Which factions (emphasis on the plural!) do you actually play on a regular basis?

[Martok]

Note: This poll is limited to the playable factions in the vanilla MTW/VI main campaign only. (Am considering a separate poll for the Viking campaign, but haven't decided yet.)



While it goes without saying that nearly everyone here has a favorite faction, most of us actually have multiple factions that we're fond of playing. (As an example, it's never been a secret that I have almost equal affection for the Spanish and Eggies, with the Byz coming in a strong third place.) Given that fact, I decided it was high time a poll was put forward that allows us to show love for *all* the factions that we like.

So go vote! Let everyone know which factions you enjoy.

[yoyolll]

Usually I play the Turks because I love the gunpowder units and the Janissaries. Otherwise, I play the English because they start in such a good spot that you can take 3 provinces without pissing off the pope.

[macsen rufus]

'Regular basis' is a hard one - don't play half as much as I did, then there's all the mods, but ones I come back to most often: English, Novgorod and Turkish. I like strong missile troops, especially hybrids that can carry some weight in melee, too, -- even more so if they're mounted

[Knight of the Rose]

I shop around so much I think it would be easier to single out the factions I rarely play. So I've only ticked off the factions I come back to most often. That is:
France in Early for their crusades and knights + interesting starting position.
Byzzies in High for their tough starting position and different units.
Turks in High for their HA and proximity to the horde.

But I've played all factions with interest and joy. Exept Scicily

/KotR

[Jxrc]

Aragon (more difficult version of Spain), HRE (tough start but easy once you have survived), Sicily (you take Naples in turn 2 and then as many options as you can think of), Danemark (same as Sicily with Vikings) and England (nice location, some nice units, good generals) for me

[caravel]

None... because I still can't play the game...

[chris34au]

Aragon. i really like the factions that only start out with one or two provinces and Aragon's definitely my favorite of these factions.i like to expand to Leon asap and then turtle until i can get a chapter house built there and then use crusades to take the rest of the provinces in Iberia and Africa. 5/11 provinces in Iberia/Morocco have iron and all 11 can build ships,so it's really easy to become a serious naval power. there's also plenty of trade resources and gold,silver, and copper in the region. then there's Jinettes, El Cid, Andalusian Cavalary(with XL) choke points, and crusades rarely try to pass through your territory. i really have a hard time finding any negatives with Aragon or Spain.

on a side note(with XL), if you could either play as the Teutonic Knights in Early or start with a Citadel in High, i'd probably play that faction more than any of them. it's pretty easy to take out Novogrod and get their's but it almost feels like cheating every time i do it. i'd rather align with them and expand towards Prussia and Pomerania but that Citadel is always too tempting to pass up.

[Knight of the Rose]

None... because I still can't play the game...

You can't have it...



No seriously - thats a darn shame

/KotR

[gollum]

Regulars
Byzantines;
interesting position (crossroads or north/south, east/west) with rich lands and good trade potential, interesting adaptable roster (overpowered for early, obsolete for late) that can play missile heavy or melee heavy, infantry heavy or cavalry heavy, focusing on speed armor or firepower depending on the circumstances, would be much better to have less byzantine infantries at the start, a fort in constantinople and no +2 influence for the faction leader that is responsible for the jedi kataphraktoi princes. Try to limit yourself in building Varangians; way overpowered.
Almohads;
interesting roster based on effective militias and desert specialist units but lacking in heavy cavalry (gulams only). Nice GA goals; AUM overpowered for early and too cheap - provides a way to play with more melee heavy tactics which is a good tactical addition for a muslim faction. As with the other Islamic factions makes for a fun campaign as the catholic world targets you with crusades and outright aggression.
Egyptians;
Nice roster with solid infantry and missiles (saracens, deserrt archers, nizaris), desert specialists and good cavalry choices (Kwarazmians, Mamelukes), no uber units - top notch in desert environments, ok in arid, terrible in lush and temperate. Very rich lands with very good trade potential; fun GA goals (the Jihad for Asia).
Turks;
Interesting continuously evolving roster; excellent hybrids (melee/missile), excellent cavalry of all types + eventually the excellent Janissaries, challenging initial position for new players (requires immediate action) and vulnerable to the Mongol Invasion make up for a busy campiagn until the mid-high era; after that you can decide where to go.
HRE;
typical melee/armor heavy catholic roster+the excellent mounted crossbows. Access to the Gothic line of troops that is worth the wait. Containing Swizzerland and Tyrolia that can provide a considerable advantage with their pikes and Halberds eventually. Slow start and problems with weak central position, poor lands and the papacy. Makes for a turtle struggling game until you have conquered at least half of your neighbours (say the Italians Poles and Huns); interesting GA goals.
French;
challenging position and generic catholic roster; the best GA goals of the game.
Sicilians;
interesting initial position that makes for high replayability as campaigns may develop in a huge variety of ways due to the many options available (can go after... anyone really). faces the player with the stretgic choice of when to stop picking opportunistically opponents and try to supplant them. Generic catholic roster.
Russians;
interesting and challenging position especially in early; a challenge throughout early and high as you take over the steppes, build them up slowly and by the time you are ready to take on someone the Horde appears. Nice roster with reliable swift horses (boyars, steppe cavalry, horse archers) and catholic style mediocre militia infantry and solid spearmen (armoured spearmen, rus spearmen). resrtain your self from the cheat of using dismounted druzhinas.

Occasionals
Aragonese; the Spanish with a more challenging position. The game can also develop in different ways ie focus in Iberia, focus on France or take it to the seas. Access to Lancers that are worth the wait.

Can't stand
The English; way too safe position and overpowered special units on top of the overpowered Catholic roster
The Spanish; too much money in Iberia and starting with 2 provinces in a semi-safe position close to bottlenecks makes them very boring. Once you reach Morocco and navarre/Aragon its effectively game over and this can be achieved in 10 turns.
The Italians; too easy to Blitz the French and Germans from a safe, rich position. Within 10-20 turns you have supplanted them both and the game starts feeling boring
The Danes; already overowered before VI due to the Vikings units and their availability (Fort), with VI the Danes became even more so due to the landsmen and huscarles. Vikings should have homelands in Scandinavia and Russia. As it stands the danish game is uninteresting in terms of replay, as once the blitz starts it just goes on and on.

Indifferent
The Hungarians; just never gave them a serious go
The Poles; just never gave them a serious go, although Caravel's description (in the favorite 2009 faction thread) convinced me to do so at some point.

[m52nickerson]

Poland.

You have a lot of rebel provinces to take at the beginning, which you can get some nice units from. You get to have epic battle against the Golden Horde. Not to mention those cool names and flag.

[OmarPacha]

Turks in late period and Byzantines all periods.
A large part of the game is IMHO thinked to let the player live the fall of Constantinople and all the historical transition to the new Ottoman culture. That's the reason why playing Glory Achievements, the Turks are given a huge score with the conquest of Byzantium and that's why Turks have a completely new unit roster as late period approaches while Byzs must resist with the same units for all the game.

[CenturyGamer]

Hmm, i sometimes play Burgundians in late period (i modded the late period file to include them :D) who make for an interesting play since they have a completely generic unit roster and i gave them Burgundy province, an awful starting position next to the enterprising Swiss who usually take Burgundy quickly in my tests since the Burgundians can't stop the overpowered swiss pikes.
I normally play as the English or French in early period though, since i modded the French and English to have historically correct territory, so now the whole of west and south france (toulouse, provence, brittany, anjou) and flanders are rebels as they were in real history, so now early game it just seems to be a rush of sorts by aragon, france, england and italy to grab as much of the "french" rebel provinces as possible. It is quite neat to be france since it is somewhat more challenging than before to avoid being annexed by prospecting neighbours like england and HRE who try to grab territory while france is in it's weakest hour. Interesting stuff really because it makes me do things quicker than before in vanilla.

[Vantek]

Turks are the only one. Very technical reason: I love the muslim setting but especially the music (!!!) and they are the only muslim faction that is difficult! Egyptians and Almohads are unbearably easy to play... I guess I could make myself private rules to make things more difficult... Hmm... Egyptians not allowed to attack other muslim factions?? Hmm... Actually that's a pretty good idea! Thanks for making this thread and giving me that idea! :D

[Knight of the Rose]

The last couple of campaign starts I've been wanting to play a muslim faction again, but as Vantek said

they are the only muslim faction that is difficult! Egyptians and Almohads are unbearably easy to play...

So I took the French, no comparison, but fun.

House rules such as only building so and so troops could work, but lately I've been contemplating deiberately trying to invoke civil wars all the time might prove a new challenge. But what I really wanted was a lot of crusades sent my way, wave after wave of fanatical cristians to fend off. How do I do that?



/KotR

[Vantek]

Hmm... I guess the best way is to pick a lot of fights with all Catholic nations... But how? I don't know if AI reacts to their ships being attacked all the time, but you could try to set naval superiority as your goal and crank out ships like crazy, then one by one sink everyone's fleets. Maybe they get pissed at you and make a ton of crusades.

I'm actually just now having a really enjoyable campaign as English in High XL Hard, where to make things more interesting I made it a house rule to be pious, never be the initiator of agression against another catholic nation, and on the other hand attempt to crusade a lot and especially respond to pope's calls. My empire is very strange, consisting of the West coast of Europe from Normandy to Castille as well as North Africa up to Egypt (controlled by Crus). I'm cranking out ships from 6-7 provinces nonstop.

I have to say though that in XL everyone builds so many ships!! So it could be truly challenging to navally take on the entire world as Eggy...

[jadast]

Once I figured out how to use Jinette's I fell in love with Spain.

[Kamakazi]

Id have to say i like the byzantines and the sicilians

byz- love their units totally..... Great cavalry and great foot units fun on the blitz and good on the defense

sic- wuts not to love? interesting starting position and once you get a toe hold somewhere in the mainland without bein simple and taking the boot you got it made.

[sharpshooter]

Like most it seems, I love the Turks, who are my favourite.

The Hungarians are also a favourite - especially in High. It's an absolutely brilliant position with loads of extra troop types, tons of resources, and mouth-watering adjoining rebel areas. Am I the only one who voted for them?

Other favourites are Byz for the units Early/High, Aragonese for the difficulty any period, and HRE for the tank effect any period.

Sometimes the English, Polish and Russians. Rarely Almos, Egyptians and Sicilians. Rarer still the Spanish, who I find too easy after the initial Almo battles.

What I like with the Turks is the loose battle order with fast hybrid units - pushing up a flank in a sickle shape with Turcoman Horse leading, then Turcoman Foot, Muwahid Inf, Ghazis, Futtawas and the Saracen Inf and heavy cavalry as the shaft of the sickle. I use the Scorpion formation with them a lot too. Later, of course, the Janissaries ...

The Hungarians. I love the Hungarians. Early is good, but High is a great starting point. Firstly, all the extra units besides all tlhe regular Feudal/Chivalric ones. Horse Archers, Mounted XBows, Szekely, the strong HA ... and Bulgarian Brigands. Not to mention Jobbagy are muscular javelin men from every fort. Easy access to the Steppes for SHC and SC. Slav Warriors - such a list available to them.

Hungarians in high are just about unbeatable. Usually you can send an army to Moldavia, Bulgaria, and then Constantinople in the first half dozen turns. Attack first and then bribe when the rebel general has lost his title and is besieged. He gets reasonable then. Don't slow down - everywhere at 102% loyalty. You should get the Master Bowyer in Bulgaria and the Swordsmith's Guild and Brothel at Constantinople intact. Start the Master Swordsmith there immediately and make some spies and ships while you wait for Valour 1 CMAA. Then do +1 Halberdiers, if you want, in between a bit of armouring.

While the first army is going the Moldavia to Constantinople route, build a second and take Serbia. Italy will probably take Greece, and you have to watch out for Sicilian convoy attacks on Serbia, but these can be bluffed away. Wallachia is the last rebel area to take.

I use the one fort one defender technique in Moldavia against the Horde and it's not failed me. I've never lost it for good. At worst there is an easily defensible bridge from Moldavia to Bulgaria to stop the Horde, but if they have Moldavia they can also attack Wallachia and Carpathia. I build ships in Croatia and Moldavia - as many and as fast as I can. Usually Constantinople makes the first couple.

Then take Austria from the HRE.

Hungary in High allows a long satisfying build after the first blitzkreig. You can nibble away at the HRE, which produces an epic battle in Swabia once a few decades of Papal injunctions work their way through. Next thing you're producing Swiss Halberdiers, as if you needed more troop types. Meanwhile you can choose to go after the Horde, the Byzzies and Turks, or into Poland if they've been foolish enough to break the alliance.

On balance, I'd say the Hungarians in High have the best start position in the game. Really, if you haven't done the Hungarians on High I highly recommend it.

End of plug.

:)

[sharpshooter]

@ KoTR

For lots of crusades - play the Turks and assassinate catholic bishops. Once you've got Constantinople and Bulgaria the Hungarians send them, and sometimes the Sicilians. The English, French and Germans always do ahead of their crusades. Continuous bishop assassination = continuous hatred from the Pope = continuous calls for crusades. No one will ally with you, but you'll get lots of action.

[Oh, I think bishop assassination is the main factor the Pope gets so discomforted about the Almos and Egyptians at the start of many campaigns]