Which Faction Pisses You Off

[Ayachuco]

Since i saw a thread on which is your favorite faction, i decided to go in the opposite way. Which faction pisses off and why?
For me, its the Almohads because usually by the end of the game its me against the Almohads. :duel:
I dont how but they always have a bigger military force than me and their not filled with peasant levies either. They just make me so mad. :furious3:

[Don Corleone]

It's not a faction in that you cannot actually play them, but without a doubt, it would have to be the Papacy.

If we're talking about playable factions, the one I hate the most is the HRE. Not because I don't like the civil wars and loyalty challenges, that's all fine. I like a tough game.

I hate that I finally get to the point where Gothic knights are in sight, maybe 2 or 3 years down the road for me, and Emperor dies w/out an heir. It always seems to happen to me right before 1320. Rat bastards.

[Simovek]

The Sicillians because they always have a large navy and just randomly attack me and destroy my navy for no real reason.

And the Aragonese because they like to attack me randomly also if I don't keep armies in the area.

[Saracen_Warrior]

The faction bordering me. If there is a faction next to me I jsut have to crush them.

[Ash]

Every single one of them. Except maybe the Danes (they produce cute little princesses who want to marry into my faction).

All factions attack you if they sense weakness, so every one of them is the enemy.

Most annoying are the Italians and Sicilians. They have large fleets and will disrupt your trade roots just for the fuck of it.

[Procrustes]

The Argonesse. I mean, no matter who you are, no matter how nice you are to them, sooner or later they backstab you. Not like they have ever become a real threat - it's often suicide. That or they attack and then sit back home with a big stack of royal knights, and sooner or later I've just fumed about it so long I invade.

[Sensei Warrior]

Since this thread was started because of mine it seems only fair that I respond.

The faction I hate is anyone I'm not currently playing. ~;)

If I'm playing a Catholic faction that the Pope is by far and away the most irritating. If I'm the English then the French run a close second, at least until I obiliterate them.

If I am playing a Muslim faction that isn't Egypt then it's the Egyptians. The Egypts tick me off because they produce peasants and camels in horrifically large numbers. It's irritating killing off wave after wave of farmers and farmers riding camels. I'm surprised there are any farmers actually farming in Egypt.

Did I mention the Horde? Or the way the Italians are the only faction that seems to use naval warfare and amphibious landings. Add Sicilians to the list for the same reasons, and the Argonese for being nasty, vile backstabbers.

I have alot of pent up aggression I guess.

[Hold Steady]

Since this thread was started because of mine it seems only fair that I respond.

The faction I hate is anyone I'm not currently playing. ~;)

If I'm playing a Catholic faction that the Pope is by far and away the most irritating. If I'm the English then the French run a close second, at least until I obiliterate them.

If I am playing a Muslim faction that isn't Egypt then it's the Egyptians. The Egypts tick me off because they produce peasants and camels in horrifically large numbers. It's irritating killing off wave after wave of farmers and farmers riding camels. I'm surprised there are any farmers actually farming in Egypt.

Did I mention the Horde? Or the way the Italians are the only faction that seems to use naval warfare and amphibious landings. Add Sicilians to the list for the same reasons, and the Argonese for being nasty, vile backstabbers.

I have alot of pent up aggression I guess.

One word: LOL ~D

I agree, the Papacy is a pest, Camels stink and the floating Gondelier is a pain in the backend. The Horde are chicken-style fighters, so it's a drag fighting them. There's one worse though: The Turks. Has anyone actually seen Turkish troops advance and attack your position? Yeah, they advance toward my position, bu as soon as within arrow range they start showering arrows. Any advance on my part and they retreat the sissy Turcomen Horse back towards the safe hareems. Might be good Sun Tzu strategy and all, but I find it a complete drag..

[Sensei Warrior]

Thanks Hold Steady. Yeah the Turks use an incredible effective battle stategy... killing you by boredom. Luckily any reasonbly well equipted army can literally drive them off the map. I hate when they pretend they are leaving only to hover at the extreme edge of the map where I can't get at them then they start pelting me with arrows. :furious3:

[OlafTheBrave]

Sicillians probably the most. They seem to always ally with Egypt and the Pope allies with them. So when you are doing your Catholic duty and crusading they support the Egyptians and in turn the Pope supports them. I usually remedie this with a horde of assasins since they have their usual flotilla in place.

[_Aetius_]

Any faction that wastes my time by having armies of almost entirely horse archers and runs around for 3 hours wasting my damn time, namely the turks, mongols, hungary etc.

[Simovek]

Oh my, yes any faction with a single unit of horse archer type units. I cannot stand them at all.

[Accounting Troll]

The Papacy.

I usually like to play the English in Glorious Acheivement mode, and the only realistic way I can win the crusades in time is to launch a maritime invasion. The Sicilians can usually be counted on to try to cut my supply route while I'm slugging it out with the Egyptians. And the Pope ALWAYS sides with the Sicilians because they have less land than me!

[PittBull260]

the pepacy

[Rayaleh]

I have to say in my early games it most definately has to be the Almohads, if I don't stock up on huge top-of-the-line armies in Toulouse and Aquitaine, they will invade me. But I also love them in a way since I don't wanna get excomunicated again (1st time against the french), so I just let them control the Iberian peninsula, then I go into the offensive giving me a clear pathway towards North Africa's rich provinces. Then when I beat the Muslim factions, I just double back, take Byzantium, move on to Italy, and then to Germany.

[Ash]

The Papacy.

I usually like to play the English in Glorious Acheivement mode, and the only realistic way I can win the crusades in time is to launch a maritime invasion. The Sicilians can usually be counted on to try to cut my supply route while I'm slugging it out with the Egyptians. And the Pope ALWAYS sides with the Sicilians because they have less land than me!
Yeah that does suck.

In my current English conquest game I just ignored excommunication and went on conquering. In the Early era most factions don't build many crusades anyway. And since Catholic factions attack you anyway regardless of excommunication you might as well deal the first blow.
Guarding sea lanes is a real pain in the game, and becomes twice as bad when excommunicated though.

[Krusader]

Aragonese for backstabbing. But when English too...they like to launch surprise attacks.

Turkish too...they love to use farmers as well.

Hungarians or Polish. In almost every game, at least one of them has become big and invaded Russia.

[Divine Wind]

Any horse archer army drives me mad. Constantly annoying battles and they always seem to come back for more :furious3:

The Sicilians as a faction annoy me the most with there sinking of ships for no sane reason at all.

[bretwalda]

Horse archers rock ;) I love those spearmen and swordmen heavy armies.... I mean I love shooting them up with the Hungarians or Turks :wink: Mobility and agility vs brute force I love it. I also love winning battles without a single man loss :wink:




Any horse archer army drives me mad. Constantly annoying battles and they always seem to come back for more :furious3:

The Sicilians as a faction annoy me the most with there sinking of ships for no sane reason at all.

[Hold Steady]

Horse archers rock ;) I love those spearmen and swordmen heavy armies.... I mean I love shooting them up with the Hungarians or Turks :wink: Mobility and agility vs brute force I love it. I also love winning battles without a single man loss :wink:

There isn't a sight more lovely then that of a horse archer unit caught between any two of my units, prefferably one or both medium or heavy cav. Suprisingly how fast a forty-man unit can desintigrate..

MUST KILL HORSE ARCHER *walks around room with arms outstretched very Frankenstein-like, drooling mildly*

[bretwalda]

There isn't a sight more lovely then that of a horse archer unit caught between any two of my units, prefferably one or both medium or heavy cav. Suprisingly how fast a forty-man unit can desintigrate..

MUST KILL HORSE ARCHER *walks around room with arms outstretched very Frankenstein-like, drooling mildly*
Well, that happens to the poor AI often :wink: because AI does not know when to take horse archers off skirmish mode... And there is nothing nicer when a heavy cavalry is trying to reach a horse archer unit but instead is peppered down to a few men with arrows...
:duel:
Or when the medium cavalry is chasing a horse archer that is running through a loose formation spear unit that closes ranks (= close formation) when medium cavalry hits, looses and a few second later runs (with the above horse archers chasing them down :wink: )

[Hold Steady]

Well, that happens to the poor AI often :wink: because AI does not know when to take horse archers off skirmish mode... And there is nothing nicer when a heavy cavalry is trying to reach a horse archer unit but instead is peppered down to a few men with arrows...
:duel:
Or when the medium cavalry is chasing a horse archer that is running through a loose formation spear unit that closes ranks (= close formation) when medium cavalry hits, looses and a few second later runs (with the above horse archers chasing them down :wink: )

Yeah yeah we can go on all night like this imagining nice events in which horse archers are first slaughtered, then victorious (the idea!) blabla. It's all very nice, but I still disdain horde/Turk/(any faction that uses Horse archers) tactics. Only AI is dumb enough to race after anyting and bump into a wall of spears). Gimme good armored clashing. I'll build special designed army for horse archer fighting (hurray = build enough cheap spearmen to bulldoze them of the map, nice fighting dude) as I will for desert fighting (guys wearing smashing shorts), but it isn't what I like doing..

[bretwalda]

Yeah yeah we can go on all night like this imagining nice events in which horse archers are first slaughtered, then victorious (the idea!) blabla. It's all very nice, but I still disdain horde/Turk/(any faction that uses Horse archers) tactics. Only AI is dumb enough to race after anyting and bump into a wall of spears). Gimme good armored clashing. I'll build special designed army for horse archer fighting (hurray = build enough cheap spearmen to bulldoze them of the map, nice fighting dude) as I will for desert fighting (guys wearing smashing shorts), but it isn't what I like doing..
Anyway it was fun :wink: we fought a friendly battle in words
:charge:
Sometimes I have to build a special army to counter a certain army structure and I often select the army setup in the pre-battle screen.

And I agree that I am pissed off by the Horde because the battles are usually boring against them. Very rarely do they pull off a nice move...

[Hold Steady]

Anyway it was fun :wink: we fought a friendly battle in words
:charge:
Sometimes I have to build a special army to counter a certain army structure and I often select the army setup in the pre-battle screen.

And I agree that I am pissed off by the Horde because the battles are usually boring against them. Very rarely do they pull off a nice move...

I must admit, if it were only for the straight armored western-catholic clash, this game would start to bore. It doesn't, thanks to eastern Europe/asian/north arfican elements..

[Zajuts149]

The Byz pisses me off, since they can't hold on to Constantinople. If there is one province they should hold it's the City.

[macsen rufus]

Playing as the Scots in VI was really awful - no armour piercing other than what you can bribe or get as mercenaries. That was one campaign when I DID take the 60% victory!!!

Almohads are really pissing me off today - loitering on the edge of my Turkish Empire, pretending to be allies, then they go and throw 2500 men into tunisia, the bastards.....

Two invasions in and they still keep sending in those berber camels, and I keep exporting dogfood, and I guess I'm just going to have to crush the irritating little fiefdom next door now.

Basically, any HUGE battle that takes six hours of careful butchery to win does get a bit boring. I do enjoy setting up reinforcements to fit a battle plan, but when I have 100 units lined up that can take even longer than the battle itself! And it's just the sort of battle you can't auto because the losses are always much worse than fighting yourself.....

[Marquis de Said]

The Byz pisses me off, since they can't hold on to Constantinople. If there is one province they should hold it's the City.

Yeah, tell me about it. Unless they own half the world, they'll lose Constantinople.

In my current game as the Turks (GA, expert), I left the Byz. alive in Constantinople, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, just because I have a weak spot for them. I wasn't planning to take Constantinople before it becomes a GA objective (I'm not sure if it does). Anyway, I cause a rebellion in Constantinople with a 5-star spy, and what does the wuss Byzantine Emperor do? He retreats into Bulgaria, even though he had stacks of troops waiting in nearby provinces. Now the Big C is just another rebel province.

[macsen rufus]

Byz pretty much wussed out on me too, despite picking a pointless war early on! I drove them off to Rhodes where the emperor promptly stopped breeding and died of old age. Ergo rebels, and no puppet Byz empire to trade with... most other factions I've played ended up with the Byz breeding like rabbits and gathering twenty v7 princes with their kataphracts!

[RobertTheBruce1]

For me its the Papacy. The Pope is a bloodthirsty bastard who just doesnt back down once he sets his mind to something. He has to much power for one man.

[Manstein]

I hate the Golden Horde. They invaded one of my provinces and spreaded like wildfire from there, spliting my empire in two.

[the tokai]

well almost every faction has something that pisses me off:

the papacy because of the pope related stuff :furious3:

the sicilians because they keep sinking my ships :furious3:

the byzantines because they either get really big and annoy me or they completely fail to do anything right :furious3:

the turks and hun's because of horse archers :furious3:

the egyptians because they always have huge peasant hordes :furious3:

the elmoheads, french and spanish because one of them always takes over half of the world :furious3:

the golden horde for appearing @ your back door with huge stacks :furious3:

the aragonese for backstabbing :furious3:

so the only factions that don't piss me off are the italians, english, russians and the polish.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Which faction pisses you off?

That Pope, man, that Pope.


He lets everybody get away with everything, yet when I so much as peek over the fence of one of my my neighbourgh's provinces, thathttp://www.my-smileys.de/smileys2/cussing.gif pope starts to **c**** y*** and b**** about it straight away and won't let me @##$$% do my &^%@# *%^&* nor leave me t** **** a**** or #$% rant *!@&&^$$# with rant rant rant and @#$%&( @#$% even if I %$#@$ *& #%$&@**$@. http://www.my-smileys.de/smileys2/23_3.gif

He can ** **** http://www.my-smileys.de/smileys2/censored_2.gif *** choir ****** **http://www.my-smileys.de/smileys2/censored_2.gif ***** boys!!!!!111!!!!!1!!!shift1!!!!!!!


http://www.my-smileys.de/smileys2/boese_3.gif



*wipes off foam around the edges of his mouth*

...

*Feels much relieved and quietly resumes his game*
:charge:

[Arkatsson]

I don't like the Horde. I have lots of reasons for that. :charge:

[Fragony]

Spain without a doubt. I hate fighting jinnetes and they build them like crazy.

[Serpent]

To me game got a lot more interesting after I chanced peasants to come from Fort and (Mosque or church)

And I banned slaws from byzantine army. In overall I must say Papacy or Turks.... Most hated units are Horse archers and Dromon...If I don't have it.

By the way I bribe camels in my armys If cant produce them....Do you??

[macsen rufus]

By the way I bribe camels in my armys If cant produce them....Do you??

Oh yes! It's essential if you have a Christian faction. I always make a special army for the desert campaign and bribed units (or even mercenaries) always make a big part. Best to wait til the Almos or Egyptians have a civil war, or assassinate their royal family, then the bribes are cheaper for rebels...

[jsadighi]

I actually hardly ever have any problems with Horse Archers. I just use Longbowmen to give them shooting lessons. It's so satisfying seeing units of Horse Archers fall back in retreat as my Longbowmen obliterate them with showers of arrows. ~D

[Zarax]

The french...
In my games they always get to gargantuan sizes, crushing everything on their path...
I've never seen the english survive them, nor the HRE...

[BAD]

It aint really an naion so much as some units, which they come from. One word:-

JINETTES

The damned Spanish SPAM them to hell and back. I wouldnt mind but atm I playing as Turks and well they are damned good in the desert. Fortunately I now have some Uber Valour Camels to deal with them all. They even take down High Royal Knights Mwahahahahaha!!! Eat it Spaniards :charge: !!!

Oh yes and SJEKLY too >.< , though having said that I do like my turcoman Horse (blush) . . .

And the dreaded Varangian Guard <_< . . . I still have nightmares about a valour Seven unit, marching up a hill under the hail of 5 AP archer units and the remnants ripping up the rest of my army. One day I will play as the Byzantines and Varangians and Kataphraktoi will be all I make. . . The Dark Side beckons. . .

[Armchair Athlete]

oh boy, this is a tough one, but probably either

French for consistently obliterating everything EVERY GAME

Those Damn Piratical Sicilians for sinking all of my ships

Spain for massing Jinettes

[Odin]

Most everyone has mentioned the nations I would but here they are in order:

1. French: 70% of the time France owns the west and I own the east with the Russians with the XL mod and we end up splitting the middle east, then the mongols show up and I get to deal with them while the french pick at whats left. I have had some rather negative expirences with this scenario where the French end up in lithunia and rather then move south east toward the mongols, they come after me.

2. Aragon: Not a major gripe, but I cant remember a game as spain, with or without mods that they didnt back stab me at some point. That gets them to #2 on my list, because for some reason they always seem like they are in cahoots with the almohads early.

3. English: Might be the surprise pick, but for some reason they like ordering up crusades against my orthodox russians, normally right when I commit to expansion in the middle east, thats the 30% of the time they are still around. ~:cool:

4. HRE: I have never seen the HRE dominate a game. Oh they stick around in some fashion, but it might be nice to see them actually conquer all of italy and then slap the french around when its all done. Maybe even take the papal states in some morbid attempt to fullfil barbarossa's dream... Just once it would be cool to see the AI do it. Given what it has to work with you would think it might occur more often.

5. Denmark (unmodded): I dont know how many times I have watched them sit there with rebels in norway and sweden and do nothing, cripes, sweden is one of the better provinces in the game with mines and Iron, you'd think at a minimum if that was rebel held the Denmark faction would attempt to take it every time.

Well there's 5 more cents to the discussion...

[King Clas]

The pope gets my vote.
I was playing this grand game as HRE. I dominate middle europe and the italian boot except for one prov where i let the pope reside in peace also the entire holy land is taken and converted. Then England and Spain attacks me and these guys are strong. :duel: But all the sudden the pope excommincates me for figthing this defensive war. On top of thing the hungarians jump on me as well. However in a grand battle i obliterated them. They attacked a hilly prov where i massed by forces in a box formation. The defence held and my counter-attack devestated their forces. I managed to kill their king and all of his heirs who also was in that battle. A hard battle indeed but one of the most fun to play. Cheers mates
/Clas

[Kommodus]

For me, it seems to be a different faction in every campaign.

In my current campaign as the Russians, the Almohads really ticked me off for a few turns. Their cavalry-heavy desert armies handed me several defeats in North Africa, as my armoured infantry, being tired and baked, simply couldn't keep up for long. I swear those Saharan horse are much tougher when the AI uses them than when I do.

Sometimes I find the Mongols to be particularly irritating, with their endless streams of horse archers. Even when I have arbalesters, my missile units eventually run out of ammo, and I'm forced to try to surround and trap their nimble horsemen (often a difficult exercise).

Sometimes a Catholic faction, such as Germany, France, or Italy, will prove an unexpected annoyance when a low-tech, relatively small force provides an unexpected obstacle (usually because of high valour and a good general). No matter how many men you kill, they simply will not run away, and your (better) army gets mauled because of it, even if you win in the end.

Sometimes it's the sea power, such as Italy or Sicily, that gets my goat - especially that last ship or two that my fleets simply can't catch. Somehow, it keeps interdicting my reinforcement path, delaying offensives.

Every once in a while, it's the Papacy - but usually not. Use the right strategies on him, and he'll roll over pretty easily. When playing as a non-Catholic faction, he's pratically a non-entity.

[repone]

If I'm playing a Catholic faction .. the Pope, with the Sicilians a close second. I'm playing a normal conquest with the English .. good trade, 8-9 provinces, eliminated the French after their excommunication with 3-4 crusades I had readied just in case :book: , allied with all major Christians factions, when Italians attack the Pope . I'm like ... ~:confused: so.. let's save the Pope and get the rich Italians Provinces in the process ... beat them back :duel: , took Venice Genoa and the province in between :charge: (can't remember the name atm), Sicilians even helped with a nice naval war ... then some years later, the Pope asked for a crusade agains the Egyptians (who were in Constantinople .. damn Byz .... ) I send a nice 3k crusade, gone up to 5k after sucking up good troops from the Italians and HRE ~:cheers: and I'm besieging the Citadel .... when the Pope attack my boats, exco and invade me in the same turn, Sicilians get in the war on the Pope side's ... :furious3: