Most overall weak faction?

[Carl]

Some good points their although I’d like to raise a few points:

First Border Cav are the second best light cav I’ve been able to find for a western European faction in the files or game to date (although I haven’t had much experience with many of them). If Scotland are weak against Horse archers then so is every other Western European faction. So either the game is viciously imbalanced or in fact it's balanced and Scotland will do as well as everyone else, (i.e., they have an even chance). Based on some of what I’ve heard and my own experiences with Jinites it's probably a case of IMBA.

The point about archers is a good one, but you have to remember that long range volleys WON'T kill very many, yes I’m sure 1 unit of mine at that range, but they aren’t going to have 1 unit of archers for every unit of infantry I have and still have an infantry force capable of finishing the remnants off. If they come in close they either have to bring supporting units with them (which my infantry battle line can chase off), or suffer a cav charge with no support. To close to that range they will also have to sustain archer fire from my own NHA, they aren’t great archers and they won't get more than a single point blank volley in before the enemy starts shooting back, but they will do a fair bit of damage themselves.

To summarise the archer point:

The enemy has 3 choices.

1. He can sit at long range with his archers protected by his infantry. I probably can't charge him with my cav, but he also is going to struggle to kill large portions of my army like this without having most of his army as archers.

2. He can send his archers up close to me without supporting infantry. they're easy meat for my Border Horse at this point.

3. He can send his archers up close with infantry support at which point I can engage his Infantry with my infantry and send my border horse into the archers then.

None of these solutions are perfect. Do it well and react well and you'll beat them senseless. Get anything wrong or don't react just right and you'll be beaten senseless instead..

The claim on infantry superiority is totally false once you fix Pikemen and the shield Bugs. Noble Pikemen will even beat DEK with an animation fix and no doctored stats with about 50% losses to the Pikemen. In addition, DEK have beaten every other non-pike infantry I’ve thrown at them with only Vargarian Guard and some fixed Sword & Shield units giving any stiff challenge.

I haven’t done more extensive playing with Noble Pikemen, (haven't got them in the campaign yet), but I intend to, just to see if I can find anything that can beat them head on. As I honestly don't believe anything can beat them, (elephants and better Pikemen aside anyway).

I'm not trying to say Scotland are easy to win with, but a mostly melee based infantry heavy force is not at a disadvantage IMHO, IF the infantry is good enough. NHA, Noble Swordsmen and Noble Pikemen really are that good IMO. Most 2-Handers, (even the fixed one), are pretty poor against fixed Pike and fixed Sword & Shield units, it's worth remembering that as fixing them shifts the whole dynamic around.

Pikes can decimate other infantry now, Swordsmen can beat 2-Handers, Cav Hate Spears, and JHI/Fixed Bills are no longer so OTT.

Don't get me wrong, I’m not saying Scotland are easy to play as, they require a distinctly different style of play to use compared to other armies. Just because of their defensive nature and lack or really strong cav and missile units. I'm not going to disagree with Russia giving them a hard time, the combination of HA, and combined Missile Melee unit will really challenge Scotland as it's effectively the Scots own army with the Pike component replaced with better Cav/HA.

I'm also not saying they are not below average in terms of power. But saying they are useless and stand littlie chance against anyone else is just wrong IMO. They also don't deserve the weakest faction title IMO, their isn't really a faction that does, (that I’ve played as anyway), as all of them have strong points and weak points. Some are a bit more powerful, and some a bit weaker, but you can't really say either way who’s best as it depends who’s fighting who and the army compositions as to where the advantage lies.

And the fact is, almost any army can/will probably be defeated by an all-Horse-Archer army, that problem isn't exclusive to the Scots!

Looks like my educated geuss early on in this post was right...

[hoetje]

I think there shoud be a poll in this thread?

[Zuraffo]

A quick note on using all-calvary army: Always use spy to open gate for you. 3 good spy in a city can net about 90% chance to open gate.

Overall weakest faction: There is none, I supposed. I think the game did quite well with the location/troop balancing. Unit rooster is not the only consideration in this game. I would even say it's not the most important consideration. I think playing style is an even more important deciding factor. For e.g. players not used to using HA will probably find the muslim faction weak, and players who are too used to all-cav army will think Scotts are too slow. On the whole, I think there is only faction that fit your play style the best, rather strong/weak.

[Olmsted]

With the proper rush to grab rebel lands and use the most efficient units for your faction, none of the factions are that weak. On the whole, I think M2TW is very well balanced, especially compared with games like RTW or AOE3. But that's a whole different topic.

[Czar Alexsandr]

When I said prototype archer I mean't prototype infantry I believe... Anyways yes. Archer mellee soldiers.

They must be good. And yes Russia has the all mighty Dvor archer. Well armoured and armed with a armour peirceing axe. Of course Russia goes straight from peaseant and militia archers to Dvor.

Scotland's clearly gonna be better for thosse used to fighting mostly infantry just as Russia's more cavalry orienated. For me I would agree that the weakest faction will all depend on your limitations. For me personally.. Scotland! Infantry move to slow. And getting in close to fight? Not my thing. Speed and agility are good for my tactics. Projectiles and cavalry, all I need.