What factions gives you a fun boost and why?

[Burebista]

Hello ,

I've been playing EB for quite a while now and i think i tried almost all factions. I've played them methodically to such extent that factions such as Saka or Pontos have no challenge anymore.

Lately , i've tried playing the Casse and trying to establish a Belgae empire by capturing the 2 belgae provinces first . After managing that i've tried to expand into Aedui lands and also get some germanic rebel provinces with seaside opening including "Denmark". But that put me in a whole lot of trouble with both Aedui and Sweboz , conflict that proved to be a regular Bloodbath. I mean , my cities literary can't grow becouse i'm recruiting like mad.
the momentum going back and forth is amazing and gave me a hell of an adrenaline rush.

Also , tried the Lusotann but imposed on me the rule that i would only adopt ambush tacs. I would never have imagined how fun setting an ambush and springing the trap can be. I mean , it is so much different than using the typical infantry line + ranged units which gets soo boring sometimes.

A great surprise was when i started to play Sauromatae. I set my objective to move all Sauromatae to Iberia using no cheats , just fighting power. I couldn't explain in words the satisfaction i got when i managed to beat those pesky Romans , crush their lands and pillage rome , destroying all buildings. Also , crossing the alps and pirineis was a doozy.

Now my question . can anyone suggest similar fun kicks? And i don't mean fighting countless grey death stacks:)

[A_Dane]

Migration campaigns, kinda like the one you've done yourself, but by using the "move_character" cheat. Fun ones, are moving greece or eperios to Pergamon, syracuse or massilia. (or alternatively, crimea, but you can move pontos there too). Or moving one of the gaullish factions to thracia/galatia :)

[QuintusSertorius]

Migration campaigns, kinda like the one you've done yourself, but by using the "move_character" cheat. Fun ones, are moving greece or eperios to Pergamon, syracuse or massilia. (or alternatively, crimea, but you can move pontos there too). Or moving one of the gaullish factions to thracia/galatia :)

This, basically. I find migration campaigns to play the factions that didn't make it into EB the most fun. Especially Hellenic fusions; Pergamon with its Thracian and Galatian elements, Massalia with Gallic elements, the Bosphoran Kingdom with Scythian elements, Kyrene with African elements.

[Gabicho]

I had a lot of fun with Baktria, becoming a Greco-Indian kingdom... just holding the indian provinces, not the actual baktrian ones. Indian and greco-indian units rock!
Another one i'd like to try is a Saka-Rauka in India game. But i have my doubts as to how that would work since i don't quite know what's the effect of the Saka reforms, but it would be fun to trigger them during an exodus to India... and then rainding the Seleukid Empire, and the Saba and Ptolemies by sea!

[Burebista]

I had a lot of fun with Baktria, becoming a Greco-Indian kingdom... just holding the indian provinces, not the actual baktrian ones. Indian and greco-indian units rock!
Another one i'd like to try is a Saka-Rauka in India game. But i have my doubts as to how that would work since i don't quite know what's the effect of the Saka reforms, but it would be fun to trigger them during an exodus to India... and then rainding the Seleukid Empire, and the Saba and Ptolemies by sea!

Ye , i should know , i reprresented Baktria in Mp July tournament this year so i know their units too well , i reckon. Especially those Sreni and Indo-hellenikoi peltastai.

Last night i packed all Carthage FM 's and armies into boats and moved them into South Britain. Don't know how it will progress , but it feels pretty epic so far fighting stacks of wild celts with libians and iberians in Britain. I also let rebel my old possesions including Carthage so i cannot afford to lose my army consisting of 1 stack and a half. mercs are pretty rare , at leat until i reach mid Britain.
I expect to make a great trade empire there with advanced roads & stuff , really curious what the armies will look like. Probably a lot of goidillic & belgae units with some Carthage stuff.

[Captain Trek]

Believe it or not, starting up a new fairly standard Saba campaign on H/M has given me a "fun boost". You see, I was inspired to play as them after reading threads were many players decried the faction for its sub-par units and overall lack of fun and when I found that I was enjoying myself even when the first decade or so seemed to drag a little bit, it was quite a carthatic sensation knowing that I was having fun playing as a faction it seems every other EB player and his dog can't stand. Indeed, right now I've just taken Sinai and am hopping I can sidestep the 'Ptolly army sitting in Egypt (luckily for me, most of their forces are busy up north ripping chunks out of the AS) and grab Alexandria before those over-confident pseudo-Greeks know what the ****...

[Burebista]

Saba gets interesting when you head west i recon. Taking Egypt will give you access to Galatian units+a big merc pool so army comp can change.

Also , it's always interestying when swarming carthage too and taking over Africa as you get another big merc pool there. You can really have a HUUUUGELY different army composition than any faction in the game. I mean an army like : Ethiopian/numidian cav , Galatian heavy inf , Arabian archer-spearmen/kretikoi mercs , Arabian/Maure Skirmishers , merc phalanx/hoplite line + maybe elies.......now that's an interesting army composition!!

[vollorix]

I get most pleasure while building up an empire from the scratch, facing threats from all sides, and having far too low income to afford enough troops to fight on multiple fronts, while i still need to expand in order to stabilize my economy. The two factions coming to my mind are Pontos and Hayasdan. But after about 10-15 years in each campaign i´m loosing the thrill, mostly because my economy is then stabilized, while my armies are crushing enemy stacks with ease, at least if i choose the battles carefully, something AI doesn´t really know how to handle.

What i really hate is fighting HA/steppe armies, while i actually prefer infantry based armies, with good cavalry support, but using HA myself feels almost like cheating.
I also do hate to confront Romans too early in the game, but playing Gauls or Carthaginians almost always inevitably leads to a war, and then i have no real problems to sack Roma, which i find odd, from the historical point of view.

Getai are also fun, but most of the time you grab the rebel settlments around and face those terrible Sauros annoying me to death^^

My goal is to sometime get a Roman campaign rolling, so that i can play until at least Marian Reforms to conquer the world with the legions, just to have done this one time on EB. But despite great efforts of the team to give the Romani faction a deep historical touch, there is no Senate, no Civil War, no adequate implementation of the government forms etc ( i hope, at least some of the things will change in EBII, wich i´m eagerly awaiting ). And there is one thing i dislike: to simulate things by RP, only to have done it, while i would really prefer to have a real threat that is not easy to overcome! But sadly, there are no counter factions in EB, so it´s still all about "command & conquer".

[A_Dane]

Trying to get a romani campaign going too.. Currently restraining my self, and imposing house rules of my self. (semi-historical expansion, I plan to only conqueror what the romans did, but the exact year might vary a little).
So far it's going good, just building up Italy below the Po-river, planning my war with carthage and such :p

[Blxz]

Saba is fun, I am taking a quick break from my campaign but I hold all Arabia, mesopotamia and have just finished invading down to the sinai from the north and linking up my territory. Don't quite understand what Captain_Trek means by the first decade dragging a bit? Your starting army can quite easily conquer the 3 close starting cities and from there you have a great economy (comparatively speaking) to take your conquest either east around arabia or my usual strategy favourite of west across to eithiopia then north.

Still, good to see more people talking about their saba campaigns, they are such a good faction; easily one of my favourites because they are such underdogs. Mass armies of arabian archer spearmen have made a wonderful difference to my usual strategy. Only limited population has been slowing me down. Feels good to recreate the islamic blitz a thousand years early.

[Captain Trek]

Don't quite understand what Captain_Trek means by the first decade dragging a bit? Your starting army can quite easily conquer the 3 close starting cities and from there you have a great economy (comparatively speaking) to take your conquest either east around arabia or my usual strategy favourite of west across to eithiopia then north.

Well it dragged for me simply because it took some time for my army (you can really only afford the upkeep for one three-quarter stack, even with all three provinces near Maryab in your empire) to march around the eastern edge of Arabia and capture the two provinces there. As I said though, once I took my army into Egypt, side-stepped the main Egyptian army down there and grabbed Alexandria from them (enslaving it and installing a Type IV government there), I'm really enjoying myself, and even before that the battles for the rebel provinces at the start of the game were surprisingly fun as well... As I said, there is potential for the start to be slow as with Casse, but I'm just not seeing why the faction is so reviled...

By the way, I'm also considering running a second Saba campaign where I, instead of driving into Egypt after I take the three settlements around Maryab and the two on the east coast, build a boat and capture the settlement on the far south-east of the African mainland next to the red sea (Axum). A level 3 native MIC here, coupled with aa level 3 regional MIC in Qataban (just south of the Sabean capital) should (if the recruitment viewer is accurate) allow me to construct an army consisting of Pantodapoi Phalangitai (from Qataban), as well Red Sea hoplites, Ethiopian swordsmen and Ethipoian medium cavalry (all from Axum). These would of course be supported by slingers, archer-spearmen and red sea light infantry (for their AP axes). This I think, could put pay to the idea that Saba is forced to fight the Ptolemaioi with a crappy army (as the Red Sea hops are essentialy Ekdromoi Hoplitai, which have their uses, the Ethiopian units are decent medium infantry and cavalry and, as we all know, Pantos are surprisingly awesome because of their AP axes).

[Basileus_ton_Basileon]

I personally prefer hellenic factions, as they are the typical "civilized" lot during that time. They have a very varied roster, from old school hoplite troops to Mega Alexandros' phalangitai, then the rise of more mobile thueros troops (no) thanks to the keltoi invasions. Their recruitment range is huge, so there's generally no shortage of hellenes to replentish one's core ranks with. They also have a rather varied array of regional that can be easily intergrated into one's armies. Finally, they have the most well known history and culture we can relate to, which gives them endless possibilities of role-play scenarios.

Second after that would be the various 'Barbarian' factions, they each have their unique culture and playing style. Far from the sterotypical unwashed orkish fiends (Waaagh!!! ), they are arguably less barbaric than the so-called civilized (humies!) city-dwellers. Their troops are generally highly specialized, each fulfilling a role of sorts in the battlefield. One of the things I enjoy most as the Keltoi is to sack and pillage Roma, giving it back to them, gift the territory between them to an ally, then coming back to sack them again 10 years later. A historical irony of sort.

I do not like Romans, they are too generic and boring. If I want to play the romans, I would've gotten RSII or RTR. Also, they're culture is a one-off in the entire game, making expansion a somewhat annoying task as time runs on. They are neither greek nor 'barbarian', and in some aspects, a lot more barbaric than the keltoi, Iberioi and getai to name a few. The only thing worse than them gameplay-wise are the steppe factions, lots of HA fun in the begining, then grinding to repetitiveness from the middle onwards. I blame the limits of the engines.

[Blxz]

stuff

Well you know that Axum is a homeland region for the Saba? Can get some top level troops there too I think.

As for a single 3/4 stack...thats a big army for my games. I am notoriously cheap and to gather any more than 10 units or so into one army is very uncommon. I also am quite poor at controlling such a massive army on the battlefield as can be attested if we ever fight multiplayer with big armies. So being able to 'barely' support a 3/4 stack is like 2 armies for me. I can romp home in 2 directions. Plus arabian arhcer spearmen are retrainable in each city around arabia without building a barracks (already built generally) so I can take whatever losses and then move on.

But otherwise, yes, I agree fully with what you said. Fun times.