The Best faction?

**Slon** · 01-03-2005, 05:28

The reason why Thrace is fairly powerful is because they have good lower-level units. The falxmen are excellent, even against cavalry, and function as great flanking units. They also guard the phalanx pikemen flanks very well. Their cavalry is horrible, so I recommend just using it as expendable flankers or for chasing down fleeing generals. The reason why these units are great?

Well, most of the time that I play as other greek-based factions (I'm pretty good at the game now and know what unit selections are best), I don't bother going above tier three units (unless they are units that don't see any action, such as onagers). The reason for this is that the super-high-level units are impossible to retrain and take a long time before you can even train them. As Macedon, for example, you have the Royal Pikemen and Phalanx Pikemen. The Royal Pikemen take twice as long to train and are a few points better than Phalanx Pikemen. Plus, they don't even have a heavy weapon (light for royals). So, what's the point? I ripped through all of rome with Phalanx Pikemen, normal archers, no onagers (not advanced enough yet), and Macedonian Cavalry. These are tier 3 units and I probably beat rome faster than I would have with the royal pikemen because taking them back to my mainland to retrain would take long. Same thing with Macedonian Cavalry. They are almost as good as Companion Cavalry, just easier to retrain and more expendable. Plus, royal pikemen and other tier 4/5 units generally cost 100-200 denarii more per-turn than the almost-the-same tier 3 units.

This is exactly what happens with Thrace. Their "killer" unit, Bastarnae, are good for your kings main army, but other than that, falxmen and the phalanx pikemen will suffice you. Falxmen and Phalanx Pikemen are also the ultimate anti-phalanx since the phalanxes can hold off other phalanxes while the falxmen flank and rout the enemies from behind. They replace cavalry quite well because cavalry are horrible at flanking phalanxes because you will almost always lose some troops even when rear-ending spearmen with horses. And your anti-cavalry units are the phalanxes, so you don't have to worry about horses. Your onagers will take out elephants and no sword/axe infantry that I have seen can hold up against the front of a pike phalanx, anyway.

Your only worry is horse archers, as falxmen are unarmoured and get pelted into oblivion rather quickly. Still, you can take them out with your own archers, or , if they are far away, use onagers. If you don't have them, tire them out with militia cavalry (they are expendable anyway), and when they come back to your lines exausted, get your fresh general or another fresh militia cavalry unit to charge them.

The beauty of Thrace is that they have a good unit combo early and for a small amount of cash. Plus, they are low-tier and can be retrained virtually anywhere.

**QwertyMIDX** · 01-12-2005, 01:07

Carthage is the way to go, ok all around units, plenty of cheap troops and with an elephant charge to break up a phalnax or a legion Iberian Inf can take them on without a problem. Barbarians are probably the biggest problem for me as Carth and on the campaign map I really find myself fighting them anyway.

**QwertyMIDX** · 01-12-2005, 01:10

The game is really unballanced though, the Roman calvary is way too good and the Egyptians are completely ridiculous, why is a desert axeman so tough? Also the fact that Guals seem completely incapable of hanging on in infantry fights seems kinda ridiculous, I hate that they are easy to break.

**Herakleitos** · 01-12-2005, 10:02

Up till now I've played Brutii, Scipii, Egyptians, Germans and am now playing Seleucids. I love the Germans (spear warband and chosen archer warband) and am waiting to get better elephants and kata's to really start kicking arse with my Seleucid armies!

For same reason I prefer killing Romans to playing them...

**Dominic** · 01-14-2005, 19:14

I'd rather be killing Romans than being one of them, too. I got the short campaign as the Julii over as quickly as possible so that I could gain access to the other factions, without modification. Although I really liked the Romans' infantry, and I miss their expanded pre-battle speeches, I guess I'm biased towards changing history for the underdogs. For instance, it was a real hoot to conquer medieval Europe as the French.

Marius also really irritated me. Third Founder of Rome my butt... Having to abandon all my beautiful silver and gold chevrons for fresh drooling idiots right out of post-Marius academies was my greatest disgust.

Right after the Julii, I played as the Germans, who had wonderful units but the most annoyingly delicate civil management I've seen yet. (prolly true for all barbarian factions, I bet) Right now, I'm as the Greeks, who are filthy rich and have very nice buildings, and invokes the occasional giggle when a named Greek philosopher joins a family member's retinue.

**Rurik the Chieftain** · 01-16-2005, 23:25

Personally, I love Germania. I need Chosen Axemen and Berserkers slaughtering Romans to complete my week

But actually the best factions are probably Seleucids and Brutii, maybe Greece.

**Divine Wind** · 01-17-2005, 00:10

Based on my very limited experience as ive only had it for a few weeks it seems to me the romans are probably the best all rounders. Cant get enough of there heavy infantry stomping everyone.