The Best Nations

**Warluster** · 11-26-2006, 00:54

What is the Best Nation and why, Im wondering for when I get it.

**Quillan** · 11-26-2006, 01:09

The best nation is the one you're most interested in playing. It has nothing to do with stats. This is a complex game that takes some getting used to, and if you hate the faction you choose, you're likely to get frustrated and give up on it. Play someone you like, you're more likely to stick it out and learn.

**Darth Nihilus** · 11-26-2006, 01:23

Try them all out. that's the best advice i can give, then you're sure to find the one you like.

**Warluster** · 11-26-2006, 01:53

I mean whats your favourite!

**Sir SillyDuck** · 11-26-2006, 02:11

Hard to say. After playing one, you're interested in the other. Each faction has a few unique units. Maybe more than a few but I need to proceed further in the game yet (not yet quite 1200, I think I'm at 1180 atm).

Must say the Danish appeal a lot to me. I like infantry shock troops, and their axemen (huscarls, viking raiders) are great. The beat every spear they meet. Unfortunatly, I didnt meet a lot of sword-yielding infantry as an enemy yet, maybe because I'm only warring with poland and HRE atm, they seem to use mostly spear.

And I hear people saying that the Danish arent nice to have as an enemy, probably because of their axe-troops.

But I'm looking forward to trying billmen and longbows, and highlanders, and the French cavalry..

**Musashi** · 11-26-2006, 02:29

Yeah... it's almost irritatingly well balanced for a compulsive min-maxer like me.. I kind of miss the first game and the three "All that and a bag of chips" factions (Russia, Byzantium, and Turkey, although Turkey had a bit of a dicey early game)... There's no faction that has that kind of uberness in this one. If you find a faction with amazing ranged power, they probably don't have the best cavalry defense... Basically they all have weaknesses you'll actually notice.

**Dayve** · 11-26-2006, 11:27

My personal favourite is England... Their archers may be outclassed by later longbowmen, and they may not have a counter to cavalry or the best cavalry in the game, but the AI is dumb as a pile of dog poo, so it doesn't matter, you'll still win everytime.

As for them not havign any good infantry as someone above said... I count 5 different types of very good English infantry, so where you get "1" from i do not know.

**Captainrave** · 11-26-2006, 12:04

Also having England you get to control all of the UK...not only is it completely safe from the enemy, but later on they are some of the most profitable provinces. Then you can send merchants to the richest resources of the game (Africa and the Middle East) and in addition your capital will be pretty far away (even if you decide to move it), so you will earn even more money. Playing England is great fun...plus they infantry kicks major ass. And indeed, they have alot more than 1 good infantry unit!

**KARTLOS** · 11-26-2006, 14:38

hichever 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.

**geala** · 11-26-2006, 16:44

I like nations with good troops in the end game as I am more interested in the times around 1500.That is for me HRE, Turks, Venice, France and Spain historically.

If you want to get grey hair on your way to suberb armies, play HRE. You have a lot to suffer a long time being in the middle of Europe. You are at war with 4 factions normally.

Most relaxed play from the above mentioned may be with Spain I think. Will perhaps be my next campaign. Turks look great also because of the very different scenario.

If not I will play as Scotland because of emotional reasons.

As a summary: there is no best faction for me.

**katank** · 11-26-2006, 17:01

Actually the English really only get one viable type of infantry (armoured swordsmen). The dismounted English knights and billmen suffer major bug when fighting cav. Other dismounted types cost too much upkeep.

However, using stakes on longbows is good area denial tactic and stops cav charges. Retinue longbows are also amazing in melee as well as ranged combat.

Then again, troops matter little compared to command. I'm currently demolitioning most of Europe with my English spear militia/longbow/arty/mailed knights armies (distinctly low tech but effective).

**malkuth** · 11-26-2006, 19:36

Well in simple terms the British are the best. Once you take the Island, no worries of attack will ever come, since the AI does not seem to do much Naval Landings.

The only real problem with english is the lack luster Melee units.