Best faction for a new player?

[New]

I was wondering what would be the best faction to play my first EB game with.

[Volume II]

Wild guess, but I would probably say either Karthadastim or the Ptolemies, because they both have strong beginning economies, I think, and their armies are quite good, compared to many other nations.

[Avicenna]

You should familiarise yourself with the vanilla RTW first. EB might be a bit too complex to take on all at once first try.

[orwell]

I'd say charge in as the Romani. What you don't know you'll pick up eventually. Or that's what I did.

[Equilibrium]

Yup, rome is a good choice for a beginning eb player, but a good knowledge of vanilla rome doesn't hurt. The romans have a good economy and good beginning troops, not too many strong enemys around them, so yes a good starter's faction.

[Dayve]

Rome, Ptolemaics or Carthage are good ones for any EB begginner.. You don't have to play vanilla before you jump into a mod really... Anything you don't get, just make a thread here and ask all your questions... We'll help you with them.

[econ21]

Rome is good - a nice, small starting position so you are not swamped by micromanagement and choices. But obviously lots of potential and great freedom where to expland to. Plus you probably have a pretty intuitive feel for how their army should fight.

Read the gameplay guides - EB typically makes starting armies rather too large for a human to afford (the AI gets cash bonuses), so you may have to disband some stuff (your fleet?) to get your cashflow into the black.

The only downside of Rome ATM is that you have to put up with Greek voices and family members' faces.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Rome is a good start, but just don't get shocked first time you meet the gaesatae, they're extremely powerful and should only be dealt with using triarii, javelin cavalry and more.

I think Makedonia is one of the easier factions. As Makedonia, first turn, disband most of the foot units you don't need for garrisons and save 2 hoplitai and 2 akontistai for your armies, also disband all of your fleet except a single ship. Same turn, send most of your cavalry, and the 2 akontistai and 2 taxeis hoplitai I mentioned above with one or two of your generals down to besiege Athens. Then move on and take Sparte. After that your annual income will go positive and the only problems you'll have after that are purely military. You start at war with Epeiros too, so the next step after conquering Sparte is to go back north and deal with Epeiros before they deal with your weak garrisons in your northern cities. After that you can choose between offensive or defensive, both options are possible as you have a pretty solid economy. I find the other factions in EB difficult due to the weaker economy they have, so I guess Makedonia could be a good faction to start with.

[edyzmedieval]

The Ptolemaioi are one of the best factions for an EB starter.

[New]

Ill try the Ptolemaics first. I played vanilla RTW and it was to boring for me. After you get about 20 provinces the game is over no one can beat you .

[Imperator of rome]

The ptolomy faction also has since nice agemata units and pikemen,good choice for a beginner.

[Krusader]

I would say Ptolemaioi. Strong economy from get go and you can get some nice troops that fits most battlefield roles.

Excellent Phalanx units
Good Assault Infantry
Good Cavalry
Elephants

Plus, you can even keep your navy intact.

[edyzmedieval]

Plus, you can even keep your navy intact.

I resent that. Having a 4 star Rebel Sweboz admiral crushed an army of 13 Tetrere fleets.

[nic]

Definately not the Casse, spawning rebels make them very tough, almost unplayable on harder difficulties. I was playing and two big stacks of rebels spawned, each with good troops, fairly near my base. I had a very good General and decided to lure them into beseiging my settlement by sending out a weak unit to draw them closer. The ensuing siege battle was great, it had a feel of Helms Deep about it, a do or die stand against all the odds. I managed to get some of the rebels to rout and it seemed that victory was possible. Then my General got himself killed. The final struggle took place in the centre of the settlement and was lost, though not by much. It would have felt great had I won but as it was I was eliminated.

So for a begginer I'd go for Romani.

[Ardaric]

Indeed Casse is ridiculous to play on Hard/medium let alone VH/medium.
But the ptolies are too easy. If you choose a faction that's a bit more difficult you'll learn more.

Bactria is such a not too difficult option. Just merge your two field armies and create and add some persian infantry units. And take the next town!
And keep the seleucids as your friend for a while..until you have enough cities to attack them.
Diplomacy: Go for trade rights with Seleucids en Yuezhi and ally yourself with the Yuezhi.
The only worry is than taking on the the rebelcities/armies and building your empire.

[GMT]

If you play Bactria you can also use spies to make the Seleucid's border provinces rebel so you can take them without going to war with them and losing valuable trade money.

Eventually you'll piss them off though but you can use the time to build a decent economy/army.

[The_White_Knight]

Rome, Ptolemies or Makedon definitely. Makedon is probably the most difficult of these three, since it needs to use its cavalry to full extend in every battle and needs to face Greece/Epeiros early on. Rome can pretty much roll over beginning armies with itss strong armies. And as the Ptolemies, expect a long and sluggish war with the Seleukid. Good fun though!

[Ardaric]

Hey Spies! I forgot them! Implementing subversive tactics now...

[Trithemius]

I've only really played the Romani, so I am not sure how useful my opinions on this are, but I think they are fairly easy to use as a "first faction". They retain the "solidness" they possessed in RTW and have a pretty good economy and a reasonably defensible position.

The big downside, really, is their slightly odd recruitment (pre-Marian Reforms) which can play havoc with people who are used to being able to rebuild their field armies after taking an enemy production centre. If this is kept in mind though, the Romani are a lot of fun (so much fun I have yet to play anyone else!).

[Avicenna]

The Ptolemies and Makedonian phalanxes might be a bit tough to learn how to use as a beginner.

It's not odd, all factions are only allowed to recruit from their homelands. Rome is already much easier, being allowed to recruit and retrain in type II governments after the Marian reforms.