The Best non-Roman faction for campaign playthrough?

[Taiwan Legion]

I've always thought Sellucia with their varied army. but peope have been saying Armenia or Egypt. Is that true?

What do you think is the best non-Roman faction for a campaign playthrough?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Most fun-for me, probably Armenia or the Macedons (simple mod required)

Most challenging (economic)-probably Britain or Spain

Most powerful (military)-Germania or Selucids. I personally like Germania.

Most all around strong (lovingly dubbed the "Noob Armies")-Egypt and Selucia

[Siris]

I personally have been in love with the Greeks in Campaign for some time, they've dominated my gameplay for the mass majority of the time.

Something about the Egyptians ugly face painting (makeup), & the barbarian factions just dont appeal to my eyes; I enjoy too much Imperial type armies, order, discipline, etc.

[Hold Steady]

most fun for me: Iberians. Their army is quite like the romans

[lilljonas]

I must admit that I often choose factions who are able to get their roads
upgraded to at least level 2, giving the mediterranian factions a natural advantage. If it wasn't for the complete stutter after a long battle with more than seven or eight horse archers, I'd play Scythia and Armenia a lot more often, though. Horse archers owns everything in R:TW, though the german spearmen must be one of the toughest regular unit in the entire game... just march them forwards, and anything less than Urban Cohorts will melt like butter.

[Garvanko]

Macedon and Seleucids are most fun. Brits are interesting if you like chariots.

[Siris]

I hate everything about chariots, their sound, their un-realistic movement, somehow my light calverly can never catch them??? causing me to lose countless men to their da** archers.

But I do love it when the chariots go plowing right into my phalanx, quite lovely.

Sorry, off topic a tad, but I hate chariots, to the core.

[Edex]

The same - or possible Im not skilled enough, bet I manage those chariots badly in battle - must be some special tactics with this unit - they move how they want in spite of my commands - they just circle arround enemy :)

[Taurus]

My favourite campaigns have been with Armenia. I like the varied Armenian units and I love the look of the Heavy Spearmen.

So my vote is definatly Armenia

[Conqueror]

Armenia is very good. They are the only horse archer faction in the game that actually gets decent infantry. The heavy spearmen are an ok phalanx (meaning they'll beat head-on anything short of another phalanx or über elite units like urbans). The Armenian legionaries, while not as good as their Roman counterparts, are a very useful unit when you need to assault a stone-walled city. They are, at any rate, way better than anything the Scythians or Parthians can muster infantry-vise. And then Armenia gets the best HA unit in the game (the cataphract archer), along with the best melee cavalry unit (regular cataphract).

[Dutch_guy]

Love the seleucid campaigns that I've done the most.
I find armenia fun for the challenge ( playing RTR6.0, ) but I've never played a campaign with them to the point where you dominate all , so to say

[zukenft]

Karthadasht!
Carthage!
The most fun faction to play IMO, as from the start of the game you will fight against Spain, Romans, Greeks, Numidia, and Egypt. You can have a great income from trade, but that would be hard-fought in a battle for naval supremacy...

[Garvanko]

Never really played Armenia. Must make a note and try them sometime..

[Kagemusha]

I like the Seleucids.They remind me of the HRE in MTW.Enemies all around you,rich land but hard to defend.Seleucids also have the most flexible pool of troops to choose from.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Macedonia. I love the pike steemroller/heavy Cav combo. Added to that Thracian Mercs and Cretan Archers are plentiful. I once had a whole army of Cretan and Hoplite Mercs.

The only down side is the lack of a slug it out cav or decent sword infantry, which you only need if you get flanked anyway.

[econ21]

In the vanilla game, the non-Roman campaign I found most interesting was Carthage. I think it's because they have a very hectic and rather tough initial strategic position - duking it out with Greece and the Romans on Sicily, as well as trying to hang on in Iberia. Plus their early units are rather weak, so they have to rely on flanking cavalry tactics. It was quite challenging to consolidate in the beginning.

Pontus was fun too because you really feel like an adventurer, starting from almost nothing to carve out an empire.

Seleucia is nice if you like building and teching up, which I do. Plus your neighbour Egypt can put up a fight.

[scorillo]

Armenia for the cataphracts archers and Parthia for persian cavalry

[Horatius]

So it sounds like Armenia is worth doing.

I never really had the Patience for Armenia because you start out losing money, and only have 3000$. So either disband your army and be idle for a long time, or lose all your cash and be stopped by a powerful neighbour after only one city.

[Matheis]

I like carthginans since its the only non romen faction i have had experince with I like crushing people with the elephants and watching them fly up in the air like peter pan.

[Productivity]

I liked Thrace - The falxmen just look evil, same with the bastarnae - there is nothing more evil looking that watching a whole heap of enemies just get slowly ground to a pulp by these guys on a wall.

[PseRamesses]

Playing RTR 6.0 the Seleucids are unstoppable with a new swordunit (hypaipistai? sp?) on the flanks, wall breaches etc nothing will stop this combo. But in vanilla I prefered the Greeks or Macedon.

[Slug For A Butt]

In vanilla I think the Seleucids are extremely powerful in most departments including economy.
I love the Germans though for their diversity and the fact that it is a real fight with your neighbours before you can build the good stuff (Goth cav and chosen Axemen).
Since I started playing RTR, my faves have been the Macedonians. They just seem to have a fun factor about them, surrounded by very different foes on all sides. But then, I haven't had chance to play 6.0 yet as I have been away.

[Deus ret.]

Playing RTR 6.0 the Seleucids are unstoppable with a new swordunit (hypaipistai? sp?) on the flanks, wall breaches etc nothing will stop this combo. But in vanilla I prefered the Greeks or Macedon.

Hypaspistai almost. Apart from that, I agree with you. SE have extremely powerful units and a couple of extremely indefensible borders but it's fun! Finally a kind of "empire"-feeling that I've missed in the vanilla game.

Apart from that, RTR 6.0 Carthage is worth a try. Lots of different options to choose from, lots of different units (AOR) to recruit. And 3 fronts you'll be fighting on rather sooner that later.

[PseRamesses]

Apart from that, RTR 6.0 Carthage is worth a try. Lots of different options to choose from, lots of different units (AOR) to recruit. And 3 fronts you'll be fighting on rather sooner that later.

Agree. In my current game there´s virtually no part of the Med that I´ve not been involved in yet. Numidia, Gaul and Ptolemy are my protectorates. I conquered all of africa and gave Numidia all "inland provinces" after they had backstabbed me. Took all rebel provinces in Spain, France and west Germany which led to the Gauls attacking me. I defeated them in two decisive battles and gave them the offer to become a protectorate and gave them 6 provinces which they accepted. The Romans later attacked them so I did a "Hannibal" and invaded the Po-valley, sacking every Roman city in Italy except Rome, gave the Po-valley cities back to the Gauls. With a powerful stack left in the vincinity of Bononia the Romans won´t dare to attack the Gauls, he he! I drove the Ptolemies into the Levant which gave me a nice chokepoint to defend - the Nile River bridge. Took all Islands from them and Maronia, Mytilene I gave to the Greeks who have been my allies since I took Syracuse from them on turn 2. The Ptolemies asia minor holdings I gave to the Galatian gauls who are seriously battering the Seleucids there. Ptolemies are down to holding the Levant and Arabia and didn´t accept any peace offerings so I cheated: saved/ reloaded and made them a protectorate.

My problem now is that I really don´t know where to go from here except to take Rome and end the game. I guess I keep roleplaying my trade-empire off and on just to play it to the end since my setup is so sweet.

[antisocialmunky]

Iberia is fun if you mod them some Longshields.

[Franconicus]

Seleucid are easy to play. You have lots of money and can hire lots of different mercs. You also have the best unit selection. Look at the cavalry: three different elephants, militia, cataphracts, and this macedonian comrade cav. . Really amazing. You also have lots of different pikemen. And artillery. And bowmen and pelteasts. And you have plenty of different enemies from the very beginning.

Germania is fun too. They have these incredible spearmen.

If you like it tough Scythians are a good choice. Their horse archers are something special.

[Kralizec]

I advise giving Pontus a try. It's a good challenge, really having to struggle early on to carve out a decent kingdom. Also, they have powerful javelin throwing cav wich are fun to use, powerful pikemen and chariots (both scythed and with archers)

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I'd say Thrace. They have a varied army. Good Phalanx, really good Falxmen, and pretty good cavalry...

[Doug-Thompson]

Parthia gives me more fun than any other, still.

[HarunTaiwan]

PONTUS!

And if you have read any history about Mithridates, you will enjoy it even more.

Actually, since he raised Roman style legions, I think Pontus should have gotten the legionaries and not Armenia.