best faction,can anyone tell which faction is easiet to play?

[Caesar the IIIV]

can anyone tell which faction is easiet to play?

[Tellos Athenaios]

Probably the SPQR (Romani).

[Ibrahim]

Carthage or Rome: the EB campaign should tell you that as you choose factions. as for why:

1-Rome: good location, excellent, but cheap army (early ones are moderately strong though), easy tech tree, and very good economy.

2-Carthage: good location as well, decent troops early on (latest=best), large swath of stable territory which= mulla, and obviously HUGE trade bonuses and economy

I'd pick rome first, they aren't as overstreched as Carthage is.

[delra]

Carthage. They have huge income, zero enemies, very strong (and very cute!) roster of Iberian and Liby-Phoenician units and when they finally have to face somebody, they already have armies packed with elites that AI cannot ever match. If only Xanthippos could reproduce so he would give you sons with Spartan Hoplite bodyguards...

Rome is second easiest with their giant income, dirty cheap but still damn strong units and an opportunity to smash Greece very fast thus making them very very rich. They have access to some great elite regionals very fast like neitos or birhentin.

Macedonia is the third, they have wonderful roster of heavy infantries and excellent cavalry, can sieze Greece in first 10 years and Asia Minor in next 50.

Horse-archer factions are very easy to play to if you're skilled with hit and run tactics. I literally took everything from India to Mediterranean in 20 years with Parthia thus conquering 95% of AS. God knows where would I stop if I wasn't forced to end this game due to a persistent CTD.

Last but not least, I find Casse very easy too. You fight Eleutheroi initially (and they hardly ever hit back), then you invade others on your terms (AI never lands on your isles).

That's my top5 easiest. It's also my first post on this forums. Have spent last few years on twcenter but migrated seeing most of EB stuff is going on here.

[johnhughthom]

Macedon and Casse are probably easy for someone who has played EB for a while but they may be difficult for a newcomer. Makedonia have a dangerous start and could easily lose ground and the Casse chariots can be a nuisance to control until you learn how to use them. I would highly recommend the Romani for a first playthrough unless you have Rome fatigue from vanilla or other mods, where I would recommend Qarthadast, as everyone else has mentioned...
My apologies Caesar the IIIV if you aren't an EB newcomer and welcome to the org delra.

[delra]

Thanks. :-)

I don't really play barbarians but I can't imagine somebody losing with Casse, even the most noobish guy in the world will have the isles eventually... It somehow challenges player's patience but ... I played them two times, in 0.8x and 1.0, and both times I got bored very fast, such an easy campaign it was.

For Macedon, if you train levy phalanx right away and transport your troops from Demetrias to Pella using your fleet (whom you disband a while later), you are just bound to slaughter the main Epirote stack there two turns later. Phalanx in the streets, cheapest tactics ever. And after those are gone, Greece is up for grabs...

Greek Cities aren't even close to endangering you since you will beat their all-infantry armies in the field no matter what. You have Hetairoi as your bodyguard, they have mostly hoplites, you charge a few times and they are done, even Spartans can't take multiple charges by two units of Hetairoi from different directions.

The general falls and the whole stack routes... They literally stand no chance against you, especially if you take Sparte really fast (2nd turn preferably, sell some buildings and buy mercenaries if you have to) and thus secure your back while sieging Athens. You can even have some fun with them in the battlefield by letting them chase your cavalry until they are Exhausted and charge then breaking their morale instantly.

After that you have: great elite phalanxes (even stronger and with even better AOR after reforms), wonderful shock infantry (Agrarians, Thracians) and best skirmishers (Thracian of course) in the game in Tylis, one of the best cavalries in the game (Thracian medium, Thessalians and awesome Hetairoi), other great natives close by (Scordisci and Galatians). The world is yours, literally. Just go Alexander on them.

So... I'll stay with my opinion that Casse and Macedon are very easy. Maybe Lusotanna is too, mostly rebels as your enemies early on, quick access to many mines and damn strong roster. Same with quite isolated Sauromatae, maybe even Sweboz until Rome gets close or Getai with their great roster and rebels all around them...

Challenging is a faction that has to fight a war against other factions right away. If you border AS, your level of difficulty is automatically doubled, if you are close to Greece, it's twice less difficult.

To end this quite too long post: What about AS? Are they an easy faction to play? (Assume that losing 20 cities in 40 turns is something you can live with).

[Korlon]

To end this quite too long post: What about AS? Are they an easy faction to play? (Assume that losing 20 cities in 40 turns is something you can live with).

I started one off a few days ago. Practically impossible to lose. Only challenge is the micromanagement you have to suffer at the first few turns, but nothing too big. I never played Arche Seleukeia before until then, not even in vanilla nor other mods.

At the first turn, just disband some stuff. Definitely move your capital eastward. I moved mine so that all my cities could not rebel nor revolt. Should expect to make at least 15,000 mnai a turn then and be able to start constructing buildings and recruiting a few troops soon.

I lost Asaak to Pahlava and that northeasternmost city, Alexandreia-Eschate I think, to Saka Rauka. But after that, I would have moved troops there already. I haven't visited it since then. It's only been about two or three years worth of turns (I don't remember), but my border cities are already pretty nicely garrisoned by now. Would not expect to lose any of them to a siege unless the enemy army was a full stack, which just isn't happening. Right now, I expect to move against the Ptolemaioi and Pahlava in the coming turns as I already have the troops there.

Haven't played since then as I hardly have the time these days to do anything, but I don't expect to be losing 18 more cities nor any at all for that matter.

[Aaldaemon]

Well the Romani and Carthage are the easiest obviously, but I think another very easy faction is the Ptolemies.

You have Egypt and your greatest enemy, the Seleucids, are the world's whipping boy... It's not that hard to overrun their Western territories and once you're master of the Western part of their Empire you're a true world power, unstoppable.

[artaxerxes]

What about AS? Are they an easy faction to play? (Assume that losing 20 cities in 40 turns is something you can live with).

I found them practically impossible to lose with - your empire is so large, some of it is bound to survive Hayasdan and Pontus aren't threats in the beginning, and if you're fast you can kick Ptollies out of Side, Sidon and Tarsos, before they mobilize against you, and then you just have to take Jerusalem and wait for em to die on your phalanx in the streets. But on the other hand they aren't easy - at some point, Ptollies, Baktria, Pahlava, Saka Rauka, Hayasdan and Pontus will all be at war with you, as will either KH or Macedonia, depending on who wins in Greece, and Saba will frustrate your borders as well, even if they're too weak to actually conquer you. Now it isn't that this will make you lose (your empire is actually vast enough to hold such an alliance at bay) - its just terribly annoying to have all your border towns besieged all the time And then there's the fact that both Asia Minor and Central Asia are terribly rebellious at first, so if you're quick and conquer both, one of the areas are gonna flare up in revolts.

I find that AS quickly becomes a large power, but fashioning it into a superpower is a slog - it isn't difficult, it's just irritating, cos' whenever you forget a front or ignore it for 2 turns, its under attack again, and after 11 battles defending the same city against the same enemy, it's just too much

[Korlon]

Well the Romani and Carthage are the easiest obviously, but I think another very easy faction is the Ptolemies.

You have Egypt and your greatest enemy, the Seleucids, are the world's whipping boy... It's not that hard to overrun their Western territories and once you're master of the Western part of their Empire you're a true world power, unstoppable.

Indeed. The Ptolemaioi are very, very wealthy. I think even more so than the Romani and Karthadastim. All you have to fight is to the northeast. As you grab more of those coastal cities, more money will come along.

[Maion Maroneios]

Best faction, I'd say the Seleukeis by far. Just about the best troops, heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, huge cash incomes. Romani are also great, but their troops during the Camillan, Polybian and Marian eras, pitted against a full-force Seleukid army with Kataphraktoi and all, are crappy.

As for the easiest faction, I'd go for Qarthadastim. My little bro who had absoltely no experience with EB, as he's a spoiled vanilla RTW cheater, played them and managed to fare quite well with my guidance. He had also tried Romani (he did so and so but eventually went bankrup) and Epeiros (bankrupt too soon, beat up eventually by both Romani and Makedonia).