Toughest Kingdoms Factions to Play As

I've played as a few teams in each of the Kingdoms campaigns now, but I've not found it as challenging as other posts led me to believe. It is a wonderful expansion pack and the uniqueness of every faction makes every campaign feel very fresh and immersive. But something that's ruining it a bit is that fact that its pretty obvious I am going to win the campaign in the end.

In the Britannia campaign, I've played as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Each time I found it was too easy to get a super-strong economy, and I basically won my campaigns on the campaign map rather than the battlefield. The closest of these campaigns that came to really challenging me was the Scots against the Norwegian threat. But once they were taken out it was very comfortable from then on (even if William Wallace died heroically having been stranded against three full stacks on the Isle of Man).

In the Americas campaign, as Spain I just raided across the Mexican shoreline and eventually built a heartland in the old Mayan lands. Playing as the Aztecs I did find tough early on, due to the strength of the Tlaxcallan starting armie and Hernan the Conquistadores invincible army. In fact I think the game balance is not fair for the Aztecs, as under the AI they always seem to be made vassals to the Tlacxcallans. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Right now I am playing as the Apaches. I've taken all the surrounding Rebel lands and the French just arrive, so I suppose I will now see if this will prove to be a tough campaign.

In the Crusades campaign I played first of all as the KoJ. I did a long campaign as them, and it found it far too easy. I had so many starting armies I just stormed Egypt, then mopped up the Rebel lands ot the north to make the 35 regions for the victory conditions. Playing as the Turks was even more ridiculous, I won the short campaign with them in ten turns. Destroyed Antioch after about five. So I'm going to be a turtle as the Byzantines and hope the AI can give me a challenge, since I gather from the messages in previous campaigns that the Fourth Crusade goes rougue near Constantinople.

The Teutonic campaign has offered me some of the most fun so far, even when I admit I thought it would be one of the less interesting campaigns (being relative, since they are all fantastic). Things were a bit easy as the Teutons, I destroyed Lithuania early on, and only got one Crusading noble sent in the whole campaign. Playing as Lithuania proved to be the toughest test I've had so far. I really struggled against the Teutonic Order early on, and lost Vilnius and some other places to them. I enjoyed some really nervy battles in that campaign. Even Novgorod provided a tough challenge, with their hordes of Kazaks and Boyar Sons.

Try HRE in Teutonic because they start undeveloped and its very hard to rush with them because they have no army at beginning and nearly rebel settlements are always taken by Poland or Denmark.

I hear you.

On several of the campaigns, the easier factions are the one's you'd expect to be harder, and vice versa. So the Crusader states tend to be far too easy, and Wales and Ireland tend to be cakewalks in Britannia.

One thing I do in general is try to really go slow. Attack the AI in the open field rather than going straight for their undefended city. Take out rebel provinces before declaring war... better yet, let war be declared on *you*. Don't go straight for your victory conditions, but try to play a more "realistic" pace of campaign.

Of course that's not for everyone, and that's not what you were asking.

Fortunately, if you play some of the other factions you didn't mention, I think you'll find things more interesting. Norway in Britannia is notoriously difficult, with a plunging economy and an aggressive Scotland who want you out of their face, now. And surprisingly enough, England offers one of the more interesting campaigns. If you take your time as England, you'll find it's not quite so easy to conquer Wales; by the time you manage that, you'll have lost some land in Ireland and you'll be facing a very strong Scotland/Norway. It makes for an interesting game all the way through, if you don't rush it.

I don't know much about the Americas campaign. I played the Apaches once to get Mounted Thunder Braves; after that I lost interest. I recall that I wasn't often really attacked; I needed to conquer a lot of land before I started to get worried about losing settlements.

Teutonic Order I found quite difficult. Again, I took my time, & now I'm just managing to stave off the Lithuanians, Novgorod, and the Danes. Lithuania had some of my heartland settlements under siege, & even managed to take Marienburg from me. My units are great but really put a dent in the economy, and there are so many neighbors that I can't keep a decent front line, strategically. I'd suggest giving them another try.

I think every faction can be easy, depending on how you play, so it may come down to imposing some house rules in the end.

Good luck,

CountMRVHS

PS - what does "Rhyfelwyr" mean?

Thanks for the tip-off on Norway, I wonder if I can keep my economy going through pillaging...

I've just finished playing a campaign as the Apaches. Mounted Thunder Braves are up there with the coolest units in the entire TW series. It was an extremely fun and unique campaign, my armies of archers meant that the French never really gave much of a challenge. For some reason the French Mounted Cuirassiers only have 1 HP, while the Spanish Conquistadores have 2. The French barely even reached my front line. When the Apaches lose 1 man for every 10 French killed then something is wrong...

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Originally Posted by CountMRVHS

PS - what does "Rhyfelwyr" mean?

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I got it from a unit in EB, called Caledonii Rhyfelwyr or something like that. I picked it because it was the only specifically Scottish unit in the game. I think "Rhyfelwyr" means infantry in one of the Breton languages.

I notice CA named a Welsh unit after me as well. It nice to be achnowledged. :2thumbsup:

Yep, I think it means "warrior".

As for tough Kingdoms campaigns, I haven't found any yet. In my view the Kingdoms campaign are refreshing and fun change from vanilla but they aren't really any harder. The nearest thing I found to a hard campaign was the Apache, but even then it was mostly just a challenge to see it through to the end with all the marching endless stacks around with no roads.

You want a challenge, the best place to find it is mods.

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Originally Posted by Poor Bloody Infantry

The nearest thing I found to a hard campaign was the Apache, but even then it was mostly just a challenge to see it through to the end with all the marching endless stacks around with no roads.

You want a challenge, the best place to find it is mods.

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Maybe its just different playing styles, but I found them really easy. I was able to keep a strong army for the same upkeep as two units of knights in any other campaign. The most expensive unit to maintain was Mounted Thunder Braves, which cost only 50 Florins per turn. Thats barely more than half of what a unit of peasants costs!

The only opposition early on was small Rebel settlements, and when the French came I just went on the warpath (brilliant feature), and overwhelmed them. Even though I say overwhelmed them, I beat them comfortably with a couple of armies. Strangely I struggled more against the Tarascans and their Cuahchiqueh and Jaguar Warrior armies.

Still it was a brilliant campaign, so unique and fun. Thank you CA for a wonderful expansion pack. :2thumbsup::2thumbsup:

As CountMRVHS stated, the Tuetonic Campaign as the Order was a real challenge. Having every faction but the HRE agianst you from an early date and a poor starting economy with very expensive units made for a nail biter for the frist 50 turns or so. Try playing it agian but go slower, it won't disapoint you. Also, as already mentioned, try playing Norway in the Bretania campaign. The raiding is refreshing, and as long as you don't simply take Ireland and try to establish a base on the main land, it makes for a great challenge. Norway is defentily one of my favorite factions.

CR if you really want a challege take PBI's advice and try a mod. In vanilla you know your going to win no matter what, which is why it gets boring after the first fifty turns or so. Try a campaign with SS or BC. I play SS now and the new campaign map, harder AI, along with more difficult economy makes for a great game that doesn't get old as you play. Also, diplomacy is fixed, allowing you to turtle and not worry about getting attacked for no reason. I havn't played BC but everyone seems to think its a great mod, give one a try.

P.S.
Interesting name, always thought it was Welsh.
gg

I probably will try a mod, but I'm a bit fussy and like the game to feel polished, so the only mod I've ever player is EB.

Rhyfelwyr is a Welsh word, but in EB's timeframe Scotland was populated by Brythonic peoples, so their language was very similar.

SS feels pretty polished. There are no crashes (exept in the main menue where you pick your faction). There are some little quirks, like when you fail a merchants guild mission, they are "impressed with you" instead of disappointed. Also, rebel pirate ships are white instead of grey. Other than the long AI turn, which EB had, everything seems to run smoothly with no lags or freezes. You might try BC which is similiar to EB in that it has the region recruitment system, I think the BC team might have put a little more effort into their mod than SS, which King Kong does most of the work on. I just like knights and armor too much to play BC, expessially since the SS 6.1 campaign map includes most of the BC map.

Interesting, is Galic the origional known language of Britian?