BI - Factions

[Glaucus]

I got BI a while ago, and didn't like it as much as vanilla RTW. I don't have any mods, and want to give BI another try, so can you tell me what...

...the easist faction to play with is (from what I tryed: WRE=can't hold onto your land, ERE=too much land, other factions have 1 settlement, I want a nice balanced faction easy to hold onto, but capable of good battles against a strong faction)

...the most fun faction to play with (sitting at home on a saturday night, thinking about where I'm not... whats a good faction to cheer me up and make me feel superior to the AI )

...the hardest faction to play(a challnge fit for the gods, that says it all)

Danke

[Barbarossa82]

1. For the easiest faction I would say either the ERE (their economy is good, not too many religion problems), or the Franks. The Franks start in a promising position in Western Europe, a small state but with room for expansion preying on the Roman Empire or the other Barbarian tribes like the Alemanni. They have a nice unit roster which is one of the more advanced of the Barbarian peoples and capable of turning out troops who can take on Rome's finest. Axe, sword and Francisca (throwing axe) heerbanns (warbands), strong noble Paladin cavalry and as far as I remember they also have a decent archer unit.

2. The most fun, well it depends what your criteria are. WRE is a challenge to play because of the early unrest and barbarian problems, so it's very satisfying when you succeed. The Celts have a zany selection of units including Hounds of Culann berserkers, chariots and generals' bodyguards who look like Chief Vitalstatistix from the Asterix books; however they only start with 2 provinces and end up fighting WRE, Saxons and Romano-British, so can be tough. The Sassanids are also a fun faction, being all on their own religion-wise and with some extremely hardcore cavalry.

3. The hardest...almost certainly the Berbers, since they have a very tough starting position with poor provinces, and their unit roster can't really rival that of their likely adversaries - WRE, Sassanids and Vandals. The WRE is also tough to get off the ground, but once you've regenerated your economy and solved your religion problems, superpower status is easily recovered. The smaller Barbarian factions like the Lombardi and Burgundii could be tough due to poor starting lands, while the Goths and Sarmatians would have to face early conflicts with massive hordes of Huns and Vandals.

Have a fun campaign, and I very strongly recommend that you install player1's BugFixer (latest version) before you start as it really improves the game experience by ironing out many dozens of glitches. You can find a link to download it in a sticky at the top of the board if you don't have it already.

[Mithras]

The eastern Roman empire is so damn easy to play I deliberatly return to paganism to give it some challange (ironicly the empire eventually becomes even more powerful eventually)

Easy factions to play are the saxons-no loyalty issues their all pagan and they're infantry is awsome. The Sassanids who have the best all round religion, loot and god-like calvalry and the Eastern empire due to raw power and cash.

Most fun factions-western empire for challange, eastern empire for the smoothness of running it, the franks and the Alemanni for the great units

[Garvanko]

Easiest faction - the ERE. No question.

Most fun - Franks/Saxons if you like Infantry OR the Sassanids/Huns if you like Cavalry. Overall, the Sassanids.

The hardest - the WRE on VH settings. Your eyes will go red just micromanaging everything.

I'd suggest you try the Sassanids.

[Garvanko]

Easiest faction - the ERE. No question.

Most fun - Franks/Saxons if you like Infantry OR the Sassanids/Huns if you like Cavalry. Overall, the Sassanids.

The hardest - the WRE on VH settings. Your eyes will go red just micromanaging everything.

I'd suggest you try the Sassanids.

[Cras]

I am playing the sassanids now.... awesome cavalry, archer who can club the sh*t out of someone as well, highly armoured.....

[Slug For A Butt]

Just make sure you get to the ERE before they can build clibs... if you leave it too long to wipe them out, they will build clibs that are better than yours. Combine that with the fact that their infantry is better, their archers are better and they are rich you will have a headache.
Head for the rich east coast early, controlling the eastern Med cities cripples the ERE and gives you mucho dinarii.
Have fun dude.

[gardibolt]

I'm playing ERE right now in 1.6 and find it to be much harder than say the Franks; the Roman troops are very weak and ineffectual; half the time they're defeated by rebels, let alone Clibinarii. Romans used to have a big advantage in their missile weapons, but since those were reduced in effectiveness in 1.6, archers are well nigh useless except for defending sieges. The only way to fight a unit of Clibinarii is to outnumber it 10:1 as far as I can see. Building foundries is essential to just get the ERE troops competitive.

I have had more Crushing Defeats playing as the ERE for just 20 years than I had in all four full Imperial Campaigns and one BI campaign that I've played in RTW put together.

[Dutch_guy]

Well easiest would be the ERE, lot's of land, great units and a weak enemy in the east, and west especially if the WRE get's a lot of rebellion problems, which it does most of the time.

For a good time, try the Celts their units are all right, their starting position is relativley good and you can take all the time you'd want, the WRE is in no position to threaten you and the Romano-British are easily defended against.
Just make sure you make them siege you, and then let them attack - defend the central plaza and you'll be fine.

The hardest would be the Berbers, bad starting position and no great units along with a not so good economy...