Which is your favorite faction?

[Calypze]

Simply put, which is your favorite EB2 faction? And why?

I recently installed EB2. I have previously played EB1 as well as some other M2TW mods, and will start my first EB2 campaign soon, so I'd like some tips and inspiration.

(Also, what I am supposed to do with the information that appears every time I start a campaign, that new colonists are ready?)

[RodriguesSting]

Simply put, which is your favorite EB2 faction? And why?

I recently installed EB2. I have previously played EB1 as well as some other M2TW mods, and will start my first EB2 campaign soon, so I'd like some tips and inspiration.

(Also, what I am supposed to do with the information that appears every time I start a campaign, that new colonists are ready?)

Usually ignore it, as you rarely will be able to make good use of colonies on game start. Of all factions that do colonization, Hellenics are the ones that each individual point is worth the least (least Baktria), and Carthaginians, worth the most.

[BailianSteel]

When it comes to choosing your first faction, it's important to note the current Faction Difficulty Ratings are mostly out of date. My recommended starting Faction is SPQR (they're not my favorite though,) as you'll have to learn managing the different government types, historical roleplay, colonization mechanics, and strategic forethought to get the most out of your play. Granted, it might also spoil you due to the positive income, defensible position, and the powerful Roman army. Hayastan, Qarthadast and Seleukeia are on a similar level, but have rougher edges to them; Hayastan has to contend with the massive Seleukeia immediately, Qarthadast is spread too thin, and Seleukeia is just too easy. "Barbarian" starts are harder than most "civilized" starts, and the steppe nomads are the most grueling in the game.

If the engine picks out one Family Member to be married, it will keep making offers for that one person until he is married, so refusing until you get offers for a preferred Family Member won't work.

On Hard Campaign Difficulty and above Rebel stacks can attack your settlements. From what I can see, most Rebels won't concentrate their forces against you until you move troops through their territory (doesn't matter for what purpose or how many,) but some do.

Putting several Family Members or a Spy in the same stack significantly decreases risk of defection, which makes it convenient if you want to put Family Members outside of cities to get Kingetos traits for Keltoi or Military Service for Romani, but be aware that only the commander of the stack gains battle experience.

Alliances in the mod are mostly akin to non-Aggression pacts, they're good for long term stability though.

[Shoebopp]

Usually ignore it, as you rarely will be able to make good use of colonies on game start. Of all factions that do colonization, Hellenics are the ones that each individual point is worth the least (least Baktria), and Carthaginians, worth the most.

For Carthage, you can ameliorate the initial colonist scarcity by building up Council Administrations in Atig, Adrumet, and Lilybaeum ASAP. This means setting taxes to low and building Temples of Fertility and max farms in each settlement for it to reach City level, and building Waystations and Garrisons and then spending the colonist points on Large Phoenician Colonies to unlock Council Administration. If you do this then by turn 80 or so you'll have 4 sources of colonists, which resolves the colonist shortage

[Shoebopp]

Pahlava is pretty cool IMO. They've got a reform that instantly transitions them from Steppe Nomadism to Eastern Imperial. They have good government options allowing diverse and widespread recruitment, with Indo-Parthian Satrapies offering the whole panoply of Indian troops while Royal Satrapies from Pergamon in the west to Areia in the east replenishing critical Parthian Cataphract supplies. They also benefit from both the troops and culture that the Foreign Colony buildings provide. Their starting position is situated on a web of extremely rich provinces, each of whom can yield to around 2k in mining income alone when fully upgraded. Finally, their factional governments can provide Baktrian Medium Cavalry and Baktrian Horse Archers in Baktria, and Sauromatian troops in Sauromatia, which is a really neat bonus. Their campaign is defined by early game blitzing of core Seleucid provinces, mid-game buildup of those juicy mines, and late game divide-and-conquering against the far east factions of Baktria, Saka, and Taksashila. All the while you can field a purely nomadic army, or an archer-cavalry army of the old Achaemenid Empire, or even a Hellenistic style combined forces army.

[Sint]

Bosphoran Kingdom. I really like the mix between traditional greek and scythian units ,using my limited greek infantry for sieges while my HAs can devaste enemies in the open field is great.
The location also allows the player to easily expand into many different parts of the map that have different local units and playstyles like the germanic tribes.

And Scythiapolis with it's port and large amount of land trade routes can be turned into an extremely prosperous trade city.

[Wulfburk]

Epeiros is by far my favorite faction in EB II. It has the best looking unit in the game (hypaspistai), a great colour in the map, in the middle of the world, and with historical pretenses to fight wherever you want. With some factions conquering Italy is kinda weird imo, or the same about egypt, or babylon. Epeiros is the one that suffers the least of that, except rome of course.

[Satapatiš]

Pahlava and Hayasdan cuz them Ērānšahr. I should stop replaying mostly these two.

But I also had a field day playing Epeiros from time to time and I'm going to replay them after the new patch.

The merry bunch of half-drunk degenerates you get with the Hellenic factions is just too funny.

Ditto for KH because that's my fourth factional choice.

[Genava]

No love for the Areuakoi

I hope it will change with the new features Trarco prepared for you guys.

[Lusitanio]

No love for the Areuakoi

I hope it will change with the new features Trarco prepared for you guys.

Their redone units do look amazing!

[Jurand of Cracow]

Bosphoran Kingdom. I really like the mix between traditional greek and scythian units ,using my limited greek infantry for sieges while my HAs can devaste enemies in the open field is great.
The location also allows the player to easily expand into many different parts of the map that have different local units and playstyles like the germanic tribes.

And Scythiapolis with it's port and large amount of land trade routes can be turned into an extremely prosperous trade city.

I've also voted for Pantikapaion, but mainly because I loved the EB1 Hayasdan challenge. In the EB2 it's a piece of cake (as are Pritanoi and Pergamon, the other factions I've played with delight)

[Khevsur]

my Favorite is Pontos with Old Georgian units -Cappadocians , khaldians, Iberian infantry and cavalry , Colchian Hoplites and Axemans.

[Calypze]

I started a Romani campaign. My first EB2 campaign, the Romans are the easiest according to the descriptions, and Romans are cool. What can go wrong? I played on medium/medium, as I typically do in TW games.

Defections, i.e family members becoming Eleutheroi generals, are a massive problem for me. Even pretty loyal generals defect. And they always defect when I have filled up their stacks. Is there any way to decrease the numbers of defections? It feels like I am a bit incapacitated, as whenever I go to conquer something, there is a high risk that the family member and army will defect.

[Hellenikon]

Overall I think I enjoy the Ptolemids the most. They're one of the few factions where having a fleet is relevant, and I really like punching above your weight by using less armed forces but a superior navy. Their roster is pure hellenistic and feel quite macedonian (no cataphracts), their issues with manpower makes the game more interesting. I prefer their starting position, having Alexandreia and parading the legacy of alexander's as your own. They're a fun ruling family with a mix of savy strategists and corrupt egomaniacs.
I like the idea of them doing better than they did historically, and the start date is one of the earliest POD where things could have gone either way: several naval defeats a few years in stopped the ambitions of expanding in the aegean. Can you use the romans as your tool without becoming their puppet like in IRL? How else do you plan to survive against the seleucids?

Other faction I like is Pontus, but more for gamey reasons of being able to combine all kind of forces (iranians, horse archers, phalanxes, etc.) into a single army. I miss having the royal peltasts because they are imo the most macedonian things in an army (dual pikemen/skirmishers), which pontus gets rid of in exchange for more roman like thureos units, which may be powerful but also boring and generic.

[nvm]

Probably Macedonia. Though their roster is fairly one of the most "generic" as far as factions go, I really like it, and the atmosphere regardless. Plus, their campaign really feels like a struggle thanks to the numerous detailed raid events, where it goes from one raid to the next, until you finally regain some of your former glory, yet it doesn't end here, for soon after you are stuck between Rome and whatever is happening in Anatolia. Aside from that I've also enjoyed Rome and Areuakoi, however the length required required to achieve their reforms, as well as the lack of challenge for Areuakoi after expanding past their native regions, lest you proceed past them, puts them behind Macedonia for me.

[Sarkiss]

Other faction I like is Pontus, but more for gamey reasons of being able to combine all kind of forces (iranians, horse archers, phalanxes, etc.) into a single army. I miss having the royal peltasts because they are imo the most macedonian things in an army (dual pikemen/skirmishers), which pontus gets rid of in exchange for more roman like thureos units, which may be powerful but also boring and generic.

its Pontus for me due to their fascinating mix of cultures and possibilities. they also start in a pretty cozy location and with only one settlement making campaign both harder and more interesting.
love Hayastan, Successors (both small and large) and Carthage too, but all of those are too easy gameplay wise, with the possible exception of Pergamon.

[Lusitanio]

I started a Romani campaign. My first EB2 campaign, the Romans are the easiest according to the descriptions, and Romans are cool. What can go wrong? I played on medium/medium, as I typically do in TW games.

Defections, i.e family members becoming Eleutheroi generals, are a massive problem for me. Even pretty loyal generals defect. And they always defect when I have filled up their stacks. Is there any way to decrease the numbers of defections? It feels like I am a bit incapacitated, as whenever I go to conquer something, there is a high risk that the family member and army will defect.

Just put two generals on the same stack, it won't go rebel.

[RodriguesSting]

Great way to gain service time in your younger family members. In fact you have some exclusive triggersfor serving as a secondary general. Sadly it has nothing to do with number of battles or performance, but how many turns the character spent outside a settlement as a secondary general of an army.

Finally I saw generals desert with secondaries before, and with spies as well. Odds few very reduced though, and the most likely reason for your mavericksis mediocre faction leader authority.

[blackbirdgriffin]

My favourite has to be Pahlava as the transition in governement and unit is just too much fun, then I'd go for Pontos which is great to play with given the historical background and the sheer unit diversity (Iranian-style warfare, Galatoi, Hellenic, cappadocian, caucasion, take one and they have it early to mid game), then I'd go for the nomads (Always takes me ages to know whom to pick the sarmatians or the saka rauka, both are so fun and yet so different) for I love nomadic warfare as well as beeing able to raid far and wide and the character progression it makes. And also carthage, honestly I would advise you to play carthage next (as in after rome) as they are pretty straight forward but they are more fun while still been a "standard" (Feels bad to say it but you know what I mean),

The celtic factions are also loads of fun but you don't necessarly have much to do after 150-200 turns with those factions (might change with the new faction to come, hint hint wink wink)

I mean to be honest once you've the hang of it just pick what you feel like playing all factions are fun and it mostly depends on your preference tbh.

[Aodh Mór Ó Néill]

My favourite would have to be the KH.

I much prefer hoplites over phalangites and the fact that you have to rely more on local levies than Hellenic professionals (I kind of see them as Carthage-lite). Kicking the Macedonians out of Hellas before reforming into a proper Hellenic league is great fun, and I love expanding into southern Italy and western Anatolia, reclaiming the colonies for the motherland. There's plenty of flavour with the various ethnicities and the life-stages FM's go through, and the thueros reforms feel a lot more impactful than with other Hellenic factions, as theuros troops actually go on to form a main part of your battle-line rather than just aiding the phalangites.

Also you get Spartans, two units of them! What's not to love?

Actually I was just wondering, where you guys build the two elite governments the KH get at the end of their reforms? I usually go for Athens and Sparta for RP reasons but do you guys usually go for more strategic cities? I was thinking of Byzantium and Syracuse for my next campaign.