Which faction for the first game

[Dutch_guy]

well after extensivly playing RTW , I decided to buy MTW - for about 10 euro's - because I wanted to know why it was so much better than RTW , as many say on these forums and well I just culdn't resist for just 10 euro's

So anyway when I start my campain, Which faction should you recommend to play as first, to get good feel of the game, how it works and so forth.


And well I guess every ''age'' - early , late etc- is fine for me.

[Viking]

I actually thought of doing that myself. Perhaps I`ll even do it.

Have you bought VI? The Vikings sounds great!

[King Edward]

Start Early and play as England, as they have a solid defensive position and their mid game units will own the fields of Europe (Longbows and Billmen) also the catholic factions unit are much more 'user friendly than some of the more exotic units you get with the muslim factions.

If you have MTW I HIGHLY recommend getting VI as it not only adds a new campagne but also enhances the origonal campagns. Then get 2.01 patch. Then you will also be able to play it online.

Hope thats of some help!

[tigger_on_vrb]

Probably a good idea to try both christian and muslim factions on early to get used to the different troop types. For your first game you will probably play through high and late anyway, so you will meet most available troops.

For your first catholic game I would go for Spanish. Nice mix of troops, several rebel provinces to take, decent trade prospects and iron to upgrade weapons.

Maybe try Byzantines (orthodox christian) next - awesome mixture of troops and the stongest faction in early, practice managing a large empire and war with more than one nieghbour probably.

Next for the muslims. I love the turks - try them soon, but for the first game I would recommend Egyptians - very strong trading power. This will really give you a taste of warfare in the desert.

That would be my recommendation.

[Dutch_guy]

Ok, I've heard a lot about VI so I'll see if I can get it .

Thanks for your advice so far

[Viking]

Then get 2.01 patch. Then you will also be able to play it online.

Can you play MTW online with 56Kb connection?

[King Edward]

yep i used to all the time!

[Togakure]

The Byzantines in Early begin with a highly developed city (Constantinople) which can produce superior troops and has excellent trade potential, and they have superior generals. I've found them to be a relatively easy faction to play. The Egyptians are also an easy faction for a first campaign if you want to try the Muslims. England has a relatively defensible starting position, but income can be a problem unless you manage things carefully. England is also hemmed in by Christian factions, so crusades are often necessary to expand significantly (which usually results in having to manage a split empire if your crusade(s) are successful).

Contrary to the game's difficulty ratings, I've found the Spanish in Early to be one of the easiest Christian factions to play. They have a Muslim faction just next door, making it easy to expand early without conflicting with other Christian factions. Spanish Jinettes are effective light cavalry in Early--particularly in the desert, with inexpensive infrastructure needed to produce them. They have good generals--and once the Almohads have been dealt with--an easy path to the Holy Lands devoid of Christian opponents. After taking the Holy Lands from Egypt, they can continue on to Constantinople, taking out the Byzantines, again avoiding strife with Christian factions. Once Constantinople and the Holy Lands are taken, other Christian factions will often send crusades, effectively declaring war on you. This enables you to engage a Christian faction without instigating the conflict. When I play the Spanish I try to blitz, first the Almos, then the Egyptians, and then the Byzantines, owning the southern half of the map well before the onset of the High Period.

I think Early campaigns are easier than High and Late campaigns. Starting in Early also lets you develop your infrastructure the way you like before reaching the High Period, and allows you to produce a surplus of troops that are no longer trainable in High (like Danish Viking Huscarles, or Moldavian Avar Nobles, etc).

[ichi]

Click Here for a recent thread about which faction to play on your first attempt.

English, Spanish, Byz, Danish, Almohads all good, start in Early.

Good luck and let us know how it goes

ichi

[UltraWar]

I recommend the English because of swift expansion

[Shambles]

if you get vi, id use the welsh :)
and egypt in early would be a nice start id say

[kiwitt]

Welkom Dutch_Guy, from another (albeit in NZ).

You will enjoy MTW. I have STW and RTW, but I still play MTW:VI. To understand some basics, I played Denmark for a longtime. You learnt how to manage a low income and use your money wisely.

Tot Straks. (See you later)

[Krusader]

If you just want to get a great income almost from get go, and just produce troops, then Almohads might be a good faction. Berber Camels are okay enough, but you get early on Almohad Urban Militia which if used correctly are rock-hard.

When you get the hang of the game, I would advice Turkish Late. Only one province, but many nice units later on.

And what the others have said!!

[Pericles]

By all means I highly recommend getting the VI Campaign.

It will also open the door to all the great mods for MTW too :)

[Martok]

I recommend the Spanish, with the Egyptians being a very close second choice.

Both factions start with pretty rich lands and have some nice territories around them as well. In particular, the Spanish can usually bribe El Cid to join them--which of course not only gives them an excellent general, but also adds a decent province (Valencia) to their kingdom.

Both factions also start out with a pretty good mix of troops even in the Early period, and they're not difficult to learn how to utilize in battle. The Spanish start out with your standard Catholic units, which are pretty easy to get the hang of, as they are not fast, and are based more on raw power. They also have access to Spanish Jinnettes (light missile cavalry), which add a nice bit of flexibility and flavor to your armies.

The Egyptian units aren't quite as powerful per se, and are slightly trickier to learn how to use effectively--Muslim units generally require a little more finesse than Catholic units, as they rely more on speed than brute strength. This is greatly offset, however, by the fact that Egyptian units are generally cheaper and (as I just mentioned) faster. Egypt also has access to a somewhat larger variety of troops in the Early period--in particular, Bedouin Camels (solid light cavalry that get a bonus against horses), Saracens (good medium spearmen), and Gazi Infantry (fast with excellent attack and great morale).

[_Aetius_]

The best Faction I think is the Byzantines to go, even though youve got lots of advantages, I think for a beginner controlling such a large empire isnt really a good idea, when I played the first time I went the English. The British isles if things go wrong in France gives you a platform to experiment with troops and buildings etc with pretty little interference from outside powers.

So id say England or possibly Byzantium.

[Martok]

The best Faction I think is the Byzantines to go, even though youve got lots of advantages, I think for a beginner controlling such a large empire isnt really a good idea, when I played the first time I went the English. The British isles if things go wrong in France gives you a platform to experiment with troops and buildings etc with pretty little interference from outside powers.

So id say England or possibly Byzantium.

I agree with your assessment of the Byzantines. Yes, they are one of the strongest factions in the Early period, but they're probably not a good one for beginners. I still remember the first time I played as them. I felt completely overwhelmed--not only by the number of starting provinces I had to manage, but also by the fact that the Empire is located at the junction between Catholic Europe and the Islamic kingdoms. In terms of just the sheer amount of stuff you have to keep track of, the Byz are almost certainly the most difficult in this regard.

That's another reason I like playing as the Spanish. You only have to manage 2 or 3 provinces starting out (depending on whether you bribe El Cid and his province of Valencia), which is much easier to deal with than the Byzantines' 12 provinces! Don't get me wrong, the Byz are a lot of fun to play; but I don't recommend them to anyone who's playing Medieval for the first time.

[bretwalda]

Byz is not that hard at all management wise if you are a die-hard civ player like me And tactics wise it is easy because of the good generals and crash-thru-everything troops. I'd say Byz just keep in mind two things: money will run out so trade and build ships and always use good generals because they make your troops fight harder, better and longer.

[Dub]

I'd recommend Byz, despite the numerous provinces and being in the middle of various ambitious powers. You'll have lots of money to spend, and that's the name of the campaign game (i.e., learning how to spend money), you'll have high loyalty so won't need to deal with the complications of disloyalty right from the start, you'll have VERY strong troops, so you'll have success on the battlefield without too much trouble, and the troop variety will teach you about how to utilize different forces for different tasks. By all means get Viking Invasion: great additions, and the smaller scale strategy of conquering the British Isles is a relief after you've tackled the whole medieval world... I, for one, am a believer in MTW over RTW: I played RTW when it first came out, and enjoyed it, and still have it in fact, but have found that its battles aren't half as fun (except for sieges) and its campaign mode can't sustain my interest after thirty or so years of play... got repetitive for me. Anyway, the TW series is great, and MTW has been the thing for me.

[Dub]

And just to add to Bretwalda's thought: as the Byz, you MUST BUILD SHIPS...along with trading posts (and their upgrades). And do the farm upgrades. THEN the money will roll in (via trade from the ships especially). Good luck!

[UltraWar]

if you get vi, id use the welsh :)
and egypt in early would be a nice start id say

Well if you are any good at it you would but i would say mercians or saxons if you are just starting m:tw/vi because they can expand to a far distance and as the saxons i took over most of the map as the saxons before the DREADED CIVIL WAR CAME and i managed to save most of my provences
THE WELSH ARE THE WORST AND HAVE THE LEAST NCOME BARING PROVENCE OF POUIS

[_Aetius_]

Byz is not that hard at all management wise if you are a die-hard civ player like me And tactics wise it is easy because of the good generals and crash-thru-everything troops. I'd say Byz just keep in mind two things: money will run out so trade and build ships and always use good generals because they make your troops fight harder, better and longer.

The Byz arent hard to play as if your experienced but newcomers, will not react fast enough to the empires various problems and almost certainly be overrun. The Byz have loads of good things going for them but unless the player is vigilant and aggressive then the empire will be picked apart.

The Byz are by far my fave faction to play as.

[ajaxfetish]

There's one faction that's really not considered a beginner's faction but which you might enjoy anyway. It's about as complicated as the Byzantine's but without many of their pluses. It's the Holy Roman Empire. The reason I mention it is that it contains Friesland, roughly equivalent to Holland. Sometimes I think going with your national identity can make up for a lot with passion.

I'm a 7th-generation American (somehow there doesn't seem to be an American faction :)--but still care a lot about my older Welsh heritage, and bought the expansion largely so I could play the Welsh. Like UltraWar mentioned they're not the easiest faction but they're the first one I played on the Viking map, and I had a great time in spite of their limitations just because they're Welsh. Don't know if it makes a difference to you, but if you're diehard Dutch you might go with the Germans just so you can play your homeland.

Anyway, whatever you choose, have fun. It's a great game.

[Spartakus]

It's the Holy Roman Empire. The reason I mention it is that it contains Friesland, roughly equivalent to Holland. Sometimes I think going with your national identity can make up for a lot with passion.

Indeed, I think many do just that, choose their first faction out of nationalistic sentiment. It's inspirational. I played the Danes first, as I had no clue what faction to pick and thought I might as well go with the Scandinavian one, being from those parts myself.

Still I wouldn't recommend starting out with any of the empires, neither the Byzantine or the German one. The bigger you are the more enemies you make, you might end up harried from all directions while still in the process of learning to manage provinces, build troops and leading them in battle. Disloyal generals and rebellions might also become a problem if you don't know how to deal with it. It's my advice to play at least one smaller faction on beforehand.

I agree with Spain, it's the beginners faction. Rich lands both in agriculture and trade, nice troop rooster, a healthy royal family, and best of all you have an infidel neighbour in the Almohads you can smash without suffering excommunication and - in the worst possible scenario - a crusade towards your lands (I've seen this happen even on the easy-setting).

I see England and Egypt also suggested a lot. The latter really isn't a beginners faction, as already mentioned by Martok the muslim factions require a little more finesse to succedd in battle and they are probably the most crusade-prone faction in the game. The English are a better choice, but their lands in western mainland Europe always complicate things. Most likely you'll become embroiled in war with at least two of the following factions at the same time; the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish or the Aragonese. Excluding the Aragonese, I've actually managed to be attacked by all these during just a few turns time. Needless to say, I was drowned by their sheer numerical strength and ended up clinging desperately to Wessex.

The Spanish, I say. The Byzantine and German empires have great potential but only an experienced player can take full advantege of this.

[King Clas]

Danmark I would say is a good start, they have easy expansion possibities and when the Holy Roman Empire come tumbeling down from the inside you can parade down and grab lots of land easily.

And oh get VI it not only gives a new campaign but also expands the original campaigns. :)

[Viking]

I actually thought of doing that myself. Perhaps I`ll even do it.

Eventually I bought both MTW and VI(couldn`t resist for those low prices when I saw them ). Then my question is: are there any patches for MTW on the VI CD, or do I have to download them?

[zakalwe]

England or Spain i would say

Byzantine is a nice faction to play on your second go.

I actually took poland for my first campaign. worked ok but was very skint


I would also recommend getting VI, and then installing either the VH or BKB mod. They have done nothing but improve an already fantastic game.

[HopAlongBunny]

If you don't get VI then you will want to install patch 1.1; fixes many bugs.

England is a good starting nation; corner position; establish a strong fleet (and trade) and you are almost untouchable.
Enjoy

[Zarax]

Eventually I bought both MTW and VI(couldn`t resist for those low prices when I saw them ). Then my question is: are there any patches for MTW on the VI CD, or do I have to download them?

By installing VI you'll patch MTW too, it's got the latest exe IIRC

[Butcher]

I agree with the danes, especially on GA.