Whats your top 10 hardest factions on ETW?

[BlueBert]

Hello im new here and i am wandering whats (in your own opinion) the top 10 hardest factions i ETW and are happy for anwsers because i want to play like one of the harder once (unmodded) im happy to get some anwsers!

[Alwyn]

Welcome to TWC, BlueBert. In the early part of the campaign, at least, I think playing as the United Provinces can be challenging because you are spread thinly, with a small presence in the Americas, Europe and India. Generally, as I see it, playing factions which are less modern in ETW, such as the Ottoman Empire and Russia, is more challenging compared to playing Western European powers.

One way to make playing Russia even more challenging is this: set taxes for the lower classes to maximum so that there will be an early Russian revolution. When the revolution occurs, side with the rebels and re-take your capital, then re-take the other Russian regions.

Have you tried the Warpath DLC? I find playing as Native American factions to be very difficult.

You mentioned that you want to discuss the hardest unmodded factions. If you would be prepared to consider a faction unlocking mod such as Empire Total Factions (ETF, which unlocks minor factions such as Venice and emergent factions such as Ireland), then it is possible to play very challenging campaigns with factions such as Venice and Ireland (if you used ETF, then you might well want a unit pack mod to make smaller factions more playable. Other hosted mods, such as Imperial Destroyer, Imperial Splendour and Darthmod, also unlock minor factions.) In case you are interested, here are links to After Action Reports on my Venice and Ireland campaigns: The Lion and the Eagle (Venice AAR) and Éirí Amach: Irish Rising (Ireland AAR).

[BlueBert]

Hello! I have played some Darthmod and thats the best mod to play with (modded) but unmodded im curious. I have seen that Prussia and UP is hard but why isnt Sweden hard then? Like when i have played with Sweden it have always been a challange. Thats because when wars gets started u need to fight on 3 fronts and have enough armies to defend at each side. Thats why i wonder why peoples say sweden is so easy.

[Alwyn]

I don't think playing Sweden is easy. I agree that playing Sweden is challenging. As you said, Sweden can find itself fighting on two or three fronts.

Why didn't I list Sweden as one of the hardest factions? For two reasons:-
- Sweden's regions are connected to each other, while the United Province has regions which are a long way from each other. (If Sweden wins on one front, for example against Denmark, then the Swedish army which was fighting on that front can be moved - relatively quickly - to reinforce your army fighting Prussia or Russia. If a United Province army wins in the Americas, then it could be moved - relatively slowly - to reinforce a UP army in Europe or India).
- Sweden has a relatively modern military in ETW, compared to factions such as the Ottoman Empire and Russia.

[BlueBert]

i agree that Ottoman and Russia (russia is easier). Ottomans is one of the hardest factions and thats very clear. UP thoe. Just make war on 1 front of the world and that will make u win that front (recomend EU) because if u take a fight against france and Spain the only thing u need is a great fleet and a relativly strong army and then u can make so damn big impact.

[Alwyn]

I agree that Russia is easier. I could be wrong about UP. Yes, UP could make a big impact if they can focus on defeating France and Spain. Perhaps it is easier to fight on one front when playing UP, while Sweden is more likely to be forced to fight on two or three fronts? (Of course, if UP are at war with France in Europe, then they might need to defend their South American region of Dutch Guyana from French troops based in French Guyana. This means that a war between the UP and France is a war on two fronts, at least initially).

[BlueBert]

Yes but the fronts outside europe is so easy to handle it is like 5 troops at max then u just need to have a decent garrison and u can be good.

[Sar1n]

Sweden can be quite easy. If you blitz Norway with the troops from Sweden while grouping up the troops spread over Finland, Estonia and Ingria and sending them to Denmark via ship, it's easy to close this front within few turns. Hannover is an excellent buffer, you can beat their army, make peace with them and you're pretty much set for war on the east.

UP's problem is mostly facing the naval blockade from France and Spain and resulting loss of income.

If you want a late game challenge instead, try Ottomans or one of Indian nations (not sure which are available in unmodded game) and try to expand into Europe.

[BlueBert]

Maratha is an even easier challange than sweden because your economy is so good and even if u have fewer settlements than mughal you will get a better economy and kill them so fast. ottoman is a challange that just will get so damn hard to try and i gave up after 6 turns

[P.S.]

I'd say the UP are actually fairly easy, if you pull off a revolution and change your government to a monarchy. Then most of your early game enemies stop hating you and won't declare war. From there on it's about getting to the trade nodes quickly and capturing the pirates' islands and aquiring colonies (preferably in India) to get money for a war in Europe.
It also depends on the difficulty, but I never play on campaign difficulty above normal since everything higher than that just makes the ai go ballistic.
The hardest ones from the Vanilla faction would be the Ottomans, I say. Crappy troops in early game and some poor provinces as well as Austria, Russia and Persia wanting to eat your soul. They get some good troops though and have many villages that will grow into towns ready to strengthen your economy later on... oh, and your Sultan sucks.
Poland might also be hard since they have a bad line and are landlocked, but I haven't played them yet.

I would also agree with Alwyn about the Warpath factions being pretty dang hard, especially the Pueblo.

[poa]

saxony and the sucker between bavaria and france are difficult.
UP is also difficult lest you resort to cheat by giving military access,
i have never made it past turn 5 as UP without france attacking

[apostrophefz]

I played a normal short campaign with United Provinces, and had a jolly easy good time. But ultimately, I failed it. I bought the New York province, required to win, from the British, for 90k moneys, but by the last 5 years, the heathen Marathas did not sell me the two provinces needed. I say two because they took Ceylon (back). Goddamn them. Huge stacks of money, and nothing. And worse still, to add insult to injury, they took Trinidad and Tobago, another crucial to victory province! The bastards, went around the world to hammer the last nail at my coffin.

Now I'm playing a long normal campaign as Ottoman in Darthmod. Having a blast. And not hard at all. Russia accepted a 10k peace treaty, and now our relations couldn't be better.

[Freeed]

Hello, I have played ETW alot, and I always play on Very Hard difficulty, as playing on anything else is boring and not challenging (it usually just ends in a world conqering grind with very little opposition).

Having won the campaign on virtually all factions on Very Hard, what I would say of each faction is:


Prussia.
This one is the hardest. Because virtually everyone around you will declare war on you after a few turns, and for every region you take, your front widens, and the next faction will declare war on you. You will have a very unstable frontline from the moment you caputre your first region. Your best bet is to ally with Great Britain from first turn, because Great Britain WILL drop a huge army at your backdoor at some point if you play a western power (Sweden, France, Spain, Prussia), and you really cant afford to fight that, nor will you have any compareable navy to stop it from happening
Second because its very hard to gain a strong economy. You are very limited to overseas trade, and you will have to constantly push your taxes to maintain enough soldiers to fight on every front, making most of your regions unable to become rich. You will have very big problems with renforcing your armies, your units will constantly be thin.

For most people, the most obvious target is Saxony and Poland, however this will get you bogged down. Instead I always favor a more unorthodox tactic, to attack Sweden. Sweden is weak early in the game, and they certainly dont have any protection in Stockholm from a Prussian landing. No country or vassals will get mad at you, and you gain a powerful backdoor (avoiding multiple fronts) to sustain your coming expansions.


United Provinces.
This faction is rather easy. That fact that you are spread out does not really matter, its even in your advantage. You simply dont touch your colony in India (because the Indian factions wont attack you, well not until at least 40 turns into the game, and you get MASSIVE income from their trade so you dont want to fight these guys anyway). You also simply dont touch Europe. Because if you expand in Europe, factions will attack you. But if you haul up some troops in Amsterdam (or Belgium if you will), and ally your neighbor Westphalia, nobody is going to bother you, not even France (and their army would be crushed anyway trying to take the walls).

So yes, just ignore European theater and Indian Theater. Your main thrust is in America. Im talking island hopping. Build up powerful formations of Line infantry and militia, and capture every spanish and french possession. Make lots of trade ships and focus on your navy (the dutch has a great starting ship that can combat the Galleons because of their speed). Deny the French and the Spanish any entry into Americas or anywhere outside Europe with your navy, and just capture everything they got outside Europe.

After you have done so, and captured enough trade posts, you should now have like 17k-20k gold income per turn. Now you have such a powerful bank, you can start expanding in the EU theater and start killing off Spain and France completely.


Ottoman Empire.
They may seem hard, but they actually are not. Only the first 10 turns are challenging, and the situation may scare you. Basically dont panic. Dont try to fight Austria or Russia at start, just let them expand into you, sacrefice your regions in Europe (defend Istanbul at all cost however), and focus your entire military machine on the east. You need to destroy Persia as soon as freaking possible, and after that Georgia and Azerbajan. As soon as you start the campaign, re-direct every single unit available to the east and deal with these 3 factions.

Once Persia, Georgia and Azerbajan are destroyed, then you pretty much won. India wont attack you if you dont expand into them, so leave a puny Persian state alive between you and India. Should India border you and start to attack you, just haul up troops in the Persian capital and use it as a shield for the rest of your empire.

Focus your effort on Austria. They will rarely focus all their military might on you, and you can easily recapture all the regions that you lost. The south Russian provinces are easy picking too to strengthen your economy.


Sweden.
Sweden is somewhat easy, and yet not. You start with 3 (will be) enemies, and your starting army size is enough to destroy one of them. Like most factions you secure your backdoor first, and capture a region to will seal off your empire from the other nations. In this case that region is Denmark. You should have enough troops, or income to buy troops, to defeat both Denmark and Courland simultaniously. Courland is very important to kill off fast becuase they love to attack, and like most "minor nations" they are able to build huge armies quickly.
Obviously you expand into Poland as soon as Courland has been destroyed. Take Polands regions, except for Poland itself. Put lots of troops in Denmark to prevent Hannover to attack you (because you dont want to expand beyind Denmark, if you do, then you are in the cluster of central Europe and every neighbor nation will attack you).

Prussia can be allied, and they wont attack you. Russia is troublesome, because they will never stop attacking you but have too many regions to be exterminated. Moscow, after you capture it, will basically be a battlezone region for 30 turns.

You worst threat however is Great Britain. They WILL attack you eventually, and its hard to prepare for that. Just like when you play Prussia, GB will land with a massive army at your backdoor and you will likely not have a navy strong enough to stop them. Beat this army, either by making a navy strong enough to stop their navy from coming, or have a backup force at Stockholm to fight.
If you cant beat the GB navy, you need find an alternative way to defeat GB. Make a sneak attack and land your forces in Scotland. Capture the region and then take England & Ireland, effectivily destroying Great Britain faction. You will virtually have won the game by then.


Spain.
I'd say Spain is the most fun to play. You start with many spread out region, but just like United Provinces, dont let this distract you. Abandon your regions, they are too costly to defend as everyone around will try to take them. At the start of the game, focus 100% of your military on taking out Portugal and Marocco, this will secure your backdoor. With Marrocco gone, the barbary states are easy picking. In fact a good strategy is to keep the barbary states alive for a while, as their constant attempts of attacking your ports with their puny ships is a great income when you capture their ships (keep a Brig in/near your port) by "Auto manage battle".

Once your have secured the entire east mediteranian sea, by caputring marocco, barbary states, and St John, you then start to move up to Italy. Most nations in Italy will be at war with you for taking your italian regions. Move up the Italian peninsula and destroy all 4 factions (Venice, Genoa, Savoy, Italian state).
Now you have an extremely wealthy and extremly secure empire. Since France is your loyal ally, you only have 1 single region bordering an enemy: Venice.

Focus on your navy now, Destroy Great Britain. The best way to do this is to capture Ireland and use it as a base of operations for your navy (for repair and renforce). During your entire time killing off Italian factions, African factions and Portugal, you should also try to capture islands in the Americas if you can afford it. Focus on capturing United Provinces regions in Americas. Try to complete the mission to gain New Spain regions but this is your secondary objective, the primary is to follow my previous instructions and secure the Mediteranian in EU theater.

The hardest part with playing as Spain, is the sudden attack from Great Britain (just like for Prussia and Sweden). At some point, mostly around 10-20th turn, Great Britain will show up with a large fleet, containing a massive army, and drop them off in your home region. However unlike playing as Sweden and Prussia, you have a good chance as destroying the British navy with your Galleons. Should you not have enough Galleons because you havnt been avle to afford it, then dont panic. Let them land, because it will still take them at least 2 turns to reach your capital from the moment you spot them. These 2 turns will give you enough time to build up a backup force in Spain (4 infantry per turn in Spain, 1 Milita per turn in Gibralta, 2 Cavalry per turn in Portugal). Giving you a total of 8 infantry, 2 militia, 4 Cavalry, more than enough to fight off GB.


Maratha & Austria.
The reason these are togheter is because they are both very easy. Win the game in less than 12 turns is easily achieved. As Maratha you spend 100% of your income on first destroying Mysore (the standard securing your backdoor strategy) then by pushing Mughal, dont let them recover for a second. Push as far north as possible. At some point your lines will become overextended, simply make a peace agreement with Mughal, they will agree to it under any circumstance (demand some technology while you are at it). When you feel like you have recovered your armies, attack them once more, focus on the western regions, especially Bengal, and push for their capital Hindustan. United provinces or any other Europeans will not attack you.

As Austria, you go full militarism as well, and you expand into ITALY. Thats right, dont attack Poland or Prussia. Haul up troops in Silecia region, that way you will prevent Prussia and Poland from attacking. And even though Ottoman regions are tempting, they are not lucrative. The Italian states are. Another reason to attack Italian nations early is also cause "Minor Nations" has a tendency to become extremely powerful even thought they only have 1 region. Early in the game however, they are extremly weak, but still rich. Taking Italy is also very cost effective, as you dont share a border with anyone except with 1 region (Savoy) against France, easily defended.
Once Italy is secured, then you expand south on the weak Ottomans, and destroy their faction as a whole.
During this time, keep hauling up troops in Silecia to prevent any Prussian or Polish attack. It will work.


Russia.
Russia is somewhat hard, probably second to Prussia (but nowhere near). You are weak and you are big, not a good combination. And just like every other faction on Very Hard difficulty, all of your (non ally) neighbor is going to attack you. The best strategy is to secure your southern front against the "minor states" since they become too powerful and too stubborn as the game progress. Use all your starting units an re-direct them south to Crimea. Destroy that faction, and turn these men towards Georgia and Azerbajan. This is a very tricky fight, where you will have to manouver both to capture their regions and not allowing them to capture yours.

Once you destroyed these 3 factions, keep 1 army in Georgia to fight off any Persian / Ottoman attempts. Attack their regions if you wish, but its usually not very lucrative.
Your next obvious target is Sweden. As you have been focusing most of your efforts in the south, the Swedes will likely have been trying to take Moscow, which must be defended at all cost. Dont worry if they take other region such as Karelia, but simply defend moscow until your southern border is secured. Now you will focus your effort on Sweden and take Ingrida, Estonia and Finland regions.
At this stage you now have a solid base. Take main Sweden when you feel ready. Your worst threat during this time as Russia is however not a backdoor drop from Great Britain, but a sudden attack with a powerful army by the Ottomans towards Kiev (Ukraine region).

Once the Swedish and Ottoman capitals has been taken, or neutralized, its time to steamroll Europe. Poland will likely have lost her war with Prussia, resulting in the Polish capital being taken. Betray Poland and take her remaning (low defended) regions. Now you will have a Soviet Union size empire, and pretty much won the campaign.

[poa]

Hello, I have played ETW alot, and I always play on Very Hard difficulty, as playing on anything else is boring and not challenging (it usually just ends in a world conqering grind with very little opposition). Having won the campaign on virtually all factions on Very Hard, what I would say of each faction is: Prussia. This one is the hardest.

hello freeed, you only mentioned preussia as hard, so try out this strategy, it makes preussia a breeze http://etw.heavengames.com/articles/...ampaign-guide/ ......... it also eludes me how you can say UP is easy on VH, at least if you adhere to the principle of not giving military access which makes AI unable to declare war, because i have not ever made it 5 turns without france declaring. ........... england attack me as soon as their navy can arrive no matter what faction i play as, for as long as they can make an amphibious assault, not just in europe, but as any faction in india too ......... i'm almost starting to wonder if we are playing the same game, because you mention attacking italy as austria, as if austria isnt attacked by poland & ottoman within 10 turns

[Owlparrot3]

Marathas Are hardest.

[divilly]

i'm almost starting to wonder if we are playing the same game, because you mention attacking italy as austria, as if austria isnt attacked by poland & ottoman within 10 turns

I think so too. Attacking Italy as Austria in the first turn is inappropriate, as you will have to leave Praha, Silesia and Croatia exposed

[Goutlard]

Hello, I have played ETW alot, and I always play on Very Hard difficulty, as playing on anything else is boring and not challenging (it usually just ends in a world conqering grind with very little opposition).

Having won the campaign on virtually all factions on Very Hard, what I would say of each faction is:


Ottoman Empire.
They may seem hard, but they actually are not. Only the first 10 turns are challenging, and the situation may scare you. Basically dont panic. Dont try to fight Austria or Russia at start, just let them expand into you, sacrefice your regions in Europe (defend Istanbul at all cost however), and focus your entire military machine on the east. You need to destroy Persia as soon as freaking possible, and after that Georgia and Azerbajan. As soon as you start the campaign, re-direct every single unit available to the east and deal with these 3 factions.

Once Persia, Georgia and Azerbajan are destroyed, then you pretty much won. India wont attack you if you dont expand into them, so leave a puny Persian state alive between you and India. Should India border you and start to attack you, just haul up troops in the Persian capital and use it as a shield for the rest of your empire.

Focus your effort on Austria. They will rarely focus all their military might on you, and you can easily recapture all the regions that you lost. The south Russian provinces are easy picking too to strengthen your economy.

I do agree that the Ottomans are much easier than they look like. You have a large Empire, poor mostly, with regions that are are more costly to protect than to keep. But, you still have a great amount of territory, more so than Russia. Many regions, with a huge potential of development. Albeit, personally, I use a very different strategy;

I prefer to try to trade Morea against Bosnia with Venice, which ensures I have one less front in case of war. Keep a small dissuasive power at the Austrian border and to make them declare war as late as possible, moving my army from Greece to the border, and Bulgaria to the Austrian border too. Trade - trade immediately with everyone ! That is the great strength of the Ottomans. So many land and sea trade routes go through Ottoman lands that if you trade you may easily get a good 10 000 to 15 000 per turn thanks to that alone !

I suggest keeping onto territory mostly using relatively cheaper units and overwhelming your opponents through wider firing formations ; whilst keeping taxes very low, maybe even getting rid of them completely ! And researching agricultural techs, leading to many villages appearing, fast massive development of all regions. And, that way by 1720 Anatolia, Egypt, Greece, Syria and Rumelia are betwen 5 000 and 10 000 in worth each ; if you managed your economy well.

As soon as you will develop Nizam-I Cedit, no one can face your base line infantry superior to most of Europeans, especially with overwhelming wealth relative to pretty much everyone else !

Truly challenging plays, yet rewarding ones I found are the smaller factions, the minor ones.
If you enable the Knights of St John, Georgia, single region factions that is really interesting !

Even some important factions that are disabled by default for some stupid reason (Mughal ? Not that challenging, but worth a try, Persia)

[eschelar]

Fwiw, I did 100% global domination with the two "hardest" factions, UP and Prussia. Pretty strong right from the get go. Both enjoyable too. Both done well before 1750. One was done VH/VH too, but I forget which.

The challenge of ETW is in the extra details. Maratha is tough because their gov type is slow for tech and constantly battling clamor for reform. UP is strong because their tech moves very fast and they have little penalty from clamor for reform. In both campaigns, I had first rates by early 1730s and massive tech dominance early, also in part by stealing tech. Maratha can't steal tech either. I was still struggling to field 3rd rates by the early 1730s and had lost tons of trade node options. I remained a minor player for a long time.

My biggest challenge so far has been Maratha with no gunpowder units. That also means that the only units you can recruit in Europe are cav. Tough to dominate Europe with only can and your armies coming from bijapur... To bring a stack of armies up, I need to pay for them for about 5 to 7 turns before they even reach battle in Europe... Zipes.

[poa]

the trick with maratha IMO is to expand really fast, -as in, dont wait to suppress revolts, because those revolts are made up of rabble with fork sticks, so keep press on and wipe the rabble out, that rabble wipe will have a suppressing effect. ............ as with any faction, i build churches & schools in any region that will have 3 or more buildings, or if the government building is high level just a single church and a school, so i will stay ahead in tech even on VH. ............. i value depleted dragoon regiments more than anything, a 10 unit dragoon regiment suppress just as good as a 60 unit regiment, while costing a fraction in upkeep, so i send them to regions with a school.

[poa]

Ottoman Empire. They may seem hard, but they actually are not. Only the first 10 turns are challenging, and the situation may scare you. Basically dont panic. Dont try to fight Austria or Russia at start, just let them expand into you, sacrefice your regions in Europe (defend Istanbul at all cost however), and focus your entire military machine on the east. You need to destroy Persia as soon as freaking possible, and after that Georgia and Azerbajan.

what i do is selling off armenia to persia for trade & alliance and money, -this gives me yet another trade partner, and even more importantly, it prevent them from destroying my only safe port for trade ships. best of all it free up my entire eastern flank. additionally it also seals off georgia and the green one province faction next to georgia that would otherwise harass me, let the persians deal with that . i also need the money to spam churches. DO NOT call them to war, they will take any excuse to break alliance! ....... i had a horrible horrible time figuring out how to do it on VH, since england will without hesitation come and mess me up, but eventually i figured it out: ....... turn 1: trade with berber so you get the region next to morocco, build a ship. turn 2: plug gibraltar with that ship, -this will prevent england from even trying, additionally it prevent all the factions to compete for trade nodes, AND, on this turn, sell the region to mughal. ..... ALSO on turn 2, attack the region below vienna, sell it to mughal the same turn, also send a ship to venice, and build a trade ship in every port on turn 1, on turn 3, venice will declare war and block bosnia, so that ship in venice will be able to destroy both austria and venice port every turn, just remember to withdraw the ship from their ports every turn .... EDIT: its critical to get trade with both poland and italy on turn 1, with italy because that trade flow from bosnia is what attracts venice to keep their navy at bosnia port, now with a trade ship conveniently preventing its destruction, and with poland because otherwise they will declare too. i'm a huge fan of kurd units, they are the best bang for buck early game, so i quickly upgrade in syria to mass produce them, and i build enough trade ships to shuffle the kurds to the fronts in balkans and crimea/ukraine. .... strategy: i'm happy just keeping status quo in balkans, since any advance will just lead to more enemies and fronts the turn we share a border, but i press on into russia and wipe them off the map before expanding into austria/italy