Factions you haven't played/never got into

[Majd il-Romani]

I never got into the Steppe nomads like Pahlava, Sarmatians, Saka, etc.
I don't like briton, too isolated
AS is way too big and Makedones have no appeal to me. tried playing Egyptand its doing pretty OK

[hoom]

Drapanai* medium infantry

Drapani are a very special breed of light/medium, because that big armour-piercing & high lethality Falx lets them absolutely eat more traditional heavy infantry.
Get them in behind an already engaged enemy heavy elite & watch that unit melt away in seconds (they have to survive the first stroke in order to turn & fight!).
Just don't leave them standing around when there are javelins & arrows flying...

Me, I've never played Rome, AS, nomads, Germans nor Pontus & Hayasdan.
Not gotten into Ptolomies, Sabyn

Thoroghly enjoyed Bactria until CTD, Gauls are great, Getai the best (see Drapani :) ), mainland Greeks are fun but I never seem to get anywhere much, Carthage & Lusitanan are good but I shy away from Rome & always wind up somewhere in Gaul.

[russia almighty]

Thraikoi Samurai are even scarier because they can do balls to the wall head on assaults.

[Che Roriniho]

Started several times but did not hit "End Turn" once. I love micromanagement, but not from turn one in an empire that I did not built myself.

A different story same outcome: A lot of conquest to do, but somewho I don't get it with their starting position: no roads form Egypt to Palestine and dozends of pirates' fleets blocking off every movement by sea. The last time I played them I lost the faction leader + the entire army trying to ship them to Sidon.

I am always bancrupt before I am able to gather my armies. No money, no hope on economic development and the next interesseting town to plunder lightyears away.

I am not really a Celts' fan. I had one campaign completed with the Arverni and twice conquered the British Islands with Casse. No longer attempt with the Aedui. Not planning any further campaigns with them either.



With these I always play for about 20 to 40 years in the campaign and quit after conquering their homelands. I think they are lacking a mission to "Alexander" the world and are best kept where they are.

Basically the same, but I think I have only started more campaigns with the Romans. But also with the Sweboz I usually quit after haveing united the tribes and conquered a bit Celtic lands around.

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I never managed to get beyond the first tuns without beeing crushed by either AS or the steppe people. But I keep on trying....

These two are highely recommended by me: A lot of fun is guaranteed; sometimes a bit furstating too when the endless stacks of the Yellow and Gray death start rolling. The only problem is that you have to survive the first 20 years, what is absolutly not easy.

These three are my second favorite, and I can't say which of them is best. Excellent troop selection, a good potential in the later game and lot of (different) aspects for roleplaying the factions.


My favorite. Excellent possibilites to roleplay, easy start but becomes much more difficult later (I prefer it that way) and a clear mission to conquer the entire map.

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And the award for the most proffesional (And in my view, right) post goes to.....

Honestly though, stay with Baktria. Their unit roster is immense, and contains all the best types of unit (HA, Elephants, and phalanxes, along with plenty of Cataphracts, Heavy Infantry and stupidly long-ranged Archers.) They are just Epic win IF you can get enough money. I have a great push South to get to the ocean, then a second one to the caspian, where I destroy Pahlava. I stay friends with Saka until I get good enough roads to take their cities 1 by 1. I always find that AS is too busy in the west to really bother much with the East. Hell, I took 2 of their cities when they left them completely undefended. Sadly 1 of them rebelled before I got there.

[Andronikos]

I have never tried some of the most recomended factions: Getai, Lusotana, Hayasdan, Saba and Sauromatae. The reason could be that I have only few information about these factions and so I don't find them attractive. But someday I want to remove this lack. As Sauromatae I have a strange feeling about destruction of the Helenic world by a wild hord (but I enjoy the Flight of the dragons AAR).
For gameplay reasons I stopped AS and SSbQ campaigns, I just prefer to start with something smaller.

[Aodhan]

Lets see, I have played (in perfect order) the, Casse, Ptolemaioi, Romanoi, Epeiros, Averni, Sweboz, Koinon Hellenon, Aedui, Saka-Ruka, the Sweboz again, and I am currently playing a game as Casse again.

I have never played, Baktria, Lusitanna, Getai, Hayasdan, or Makedonia,
and have played the Sauromatae, Kart-Hadast, Pontos, Saba, and the Pahlava, but never finished.

[Maion Maroneios]

Factions I've never, ever played as:
Lusotana, Saka Rauka, Sauromatae, Pahlava, Hayasdan, Pontos
Factions I've played but ended pretty quickly:
Getai, Aedui, Arverni, Casse, Romani, Sweboz

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

I love the Romani. Despite the fact that their armies need replacements all the time during a campaign, but they have lots of money and manpower reserves.

Makedonia is my favourite Diadochoi faction: it has powerful elite phalanxes and the like and, contrary to Romani, I can stay with the same army with little replacements for a lot of time, thanks to the fact the AI loves an all out frontal charge against phalanxes. Plus they start from the zero and it's better to build an Empire than to inherit one (one reason I dislike Ptolemaioi and AS).

Arverni is my favourite barbarian faction. It takes some challenge to play them because their infantry is not very exceptional and they're tied in no less than total war. Challenging but fun.

I have never tried KH, Saba, Sauromatae, Saka, Pontos, Hayasdan and do not intend to do it anytime soon.

Factions I dislike: Aedui, because the Arverni COA is cooler (otherwise they are almost identical), Casse, because they are small and their Chariots are bad.

Factions I intend to play in the close future: Sweboz, Getai (very nice infantry and light troops, safe starting position), Pahlava (I'll try a different cavalry commanding scheme), Baktria (good Hellenistic roster).

I just dislike Karthadastim for some mysterious reason. Never got appealed to fight as them, but love to fight against them no matter what is my faction, but mostly with the Romani for the need of it early on.

[panosha]

I have never played sauromatae, getai, aedui, qarthadast, romani, ptolemaioi, pahlava or pontos.

btw sweboz rule. Those german pikemen coupled with Tiwoz temples own anything including camilian roman troops but suck against real pikemen

[TWFanatic]

The Casse are a lot of fun. You get to unite Caledonia, move on to Hibernia, spend a decade or two strengthening your economy and filling your coffers before building a massive army to invade the mainland with. I suppose most of my campaign are like this though, whether I am uniting Iberia, Germania, Dacia, or Greece before launching an invasion of a neigboring faction or region. As for the chariots, I agree that they are awful--replace them with some champions and you are good to go. I use Calawre as early bodyguards and Rycalawre as late bodyguards. So no more dissing the Britons.

As for which factions I haven't played, my answer would be most. I have them ranked in priorities and at the moment they are all tied for first place.

[||Lz3||]

I don't like macedon cause it reminds me Cassander , who killed Alexander's son...

even if Cassander has nothing to do with Antigonos

[Chaotix]

I haven't played a lot of factions, but this is mostly due to the fact that I don't have a lot of time to play.

I haven't ever tried: Lusotana, Arverni, Sweboz, Sauromatae, Pahlava, Saka Rauka, Arche Seleukia, Ptolemaioi, Hayasdan.

I've played these, but my campaign ended quickly, either to difficulty or lack of interest: Aedui, Casse, Epeiros, Saba, Pontos, Getai, Baktria.

And factions that I've played for a significant amount of time are: Romani, Qarthadastim, Koinon Hellenon, Makedonia.

So far, Makedonia and Qarthadastim are my favorites because of their unit rosters.

[Lysimachos]

even if Cassander has nothing to do with Antigonos

You can't really say that... Almost all the diadochoi families were related by marriage...
Kassandros' sister Phila was Antigonos Gonatas' mother, so technically Kassandros was his uncle...

[Tretii]

I've tried them all apart from Saba, Hay and Sauromatea.
The most fun were Baktria, Swebos and Aedui
The most boring - Ptoleys
The quickest ending was - Pontos. I've lasted about 20 years.
The longest was Swebos - I even went on rampaging rich cities of other nations, deliberately destroying their wonders to get rich and satisfy barbarian last for destruction. This was fun.

[tapanojum]

Ive played Hayastan about 8 different times but never got past 230's BC. Either had CTD or lost interest. Latest game I was working on my "Conquerer Comes" reforms to rebuild the Persian Empire but once again lost interest.

Pontos I've played till 240's BC until I got a CTD after capturing Athens.

Saba I played till 240's until my naval invasions into India were destroyed by Elephants (Unit card said Archers good against them...they arent...didn't bring skirmishers..doh!)

Played Lusottan, united all of Iberia before getting bored. As KH I united Greece and marched into Rome before CTD killed my game.

Also played Rome,Getai,Sauromate, Saka, for a short duration.

MIGRATED Factions: KH into Massalia to form the kingdom of Massalia, conquered half of Iberia, and most of modern France before getting bored.

Hayastan into the Crim (Role played an Armenian prince escaping the AS onslaught into Crimea to build an empire and take back what's ours..was fun)

NEVER played Carthage, Ptolemy, Pahlava, Makedonia, Arveni/Aedui/Casse/Sweboz, AS, Baktria. Intend on doing a Baktria campaign rather soon.

[Laman]

Arverni- simply prefer Aedui
Lusotannan- don't know why, but I always get bored really quickly with those guys, even though they should be fun with their nice units and all.

Have had troubles with Saka Rauka, by the time the economy got going I had a handful of family members (and nothing else) that had to repel Pahlavan stack of doom or get crushed. Was in 1.0 though, since they no longer start at war with Pahlava it seems they might be easy enough for me to get going with now.

[Arutima]

i have a save game of ever single factions, except for arche seleukia and the ptolemaios