How many early factions have you won with?

[son of spam]

Well...early factions only this time. I haven't played as the spanish, aragonese, danes, italians, scilians, egyptians or the polish.

Damn...must play more MTW http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[katank]

Well, I have played ever faction in early.

I've actually finished with about half of them. The rest, I played to at least 40-50% of the map and such dominanace in economy and military as well as tech that a win was pretty much a given.

must start on hgih now. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Haethurn]

I've only won as the Danes now. But then I have only been playing this game for so long...

[Ironside]

All of them in early, including the Russians in high.

[son of spam]

wow that's nice. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

Who's the other uber 1337 MTW meister? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

What faction did you find the most challenging or the most fun tho?

[Ironside]

Most challenging:
The Russians in high (20.000 angry mongols is hard to beat).
The Aragonese (hard to expand to acceptable size).
The Polish (hard to get a good economy running).

Most fun:
It depends mostly on what troops they got, after a certain size you're probably gonna win the campaign no matter what.

I think GA campaigns with limits on how much you expand can be fun and hard, although haven't tried one yet. But it can still get weird, I took the entire middle east in my latest Almohad campaign only because the Byz, the Turks and the Egyptians died without heirs. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

[katank]

Aragonese are hard to expand?

I find it doable to grab Navarre, Valencia, and Toulouse. THe last you can get off the French and still auto ceasefire.

all of them nice provinces.

I would then hit the Spanish for more places to pump jinettes and also Leon for Knights Santiago and Castile for inquisitors.

crusade run the Almos and you have pretty much the same starting position as the Spanish, tech up for lancers if you are so inclined.

[Cazbol]

1. Danes
2. Byzantines
3. Egyptians
4. Holy Roman Empire
5. Almohads (2 other factions left with a total of 6 provinces) I should have a 100% victory in 3 turns.

All the campaigns above played to 100% conquest without any auto-resolution or reloads.

Did the vikings and the Irish as well.

[Ulair]

Quote[/b] (Cazbol @ May 10 2004,08:44)]1. Danes
2. Byzantines
3. Egyptians
4. Holy Roman Empire
5. Almohads (2 other factions left with a total of 6 provinces) I should have a 100% victory in 3 turns.

All the campaigns above played to 100% conquest without any auto-resolution or reloads.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif Do you sleep, Cazbol?

Won with the Egyptians so far. This work/family life stuff just keeps getting in the way... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Apocalyp$e]

I have only beat the campaign from early with 1 faction-the Polish, but I have done it three times... I am thinking of coming out of my shell and trying another faction... maybe something muslim.

[Ironside]

Citera[/b] (katank @ Maj 09 2004,12:39)]Aragonese are hard to expand?

I find it doable to grab Navarre, Valencia, and Toulouse. THe last you can get off the French and still auto ceasefire.

all of them nice provinces.

I would then hit the Spanish for more places to pump jinettes and also Leon for Knights Santiago and Castile for inquisitors.

crusade run the Almos and you have pretty much the same starting position as the Spanish, tech up for lancers if you are so inclined.

Well I've used the same start, but I got dragged into a war with the English (the only war declared by me), the French, the Germans, the English again, the Spanish (that had overran the Almos) and the Italians at 1170. After that it was quite easy though. I had a very small navy for a long time though thanks to all those wars.

Notice that I don't like to start wars, I rarly starts more than 1 in the beginning, to get enough room.

The Spanish needs to have gotten to war with the Almos before you can expand there. And you'll need alot of archers to take out those jinettes.

So I tried to take some English provinces at first.

[Cazbol]

Quote[/b] (Ulair @ May 10 2004,07:02)]http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif Do you sleep, Cazbol?
My all so patient girlfriend read your post over my shoulder and dictated this answer to me:

"If she didn't drag me by the hair to eat and sleep every once in a while, then I wouldn't sleep and would die of malnutrition."

This message is hereby delivered.

By the way, all these campaigns have involved massive amounts of unnecessary micromanagement and I'm proud of it. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[katank]

good lord, how long did that take you on average per campaign?

[Cazbol]

Probably months, but who's counting. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-juggle.gif

[HopAlongBunny]

All except rebels, HRE, Poland and the Welsh.

I was really disappointed with the Welsh. Had everything tech'ed up; good coin; loads of bandits. Re-emerging factions just ate away at it all, never lost a battle but resigned because there was nothing left. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

Someday...

[katank]

reemergences aren't nearly as big a problem in the viking game IMHO since you get spies fast.

I like spy spamming in that game since it's only first tech level and frankly that means little loyalty problems and hence no reemergences.

I also recommend trying out the HRE in porcupine mode and perhaps High Poles who are also quite challenging.

[Satyr]

I have played all factions in early but like many here I haven't actually claimed victory in all as it gets boring once you are well in command. I have also played just about every faction in High and most in Late. I have also played all the VI factions at least twice and I do play those to 100% victories because it only takes a couple evenings to win. Since I have started playing Medmod 3.14 I have played most factions in Early and High also. The Germans in Medmod are absolutely the hardest faction to play of them all.

Of course I have been playing quite a lot since the day the game came out and I also bought VI when it came out so I should have played a lot by now, right? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-yes.gif

[Ulair]

Quote[/b] (Cazbol @ May 10 2004,21:35)]
Quote[/b] (Ulair @ May 10 2004,07:02)] http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif Do you sleep, Cazbol?

My all so patient girlfriend read your post over my shoulder and dictated this answer to me:

"If she didn't drag me by the hair to eat and sleep every once in a while, then I wouldn't sleep and would die of malnutrition."


http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif ROTFL
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[son of spam]

Quote[/b] (HopAlongBunny @ May 11 2004,08:02)]All except rebels, HRE, Poland and the Welsh.

I was really disappointed with the Welsh. Had everything tech'ed up; good coin; loads of bandits. Re-emerging factions just ate away at it all, never lost a battle but resigned because there was nothing left. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

Someday...
I don't find Welsh that hard, but maybe that's because I always do the cheap reloading trick when attacking viking ships. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[son of spam]

Quote[/b] (Satyr @ May 12 2004,11:07)]The Germans in Medmod are absolutely the hardest faction to play of them all.
I know what you mean, but any faction is hard if you turtle. My french game right now is harder than my German game, because unlike my German game, I didn't rush.

MTW seems to be made for rushing.

[Oleander Ardens]

Every faction is easy when you rush early - some are just easier than others http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I do however also turtle sometimes, which is far more challeging in the mid and lategame...

For example the Welsh are pretty hard when you just take neutral regions and turtle, as the Saxons or Mercians will throw Husacerl after Husacerl against you - at least Wales is an archercountry http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[katank]

yep. I also found a combo of militia, spears and archery to provide a nice cheap defense.

As HRE, you'll not know what to do without them.

[BalkanTourist]

I've achieved a 100% dominance with all but Polish, Turks, Sicilians and Spanish. Mostly in autoresolve though. I am going back and starting with Almohads trying to win a TD with fighting every single battle.
Problems I've encountered:
1. Tremendous amount of micromanagement. Every five years I make sure I have the right governors for the provinces. Accumen is most important for me so it must be at least 4.
I build up all my provinces. I build every building that I can build in a province. Of course I preoritize. I have a designated province for different types of units and even for different units.
2. Battles are fun at the beginning. By mid game they are just a pain 1-2 hour long battles. Sometimes I play for a week off and on and have completed 20 or so years.
3. By mid-game I get bored and feel like I want to start fresh ( thinking I should have done some things better). Sometimes it gets so easy. Sometimes it's just ugly.
I don't know about you guys, but I just feel so lonely by the end of the games when all you see is your own color all over the map. I like to have a populated map with many weak factions fighting each other. It's so much fun watching the balance of power switch time and time again. May be I am just weird like that...

[katank]

I'm bored too by that time.

So I nibble off pieces of factions all the time and often try to not kill them completely but captive trading partners who are not a threat.

I once managed to get 5 factions onto little islands for such status.

also added some variety to the game color wise http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ChaosLord]

What, no 0 option? The only faction i've won the game with was the Scots in VI, which I think was because of the smaller map. Its not that i'm terrible at the game, I just usually get bored when my empire starts just steamrolling over all opposition. The fun is in the intial 100 years or so building up everything. Although i've been playing longer and longer games. WesW's latest MedMod makes for strong empires developing. In my current game Spain owns all of the Iberian penisula and western Europe. On the other end of the map opposing them is Russia who owns all of the east including Byzantine lands/middle east, but not the baltic provinces. Should be interesting to see those two clash, and wether my Swedes can come out of it ahead. I don't like the idea of trying to beat Russia with straight infantry armies though.

[katank]

LOL, ChaosLord, you sound like me.

I usually rush for the first two decades and once I get 30%-40% of the map that is nice and rich, I would sometimes quit out of boredom as I more or less won the game unless something really drastic happens.

[Ellesthyan]

Phew, could actually vote here; ended my first campaign last week. English, early, Medmod... I had never rushed before as the English, but I slaughtered the French unexpectedly in 10 turns, and after that my way to world domination was paved http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
I usually stop when I've got 40% of Europe and so much money I don't care to play on.