best faction to turtle with?

[shinderhizzle84]

hello. I play on M/M and i enjoy playing the game relatively slowly. I just can't seem to be able to push myself to play the game very aggressively. What are some good examples of factions that are strong (no ridiculously weak factions please) that a player can turtle with success? I primarily rely on cavalry, but france is not my type of faction because you are surrounded be a lot of very strong enemies. I have yet to beat a long campaign and i have owned this game for quite some time!!! any suggestions i could get on this issue would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

[FactionHeir]

If you are playing M/M, any faction is good. In fact, there is no chance the AI will ever beat you really

Generally speaking however, island factions are better off from the start, though any faction can turtle on an island. Also factions that start at a map edge have an advantage (except if that map edge happens to the the east)

[Csargo]

That basically makes England your best choice... Island at the corner of the map.

[shinderhizzle84]

yea i've tried england, theyre pretty good to turtle. My biggest problem with england is their lack of variety of cavalry. While their cavalry isn't horrible, it certainly isn't strong. I do enjoy england, but if anybody else here knows of some good turtling factions with good cavalry, that would be great. Thank you!

[PrestigeX]

I think the best factions to turtle with are..

Scotland (pike units, lots of them, cheap for cities)

Venice/Milan (spear units, halberd, good cav. militia, and ofcourse CROSS BOWS)

[PBI]

How about the Byzantines? Start with Constantinople and a good defensive position, and get very good horse archers.

[Galain_Ironhide]

I had a really good slow campaign as the Turks. You have the Byzantines to your left, with whom you can stay at peace with for a good while and you can easily expand to the east (you just have to race the Egyptians to start with).

Then you sit around managing your empire until the Mongols arrive and then the fun begins

The Turks have a good range of units which keeps you interested as well. I loved those Naffatun (naptha throwers).

Most of all, have fun with which ever faction you choose.

[Ratwar]

You might want to think about Poland. As long as you don't expand too far West, you should be able to stay at peace with everyone but the Russians for awhile, and they have some good calvary.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I would turtle with Russia.

Russia starts off weak, but isolated, and in a corner of the map. All you have to do is grab the steppes and keep an eye out for Polish invasions. Leave Poland and Denmark alone, focus on keeping your troops in a defensive position, your forces lean and your empire profitable.

Now, use diplomats to make peace and alliances. Build your territory up with farms and public order buildings, markets and so on. Make some merchants and go to Baghdad and Italy and Antioch to trade.

build some watchtowers to make an early warning system against the Poles.

In your biggest castles, make lots of stables, in your cities, barracks and blacksmiths.

Your army should consist of lots of disposable horse archers (not the expensive kind) and lots of well-armoured militia men. Low cost, but maneuverable, able, and disposable. if they die, you make another one. And another.

Eventually, you should invade Denmark and Scandinavia. And then take over the British Isles, and be the ruler of the North.

When the Mongols come, move your capital and your main forces into Denmark and become the Viking horde... assault France and the HRE, and dont worry about the Mongols. Let them come.

Should be fun.

[shinderhizzle84]

howabout hungary? are they any good to turtle with? i'd do russia but they seeem waaay too hard (even on m/m, which is what i play.) I'd do poland but i personally like their counterparts, the hungarians.

[Yaropolk]

I think england is best turlte faction, as mentioned, on an island, corner of map, wide variety of longbows to use for defensive purposes. Declare a few crusades early in the game on rebel cities in europe and you'll have Templar or Hospitallier knights, two top tier options before you even get english knights!

I went straight Mailed -> Hospitallier with them.

[PBI]

Can you Crusade against (Catholic) European rebels? I thought the Pope only allowed crusades against non-Catholics.

[FactionHeir]

You can crusade against any rebels as long as those provinces are known to the game as valid crusade targets.

[Shahed]

I think the most fun I've had turtling is with Scotland (owning the isles). Nice small elite army, with the occasional foray into the mainland to loot some wine, beer, chocolates and other goodies for morale.