What are your favorite factions for MTW?

[Tyford]

My favourite factions are:
Early: English, Byzantines
The English and Byzantines are my favourite factions in Early because of good starting positions for both nations.
High: Holy Roman Empire (HRE - Austrians/Germans), English, Byzantines
HRE and Byzantines are my favourite factions in the High Period because they are challenging and the English have a good starting position.
Late: Holy Roman Empire (HRE - Austrians/Germans), French
The HRE are challenging in this period, as are the French (mainly because of Sicily and being surrounded by English, Swiss, HRE, Aragon and Italy)
Viking: Welsh, Vikings, Picts
The Welsh are my favourite faction in the Viking Campaign because they are challenging and different from most of the other factions in terms of land and surroundings. The Vikings are good because of their sea-raiding abilities and the Picts are good because of their starting position: it's poor, likely to be attacked by Vikings and it's a good base against the other British and Irish nations.

[naut]

Sicilians are my favourite, With a master merchant 15000 florins of income in Sicily from trade is great

[NodachiSam]

So far Byzantine and the Danes are my favourites. The Serbians in XL look fun too but I have yet to play them.

[elbasto]

So far Byzantine and the Danes are my favourites. The Serbians in XL look fun too but I have yet to play them.

I was thinking on trying the Byzantines but don't they get outdated troops and ships in a short time?

[NodachiSam]

Yea they do a little bit but they start off very strongly (in early especially) They have some ~powerful~ units but also some strange like restrictions like the urban militia get only the lowest level of that and no valour bonuses except after town militia or something. Sometimes you'll end up using mercenaries but it isn't so bad. In the late game you may just need to rely on more soldiers to do the trick. I ~guess~ when you play them turtling isn't a good long term strategy. It is better to conquer and build up a strong base.

It isn't very realistic but it is somewhat historical. Byzantine kept loosing pieces of land where soldiers were recruited and trained and eventually became stagnant.

They are still fun though I suggest going into the campaign map settings and darkening their faction colours. The purple is a little too girly for my modern masculine sensibilities regardless of it being a historically accurate and noble colour. That is what I do. If you know a little bit about photoshop and red/green/blue levels you can go into the campaign map, starting position text files and change the part that indicates the colours of the factions. It's less complicated than it sounds but I don't have enough time right now.... You should be able learn how to do that in the mod forums.

[rvg]

I was thinking on trying the Byzantines but don't they get outdated troops and ships in a short time?

Byz in late is a dinosaur: Kats get killed by CKs/GKs. Byz. Infantry is still the best sword, but the problem is that swordsmen in late are obsolete. To boot, Varangs are gone. That means that your army has no backbone hardcore troops that can carry the battle.

I ended up investing heavily into Handgunners (fully upgraded and all) along with Pronoia and did okay.

Your navy is substandard as well.

Anyhoo, staring the Byz. game in Late is challenging, but TONS of fun.

[elbasto]

mmm... that's sounds harsh.

Can't the Varagnian guard be modded to be included in late and high?

Also, isn't there a post regarding the Byzantines were more depth information could be found (I meen game wise, not historically)?

[Ludens]

Can't the Varagnian guard be modded to be included in late and high?

Also, isn't there a post regarding the Byzantines were more depth information could be found (I meen game wise, not historically)?

1) Yes, you can alter this easily with for example Gnome editor. (BTW, Varangian Guard can still be recruited in high, but not late.)

2) Have a look in the M:TW guide forum.

[RemusAvenged]

Turks and France
Ones got great units and the other has a nice mix of starting positions..

[Scias]

my favourite factions are Danes, English, Byzantines, Russians and Italians.

[genjuro]

in MTW:
1. Aragonese - hard to play
2. German HRE - gothic knights, elections, exposed to many factions
3. French - domination from the two edges of the map, joan d'arc

in BKB Mod:
1. Crusader States - stranded in that wasteland, templars knights, hospitaller knights, santiago knights, lazarus knights, thomas of acre knights
2. Wallachians - very very very very very hard to play, a single exposed province, crapy units
3. French - paladins

[Father_Ted]

The Germans! They have a great starting point with a lot of regions and great units (late era)

The Byzantine! Great units and a lot of starting regions!

[Keith_the_Great]

got to be the Byzantines

[Legorreto]

Definitely, and by far: Danes (see Vikings on VI) Great infantry, the best boats. You can build as many boats as you want and have them deployed all over Europe, then send raiding with your unbeatable infantry and raise billions with that. Then confortably sit and enjoy richness as you build up an empire based on commerce and very fructus wars invading any who has a coastline.

Secondly: Spanish. The best of their units is Jinets, they perform great versus muslims and they are great as front attack. They make lots of damages to enemies and their iron reserves makes them a great faction to develop. Very good location in the map, just at the entrance of the Med Sea you can choose if heading north or inside to build great commerce lines.