The Hardest Faction

[solypsist]

word on the street is Spain - and i think it has to be modded to be played.

[Sin Qua Non]

With Spain you get fantastically crappy early game units... Iberian infantry, town militia and round shield is about it until your cities slowwwwwwly grow. Mercs can fill the gap, with money you don't have anyway. Once you get scutarii and bull warriors its pretty smooth.

[lars573]

No matter how hard spain is parthia is harder. Even if you cheat as the parthians your still on a shoe string most of the time.

[Bhruic]

Hmm, odd, I found both Spain and Parthia very easy. I suppose they would be hard if you tried to play them with infantry, but as long as you go cavalry, you are fine.

As Spain, kick Carthage out ASAP. Then make peace. They will agree, and likely not bother you again, as you are too far away, and they will be too busy. Then you've only got one enemy - Gaul.

As Parthia, you've got your back to the wall, somewhat literally. HA are excellent, and there are plenty of smaller factions in the neighbourhood to take on. Armenia is a good choice, as they get HA too, so you don't want them expanding.

I voted for Thrace. Poor economy to start with, as the others, but also poor cavalry. As cavalry tends to rule the game, that's a disadvantage. Especially as your neighbours tend to be quite expansionist. The only advantage they have is that the Romans (well, Brutii, mainly) tend to keep the neighbours busy. But then you have to deal with the Brutii, which can be worse.

Bh

[andrewt]

Parthia isn't really hard. You can easily take out the Seleucids as they don't have a counter to HAs, especially in the beginning. Just be careful not to expand too fast and get into a fight with Egypt.

I've played Pontus as well and it isn't hard, either. I attacked the Seleucids then went to war with Egypt. It was even easier as we fought around Antioch and it was closer to my most well developed cities at the time. That and I completely ditched melee infantry until I got to phalanx pikemen. I tried using eastern infantry as Parthia and they're only good for ramming walls.

The hardest factions probably have a combination of bad early units, poor or stretched out starting provinces and powerful neighbors.

I choose factions differently. I choose the ones whose units I find the most interesting at the time.

[Armchair Athlete]

Numidia. I find Spain OK once you take Corduba off the Carthaginians, you start getting money to do stuff, although I think Spain is the second hardest out there. Numidians are up against the Egyptians and the Scipii, who will beat up the Carthaginians very quickly and conquer Carthage, and with all of Sicily in their grasp have the money to start churning out units.

[Thrudvang]

Spain is pretty tough, Numidia is a tough one also. Spain has the unit/towns problem and Numidia has the land mass problem. I remember in Medieval those areas were my favorite because they were big hunks of land, now in Rome thats the reason I hate them.

[GFX707]

As cavalry tends to rule the game

Tell that to the Romans.

Incidentally I just KNEW that was your post I was reading because of the way you always swoop in with precisely the exact opposite opinion or game experience from everyone else. It's weird.

[Bhruic]

Tell that to the Romans.

I do. All the time. Every time they bring their infantry to my gates and get massively wiped out by my cavalry.

Incidentally I just KNEW that was your post I was reading because of the way you always swoop in with precisely the exact opposite opinion or game experience from everyone else. It's weird.

Hardly "everyone else". Someone else voted for Thrace. And Numidia is winning, which would have been my second choice.

Bh

[TinCow]

Does anyone have any experience with Dacia? I started up a campaign as the Dacians and was instantly losing over 1k per turn. With finances in the gutter and no real prospects to increase income my game ground to a halt very quickly. Does this qualify as a 'hard' faction at all?

[TheDuck]

Tell that to the Romans.

Incidentally I just KNEW that was your post I was reading because of the way you always swoop in with precisely the exact opposite opinion or game experience from everyone else. It's weird.

The trick with cavalry is to not let them get bogged down in melee.. charge, double click to pull back, charge again... the more cavalry you have the better it is, because while one unit is pulling back, others are charging (pick isolated end units on a flank, and pick on em with most of your cav until they route, then work up the flank..) Once two or three units on the flank have routed, it normally becomes a route-fest, with the human as the winner. This is especially true if you are using a few center infantry units to fix the center while the cav is eating on the flank.

Many military historians think that Hannibal and his adherents to cavalry based warfare were 'forward thinkers' to Medieval times, when cavalry became king (because it could out-maneuver infantry and provided more tactical flexibility). I think RTW recognizes this historical fact.

Whether it contributes to the fun factor is up for debate though..

[troymclure]

had some real fun with the dacians it's defintely a "hard" faction. Your best bet with them is to take all the rebel provinces near you and then border fort yourself in whereever possible.
I suffered my most humiliating defeat playing as the dacians, i had an entire army wiped out losing a good family member and there was actually a historic battle marker on the spot to celebrate my defeat. The worst part, it was vs Rebels... :(