What faction to play as?

[Longasc]

I would start playing as the Byzantines.

Then I would switch to the High Era. You will have conquered Europe before you get to see the more sophisticated and cool High Era Knights/Units if you only play in the EARLY period.

[econ21]

The only problem with the Byzantines is that they start off rather "big" - quite a large number of provinces and units to worry about, rather a lot of decisions about what to build and where to deploy what. I recall firing them up for my first campaign as the Byzantines but finding it overwhelming, so I quit and restarted as English. Of course, it helps that I am English so the strategic situation was more easily comprehensible.

[Fragony]

With the Byzantines I only develope a few provinces for armies, farm upgrades for the rest of them for horse archers. I always invade sicily first turn and build ships in the meantime. By the time the ships reach sicily you got a 9 star general for life with all the vices you need to make the campaign really boring but I do it anyway. Byzantines are fun to command but lack a bit of flavour, they are just too good in early to have a nice campaign. Most of the time I end up owning the map WAY before the high period (I play very aggresive) and it kinda becomes a drag. Byzantines is fun for starters but once you know the basics they are just too good with their unstoppable cheap infantry. Even with the late period they hold up good enough to make your own jedi generals, the VG aren't even needed (and I think they are WAY to overpowered)