Most boring faction to play as

[Atraphoenix]

I love all, I just get bored after I have dominated the world and there is no faction to challenge me.

If you battle with the same tactics you get bored as well.
For Hellenic factions you get bored using hammer and anvil all the time.
For nomadic factions you get bored using rinse and repeat or hit and run all the time.

so you must change your playing style. For example after I have dominated persia and mesopotamia with mostly Pahlava, I immediately change my battle tactics from classical rinse and repeat to a hybrid of hit and run and hammer and anvil.
Namely, I send HAS to soften the enemy. then enemy engages my pandadapoi phalangitai that pins them, then after the inferno of HAS the remaining enemy troops they are piece of cake for my cataphracts
so change your playing style, if you stick to historical realism or house rules, there is no fun mate
like : If you bored with slow moving phalanxes just increase the time speed...

[Celtic_Punk]

I find the elutheroi in my Casse campaigns aggressive. I've been sieged many many times on the first few turns.

[Atraphoenix]

But Casse is a great challenge but it depend on the player who like challenge or peaceful, slow expansion. She has many good infantries and even romani elites are no match for them.
On the other hand, As I am a cavalry maniac, I have never played with them.

[Apázlinemjó]

But Casse is a great challenge but it depend on the player who like challenge or peaceful, slow expansion. She has many good infantries and even romani elites are no match for them.
On the other hand, As I am a cavalry maniac, I have never played with them.

Casse starts with neutral to Eleutheroi, so you don't need to worry that they don't let you to grow peacefully. The AI factions won't bother you, you can concentrate on the rebels - wipe them out, build a "safe haven" then invade Gallia. Casse is the easiest barbarian faction, as the Gauls are forced to fight eachother and Rome, while the Lusos end up dead against Carthage, while Swebóz is isolated too, after a little growin' they get into a trench warfare with Rome and the Sarmatians.

[Cute Wolf]

Believe it or not: Koinon Hellenon (but that also my favourite faction!!!)
End up doing the very same thing when the campaign starts... kicking Kydonia, reinforcing athenai, and massacring Korinthos... then moving up and doing a really big mess as quickly as possible against those Makedonians and Epeirotes.... and when u concentrate to the war, Pantikapaion, Emporion, Chersonesos, Sinope, and every "Greek Cities" sent their emissary say they are on your side now.... Waaarrrggghhhh......

But they are really funny everytime i play... just need some improvement, and "add_unit" for Makedonian ai

[Fierro]

I don't understand how people have trouble with Casse. In my current campaign taking over the islands was a breeze and after that I had a ridiculous income. I waited until 200BC to attack the mainland that way I could build up my cities and actually face developed favtions (that didn't work out too well, AI factions still seem just as weak with some being larger than others)
The only reason I'm not swimming in mnai is because I have three stacks of elites and a navy of 10 ships. If it wasn't for that I would easily have several million mnai.

[Satyros]

I wouldn't say the Casse are that hard either . They're for the first 3-4 turns , until you repel the Caledonians and take your first town , in my current campaign I managed to pull this off in the same battle , which was a close one but I really enjoyed winning it .

I found the Aedui a much greater challenge .

Still , these are 2 very interesting factions whereas the huge management of the Empires ( Carthage , Seleukeia , Ptolemy ) from turn 1 is too much of a burden for me to be convinced to keep playing after turn 3 .

Also the Romaioi are boring because they are too easy I believe . First turn on the positive ( at leat when I played them once , at an older version it was so ) ? Bah ! This is not a man's campaign ! It's a boy's campaign . Na na nana na .

On the other hand the KH suits me best I think . Some tough battles in the beggining ( true , the same ones every time ) till you get out of debt ( true , you can't plunge into a -30000 abyss ) but the challenge after that is to defend your colonies , especially if one happens to join your alliance . The declarations of war are a perfect opportunity to either gain some buck from ceasefires pretending to be forgiving to the enemy and roleplaying animosities with said colony , or be really offended and send ships and men to battle HA in the steppes , which should be a fun slaughter of your army .

Also , the unit Hellen Misthophoros Strategos absolutely rocks . Fast cavalry with a deadly charge , by the gods I'll have half of my cities with an allied gov . And a question popped up , but I will take it elsewhere since I am way off topic a while now in the post .

Satyros

[DaciaJC]

pfffff, you cower behind your phalanxes and such.

Er, no. Look to my signature and you'll see that I play mostly as Getai and a bit as Romani. No phalanxes to be found with either. I hate them myself.

And it seems like most people agree that the Casse campaign is rather easy compared to those of other barbarian factions.

[Moros]

Re: Saba
Though I knew very little about them when I started, I tried to fill in as much as I could (outside of the units themselves, which I had no part in) to make them feel more interesting, like their ritual banquet building tree and the ritual hunts and festivals, their temples, their ethnicity traits, a few unique buildings for the region, their own unique looking spies and diplomats on the campaign map, etc. For a the last faction we added and one so different from the rest, I think we did a fairly good job with them. I'll also admit that I pretty freely took a lot from a few of the best academic works that I could find on them. I do wish we could have found someone or a group who would let us use some appropriate traditional music, but TPC's eastern songs help out for sure. Someone filling in like that is necessary when the big proponents of a new faction vanish. I did talk with some phd students who were working on the Sabaeans, but none would agree to help us (though Jean-Francois Breton himself did give a little in the way of advice and some leads).

TA: nobody blames you. You did a terrific job at making the saby'n as they are, after VC and Qwerty stopped working on them. It's just that content wise and work wise, they are much behind the other factions. They barely have any unique traits and stuff. I'm really happy you were able to even get them in a more than playable state.
Also you had feeback from Breton? I know you used one of his books, which I've real as well, but I never knew you actually contacted him and that he responded!? Could you pm me what he said or something, as I'd really be interested to know what he shared with you?

[Apázlinemjó]

The Saba campaign is good, when you like to roleplay and build up a strong economy. The only sad thing about them, that you can't field good "native" army.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Search for Breton in the development forum, you'll see it pretty easily. Some team member translated the email to French and I sent it - he responded with some advice, it was pretty cool, but not tremendously helpful (though his book certainly was; it was probably the single biggest influence on the faction I'd say).

[Ibrahim]

The Saba campaign is good, when you like to roleplay and build up a strong economy. The only sad thing about them, that you can't field good "native" army.

you can build a good native one actually.

the way to do it is to rely on archers and slingers, with a core of infantry and cavalry for support of the archers. re sea axemen, and medium cavalry are very good for that. give them a few chevrons, and things will go well. and as most of your enemies will field light units, at least till later, the archers should do heavy damage.

archer spearmen come to mind, but sabaeans can do well in melee (for archers).

[Apázlinemjó]

you can build a good native one actually.

the way to do it is to rely on archers and slingers, with a core of infantry and cavalry for support of the archers. re sea axemen, and medium cavalry are very good for that. give them a few chevrons, and things will go well. and as most of your enemies will field light units, at least till later, the archers should do heavy damage.

archer spearmen come to mind, but sabaeans can do well in melee (for archers).

Because the AI is...the AI, but against a heavily armored army, controlled by a player doesn't really work, sadly.

[Celtic_Punk]

This much is true. Even a light armoured celtic army could overwhelm the Saba.

[Moosemanmoo]

Poor little saba

[Ibrahim]

Because the AI is...the AI, but against a heavily armored army, controlled by a player doesn't really work, sadly.

yeah, but I'm assuming this is sp, not mp

but yeah, playing them in mp renders you screwed. hardly anyone uses them there

I'm telling ye, they are underpowered, especially the nomads. also can't get over them nomads having metal speartips that are 6ft in length, instead of the correct cowhorn speartip at 8-9f in length

[ARCHIPPOS]

It's all in the head though... i imagine some people might be inspired by leading the underdog underpowered Saba to world domination... i am kind of inspired by the prospect of a desert-middle- east , low-tech army of hardened veterans pushing against the Ptolemies and the Seleukid giants... makes the Saba cause a very noble one right???

[Ibrahim]

It's all in the head though... i imagine some people might be inspired by leading the underdog underpowered Saba to world domination... i am kind of inspired by the prospect of a desert-middle- east , low-tech army of hardened veterans pushing against the Ptolemies and the Seleukid giants... makes the Saba cause a very noble one right???

yep, it is and does.

I just won a battle vs. a stack of ptolemaians- 1600 of them, vs 1300 of us. I managed to win a heroic victory, using cannae style tactics (double envelopement using a smaller army). it was tough though, my general died, and 40% of my men with him. they had 1 unit Klerouch agema, 4-6 of the klerouch normal, 2 celtic ones, and the rest assorted troops. I had some ethiopeians swordsmen, archers, and cavalry,some celtic mercenaries, and a few mercenary gee-I mean, greeks. thessalikoi were a real help


the irony? It was next to the Pyramids-I fought the battle of the Pyramids 2000 years in advance

EDIT: is it me, or is it always a semetic speaking person who pulls this feat off? Hannibal, Khalid ibn al-walid, now me? double envelopement with a smaller army seems rare.

[ARCHIPPOS]

oops sorry read your message wrong... i thought you meant Semetic people coming back with apayback or sth...

i suppose if your troops are lighter and less armoured enveloping the enemy becomes even more of a necessity...

[ARCHIPPOS]

there was a thread abt making EB more rewarding... weeeeeell i find fighting your battles with low tech armies as a turn-on... i mean sure i like cool-ass elite infantry units, heavy cavalry, elephants etc to feed the megalomaniac in me but during the begining and middle game you can hardly afford many (if any ) of that stuff... fighting with decent "mediocre" troops makes you become all the more resourceful and carefull ... and the victories taste sooooooo sweet

[Ibrahim]

there was a thread abt making EB more rewarding... weeeeeell i find fighting your battles with low tech armies as a turn-on... i mean sure i like cool-ass elite infantry units, heavy cavalry, elephants etc to feed the megalomaniac in me but during the begining and middle game you can hardly afford many (if any ) of that stuff... fighting with decent "mediocre" troops makes you become all the more resourceful and carefull ... and the victories taste sooooooo sweet

well, it was more bitter than sweet. the casualties were so high, and I was so far from any retraining center, that I had to disband the thrid army's core units, and start all over (I have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd; 1st is on its way to petra, fresh from taking Oman; 2nd is in Memphis and to the west (its overstreched), and 3rd is a series of little garrisons from Alexandria to Diospolis-megale, now that its been shattered

at least I took all of egypt-the question is now: can I hold it against the ptolemaian hordes?

[athanaric]

Well, as Saba you have to win lots of heroic victories or else perish.

[Maion Maroneios]

Pah, filthy desert mokeys. I hate them poking their noses when I meddle around the Levant, Bostra (?) always seems to rebel to them along with a goddamn fullstack.

Maion

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Yeah, they are really pesky! Countless times did they attack Bostra, until I was fed up and sent an army down to take care of them. I pillaged their country twice, twice I conquered their territories. I destroyed everything, but do they vanish into oblivion? No. They took Homna from me when the civil war ravaged the Arche. I gifted Qataban to the Kingdom of Axum (tffka Qarthadast), hoping these would eat them up. But now the Sabaeans are about to deprive the Axumites of their city even!

The Third Sabaean War will deal an end to them.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Koinon Hellenon - despite having a certain fondness for them, their roster is bland, boring and terribly anachronistic and weak. Nothing like a pike phalanx when you're playing Hellenes, and that's what they lack the most. And cavalry, especially cavalry.

Sweboz - Terrible.

Saba - Never went past turn one.

Ptolemaioi and Seleucids - Big Empires, not fun.

Karthadastim - I'm better off destroying them than commanding them.

The Best:

Romani, Arverni, Makedonia, Epeiros, Casse, Sauromatae, Baktria.

EDIT - The order above is my order of preference. The important aspect to notice is that I was never fond of pike phalanxes either, despite finding them a necessary evil for Successor states; my favourite part is the Successor Cavalry, otherwise the flexible and fast heavy infantry of the Romani and Gauls eats them for breakfast all the time.

[Ibrahim]

Pah, filthy desert mokeys. I hate them poking their noses when I meddle around the Levant, Bostra (?) always seems to rebel to them along with a goddamn fullstack.

Maion

yeah, you can beat us up, but we will never really be beat (in the EB world).

unlike some other greekssakgfaeirkajf *cough*

[Ariovistus Maximus]

It seems like everybody thinks (x) faction is boring because they can't play it like their favorite faction.

Of course you can't play Saba like you play the Gauls. Or Casse like you play AS.

If you play them according to their strengths and not an all-encompassing game rulebook, it is quite interesting.

I'm a big fan of variety, so I like the Saba just because their placement, units, and EVERYTHING is way different from everybody else.

And having gigantic Ptolemoi to fight against first is quite... interesting.

The Casse are fun in the beginning because you're losing tons of $$$, so you have to get rid of some stuff. And once you do THAT, you have juuuuust enough troops to take one of the eleutheroi cities. This is quite difficult just because of your limited army size, but if you pull it off you feel soooo good.

Plus, when I did my Casse campaign, I ran over to the baltic and took Scandinavia. That made it interesting.

Anyways, I think the most boring faction is the eleutherio.

HAIL BARTIX!

[Maion Maroneios]

greekssakgfaeirkajf

Maion

[Ghaust the Moor]

It seems like everybody thinks (x) faction is boring because they can't play it like their favorite faction.

Of course you can't play Saba like you play the Gauls. Or Casse like you play AS.

If you play them according to their strengths and not an all-encompassing game rulebook, it is quite interesting.

I'm a big fan of variety, so I like the Saba just because their placement, units, and EVERYTHING is way different from everybody else.

And having gigantic Ptolemoi to fight against first is quite... interesting.

The Casse are fun in the beginning because you're losing tons of $$$, so you have to get rid of some stuff. And once you do THAT, you have juuuuust enough troops to take one of the eleutheroi cities. This is quite difficult just because of your limited army size, but if you pull it off you feel soooo good.

Plus, when I did my Casse campaign, I ran over to the baltic and took Scandinavia. That made it interesting.

Anyways, I think the most boring faction is the eleutherio.

HAIL BARTIX!

Amen brother...

[Irishmafia2020]

Personally I've really enjoyed my Saba campaigns... You really appreciate every soldier, and the family members have to fight immediately or you will lose. Additionally I found myself really appreciating levy phalanxes and Ethiopian spearmen - neither of whom would be exceptional units in a powerhouse roster. Saba is not a boring campaign at all - it is not about creating an empire, but rather it is about surviving, and maybe conquering Ethiopia and India... I do look forward to Saba's evolution in EB2!

My Votes for boring would be Sauromatae, Casse, and Sweboz. Sauromatae are spread out, and they have no real infantry units. Therefore your campaign will be almost exclusively about cavalry units, which holds limited appeal to me - in contrast, Saka can conquer India and get access to some really amazing native units, as well as some impressive regional infantry in the Baktria/selucid areas. Sauromatae's redeeming aspect is that they border a huge area potentially, and they have a legitimate reason to war with 9 or 10 different factions who have very different cultures (so very different battles and wars).

Casse is a challenging campaign, but they face no real external threat. They should start with Belgium at least (for gameplay purposes) or perhaps one of the Celtic tribes should control a piece of Britain. Unfortunately that may be ahistoric, but I hope EB2 adds another faction on the islands (Goidils, or Caledonians maybe) which would spice up the Casse campaign nicely.

Sweboz - I suppose that this is a matter of taste, I prefer Saba, you prefer Sweboz (speaking to no one in particular), but the campaign is similar in a sense. Sweboz are a bit isolated, and their units are not that impressive. Most importantly all of the battles are in the forest, so not a lot of diversity there. I am sure that you can make this campaign very interesting, but isn't that true of all of of EB's factions?

What is noteworthy about my three choices is that none of them border the Mediterranean or Black sea. I am not a fan of playing empires, and I am well aware of the similarity of the various hellenic and Eastern factions, but IMO if you can reach the sea at the center of the world, you won't have a boring campaign...