Favorite Faction(s)

[nara shikamaru]

First off I'd like to say if a topic like this exists, then don't pay any attention to it. Now then just as the name suggests, post your favorite factions to play as in MTW and VI, and any reasons you wish to share with us.

As for me, I like playing as the Alomohads the most, just for the fact I'm able to take down the Spanish, and Arroganese quickly. Others I play as are the French, Germans, Polish, and the Saxons, and Irish, just because I have each in me, except for the Saxon. So there you go some of the ones I like and some insight into why I love them.

[Derfasciti]

I liked the Irish on VI a lot.

The English were always fun for me.

Spain I liked playing because I wouldn't have to worry much about getting excommunicated if I just concentrated on the Muslims.

[Warluster]

England! Whoa!

[naut]

Haven't had one of these in a while. Umm, I find the small factions most enjoyable; Aragon and the like as they are quite challenging.

[Innocentius]

Of the bigger factions England, Hungary and the Byzantines (Early) are the most enjoyable IMO, but the really interesting factions are the minor ones. Sweden, Norway, Serbia, Bulgaria, Armenia, Bohemia and Burgundy are my favourites, much thanks to their size, nice units and the difficulties it means to start with just one teched up province (and in many cases; just one province in total).

PS. Noticed that I mentioned like half of all the factions in this post

[Martok]

My two favorite factions remain the Spanish and Egyptians--or rather, Castille-Leon and the Fatamids, since I play with the XL mod.

Spanish (Castille-Leon) - First off, they have a strategically interesting position: They're situated on the volatile Iberian peninsula, sandwiched between their Catholic rivals Aragon & Portugal (in XL), with the mighty Almoravid Caliphate to the south. They also have more powerful Catholic neighbors (the French and English) nearby in the north, and will probably have to be dealt with at some point.

In addition, as Derfasciti pointed out, you can focus on taking out the Almos, and therefore not worry about the Pope nagging you to leave your fellow Catholics alone (at least until later). They start with good lands (income-wise), and are easy to manage in the beginning since you start with only 2 provinces. You can also bribe El Cid and his duchy of Valencia, thus gaining both an excellent general and another province with decent income.

Finally, the Spanish get Jinnettes and (later on) Lancers....both of which are very nice units to have in your army roster. The Jinnettes are of particular value in the Early period, as they're practically tailor-made to destroy the Caliph's dangerous AUM's, and are reliable all-around light cavalry in their own right. (Anyone who's fought against Jinnettes can tell you just how effective--not to mention annoying--they can be!) In the later game, Lancers simply own the battlefield; about the only other heavy cavalry unit that can really go toe-to-toe with them are Gothic Knights.


Egyptians (Fatamids) - For me, the single biggest point about this faction is that they possess the Holy Land. In addition to generating tremendous wealth via sea trade (the amount of florins one gets from Antioch and Tripoli is simply absurd), they're also a constant target for Crusades....so it's rarely a dull moment the first couple centuries! In addition, the Eggies are always locked in a 3-way struggle with the Byz and Turks for control of the "Southeast Triangle" (Constantinople, Georgia, & Egypt)--none of these factions will know true peace until the other two rivals are eliminated.

Another fun aspect is that they're Muslim. This means two things: 1) You don't have to worry about finding princesses to marry your sons; and 2) you don't have to worry about the Pope! This does mean, of course, that you can't trust any of the Catholic factions farther than you can spit, but I find this to be a very acceptable trade-off. Oh, and let me not forget the joy of Jihads--there's few things more satisfying than launching a holy war against the infidels that dare try to take my land.

Last but certainly not least, I enjoy the Egyptians' varied unit roster. Saracen Infantry are ideal at holding the center line, Bedouin Camels are primitive but effective light cavalry, hybrid units such as Faris and Nizaris are adept at both missile fire and melee, Muwahids are the ultimate utility soldier (able to perform a variety of roles on the battlefield), and Gazi Infantry kill everything but squid. While they lack a true heavy infantry unit (Gazis & Abyssinian Guards are good, but both have pretty abysmal defense stats), I don't find that to be a problem, as the Sultan's armies aren't supposed to just sit there and slog it out anyway--speed and mobility is where the Eggies' military strength lay.

[Adrian II]

I will give you the short answer. The French are the hidden gem in this game. Challenging from the start, but tremendously rewarding in the end. You will understand what I mean once you get to train those white Chivalric Knights in Toulouse.

[caravel]

I will give you the short answer. The French are the hidden gem in this game. Challenging from the start, but tremendously rewarding in the end. You will understand what I mean once you get to train those white Chivalric Knights in Toulouse.

Agree entirely. There was a time when I would have come up with the old recycled:

"but they're essentially the english, without billmen and longbows and the addition of Gendarmes in late!"

While that may be essentially true, what I do like about the French is the challenge of recapturing your territories from the English, while adding some HRE provinces to your lands, such as Lorraine, Burgundy and Provence. After that you are still in a precarious position and it is not uncommon to be at war with the Aragonese, Spaniards, English, HRE, Italians and a few of the muslim factions all at once. It then get's even more challenging once you get excommunicated and almost everyone is out to get you.

A similar challenges comes in the form of the Italians. Surrounded by potential foes, including the French, Papacy, HRE, Hungarians Sicilians and with the Byzantine Empire not to far away either.

[Adrian II]

After that you are still in a precarious position and it is not uncommon to be at war with the Aragonese, Spaniards, English, HRE, Italians and a few of the muslim factions all at once. It then get's even more challenging once you get excommunicated and almost everyone is out to get you.

Aye.

Or try and unleash that first French Crusade without being clobbered somewhere between Genua and Serbia (since you don't have a fleet to carry you to Palestine).

[Shaun]

I like the Italians, both the Venetians and Geoneese, but I prefer the Venetians. I like thier starting position. The Pople is quite weak, if he attacks he wont excommunicate you, and he will also certianly attack you first, so you can take Rome from him. You also have the weak HRE above you. You are also in prime position to lanch a crusade. They are a good faction. The Geoneese are vanularable to the French and HRE.

[Specialist290]

My particular favorites:

Byzantine Empire - A plethora of expansion opportunities, central placement, really good unit selection, no Pope to worry about, and an uberfortified Constantinople w/ room for plenty of development. I also enjoy the chance to change history and try to rebuild the old Roman Empire

Sicily - You can do just about anything with this faction once you have a good navy going, and you can get that navy out quicker and in more places due to Sicily's and Malta's positions in the central Med. I've played several games w/ these guys, and all of them have been unique and interesting experiences. I've even had a game where they've held Constantinople and most of Asia Minor by 1150! (Turks were smashing Byz, then I killed their Sultan and his heir and mopped up or bribed the resulting rebels.)

Denmark - Again, if you get out a navy quickly enough, you can pretty much dominate the Baltic and / or North Sea. Norway and Sweden are pretty much yours for the taking right off the bat. Plus the Viking units (Early only) are pretty cool, too, as is the victory music

[Shaun]

I forgot to mention the Scillians, they have an amazing starting position. They can either go to north Africa, conquer the Greek lands then Asia minor, they can sail to Spain or Southern France, they can conquer the whole of Italy or they can got to the Middle East. They have a great starting position.

[Sensei Warrior]

I have a preference for the English and the Turks in MTW, with that said there really is no faction I dislike except maybe the Argonese, man what a struggle.

In VI I like the Welsh, with the Scots, Picts, and the Irish following close behind. The Vikings are to easy, the Saxons are to much like the Vikings, and the rest seem just ennh, I can take em or leave em.

[Odin]

Novgorod. Once you take muscovy you can start to build Steppe heavies and really have a horde of your own. I concede it isnt a hard faction to play, but you slap on the XL mod and you get some nice units to play around with (vanagarian swords men, and Druzhina cav).

[macsen rufus]

In VI I really like the Irish - the lack of archers makes it an interesting faction, and developed quite an appreciation for the Northumbrians once I finally tried them. The starting provinces centred around Elmet provide some interesting defensive options, and good east coast trade potential, once you make friends with the Vikings

For the main campaign, I'm now using XL, which adds in some nice new factions. Armenia is a great one - not many unique units but the Armenian infantry rock, and you start in a tough position - negative income and surrounded by Byzantium, Ottomans and Fatamids (Egypt).

But my current campaign is proving to be another favourite -- the Volga Bulgars. They're a Muslim faction with all that implies (Pope, Jihads, Princesses etc etc etc) but they have a great unit roster. Bulgarian heavy cav, steppe cav, steppe heavies, kursibays (effectively armoured spearmen) and my absolute top unit evar, the bashkorts. These guys are the real powerhouse of my VB armies (especially once they come from a master spearmaker + iron province ) And they are CHEAP to train and in upkeep. However they would be easy to misuse and waste their potential. They are armed with throwing spears, so can be mistaken for ordinary javelinmen or bonnacht-type infantry. But careful inspection shows they have a bonus defending against cavalry, so should be used as spearmen with a ranged attack thrown in (sorry, bad pun - not intentional!). Although they appear on the field set to skirmish, they need to hold formation, about four ranks deep (no rank bonus, unlike the kursibays, but the depth helps resist charges), and they are cavalry killers. With good timing their spear volleys are devastating - another reason to hold formation - on skirmish they never fire. As the throwing spears are armour piercing you can imagine what happens when a unit of royal knights charges what it thinks are skirmishers.... often the knights will rout before even reaching the spear wall, with only two or three men left out of twenty. If they do reach the wall, then there are none left after a few seconds.

Kazanchis are also great cav eaters, with their polearms.

So definitely try the VBs, just to have a go with bashkorts. They are a seriously fun unit to have! The downside to the VB is that come High period, no crossbows or arbalests. They are definitely the best faction for dealing with the emergence of the Golden Horde (and you WILL have to deal with the full force of that) - my approach was to go infantry-heavy in defence and hide in the woods - arrows won't touch you, and a combination of throwing spears and polearms will see off anything that comes in after you. The problem is that I really hate fighting in the woods, oy veh! After a few dire straits battles against overwhelming odds, my general had gained stars and virtues, whilst the Mongol Khan was a "Not so bold, weak attacker".

Oh, yes, Varangian swordsmen are also available to the VBs in Novgorod, but only in Early, and I didn't find out until 1199AD - those six units have had to stretch a long way

[Kavhan Isbul]

My favorite faction is the Volga Bulgars in the XL mod. Macsen Rufus has already pointed out many of the things that are nice about them, but I will add a few.
First of all, they present quite a challenge - they occupy the poorest corner of the entire map. Getting sea access is impossible without a major war with a stronger faction, such as the Cumans or Novgorod. Even after a major expansion, the Volga Bulgars stll find themselves in the poorest corner of the map, while superpowers have already taken the richest provinces in the Mediterranean. And their position is hardly defensible, as there are no good chokepoints really - to the west you always find yourself having to defend at least three provinces with no mountains and rivers (there is the Danube at least in Moldova to shield you from the hordes of silver armored katanks). To the south Georgia can provide a one province border, but soon it will be the stage for constant battles with the Egyptians. And of course, the east border is the least safe of all - just wait until the Horde shows up.
As for the unit roster, I agree - it is great. Great in that it is as unbalanced as it gets - no missile infantry other than vanilla archers and hashishin, if you bother to build it, and plenty of cavalry (the bashkorts and slav javelinmen are missile infantry when I come tot hink about it, and pretty powerful, but cannot make up for the lack of arbalests). One of my favorite units is the Cherniye Kolubki, or Black Hoods - the only medium cavalry in the entire game I actually like and find useful. No swords either, unless you get to Kiev and Novgorod and build the above mentioned Variangian Swordsmen. And while the Volga Bulgars have decent heavy cavalry, theirs is weaker than the cavalry of the Cumans, Byzantines, Mongols and later the Catholics, with the downside of a huge upkeep cost. Therefore, getting as early as possible to Moldova for those Avar Nobles is important. Overall, the Volga Bulgars are dependant on conquering certain provinces quickly in order to get any chance at fielding a decent army - you need Kiev and Novgorod for swordsmen, the Scandinavian provinces for the huscarles, Bulagria for Bulgarian Brigands, Wales in late for the best longbowmen. And although the Volga Bulgars are muslim, do not expect them to get camels, desert archers or even Armenian Cavalry - only Kwarizmians, if you need them (I usually do if I play with self enforced homelands). For me, the need to target specific provinces (and I am not sure if I have discovered all possibilities) makes playing with the Volga Bulgars especially fun.

In another mod - Pike and Musket, I found the Kazan Khanate to be just as fun. After all, it is the Volga Bulgars in a later period (it was their aristocracy that ruled in Kazan), and it is very rewarding to try to take over the world in an age of technologically superior pikemen and musketeers with an army of peasants and nomadic herders. I found myself needing to take the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) in order to get maghribahs - essentially North African peasants with crossbows, and the Baltic provicnes for hanseatic urban militia - a decent halberd unit, but still a militia, and so are the streltsi.

To sum it up, a cavalry oriented unbalanced troop roster, combined with a tough geographic position in terms of defensibility and income, makes for a challenging but rewarding experience.