Help with faction choice?

[awisler]

well ive played around with a lot of factions, im just looking for something fun thats not going to be something too challenging, but of course not easy. im looking for some experiences of some factions and how fun they are throughout a long campaign, not just the first 50 turns.

im particularly interested in england,france,sicily,egypt, and the moors. any experiences of these? however im also willing to play other factions i just dont know a lot about them.

[Ack_[FHA]]

Scots - Highland Nobles are worthless, this was the first faction I played and hated it. Played it for 3 days x 6 hours each. Scots have nice banners, like the blue lol, but they suck. I was not impressed.

France - LEET Cav, very good armored longbow men with high melee (takes a while to get them). Just build lots of spears, crossbows and keep the Cav active. When I play I keep rotating them in and out of the battlefields. By the time your done you should have 10 sets of Cav or more with gold shevrons. Go on a seige fest, keep a diplomat outside the papel incase you need to bribe your way back into thier good graces. If your told not to fight send a lone spearmen to provoke them so they get excommunicated. Then you can roll them with no worries.
I personally have a dislike for France but I figured I'd put myself in thier shoes. It's a lot of fun, very tough to fight so many people so be careful in your actions. It's best to let them attack you if they are allied already. The HRE never messed with me, just Watch out because England, Scotland due to Alliance with England, Milan, Portugal then Denmark will move on you and "in that order".

Good Luck - Ack

[Valiant.x]

disagree. scotland are good because england are fighting 2 fronts so if you take york and dublin quick, you can overpower them and make a UK stronghold cause no1 attacks it anywya.

but byztanine r my fav

[Nikko0102]

russia were fun. they dismounted boyar sons rock

[Inhuman One]

The scots were fun to play to me.

I just loved it when I had lots of highlanders running towards the english army. they arent the strongest troops but it reminded me so much of braveheart. I am glad they put a varied group of highlander units in the game so you can make an entire army with them exept for cavalry.

[Lavastein]

spain. it is in a good protection pocket and has some decent units to bat. Plus, no inquisadors!!!!!

[Fenris]

Yep, Spain is definitely fun and rather easy too. Turks too, but they get to face the mongols, which makes them a bit harder in the end

[Inhuman One]

I didnt like spain much since it takes a while before they finally produce some decent infantry at the castle. its just spear throwers at first and they cant hold a battleline or assault well in sieges.

[Pelican Man]

Poland because its just plain fun.

THE P-MAN

[The Mongol]

Egypt is fun so far, huge economic power but the Mongols just came in near Baghdad and beat up one of my full stacks.

[Inhuman One]

try bribing them then.

[The Mongol]

I'm busy spending my cash on Antioch so they will stop whining. I'm tempted to just let it rebel so I can exterminate it.

[(insert clever name here)]

Hmm...I am enjoying my Portugese campaign through 125 turns. They get some unique units apart from Spain and if you can unite Iberia then you have a easily defensible area to work from and can generally pick your battles to the point where you won't fight on two fronts. France hasn't seriously invaded yet and the Moors can be kept at bay by wreaking havoc on thier navy and blocking the landbridge.

Granted this is my first campaign that I have even tried playing besides Scotland (who aren't too bad I guess but kind of crappy cavalry, they did start out the game with a Cardinal named Brian the Violent, which I thought was funny) so maybe my opinion isn't very broad. But still I am having some modicum of fun.

[FriendoftheDork]

I'm playing Venice long game atm, after finishing a short one with spain (my fav from MTW 1).

It's been alot of fun, far more than spain. Initially you can just cruise around kicking rebel ass. Your militas rock (as to all italians) and pavise crossbow militia and cavalry milita are cheap and very effective. Then I crusaded alot, got my cardinals elected pope 4 times in a row, and destroyed the eggies.

Then came a time of great sorrow. Previously my neighbours were easy to beat when they attacked me, but at around turn 50 all my neighbours (except the papacy) DoW'ed me one at a time, so that I was the center of a world war against ME. I had destroyed the Milanese (they got excommed the poor bastards), but the french, HRE, Hungarians and Sicilians all came knocking while I was still fighting Moors. I was desperate, my ecconomy sucked because of the lack of trade and my need to mass-produce armies.

My retalitions against the french and HRE dropped my favor with the pope to nil, thus I went into defensive mode. I just defended my turf.

The pope tried to force my Doge to crusade against the Danes (threatening excommunication). But he was busy defending Toulouse, so instead I sent my 10 rank assassins and took out the pope. I voted in a danish one (for once there was no Venetian preferati), and got him to love me pretty fast.

After defending against the Hungarians they offered me ceace-fire, and a few turns later I got one from HRE as well! I launched a campaign against the french, giving the pope gifts to keep our relations good while the french one deteriated. After this I got myself a cease-fire with them as well. peace at last. (around 1260AD)

Now in the last part of the game I feel like I'm in control again. The french got excommed in a war against the portugese (probably the latter were the aggressor), so it was party time! The HRE and I started grabbing french provinces, and I was making an army of gunpowder units. Bombards were somewhat dissapointing, as they seem bugged (won't always fire), but they still cause some casualties and makes the enemy morale drop).

I got a crusade against the Moors and they only gor Cordoba and that gold desert province.

All the while I've had a major stack of hospitallers near Antioch, waiting for the mongols but they never showed up. I see the score list, and find out they have 0 settlements! (but #1 financially). I've been allied with the Turks for a long time, and in recent years I have tried to show muscle (having my big stack near their borders) and improve their relations with money, maps, and even gave away Tunis!

Well I got more than 30 settlements now, and I don't think getting the rest will be so hard.

Overall: Very fun game despite the world war, but that's what happens with central factions. I guess the HRE are worse!

[Decebalus3]

My first campaign was with Venice on h/h. In no time, I was at war with Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire. After losing some cities, I was broke and had no money to do anything. So I decided to start over.

Second time, I started with France. I was able to build strong economies in most of the cities, but later on I was at war with Porugal, Spain, Holy Roman Empire, and Milan. Milan was chewing my cities each turn, and all my profits I had to use for defence. Then England declared war, so I decided to start over. I was in a bad position where it would take forever to recover.

Then I started with Sicily. Still playing with them. I'm curently fighting Milan and Holy Roman Empire. Good experience. Only their heavy infrantry is inferior to Milan or HRE.

[Tovi]

Poland is fun, with nice units, but very hard because of the diplomacy engine.

[Drew1986]

I heard that playing as the turks are fun. I dunno. I haven't got the game yet. Prehaps you can tell me after you've played them.