Your Favorite Faction

[Csargo]

Whats your favorite faction and why
If you could tell us the pros and cons of the faction

[Powermonger]

Whats your favorite faction and why
If you could tell us the pros and cons of the faction

Mine would be a close tie between the English and the Danish. I love the English for their Billmen and Longbows but mostly for their starting position. As the English it is easy to secure the British Isles but also during the first decade or so of early, if you do a big land rush you can secure a good proportion of Western Europe (wiping out the French) and setting yourself up well for future expansion across Europe. The only downside is you don't have any Viking units. :(

[Roark]

My favourite faction is the mighty Turks.

Pros:

- Almost everyone carries a bow. This means that I can decimate many armies before they even get to engage me in melee combat. Lots of larfs.
- Fast missile cavalry. There's nothing quite so satisfying for me as successfully creating a swirling typhoon of death around the heavier Catholic units.
- Challenging location with good replay value. Playing in High Era is especially fun, for when the Horde arrive.
- Janissary Heavies, Ghazis, Armenian Heavies, Sipahis of the Porte
- It's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

Cons:

- No heavy infantry in Early

[Roark]

As the English it is easy to secure the British Isles but also during the first decade or so of early, if you do a big land rush you can secure a good proportion of Western Europe (wiping out the French) and setting yourself up well for future expansion across Europe. The only downside is you don't have any Viking units. :(

Boy have I got news for you...

If you conquer Denmark, Sweden or Norway, you can train Huscarles as the English.

[Powermonger]

Boy have I got news for you...

If you conquer Denmark, Sweden or Norway, you can train Huscarles as the English.

Really?! Awesome....I know what my next campaign will be then :) I feel like such a fool now So longbows, billmen and Huscarls, what a holy trinity! Maybe I'll mod my game so Huscarls don't disappear after 1205 Or better yet, add Joms Vikings to the main campaign

[Ignoramus]

I would say the Germans.

Pros:
-They are central; expansion is unlimited.
-They have one of the strongest armies in the game.
-They can remove the annoying Pope easily.
-They can take out France, Italy, Denmark, Poland, and England, in 40 years on Expert.
Cons:
-Liable to excommunication, due to aggressive expanison.
-Fighting wars on multiple fronts at once,

[matteus the inbred]

I would say the Germans.

Pros:
-They are central; expansion is unlimited.
-They have one of the strongest armies in the game.
-They can remove the annoying Pope easily.
-They can take out France, Italy, Denmark, Poland, and England, in 40 years on Expert.
Cons:
-Liable to excommunication, due to aggressive expanison.
-Fighting wars on multiple fronts at once,

and they get Swabian Swordsmen in early! talk about an unfair advantage.
I like multiple front wars, it makes it exciting.

my favourite faction is Aragon.
only kidding.
I hate Aragon. They've just re-emerged in my current Sicilian game with 6,000 troops and painted it all pink.

I'm currently going through a 'desert' phase and would thus choose the Egyptians right now; money (sooo much money, I use it to line my palace walls with), great cavalry, hordes of archers and the occasional boatload of tinfoil wrapped cretins to slaughter and enslave.

[rvg]

Whats your favorite faction and why
If you could tell us the pros and cons of the faction

Byzantines.

Pros: oh boy, where to begin...

1. Excellent starting position in Early.
2. Tons of high star generals
3. Varangian Guards
4. Constantinople!!!!!
6. Unique army composition


Cons: oh boy, where to begin...

1. Terrible starting position in High.
2. Many useful units are unavailable in Late (most importantly Varangian Guards).
3. Byz Infantry (like all swordsmen) sucks in late and cannot offer your army a reliable backbone.
4. You have no friends.
5. Kats are too slow.

[Betito]

My favourite faction is the mighty Turks.

Pros:

- Almost everyone carries a bow. This means that I can decimate many armies before they even get to engage me in melee combat. Lots of larfs.
- Fast missile cavalry. There's nothing quite so satisfying for me as successfully creating a swirling typhoon of death around the heavier Catholic units.
- Challenging location with good replay value. Playing in High Era is especially fun, for when the Horde arrive.
- Janissary Heavies, Ghazis, Armenian Heavies, Sipahis of the Porte
- It's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

Cons:

- No heavy infantry in Early

I agree with all your points, i'll just add some more wich make me prefer this faction so much:

More pros:

- Unique roster: There are 9 unit that atre only for the turkish: Ottoman infantry, janissary archers, janissary infantry, janissary heavy infantry, turcoman foot, turcoman horse, futuwwas, ottoman sipahi and sipahis of the porte. So much refreshing, comparing it to catholics and their generic feudal and chivalric units.

- True total war: Especially in early, there are no rebrel provinces, so you go to war since turn 1.

- Amazing potential: Antioch and tripoli are right next to you, so you should never really have economic troubles. Plus, constantinople(well, Istambul for us) is not that far away.


More cons:

-To become real strong you have to wait to late stages, because janissaries come until you have a military academy, which you can only build with a fortress AND the grand mosque. Until then, saracens will be you toughest infantry(well, at least they can absorb charges fine before they waver). And even whehn you do have janissaries, its really time consuming(20 turns+) to have a second province where you can build some more. So, if you hurry and get lucky, you will have only 4 or 5 provinces that can produce janissaries.

-You WILL be the target of virtually all the crusades: Tripoli, sinai, edessa, and all of the regular crusadeable provinces will be, most likely, yours. So you need to prepare a good "welcoming" army. (Actually, i don't know if this is a con, or another pro)

Really?! Awesome....I know what my next campaign will be then :) I feel like such a fool now So longbows, billmen and Huscarls, what a holy trinity! Maybe I'll mod my game so Huscarls don't disappear after 1205 Or better yet, add Joms Vikings to the main campaign

After you hit high, you can no longer train huscarles. Make sure you arrive in time to have a decent amount of them. And, most importantly, dont be afraid to use them. I've seen myself keeping all of my huscarles in norway because i was afraid something would happen to them. Don't let this happen to you. Huscarles are for fighting.

[_Aetius_]

The Byzantines for me.

The unique unit roster is one of the Byzantines best features, I disagree with rvg on Byzantine infantry late on. Its true they lose the edge they had in the early period, but they still form the backbone of Byzantine armies throughout, mainly because there is no unit to replace them.

I enjoy playing the Byzantines in the high and late periods as its a big challenge, takes alot of skill to avoid bankruptcy and reconquer the empires lost territories.

The Byzantines have the greatest potential to expand enormously early on, you can overrun the Turks and gain access to the vast wealth of the Levant. With Antioch, Tripoli, Palestine and later Egypt your economy skyrockets.

You can become effectively invincable, with the likes of the Varangian guard, Kataphraktoi and high star generals commanding them almost nothing can stop you.

[Prince Cobra]

BYZANTIUM
Everything has been said above and I have nothing to add Doubtlessly playing as byzantines makes you feel different... because you don't fight for Byzantine glory but for the glory of Rome
P.S. Don't blame Byz inf - the poor men are trying to show their best ( a good general, enough money for mercenaries, being pious (building monasteries), being careful with your neighbours ( to the exception with Turkish faction- the main rival of Byz) can fit it)

[Knight Templar]

My choices are Egyptians, Turks and Hungarians.

Egyptians have excellent starting position, and like Turks, have very "mobile" army, fast as most forces are cavalry (for Turks, Jannisaries come late, as you have to build Fortress and Military Academy to train them), and mosty attacking (units like Ghazis, Nizari, Arab inf, Futuwas, MHA, Faris, Bedouin camels).
Catholic armies are too slow, if you look at the unit stats, they have the best swords, polearms (except JHI), cavalry and spears but they have no (or few) light cav and horse archers.

The reasons I like Huns are horse archers (Szekelys ) and historical reasons.

[hlawrenc]

If you like Hungarians, try Croatians in BKB mod. Unlike the XL mod they are Catholic in BKB so you can raise regular western forces and even throw in crusades, but have a real Balkan flare as well. You can go Western, Balkan or mixture. They get Sleskeys, can raise Abanian Warriors (axe) in Thessaly, Slavs of all flavors including Slav horse and javs, even a Croatian Urban Militia along the lines of the Almond UM, Mounted Cross bows and in high if they own Bulgaria get a heavy Bulgarian axe unit, and a Croatian Light Cavalry unit. Close to Bulgaria so can get there for Bulgarian Brigands if you want to improve archers.

They can be a lot of fun with an exotic flavor in early but as campaign progresses and you hit high you can include heavier Western Catholic forces pole arms, etc. Is really the best of both worlds for me.

Biggest problem is their location and fact they start out with only two provinces with one rebel nearby in Serbia, but to really expand you have to take on Hungary, Venice or Byzantium which can be a problem. Without any exportable goods in their two homeland provinces can't really try to turtle and build economy up so you have to go after one or the other big guys early on so as not to die on the vine.

But if you can get past the first few years they can be a fun faction to play because of the unit options.

[Knight Templar]

Thanks, I'll try Croatians when I get BKB mod

[NodachiSam]

My favourites are Byzantine, HRE, and Danes.

[Asmodai]

My favourite are Polish, HRE and....France.

France is very challenging, cos they have no exclusive troops. And in early, they have very difficult GAs. Crusading with English, Germans and Spaniards on the back is very hard.

I like polish for their choise of cavalry units. Thous cavalry battles in the steppes looks very spectacular.

But my presonal best goes to HRE. They have some difficulties in early like GA crusader goals, preserving their lands, having no powerful early units (except for swabian swordsmen, but raising the castle and 2 level swordsmith is problematic). In high, they have no special advantages over neighbouring fractions, but in late, gothic units rocks!
Also, swiss halberdiers and swiss armoured pikemens are very good addition to any german army.

[caravel]

I have to go with the Turks. For all the reasons stated above, especially the early hybrid units, Ghazis and Turcoman Horse. Their starting position in early, I never play high/late, is superb, you only have to wipe the Egyptians off the map, build up your navy and trade and then, when you're ready, go for Constantinople. Nowadays I find the Turks far to easy, even on Expert, so I tend to stick with other factions that I'm not so good at.

-You WILL be the target of virtually all the crusades: Tripoli, sinai, edessa, and all of the regular crusadeable provinces will be, most likely, yours. So you need to prepare a good "welcoming" army. (Actually, i don't know if this is a con, or another pro)

The crusades are a definite pro. Think of the valour your men will gain kicking these poor devils back to where they came from?

[mfberg]

My top 5 in order from MTW and VI

Hungarian
Turks
Welsh
Byzantine
English

[Martok]

These are my choices based on the fact that I play with the XL Mod, and that I pretty much always start in Early:

1. Castille-Leon (Spanish)
2. Fatamids (Egyptians)
3. Byzantines
4. Danes
5. English

[antisocialmunky]

The Late Byzantine Game is ridiculous but fun. Its pretty much Aragon with Uber Trade and development.

[ajaxfetish]

It's very hard to pick a single favorite, but if I have to I'll say the Welsh.

Pros:
-a very challenging starting position
-the best archers in VI and probably some of the best in the whole game
-excellent access to iron
-personal ancestral connection

Cons:
-money can be tight
-no heavy troops to match the Vikings or Anglo-Saxons
-unimpressive cavalry

Ajax

[Crian]

The Turks are my favorite, hands down (or rather, thumbs up )

For all the reasons stated above. The unit roster is excellent because of the variety, and I love those hybrid infantry! The area surrounding the Turkish lands is a constant hotbed of activity (Crusades, the Golden Horde), it's never boring. Cheers to the Turks! I just wish they're fleshed out even better in MTW2, I know they have their own music, culture, etc. that is distinct from the rest of the Islamic world and it'll be great to have that represented.

[yesdachi]

The English are my fav from a role-playing standpoint but I can steamroll over the map with the Spanish.

[littlebktruck]

I enjoyed the French quite a bit, though they don't really have any special units or anything.

[Joshwa]

Byzantines or HRE for me, HRE because they get a cool evil flag, and the Byzantines because I like Romans!

[Ultras DVSC]

French, Danes, Aragonians and we of course. ;)

My first mtw campaign I played with the French and that was a determinative experience. It's an adventage of them, that French crusades run across whole Europe, so you can send vast armies to the east almost for nothing.

Danes and Aragons are tiny nations, it's another adventure to conquer with them the whole map. :)

However my favourite, quite surprising, are always the Magyars. I love to see when the dear Székelys overthrow the Mameluke camals by the Nile.. :D

[m52nickerson]

The Polish

Pros:

1. Great starting positon, the Stepps right next door just waiting to get taken.

2. Nice unique units, at least the ones you can get from surrounding provences.

3. Cooler names then any one else!

Cons:

1. No super good generals at the start

2. You will always have to take on the Horde, most likely by your self.

[PittBull260]

Egyptians

Pros
-good position in the corner
-easy to defend
-cool camel units
-rich land

Cons
-crusades against you
-almost no heavy units
-hard to battle outside of desert

[Roark]

The Polish

Pros:

1. Great starting positon, the Stepps right next door just waiting to get taken.

2. Nice unique units, at least the ones you can get from surrounding provences.

3. Cooler names then any one else!

Cons:

1. No super good generals at the start

2. You will always have to take on the Horde, most likely by your self.

I lurrrrve those Polish Retainers. They are killers in Early.

...and you're right, the Polish names are very cool. I'm kinda biased though, because my gal is Polish...

[Vlad The Impala]

I haven't played with a lot of fractions yet, just the English and Turks, but I'm more than willing to throw in my thoughtsas well!

The English:
- Other people in the thread pretty much summed up all the pros: longbowmen, billmen, good starting position. Plus the English have the ability to become a naval/trade super power
- Cons: It's easy to wipe out the French and the Danish early on, but after that you're wedged in between the HRE and Spain, both of whom are impossible (if you ask me, it's certainly difficult) to take out without risking excommunication. The only other options are the Russians in the North or the Almohads in Africa, but that means you'll have awfully long supply lines, and you're easily cut off it the enemy navy decides to havea go at your ships

The Turks:
- Again, the pros have already been taken care of. Lots of archers, lots of mobilities, jannissaries... Egypt and the southern half of the Byzantine empire can be taken within the first 30-40 years, after that you have a stronghold with nice chokepoints in Egypt, Georgia and Constantinople. You can then safely build up your army and navy, take the islands in the Mediterranean and so on.
- Cons: No heavy infantry. No units that are equal to men-at-arms, so you'll have to deal with spears in another way. I also wish they had a unit like the Hobilar, but I guess that there's not a lot to complain about Turkish cavalry...