplayer: Gaul/Spain

[NotNapoleon]

Gotta stick out and say Armenia, of course made plsyable via descr_strat. Are the poor ones of the east, have weak units, and get steamrolled by the Seleucids or Scythians
As you can see, this is what I called the First Armenian Genocide here.

[Careless]

I don't know how the Armenians can make the list compared with the Numidians. They're not immediately attacked by everyone, they have maybe the best 1 turn phalanx unit, archers and heavy cavalry to back them up, and they can also go with horse archers/cataphracts if you feel like going mobile. Aside from starting out poor, they're fine.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

I've completed a series of campaigns using every faction (VH/VH/large units) including the SPQR and Rebels.
I found the Numidians to be far and away the slowest to Imperial Campaign victory.

[Careless]

Just realized playing my first Numidia campaign: not only does their unit roster suck, but even though they can make huge cities, they can't improve ports past the first level, and they can't make temples that improve combat abilities.

their only saving grace in the campaign is that, if you abandon Siwa, you're just left fighting Carthage, Spain, and Rome until you're the most powerful state by population and income, and light cavalry has an easy time with those.

[RangerGxi]

I don't know how the Armenians can make the list compared with the Numidians.

They get Cataphracts so they can't be at the bottom of the list.

[Samittaja]

At least we can say for sure which is the most difficult in the Barbarian Invasion. Even though I haven't played them, even I can see the Berbers

- don't have a single good unit in their roster. Their light infantry and light cavalry is probably good compared to similar units, but they lack anything heavy in their roster.
- start in that relatively poor area of Africa. The only good thing in their starting location is safety from all the chaos in Europe.
- are the only faction with 'Carthaginian' culture in a map filled with already huge cities, meaning they have hard time eliminating the culture penalty.
- can't horde
- have some decent buildings they can build, but they are still behind the Romans or even the Sassanids that I do have played with.

Every other faction has at least some redeeming qualities.

[Iosif Stalin]

Armenia definitely isn't the hardest. They're difficult, to be sure, in a hard starting position with a poor economy, and their early infantry aren't great (better than Numidia's, though), but their horse archers can be used with devastating effect, and once you get going and start capturing cities it gets much easier.

[Nickoleas de Esparta]

I will say Iberia, because it have the weakest units in the entire game.

[Iosif Stalin]

I will say Iberia, because it have the weakest units in the entire game.

Yep. Not only that but it's so poor. I tried a Spain campaign a while back and it was a real uphill battle. It's kind of surprising how weak they made Spain in this game, considering how much trouble the Iberian tribes gave Rome in the real world. The bull warriors are cool though.

[Leonardo]

Either Spain or Numidia.

- the romans are easy
- factions with falanx are out (battle winning unit)
- factions with horse archers are out (battle winning unit)

That leaves us: Spain, Numidia, Gauls, Britons, Dacia

- gauls are out because of the best starting position in the game, also units are at least mediocre (swordsmen+archers+medium cav. Good enough)
- britons are out, safe position plus quite good units (swordsmen, head hurler, chariot)
- Dacia would be a good contender, if Macedon was not a pushover. Their biggest problem is their lack of early income. Unit roster is very good. (really, try it: chosen archer, chosen swordsman, falxmen, noble cavalry)


So Numidia or Spain?

Both are poor, but Numidia can easily sack the carthagian cities to raise funds (spain can sack gaulish cities which are poor).
The best bet as spain is to spam bull warriors and the cavalry. You CAN win, but it will be hard to retrain (bull warrior - temple unit). Numidia is harder to use properly the Spain (javcav, skirmishers, late legion and desert spears)... But if you actually can use them, Numidia is more verstile.
Oh, also Numidia is not locked at lvl 3 settlements, easier to manage large empires.


I would say Spain. Dacia, Gauls, Thrace and Britons are actually quite good in campaign, despite their unpopularity.

I disagree about Dacia, because they are probably the only barbarian faction that's closed to the nomad factions that can train catapults via the archery range building as soon one of their cities become a minor city.

While the Scythians is lacking infantry, although the Axemen unit is their best infantry and only infantry they have. Of course the Scythians do have horse archers with a longer range, except for the Armenian cataphract horse archer.

So I would say the Scythians is the toughest faction to play in vanilla RTW and doing that makes it a challenge itself.

[herne_the _hunter]

Though RTW isn't a hard game at all, I'd say Numidia. Every other faction has some "Ace in the Hole" unit, a positional advantage, or some variation on the above. Numidia is situated in the middle of a desert, their standard infantry is outclassed by that of the surrounding Nations and their elite infantry are essential Principes but with a longer recruitment cycle and dreadful Morale. They also lack any real mounted strike force, their Camels are only passable in a fight and will be outclassed by Elite Cavalry or prepared Infantry and while Numidian Calvary are the best in their class, they're still light cavalry in a game that favors heavies.

Spain has Bull Warriors as an Ace in the Hole against the Romans, Numida has nothing.

Numidia has Jav cav and early access to archers. As well as clone legionaries later. Another advantage is you are conveniently placed to take out Egyptians. That's why you never abandon Siwa. Life gets better after you take out those three cities along the nile.

Sycthia is no way a hard faction. If you are mounted you have mobility on your side and can tire out the enmy in due course.

The hardest faction but even then still not an impossible faction are the rebels.

[G. Ward]

Numidia (or the rebels - if they count) for the campaign
Spain for multiplayer

[weejonnie]

Once you get Bull Warriors (on M/M) autoresolve works very much in your favour and you just expand through Gaul and along the Mediterranean Coast. Numidia took some going but from Siwa I took Thebes right at the start (it has no defences) and from there the rest of the Nile wasn't too difficult (Carthage fell early on - their ellies panicked by archers). If you are quick then Numidia isn't that bad. I did fail with my first Parthian campaign (and only just defeated Armenia in my second or I would have lost a key city) and that faction took the longest to win (so far). I fancy trying scythia - just hope it is not too much like Parthia. The easiest campaigns have been Greek Cities (get armoured hoplites and the game wins itself) and Gaul (taking roughly one province a turn)