A little help about when choosing factions...

[Roderic the Emptyhanded]

Ok, yesterday i bought Medieval: Total War (Battle Collection, including VI). I've never played it before so I don't know so much about the factions.
What factions is the easy ones to start with? Which patches should I install?

Regards, Wiking.

[Peasant Phill]

This should have been posted in the main hall.

To answer your questions:
1) I think MTW VI comes patched (check upper left corner in main menu it should say 2.01)

2) Spane and Byzantium are considered the more easy factions. Read the El diablo campaign thread in the main hall for more information on which factions are easier.

[Celtic_Guardian]

Byzantium is in a pretty good opening position. In my opinion so is England. If you want to be a minor power, go with Denmark, they are fun for their size.

[econ21]

Byzantium is rather big for a beginner. And both Byzantium and Spain start quite early on locked in some death struggles that may be a little intense.

Personally, I think England is a good starter faction. It starts off as modest sized power - not too weak, but not too much micromanagement. It has a "corner" strategic position, so it is relatively safe - you only have the French to worry about. You can cut your teeth on some rebels in Wales and Scotland. You have fun glorious achievements in the earlier period (crusades). Dominate the seas and you have a lot of freedom in terms of grand strategy.

However, it's probably good to follow your heart - if one faction really catches your imagination, go for it. The early games are often the most fun, as you haven't learnt all the exploits to crush the AI.

[m52nickerson]

Poland, you have a lot of rebel provences to take in early. Plus your neighbors tend to leave you alone until later in the game.

[Martok]

I second econ21's advice to avoid the Byzantines. The Byz can be pretty overwhelming to a new MTW player, as they require a lot of management right from the beginning (lots of provinces, plus they're caught between Catholic Europe and the Muslim world). For similar reasons, I'd recommend you don't choose the Holy Roman Empire as your first faction either (lots of provinces, and surrounded by Catholic factions).

The Muslim factions are a ton of fun, but for a beginner I would recommend just the Almohads. With their AUM's (Almohad Urban Militia), Ghulam Cavalry, and Desert Archers, their unit roster is pretty easy to learn how to use in battle. In addition, their strategic position allows you to pretty much focus on just one faction (the Spanish), as opposed to having to deal with more than one faction at a time. The Egyptians and Turks have units that generally require a little more finesse and micromanagement on the battlefield, and I personally would wait to play those two factions until you're more comfortable with handling troops in combat. Also with the Turks, you have to go to war with either the Byz or the Egyptians almost immediately in order to expand.

As for the Catholic factions, I would go with Celtic_Guardian's (and econ21's) choices of the Danes or the English. Econ already highlighted the English pretty well, so I'll just talk about the Danes for a second. They're a decent faction to start with since you only have to manage one province in the beginning of the game, and you can relatively easily take over Sweden and Norway to establish a small but secure Scandanavian kingdom from which to expand later. In addition, with their roster of Viking units, the Danes possess what is probably the best infantry line-up in the early game (Huscarles are uber!). And finally, Denmark and Norway give you (respectively) +1 bonuses to Longboats and Vikings trained there, which is definitely helpful.

[Csargo]

You would probably be good to go with England. Bribing the Welsh so you get Longbows early(be sure not to loose the ones you get from bribing the Welsh those are the only ones you can get until 1205)and you've got the Scottish like econ said. And the French are always fun to fight they make so much money they usually have a crap load of troops but there usually not great ones. I would recommend the English because there my favorite faction. :)

[Scurvy]

i would reccomend starting as either egypt or france (when playing as france i found it easier than with england), but as someone above said, its probably best to choose the faction you most like the look of

[Ciaran]

The difficulty doesn´t only depend on the faction but also on the era, since a lot factions get new units later in time while others lose some units. So for the early era, I think the Byzantine recommendation isn´t bad (I´ve never played with them so far), but you might want to keep an eye on other factions as well - Spain and England are good options for a beginner, though England suffers from the fact to have only catholic neighbours, meaning that wars are going to give you trouble with the Pope, Spain can evade that by attacking the Almohads. Spain also has easy access to iron provinces, which become important later on, as they give you weapon upgrades.

For the High era I can still recommend England, they get some unique units (billmen and logbows) that make things a lot easier.

One faction you´ll want to avoid at all costs, though, is the Holy Roman Empire. Honestly, don´t play it as a beginner, it´ll take the fun out of the game for you, unless you´re masochistically inclined. Trust me, I´ve been there, I´ve done (and regretted!) it.

[danfda]

Actually, of the campaigns I've fought (and they are many), I still maintain that my Early HRE (hard) campaign was the easiest! I was able to kill France and the Danes very quickly, and the Poles fell soon thereafter. The Italians, Hungarians, and Spanish/Almohads fell in succession, and the only real threat I had to face much after 1250 or so were Papal re-emergences. :D

That said, I wouldn't recomend starting with them...I'm pretty sure everything fell perfectly in line during that campaign for me. I would also pitch in my vote for England as the best to start with. Billmen are so very sweet...

[Vladimir]

Try Spain first. Good money, Iron, Jinettes; the perfect trifecta.

[Peasant Phill]

My first campaign was an early Spanish one, and I could recommend it to a beginner. With a blitz offensive (read the guide) you can secure your empire very soon with good options for expansion. Not a lot of micromanagement and some good generals and troops to start with. Beat the Almohads out of Iberia and your set for a good campaign with all the challenges you want.

[Martok]

Doh! How could I forget to mention the Spanish?

I wholeheartedly concur with Vladimir and Peasant Phil in recommending the Spanish for any player just starting out on MTW. You can bribe El Cid, conquer Navarre and/or Aragon, and then head south and take out the Almohads. (The Caliphate provides a wonderful target for Crusades, by the way!) You can conquer the entire Iberian peninsula relatively quickly, and from there you're blessed with a multitude of options (establish a trade network, launch Crusades to the Holy Land, etc.).

And as Vladimir pointed out, you can't go wrong with Jinnettes.

(edit: spelling)

[Roderic the Emptyhanded]

Thank's for all the help and suggestions :)
So, now I have started a campaign with the spanish due to the last post.
I love crusades

[Martok]

Bravo! Glad you're enjoying yourself.

[bamff]

The Sicilians are another good starting point I think. Again only a small number of provinces to maintain early on, with the ocean all around to protect you from jealous neighbours. Wealth to burn with Sicily, too!

[Martok]

I like the Sicilians too, but I don't think I would recommend them to a beginner. Probably more than any other faction, Sicily relies on naval power and establishing a trading empire; and these are aspects of the game newer players usually take a while to understand and master. The Sicilians are fun once you've played through a few campaigns and are more familiar (and comfortable) with how Medieval works, but they probably aren't for newcomers to the game.

I think a big reason factions like the Almos, Danes, English, and Spanish get recommended to new players so often is that they let them learn the basics of the game without being overhwelmed. More specifically, those factions don't force players to learn everything at once, while in my opinion the Sicilians do.

I do enjoy playing them, though. Since they command the central Mediterranean, the Sicilians can do just about anything they feel like doing.

[Bombasticus Maximus]

I've not played it before I got it and was spain. It's good as them.

[Betito]

Personally, i began with a VI campaign (saxons, i think), and it was a good choice, mainly because VI campaigns are somewhat simpler than classic MTW ones.

MTW campaign include several aspects such as crusades, jihads, the pope, exommunications, 3 major religions, mongols, swiss, burgundians, a greater impact of naval armies in your developing rate... Such elements are not found in VI developing, those are more focused on getting good infantry, good farms, and go conquer the map. Yes, simpler, but fun in its way, and, in my opinion, much more accessible for me as a begginner. By the way, don't try vikings at first, it's not quite as simple.

Later on, i learned more about cavalry, religion, crusades, ships, trade, and what it ended up becoming my favorite faction (one i definitely recommend to try in subsequent campaigns): The almighty Turks and the unstoppable Janissaries!

[mfberg]

Byzantines
Italians
Hungarians
Egyptians
Almos
French

A little harder
English
Italians
Turks

mfberg

[rvg]

I think the Danes are *the* easiest faction to play.