favorite faction in XL or Vanilla

[chris34au]

since MTW's been around for years, i really hope that this isn't a tired topic but i'd love to know what factions everyone prefers to use when playing the game. i'm trying to break away from playing as Aragon or Bohemia so often but it doesn't seem like there's many other factions that interest me.

i like England's unit roster but they start out with too many provinces and have too much room for early expansion. it seems like you can easily have 9-10 provinces by 1100 or so when playing as England. HRE and the Byzantines start out with around 10 provinces, so i've never tried them in Early either. i like the Byzantines situation in High but i'd much rather have the same scenario(2 starting ,provinces) in Early, so that there'd be more time to build infrastructure and expand.

i've tried a campaign with Novogrod but, like England, it seemed way too easy to expand and all of my heirs were alcoholics. is this common when playing as Novogrod? i really liked their unit roster though. i'm kinda interested in trying Hungary but i don't know how old it will get to have Crusades constantly passing through. i've also thought about trying Armenia but it seems like it might be pretty tough to have a decent economy playing as them and i'm not sure how great of a unit roster that they have.

i apologize if this is the 8,000th "what's your favorite faction?" thread but i've tried searching the archives to find a similar thread and didn't have any luck....especially when it comes to XL factions being included.

[Brandy Blue]

I've never been able to pick a favorite faction. One thing I like about MTW/XL is the variety of factions and unit rosters, so you can always switch around and try something else.

If you want some help picking a new faction to try, I would definitely suggest Armenia. From your post I gather that you want:

1: a challenging starting position
2: an opportunity to build infrastructure and economy
3: a Western style unit roster (your favorites, Aragon and Bohemia are both western)

Armenia starts with one province in the lions' den. You have to deal with Turkey, Egypt, and Byzantium. Depending on circumstances, you may be attacked by the Mongols later on too. So you have a challenging start.

Once you have established yourself, you will get a chance to work on infrastructure and economy. The area south of Georgia, north of Egypt, and west of Byzantium includes some rich provinces with much potential for farming and trade.

I don't remember the Armenian unit roster very well, but I seem to remember that it had a very Catholic feel to it, apart from the Armenian infantry, who resemble Byzantine infantry.

Other than Armenia, I suggest that you just try factions and see what you like. You could also try looking at some faction guides to see which sound fun to you.

[bamff]

Serbia in early provides a good challenge and plenty of fun. They have a pretty handy unit roster (particularly if you like using various mounted missile units).

Your starting position is a single province, with independent Croatia next door your best early shot for expansion. Meanwhile you have to keep an eye on some very large neighbours (Byzantines and Hungary).

You will have issues early on in terms of balancing out your economy, and in maintaining the loyalty of your generals. Both of these factors will add greatly to your satisfaction from a job well done.

Oh - another bonus - as an orthodox faction, you don't have "Papal Issues" to deal with....

[chris34au]

Serbia in early provides a good challenge and plenty of fun. They have a pretty handy unit roster (particularly if you like using various mounted missile units).

Your starting position is a single province, with independent Croatia next door your best early shot for expansion. Meanwhile you have to keep an eye on some very large neighbours (Byzantines and Hungary).

You will have issues early on in terms of balancing out your economy, and in maintaining the loyalty of your generals. Both of these factors will add greatly to your satisfaction from a job well done.

Oh - another bonus - as an orthodox faction, you don't have "Papal Issues" to deal with....

i really like Serbia's starting location and i've thought about giving them a try several times but i wasn't sure about their unit roster. i like mounted missile units but i wasn't sure how the Carska Garda measures up against Boyers and/or if their unit roster gets better as the game goes on. i'd love to be able to play as Bulgaria in Early but i know next to nothing about modding, or even if it's possible to mod the game in order to be able to play as Bulgaria in Early.

[bamff]

Once you get into "High", Carska Garda become something more like Royal Knights (though I believe possibly with slightly reduced stats), and Vlastela Heavy Cavalry become something more like Chiv Knights (again I believe stats are not quite the same). In other words, while both are heavy mounted projectile units in early, with a useful cavalry capability, they become very useful cavalry from "High" onwards.

VHC's can dismount to become Chivalric footknights (as can CG's), but you cannot actually train footknights as such.

Don't forget Voynuk Swordsmen (very handy to have early on) and Voynuk Bladesmen (sort of a lightly armoured Halberdier?).

Brandy Blue had me thinking about Armenia as well....my current Burgundian campaign will be all wrapped up in the not too distant future....I was originally thinking that the Crusader States might be my next faction, but now.....

Actually if you were happy to try a faction in "late", Burgundy is worth a go as well. Well hemmed in to start off, and some good units to play with.

[chris34au]

Once you get into "High", Carska Garda become something more like Royal Knights (though I believe possibly with slightly reduced stats), and Vlastela Heavy Cavalry become something more like Chiv Knights (again I believe stats are not quite the same). In other words, while both are heavy mounted projectile units in early, with a useful cavalry capability, they become very useful cavalry from "High" onwards.

VHC's can dismount to become Chivalric footknights (as can CG's), but you cannot actually train footknights as such.

Don't forget Voynuk Swordsmen (very handy to have early on) and Voynuk Bladesmen (sort of a lightly armoured Halberdier?).

Brandy Blue had me thinking about Armenia as well....my current Burgundian campaign will be all wrapped up in the not too distant future....I was originally thinking that the Crusader States might be my next faction, but now.....

Actually if you were happy to try a faction in "late", Burgundy is worth a go as well. Well hemmed in to start off, and some good units to play with.

i'd love to try Burgundy but i wasn't really sure about doing a campaign in Late. i love knowing that there's plenty of time to turtle and build infrastructure and i wasn't sure if there'd be enough time to do that in a Late era campaign.

i've tried a High era campaign as the Crusader States and really loved the unit roster but i got kinda bored with it after Egypt was wiped out pretty early in the game. the Teutons seem like another really fun faction to play but i really wish that they were available in Early.

thanks for all of the Serbia tips. now, i'm kinda torn on who to try first. i think i'll just go with the first faction to give me a starting unit with 4 acumen plumes to get the economy rolling.

[chris34au]

thanks for the reply. i think i'll start an Areminian campaign tonight. i've thought about trying them several times but i wasn't sure how easy it would be for them to build up a decent economy, since Lesser Armenia doesn't have any trade resources. as far as their unit roster goes, i know that they can build Armenian Infantry and are supposed to have really good cavalry(which sounds great) but i don't really know much more about them.

you've totally piqued my interest though. i'm definitely going to check them out. thanks again.