Which Faction to play first

[Ice]

I'm currently downloading the game (legally of course via steam), but it's going to take a while. So I thought I'd post here and ask for advice on the faction that people think is best to start with.

[OMGLAZERS]

My opinion is as follows.. English. Medium or Hard ( depending on your level ). Don't play TOO much. Maybe fifty turns. The reason why, is that the English have to use a large amount of naval, army, financial building and diplomatic actions early on. Plus. a nice cadre of easy to get rebel territories. Then, make your own decision. Play a short campaign as the English, and kill off Scotland. Then, play as Scotland, and kill off the English. I suggest short campaigns to learn the new system and then fling yourself headlong into a VH/VH game with a crappy nation like Denmark or Scotland. Heck, it's turn 50, i'm Scottish, and not only I destroy the English, i'm about to overrun Denmark and Germany and the Egyptians cower at my expanding Jeruselum/Gaza/Allepo/Antioch etc states. Don't use a difficult nation or a weird one early on, and don't play for TOO long. Just enough to learn to play, and then start over with a new faction. I played about three games (English, French, Spanish) to learn the workings of the new game, and this is my first real 'Going to complete it' game, and I don't regret a second of it.

[Doug-Thompson]

If you want to unlock the other factions ASAP, play the Spanish.

The goal of a short game is to gather 15 provinces while wiping out the Moors and Portuguese. That's a whole lot easier to do if you're not getting excommunicated.

As the Spanish, you can expand immediately and without Papal complications because you are bordering Islam. The fact that your victory conditions require wiping out the Moors is just gravy.

Eventually, Portugal will get jealous and attack you. They'll get themselves excommunicated.

Read my post in the Guides section about the Spanish, and let 'er rip.

[Aenlic]

If you're goal is to unlock the other factions, then it's easier just to follow the unlocking guide posted somewhere around here. It takes a simple change, deleting two lines from a script file.

If your goal is to pick a faction to play to learn the game quick, then both of the above suggestions - English and Spanish - work well.

If your goal is to have fun without pulling large amounts of your hair out in utter frustration, then take the Egyptians or any of the non-Catholic factions. This is because inquisitors are annoying and impossible to kill and fun-killing and annoying and game-wrecking and annoying. Did I mention annoying? They'll burn your crusade generals and factions heirs and governors at the stake. They'll rampage through your kingdom killing anything they can get their grubby little hands on. They'll ambush your army stacks, which are heading to do pious things like attack Islamic factions and decimate them before they get halfway to the goal. Whichever CA programmer dreamed this all up should be forced to listen to Barry Manilow.

Aenlic - Reformed Catholic faction player, now playing any and all non-Catholic factions with glee.

[Flavius Gonzo]

My H/H campaign as the English has been very fun, and a good challenge, definitely moreso than my last VH/VH RTW:BI campagin.

England has excellent missle troops, and plenty of options for expansion. The big disadvantage early in the game is your first crusade, where you will like have to march through all of France to get there (vs. Venice, who just gets to sail from home.)

Also, I don't know why you'd want to not finish your first campaign... I'm chomping at the bit to finally get gunpowder troops, invade the new world, and finish off the damn French for good. I'm sure I'll play another campagn or two when I finish this one, but I have absolutely no desire to start over now.

[KARTLOS]

whichever nation you choose i would suggest starting with a catholic nation as i have found the realtionship with the pope adds a whole extra element to the gameplay and makes it a bit more exciting. (particularly the opportunity to go on crusades)

england are fairly good fun if you feel any affinity to them.

of the classic european nations however i would urge you to go with sicily as they have been my favourite campaign.
plusses of sicily - most of the western european nations are fairly similar .e.g france, hre, milan, england, italian states at least in terms of their early cavalry - the sicilians however get norman knights and dismounted norman nights early- these are not only awesome units but they look incredibly mean

asides from the normans they have a very nice varity of troops with good archers, spearmen and crossbowmen later + all gunpowder units

in fact the sicilian units are so good, i am finding it hard to stomach starting with another western nation.

the second major plus is their central starting position - you can expand in every direction giving you the opportunity to fight a great variety of troops. in your imediate vicinty you have the italian states, hre, byz and the moors. i took the rebel provinces of valencia and bordeaux early on placing me in early contact with the spanish, portugese and french.

another plus point with sicily is that if you expand into north africa and send your priests there, they will gain piety quickly from converting the islams- meaning that it is fairly easy to get a good standing with the pope.

poland are also a really fun faction - they still get the fun of being catholic but have some very good unique units. I would say that that the polish noblemen are pound for pound the best unit in the game- thier armour piecing javelins are great for killing general and heavy cav.

[Werner]

I guess I'm the only one who started as the germans (Holy Roman Empire). I don't know how they stack up compared to the other 4 or 5 starter nations, but I know that the area your capital city is in at the beginning always sees action. Right now I'm only 55 turns in on my first campaign and I'm just about to wipe out Denmark, Milan, and Venice. My short game goals are control 20 regions and wipe out Denmark and Venice, so I'm half way there. After this campaign, I'm not sure who'll I'll play as, maybe Scotland or Denmark.

[ArneHD]

I would say English. Simply put they are the most fun as you can use just about any unit early on, while other factions, such as Venice, I find much harder work with. Their units are good, sure, but in comparison to the English, they are weak in my oppinion, and difficult to train.

You might also want to go with the French. Havn't played them much, but they seem fair enough.

[TheFluff]

Well dont play as the turks or egyptans your first time around. I say this because at some point you will get your self handed to by the mongols and if you want to learn the game mechanics this is not the best way :P

I think that after you play the tutorial you'll want to keep playing as the english. However if you want to play a really "easy" faction, get your feet wet and mabye fight a few nations, russia is pretty good because they are isolated at first, but have potental to make alot of money via land trade and later sea trade. Plus they use a mixed army type that has alittle of everything, but mostly cavalry units. For the first 10-20 turns or so you'll be fighting rebels and mabye the poles at some point, but you dont have to worry about the pope and you have alot of time to tech up your citys and make them finical centers.

[Lorenzo_H]

I dunno bout everyone else, but im gonna do Spain.

[Ice]

whichever nation you choose i would suggest starting with a catholic nation as i have found the realtionship with the pope adds a whole extra element to the gameplay and makes it a bit more exciting. (particularly the opportunity to go on crusades)

england are fairly good fun if you feel any affinity to them.

of the classic european nations however i would urge you to go with sicily as they have been my favourite campaign.
plusses of sicily - most of the western european nations are fairly similar .e.g france, hre, milan, england, italian states at least in terms of their early cavalry - the sicilians however get norman knights and dismounted norman nights early- these are not only awesome units but they look incredibly mean

asides from the normans they have a very nice varity of troops with good archers, spearmen and crossbowmen later + all gunpowder units

in fact the sicilian units are so good, i am finding it hard to stomach starting with another western nation.

the second major plus is their central starting position - you can expand in every direction giving you the opportunity to fight a great variety of troops. in your imediate vicinty you have the italian states, hre, byz and the moors. i took the rebel provinces of valencia and bordeaux early on placing me in early contact with the spanish, portugese and french.

another plus point with sicily is that if you expand into north africa and send your priests there, they will gain piety quickly from converting the islams- meaning that it is fairly easy to get a good standing with the pope.

poland are also a really fun faction - they still get the fun of being catholic but have some very good unique units. I would say that that the polish noblemen are pound for pound the best unit in the game- thier armour piecing javelins are great for killing general and heavy cav.

You've convinced me, I'm going as Sicily.

[IrishArmenian]

If you can unlock them, the Russians! Excellent variety. They seem to pick and choose what they like from other factions and then combine them, adding a distinct flavor and then blend them together. The result is an incredibly fun, challenging campaign in which you always have units to deal with your enemies, you just didn't know it!

[Grimmy]

Another aspect to starting with England is that you can sit back and play around with building cities/forts without having to worry about invading armies once you have the island secure and a decent navy protecting your shores.

There's lots to get used to that's different. Cities and forts are different beasts, each builds different stuff.

The recruiting system is very different (and much better imo) than previous TW games.

So, if you want to spend some time sitting safely and working out what's what and what makes what and what gives what and how to get who then it's hard to beat England.

[Garnier]

I played venice for my first campaign, (lasted some 60 turns) then I played england for 25 turns, then spain for 60 turns, then milan for 110 turns, then HRE for 30 turns, now Ive been playing france for 20 turns and counting. I never settle down to one campaign for long.

[Zenicetus]

I started with Spain because it seemed like an easy introduction to the game, while I learn the mechanics. You have a "free" Muslim target for early expansion right next door, without having to worry about playing politics with the Pope. Portugal acts as a buffer against the French for a while. Once you've taken the Iberian peninsula and established a beachhead in Africa, you're in a fairly protected position where you only have to defend one major border to the northeast (unless you expand further into Western Europe). Crusades can sail direct, without marching across other factions' lands.

The beginning Spanish units are pretty good too. They're a bit weak in infantry (like many factions in the early game), but the early cavalry is nice.

[HaroldVonBraver]

Whatever you do, do not start off with the Egyptian campaign. I found it boring and quickly abandoned it and started with another faction.

[Xaziv]

out of the starting faction, I would say to use the Spanish faction. I think that france is the strongest faction in game, but for your first time you will not use them well. Because most noobies do not know how to charge properly... But france has the best calvary and can make some big $$ quickly.

But spanish is good for getting to know how to use the game, and unlocking factions.

England is also a good choice to learn the game, but takes longer to complete the campaign. I love longbows, and you probably do too so you could choose england.

Germans have to face too many enemies for them to be good at the start, although it is possible.

Really though it doesn't matter what you start as.

[Ice]

out of the starting faction, I would say to use the Spanish faction. I think that france is the strongest faction in game, but for your first time you will not use them well. Because most noobies do not know how to charge properly... But france has the best calvary and can make some big $$ quickly.

But spanish is good for getting to know how to use the game, and unlocking factions.

England is also a good choice to learn the game, but takes longer to complete the campaign. I love longbows, and you probably do too so you could choose england.

Germans have to face too many enemies for them to be good at the start, although it is possible.

Really though it doesn't matter what you start as.

I'm not a noob to total war games. I've played Shogun and Rome.

[Xaziv]

yea but charging works differently in m2tw and they are a calvary-based faction so it can get tricky... but it doesnt take long to get used to it.

[Musashi]

Spain isn't necessarily cav based... they're a good infantry faction as well... They have pike militia and a faction specific improved pike unit, and decent crossbows. And of course they get musketeers in the late period.

[Ice]

I love sicily. They are isolated enough, but not to isolated. Allied with the Pope, he seems to like me.

[BigTex]

Personally I believe in the toss em in the deep end technique. So I'd say the Byzantines or HRE.

[Ice]

Hmm, just took jerusalem on the order of the pope. Even better, they just elected a cardinal from my faction to be pope. I'm in with the Papal States.

[PseRamesses]

I just love the English setup but must recommend either the Fatmids (Egypt) or Novgorodians (Russia). The Fatmids are rich, filthy rich, and you have alot of rebs to play around with... until the crusaders drops by for a java.
The Novgorodians are sweet, excellent troop selection throughout the game and the whole steppes to conquer and Novgorod is a true cash-cow.

[Rothe]

Pre patch I would actually avoid the English as their best infantry is bugged as hell. Billmen and Dismounted English Knights are utterly useless in killing cavalry, which you would want to do just about in every battle.

I started as the English, but I am thinking to save the campaign for post patch and try out some faction that is less buggy.

[Spendius]

My first campaign with the French was very nice. I couldn't charge properly (and still can't), but their knights are so mean they just do the job anyway. You will have amongst the best troops (French knights, Scottish guards), lots of neighbours to play with.
I wanted some challenge, so I started the Turkish, quite difficult early on with a mean byzantine an almost only horse archers to defend yourself, and are right in the way of crusades. However I now make fat cash, am on my way to conquer Greece and Egypt. I hope the Mongols will be strong (from what I read, they really are !), and especially not passive.
I'll play russian next, what I read on the other thread convinced me.

[wzup]

I began with england on h/h since its been ages (4months) since i last played rtw + rtw bi ... since im not familiar with mtv i find england to be a good choice. You're pretty much isolated & you only have to "worry" about scotland. I´ve been playing for 4days about 4h per day and i´m about to wipe out france (short campaign). After this is done i want to play as the moors on VH/VH.

[PseRamesses]

After this is done i want to play as the moors on VH/VH.

The u have to send your merchants through the mountainpass between Marrakesh and Algiers down to Timbuktu etc. There´s ivory, gold and slaves en mass down there, he he! You´ll be able to net in well over 1k with untrained merchants and the longer they stand there the more experianced they get.