Hardest faction

[Fish-got-a-Sniper]

As long as you hold Corinth as KH, Sparta and Corinth are safe because the Maks can't get across the isthmus so if you lose Athens, just build up on the islands, Sparta, and Crete.

[Korlon]

Only faction I ever had trouble with was Hayasdan, but then again I tried them out when I just started playing EB.

Never had trouble with any of the nomadic factions.

KH may be a little difficult to some people, but just recruit a bunch of hoplites in Athens at the beginning. If the Makedonians try to take it, they'll get tons of deaths, or I'll just win if they wait too long. I can take it back easily in a few turns if I do lose it.

I need to try Saba though. People say it's hard, which I like in this game.

[Dhampir]

Nomads. It's crazy hard for me to get going with them.

[Parallel Pain]

I still say it depends on playing style. Having trained myself to swarm and swarm and swarm in Vanilla, and having the patience to do so, tactically nomads are a breeze for me. Even VH battle you just lure the general off, swarm him, and swarm everyone else.

Having played through Saka Rauka and most of Saba, I have to say tactically Saba is harder, having weak units (actually due to lack of money in VH campaign I have to resort to using skirmishers to hold the battle line instead of melee infantry)

But strategically, due to lack of fund, Saka Rauka is harder. I had to cover a front line of 4 provinces going north-south-east with two half stacks, leaving an open flank through the mountains, and still did not have any money for rebel-clearing. Even by end-game I only had 3 front-line armies even with a bigger empire, and my Saba right now has 5 (of course I had to save the 500k for the Saka Rauka victory but heck).

[Kromulan]

Having played through Saka Rauka and most of Saba, I have to say tactically Saba is harder, having weak units (actually due to lack of money in VH campaign I have to resort to using skirmishers to hold the battle line instead of melee infantry)

Funny - in many of my early battles with Ptolies, I used Akontistas as pincushions for their phalanxes, not necessarily due to cost, but because they're cheap, have lots of casualties to give, and easily replaced. Better to let the Greek levies die under the phalanxes than lose the units I actually liked!

[Eyes330]

I suppose I could call myself a veteran of Saba, having played them twice, once in 0.8, when I was just lurking on these forums, and now in 1.1, and I would say that with a little practice, they can be reasonably easy. Just use one force to take all the settlements from Tamane to Gerrha, while building up a side force to take Carna, then ally with one of the superpowers (I chose Ptolemaioi) and attack the other. I'm now at 250 BC and own all of South Arabia, along with Petra, Charax and Palmyra and I haven't had many battle losses(1 or 2, to my memory) . Fighting the Greeks is hard due to their phalanxes, but you have to play to their weaknesses. You have no decent cavalry so that makes it hard. Engage them with one infantry while another circles round and stab them in the back. I might have been just lucky so far, but I definetly wouldn't say Saba is the hardest. I would say Hellenic factions are the hardest, but then I hate playing with phalanxes.

[eggthief]

I always thought that Pontos was hard, its nearly impossible to stop the AS and they will betray u anyway.

[eggthief]

Nomads. It's crazy hard for me to get going with them.

Actually both the Saka and Sauromatae look easy in 1.1, Saka got easier starting diplomatics and with the Sauromatea u just gotta go west and south in the start cause greek and barbarian settlements are easy targets for your horse archers.