best faction to turtle with?

[shinderhizzle84]

hello. I enjoy turtling with my campaigns. what is a good, strong faction that i can turtle with and still have great success with? Just so you know, i am strong with cavalry so basically what i am looking for is a good faction to turtle with that has strong cavalry (NOTE: it doesn't have to have the BEST cavalry in the game!! just relatively strong!!) any help i could get on this issue would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

[CountMRVHS]

Maybe Germany. You'll be relying on their Spear Warband in the beginning, but they do get some good cav later on; even Barb Cav isn't that bad. Economy might be rough, but if you just sit & build smartly without trying to make a huge army (which you shouldn't need anyway), you should be good.

Egypt would be easy, too, but the question there is: Can you *really* live with yourself while playing Egypt? Stupid yellow cheating cheaters....

In BI, maybe the Saxons or the Sassanids. Both can command a "corner" of the map fairly easily. Apart from those 2, the randomness of BI means it's hard to predict how any faction might fare as a turtler.

[Quirinus]

Definitely not Germania, or any barbarian faction in RTW, IMO. I mean, blitzing is a must for barbarian factions, before they are brought under by squalor problems.

The Julii, IMO, is the best faction for turtling, because of its easily defensible frontiers (or the Brutii, who have no hostile frontiers at all!), and the fact that they only get better with time (Marian Reforms).

In BI, maybe the Saxons or the Sassanids. Both can command a "corner" of the map fairly easily. Apart from those 2, the randomness of BI means it's hard to predict how any faction might fare as a turtler.

What about the Celts? You can't beat having an isolated island for turtling. The Berbers are not bad too once you've driven the Romans from former Punic Africa.

[CountMRVHS]

Really, squalor? A problem for barbarians?

I've never noticed that. Could be because I always play short campaigns as barbarians in RTW -- I find it unrealistic for any barbarian faction to directly control 50 provinces. Still, I just did a Britannia campaign where I literally did no invading, except to take Ireland (I had modded the game so Samarobriva starts as rebel). I waited until the Julii made it up through Gaul before I made my move onto the mainland. Must have been between 60 and 80 turns of just building and waiting, and I noticed no significant problems, squalor or otherwise.

Which reminds me: Britannia would definitely be a good faction to turtle with!

[woad&fangs]

Brittania is a good one.

[Quirinus]

I've never noticed that. Could be because I always play short campaigns as barbarians in RTW -- I find it unrealistic for any barbarian faction to directly control 50 provinces.

Exactly my opinion! I've never completed a long campaign as the barbarians as a result.

Still, I just did a Britannia campaign where I literally did no invading, except to take Ireland (I had modded the game so Samarobriva starts as rebel). I waited until the Julii made it up through Gaul before I made my move onto the mainland. Must have been between 60 and 80 turns of just building and waiting, and I noticed no significant problems, squalor or otherwise.

Actually, you may be right, I haven't played a whole lot with barbarian factions, I've completed a grand total of three barbarian short campaigns-- Scythia, Dacia and Spain, which all start on or near high-growth areas, so that may be the problem...

[Ibn-Khaldun]

The best faction to turtle with is the Brutii ..
Just like Quirinus said .. they have no hostile borders at all ..
You can just sit there and build up your cities ..
On 40th turn squalor starts affecting public order tough ..
Also .. Senate becomes pissed off if you do not follow their orders ...

Britannia is a good faction too to turtle ..
You just have to let Samarobriva to rebel and then you can live in your island peacefully a long time ..
Non of the barbarian factions ever makes a naval invasion there and the only ones you should fear are the Romans ..

In BI the best faction to turtle with are the Saxons I think ..

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Squalor has never really been any more problem for me as a Barbarian faction either. For me it pretty much ends up being to the same levels that a normal faction gets to when it hits the highest supportable population levels of the huge city level. The only real difference being that it comes sooner (same amount of growth with a lower total settlement capacity).

[Magraev]

I'd go with greece or macedonia. Start turtling after an initial blitz of the other to make a nice coherent kingdom of what is greece today. As greece you would have to abandon syracuse though.

If you don't want to blitz maybe you could try with armenia - you just have to sell most of your army to afford it...

I would also say no to a barbarian faction - not a good idea to sit idle for 100 turns with them...

[shinderhizzle84]

hi. so thanks so far for all your great ideas guys! I'd like to mention, however, that i would prefer a civilized faction over a barbarian faction. not to insult any of those horde-lovers, but i like being able to have epic walls, and turtling with a barbarian faction, i would think, means certain death by a roman/greek/macedonian sword. i like the idea of the macedons, if i could do a quick blitz on greece and kick them out of the area i think i would be pretty good to turtle. I actually tried a game with macedon and was fine until the pesty brutii took my western-greek cities...thermon had been pulling in almost 2000 denarii a turn before the brutii completely laid waste to it. Even when i took it back it just wasn't the same anymore. as for the brutii or julii i DO like that idea as well, but my only problemo with the roman factions is the stupid roman senate. i hate dissapointing people (even virtual people inside of video games that later ask me to kill myself) and always have a knack for doing the missions. Also, i dont want the game to be TOO boring, so i like to take over a couple of rebel settlements here and there. Unfortunately, there are very few in rome and if the brutii take over appolonia or w/e then the massive greek and macedonian armies pummel your behind out of there, lol. SO, i will continue to play with my macedonian campaign, but if anybody on these boards has more suggestions then by all means, keep em coming guys!

[Chloe]

Turtling is best with Julii, in my exerience Gauls never attack you, neither does Dacia. Germany has Iuvavum, Lugdunum, and Britons to take care of anyway so it doesn't come near you.
And why does everybody abandon Syracuse? It's so easily defensible! Stone walls and hoplites are all you need agaonst those hastati, and those are both already there!
And either way the Romans go for Lilybaeum first and they leave Messana lightly garrisoned with just faction leader, 1 or 2 hastati. So pretty quickly Sicily becomes a Roman graveyard.

[RLucid]

And why does everybody abandon Syracuse? It's so easily defensible! Stone walls and hoplites are all you need agaonst those hastati, and those are both already there!
And either way the Romans go for Lilybaeum first and they leave Messana lightly garrisoned with just faction leader, 1 or 2 hastati. So pretty quickly Sicily becomes a Roman graveyard.

Probably because those who wish to do that, are concerned with building a coherent concentrated holding, as a spring board for action later. Diffuse holdings and foreign entanglements would appear to contradict a turtling strategy, as they'll mean having more enemies and less trading opportunities to develop and grow economically.

[Quintus.JC]

And why does everybody abandon Syracuse? It's so easily defensible! Stone walls and hoplites are all you need agaonst those hastati, and those are both already there!
And either way the Romans go for Lilybaeum first and they leave Messana lightly garrisoned with just faction leader, 1 or 2 hastati. So pretty quickly Sicily becomes a Roman graveyard.

In my Greek campaigns the Scipii always attacks Syracuse first, and instead of stone wall I probably would of prefered wooden wall because of fighting on wall top with hoplites will make them fight with swords instead of spears. It is denfensible but in my different campaigns the AI is actually smart enough to starve me out, and my hoplites are no match for the Romans (outnumbered).

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Another reason for abandoning provinces for me is often to prevent or delay war with another faction. I always abandon/sell Sardinia and my Sicily holdings as Carthage to prevent an aggressive war with the Scipii. It does actually seem to work, with the Romans seemingly ignoring my African existence for a fair while longer than they would if they were to have declared war earlier.

I believe this could be due to the AI and its following of senatorial missions. If Rome is not at war with the faction, I believe that the senate is more willing to direct their subject families on a slightly different path. I'm not too sure about this though. The same may also apply to non-Roman factions who would rather continue an existing war rather than starting a new one.

[Flying Pig]

Same as always, really - You can run a city-state that is impossible to capture as there is no castle/city difference, and so I'd reccomend either the Britons (for their island position) or Greek Cities. Romans ar a no-go seeing as the senate are all warmongerers.

[Dafuge]

I think Carthage, or Spain. Basically with either one Blitz Spain/Sicily and abandon all other regions and sit there.