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I finally finished my campaign as the Venetians and kicked some ass. I enjoyed the balanced mix of strong infantry and decenty cavalry units of Venice...BTW, Venetian Heavy Infantry are pretty badass.
Now I'm looking to start another campaign--can any of you guys make a suggestion for me that would require a similar gameplay? I started one with the English but it seems a bit too easy and the cavalry is kinda lame.
Venice is very similar I belive.
You might want to try the Byzantines.
Sicily was fun for me and I enjoyed the Venice campaign a lot as well.
If you want something similar to Venice, Sicily is pretty fun. Rich provinces that provide a good basis for a sea trading economy; a position in the central Meditterranean including several islands that requires naval force, if not dominance; and an interesting unit mix that gives the basic feel of most Western European armies but with some extra flavor. Norman knights, mounted and dismounted, look very unique and intimidating and also give Sicily the advantage of Chivalric-strength troops at the Feudal level on the tech tree, so you'll be producing the best knights around early on. In case you were wondering, Norman knights are just as good as Chivalrics. Muslim archers and Italian militia units round out a solid mix.
The Danes are another option. They specialize in super-heavy infantry with good cavalry; they have poorer homelands but good trading potential.
The "feel" of a nation comes down to their starting position, likely courses of war and the unit mix of likely enemies, and their own unit mix. Within Western Europe, it basically comes down to this: Venice, Milan and Sicily are rich sea traders; England has great archers and a nice island position, same for the Scots minus the archers; Danes have super-heavy infantry; France has the best mounted knights; Spain has a unique position on the Iberian, will start off fighting Muslims and likely will never have to face other Christians in serious battle, and has Jinettes and Swordsman militia. You should also consider the gunpowder options of each: Spain and Venice get musketeers, Spain and France get very good artillery options. Hungary and Poland will basically be the same with weaker heavy infantry and heavy cavalry in exchange for horse archers. Take your pick.
If you want to try something completely different, I recommend the Turks. I went from a Sicilian campaign to a Turkish one and I'm enjoying this one much more. Take 20 horse archers and surround an enemy and just watch as the storm of arrows obliterates everyone-it's an awesome sight, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Within 50 turns you can add Janissaries and make a typical European army, or take them and the hand-grenade Naffatun, the powerful archer/melee Ottoman Infantry, etc. and make a mixed army that can attack 5 different ways and adapt to anything. Later on, you'll have hands-down the best gunpowder infantry in the game with Jannissary Musketeers, and the largest artillery in the Monster Bombard.
I like the Turkish starting position too; you have to fight Byzantium and Egypt at the same time, but once you take Constantinople and Gaza, the rest is just cleaning up. In my campaign I've taken everything on the map east of Constantinople (and sacked every city on my western frontier and let it turn rebel to keep enemies away) and I'm currently sieging the last Moorish territory in Africa. I've also taken all of the Meditterranean islands, including Sicily. After that, I'm going to take the Iberian Peninsula from Spain/Portugal/The Moors, stop at the northern border, create another buffer zone, and then infiltrate Europe with spies, assassins, and imams to cause as many rebellions as possible while I fend off the Mongolian and Timurid invasions.
The most fun for me was with the Russians speially because when you finally take the lands which you wont from rebels , finish the first war you have (Poland for instance) make them your wassakls, fortify your lands, and are ready to launch an invasin force, the mongols invade :(
and they come in 3 waves :(
its a massacre
So the mongols tie you up , so that when you have finnaly defeated them, all other coutries already have strong and well developet armies....
Spain. Strong position, strong economy, strong infantry, strong cavalry, strong gunpowder, just really freakin' strong.
yep, spain starts off in a pretty strong position, you can quickly conquer all of the iberian penninsula which gets some pretty good trade, and you can train priests up to be cardinals in cordoba and granada
Awesome! Thanks for the replies folks.
After listening to all your suggestions, I guess I'll sample each faction down the list--probably starting off as the Sicilians.
This game is totally paying for itself.
Sicily is one of the few Catholic factions I can bear to play with over and over again. One has so many avenues to expand, the possibilities are nearly endless.
Also: Scotland was and is still a lot of fun. Taking over the British Isles and Crushing the English bring a lot of enjoyment.
Russia is great, as you can pick where you would like to expand.
Got to agree with Scotland. Love em~:).
Allthough partly because the enemy is dumb enough to charge head ion into pikes:smash:.