Favourite Faction 2009

[Fagar]

I have never played as the Swedish but I imagine the unit roster would be very nearly the same.
Sweden does have better farmland and good availablility of trade.
The Danish Huscarles and Landsmen wear these really cool blue uniforms and blue and red shields which look very contarsting with the Red and white flag.
Which is very handy when you use your easily built longboats to invade upper Brittain.
Otherwise in melee way too much red on the field methinks.

[chris34au]

lol that's a good point about too much Red. then there's the Poles. maybe Sweden's the way to go. it seems like between Sweden's economy and +1 valor for all viking units trained in Norway, starting in Sweden might not be a bad idea.

[Fagar]

Sounds pretty good.
If you go that way keep us updated.
I am interested to see how the playability actually is.

[Passatempo]

Its been a while since I last played, but i always liked the english and the italians

[thanosz]

I would def choose Byzantine or Papacy,or Sicily..or(plenty of them)..better stop huh??

[Fagar]

I would def choose Byzantine or Papacy,or Sicily..or(plenty of them)..better stop huh??

Fair call that.
I had all sorts of trouble with this poll.
I am glad we were only able to vote once.
Even now after all the years of playing MTW I could still have changed my vote as to my fav faction a dozen times!

Question?
What Mod enables you to play as the Papacy?

[Great Est.]

I cast my vote for the Turks because of their horse archers. I find it more satisfying and challenging to surround and frustrate the enemy than simply rush their lines.

I'm also a big fan of the Cumans. They are around a lot of rebel provinces which are not pushovers, face strong factions to the north and south, and will likely take the brunt of the Horde invasion. When I use them, I purposefully ignore the coming doom. Luckily, the Turks and Volga-Bulgarians make massing troops in the east a must most games. I tend to focus my offensive efforts on the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Poles and Byzantines.

Finally, I'm a sucker for the killing power of Spain's jinettes. Just as with the Turks, I've built and fielded entirely horse-borne armies with Spain. I've never actually used the Aragonese, but it seems I've missed out on a more challenging version of Spain.

[gaijinalways]

I too, have not played MTW recently, but I always seem to remember enjoying playing the;


English - great troops, billmen and longbows rock. Great starting position

Byz - Love the gemnerals and they have decent soldiers.

Italians - love those Genovese sailors and the Italian infantry.

Alomos - always had good luck with them after turtling.

Spanish - okay, not a big jinnette fan. Some good starting provinces though.

These are the only factions I have successfully played all the way through. I admit it, I hate losing!

[Roark]

Turks for the win!

[Durango]

Forza Italia!

[caravel]

Never mind. One very large can of spam has been opened in this thread so some cleaning is now needed. Can we stay on topic from now on please gentlemen?

[gollum]

Sure, the Turks were always the greatest favorite due to the variety of the roster among other things. Its one of the few ones that never stops evolving either as the game progresses. The Byzantines are the complete antithesis of this being given everything out initially and actually losing units overtime. The Catholics increase in melee strength and armor. The Egyptians play all late without any new units - the last blooming are the Mameluk units. The Almohads are another Byzantine type roster philosophy. The Russians are a catholic and Byzantine hybrid. The Italians should have been more unique, having exclusivity in the pavise units. The English have a good amount of flavor - although they should have been denied mounted Chivalric knights and given the foot variety exclusively - Billmen are overpowered for SP - longbows are ok as they are imho. Spanish and HRE and Italians can expect the heavy mounted horrors they get in high/late to spice up the roster.

The French are the most dull of the lot as are the Sicilians that also have no exclusive units. The French really deserved something in late like the Gendarmes but the unit is given to many others too (Italian, Burgundian, Aragonese), has a relatively low morale (4) and no lance - in other words better stick with Chivalric Knights. The Chiv. Knights bonuses in France are really a gift to the HRE/English/Aragonese/Spanish/Italian player rather than a bolstering of the French forces.

[caravel]

From my perspective, a lack of exclusive units does not make a faction "dull". If this were the case, then STW would have been a dull game.

The French are IMHO the best of the catholic factions and this is due to their interesting starting position and reliance on the generic catholic roster. They have no vikings, longbows, javelinmen, jinetes, szekely etc and must make good use of units such as FMAA, FS, UM, MS, MntdS and archers. There is also much incentive to tech up to Chivalric Knights as soon as possible, as they are easily your best mainstream cavarly unit.

Agreed on your other points, but that brings us back to redesigning the game...

-Edit: My next campaign will be as the French.

[gollum]

And hence off topic - better stop posting altogether

We await your adventures with anticipation master Camelier

[caravel]

There is no stopping you from starting such a thread on redesigning the game? I.e. "the ideal mod" or the "perfect MTW" etc.

[gollum]

Certainly - actually sounds like a good idea.

[gaijinalways]

Interesting to note the different replys so far. I personally haven't played all the factions (I play other games thief II, until my CD shattered, BG II, Captalism, Max Payne, etc) , but MTW is one of the games that has so many elements that I like. Economics, battles, careful building and balancing..

Anyway, of the factions I have played all the way through, that would be

The Danes
The Italians (in another one right now)
The Alomonds
The Spanish
The English
The French
The Byzantines

Favorite? Well, I do like the English with billmen and longbows being strong reasons. I liked playing the Danes (only once), very challenging in the beginning. And the Italians? Whew, this is the first game where I remember rolling in this much dough...700k.

The Alomonds are fun, and the Byz can be good too. Hell, in MTW, how can you go wrong?

Gotta say rocking out with the Italians to 100% on expert made the game seem almost easy. Those Italian infantrymen rock, took me all the way with a little bit of help from some Swiss halbs right at the end.

[danfda]

I guess I've always liked the Russians. In XL, my favorite is easily Serbia.

But as gaijinalways said, how can you go wrong ?

[m52nickerson]

By far the Poles. No other faction has such a fun starting position. You almost always have to deal with the Hoard, you can get some semi-unique units like Avar nobles, and Steppe Heavy Cav.

Not to mention they have the coolest names!

[Seabourch]

I haven't played in a while but I love the English. Sure they start out as a somewhat uninteresting with their fyrdmen with longbowmen and billmen unavailable until 1205 but its fun taking on the French, a somewhat expected duel but after that it gets interesting.


Go South to sunny spain or east to germany? Or even sail to Scandinavia to give the Danes a taste f their own medicine.

[oz_wwjd]

I've always been a fan of the Byzantines just for the challenge of the early years of fighting both the turks and egyptians from the start.the amount of HA's they use can be quite a challenge given your lack of archers and the need to keep infantry coming from the Big C,but once you get them both conquered the Mongol Horde usually turns up about that time,which can also prove a challenge,if you aren't prepared for them

[Valentine]

Love

Danes - For one, I like to play factions that don't have a ton of provinces to begin with. And I only play early period, so that's what I will be referring to with all my choices. I like Danes for a few reasons. First, I like that they're only one province to begin with. They have many enemies to the south to have fun with. Sweden. Vikings. Norway's a good province when you get a trade route set up. More vikings. Sweden. Novgorod is right around the corner from you. So is Lithuania. Livonia. Flanders. It's simply so easy to set up a successful trade route with them while still maintaining a small number of provinces. Sweden alone with a good trade route can make over 4k. Denmark over 1500. Same with Norway. Pope typically won't pester you until later. There's just a lot of opportunity.

Turkish - While having a very unique roster of units which causes you to think on your feet and what choices you will make later, you have 2 very strong enemies on your entire border. Playing the Turks can be very fun and rewarding, as you have several abnormally profitable provinces. Later on in the campaign when the Catholic provinces take over everything in sight, JHI is there to completely destroy cavalry, infantry, archers, and anything else in its path ^^

Like

Spanish - They have one of the best cavalry units in the game later in the campaign. They have a profitable trade opportunity. You can only own 7 provinces and make enough to pay for anything with a good trade route. You have Elmo's to your south, and France will probably gobble up everything and present a good fight later on. They aren't the best choice for non-turtle campaigns, but I like it where I only need to keep track of a small area and still make out like a bandit.

Sicilians - Infantry is OK. Cavalry is OK. Area is small and limited. The prime factor that completely saves this faction from the dust is simply in its unlimited naval opportunity. You can simply own Sicily and Venice and still be in a better strategical position than any other faction, no matter how big as long as you have a good navy and trade route.

Aragonese - Small, condensed, war on many sides is imminent. FUN! After a struggle, this faction can come on to be very powerful. Just like the Spanish, except they have another step before reaching what the Spanish is capable of.

Italians - Giant naval advantage and pre-owning provinces with enormous income possibilities. This faction, in my opinion, has the strongest position at the very beginning of the campaign. And it is exclusive (other than Germans) to one of the best unit categories in the game later on, Gothic units.

Indifferent

Egyptians - Well, one thing that I don't really like about this faction is how easy it is to make a giant profit early. Makes things too easy. Another reason I refrain from this faction is the unit selection is like a wannabe Catholic factions selection. It's like playing Catholic with an endless money output and a giant army since you can get huge production early. Too easy.

Byzantines - Too easy. WAY too easy. They have access to some of the best light infantry with literally no effort to make at all. They have generals that would put Robert E Lee to shame. Expanding is simply no challenge. Building up navy is no challenge, they have no province that isn't next to water. The only reason they're worth playing is with this overpowered of a faction, the Golden Horde is fun to fight 10000 vs 10000 troops with and in late period they get severely gimped. But perhaps by late period you'll control 60% of the map already.

Poland - Boring. Below average cavalry, average infantry. Crappy provinces in any direction. (except Lithuania). It's like playing English/French, but with more challenge.

Dislike

English - I don't know why, but I simply don't like playing the English. I don't like the factions they start with, I don't like being sandwiched between the french, I hate those stupid low-budget cavalry they give you. The only exclusive unit you get is longbows. It's just boring to me. Redundant, and I hate having to expand on inland provinces.

French - They're English without longbows. Snore.

Holy Roman Empire - I don't like this faction simply because you have to manage too much too early. It takes 32 light years to set everything up, mobilize units into a strong defensive position as you'll probably be at war in the first 3 turns, set taxes, governors, make sure your provinces won't rebel and at the same time produce max profit. And after that you turtle because you dare not attack anyone until you have an adequate army because you are hemmed in on all sides and can get attacked at any possible time from anyone that isn't a rebel.

Hungarians. Booooring. Szekely, big whoop. Typical Catholic faction with no frills and a mediocre starting area.

Swiss - Campaign will end before you get to do anything worthwhile.

Hate

Russians - The only faction that can get away with archery as their weapon of choice is Turkish. I'm sorry, but this faction is like a wannabe Turkish selection. They have mediocre archery selections compared to the Turks, and virtually no good cavalry or infantry. Militia Sergeants. Great. The only difference is you get your enemy later on instead of right from the start, and if you have any chance of fighting off the Horde, you'd be better off not waring with anyone who is remotely big and just take over the rebel provinces near by and turtle until you fight the most annoying enemy of all time. I hate fighting horse archers. I hate fighting horse archers. Did I mention I hate fighting horse archers? Although I can't say they're boring, they are very frustrating to play.

Almohads - Mediocre unit roster, unprofitable provinces. You basically have to turtle because you can get attacked no matter where you are. You have no navy, or any idea of one at start (and that's really, really sad considering where they are and who is going to occupy the area they are in as far as boats). AUM is the only frill, and they are quickly out-teched. I don't fancy javelins or archery builds much unless it's Turkish. It's like playing the Turkish without any fun units. Boring.

[drone]

Dislike
...
Swiss - Campaign will end before you get to do anything worthwhile.

I beg to differ.

Welcome to the Org, Valentine!

[caravel]

French - They're English without longbows. Snore.

Welcome Valentine, to the .org

In see that a big part of your focus is on the available special units? Yes the French are very generic, but they have an interesting position, sandwiched between the English, HRE, Aragonese and Spanish. IMHO this is an important part of any campaign. You're right about the HRE though, their biggest failing is the need to invest in building infrastructure from the off.

[Valentine]

Welcome Valentine, to the .org

In see that a big part of your focus is on the available special units? Yes the French are very generic, but they have an interesting position, sandwiched between the English, HRE, Aragonese and Spanish. IMHO this is an important part of any campaign. You're right about the HRE though, their biggest failing is the need to invest in building infrastructure from the off.

I don't know why, but I just hate that general area. Otherwise I'd play the English/French more often.

[Valentine]

I beg to differ.

Welcome to the Org, Valentine!

Haha I gotta try that sometime, but my graphics card hates medieval so I don't know if I'll be able to on this machine.

[Monk]

Russian factions are my favorite in TW games (with a strange exception to M2TW) for a number of reasons.

First off you've got a lot of open land to yourself. With some speed, some military skill and a bit of luck you can lock down vast tracks of land in no time flat.

Once you've got the steppes secured then there's numerous opportunities for expansion. Will you sail over the black sea and attack the stagnant Byzantines? Harass the Turks in Georgia? Invade Poland / Hungary? Perhaps even an invasion of Scandinavia!

I love playing in Early so by the time my empire is really big and i'm facing numerous wars, I've got to really start thinking about the Horde. If you're not careful you can easily ge bogged down fighting the West while the Horde looms ever closer. It's a tough spot to be in, and all great fun!

[seireikhaan]

I'm stunned nobody vote for the sicilians. They've got a great strategic location, and a campaign bent on destruction as there's all sorts of good factions to pick from(Italians, byzantines, Almohoads, Egypt). Units might be a bit generic, but I always thought they were a very fun campaign.

[caravel]

Classic case of low voter turnout...

[Monk]

I'm stunned nobody vote for the sicilians. They've got a great strategic location, and a campaign bent on destruction as there's all sorts of good factions to pick from(Italians, byzantines, Almohoads, Egypt). Units might be a bit generic, but I always thought they were a very fun campaign.

Sicily's starting position is perfect for crusading. North Africa is a stone's throw away and with the aid of a halfway decent navy you can get really close to the Holy Lands before disembarking. In fact i once played a Sicily game entirely devoted to crusading. It ended in disaster after i sent my heir-less king on the fifth crusade to Jerusalem in 1190 but what a ride.