Help me decide....

[Xehh II]

Even though i've never played as them I would say the HRE, you will be strong but you're surrounded by enemies or Russia when I played Russia, I lost.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I thought the HRE were a rather easy play since you could expand into all the surrounding rebel regions and triple your cities in 3-4 moves becoming a global superpower.

For a economic and expansionalist challenge try Hungary. Take Sofia on your first or second turn so you have a castle to defend against those pesky Byzantine.

Also because Byzantine and Russia can't take advantage of crusades/Jihads so they actually provide reasonable challenge as far as the game allows.

[TevashSzat]

HRE/France/Milan/Venice tends to get in multiple wars on different front, but of those 4 HRE is probably the hardest since you will most often be attacked instead of the one attacking

[FactionHeir]

HRE surviving the first few turns gets powerful units though.

I personally found playing Scotland or Denmark to be the most challenging.
Both don't get any decent cavalry until very late and don't have any good ranged units. Total reliance on infantry with light cavalry backup.

[HoreTore]

Well, HRE is probably the easiest faction by far for a blitzer... The army they start with is about what you need to conquer the world...

For the greatest challenge, I would say Russia, followed by hungary and poland. The steppes are dirt poor, and you'll soon have the mongols roaming about...

[FactionHeir]

Russia Hungary and Poland all got great cavalry, horse archers and fast light cav in addition to mercs such as alan and armenians nearby. That supposed to be challenging? :p

[Odin]

I personally found playing Scotland or Denmark to be the most challenging.
Both don't get any decent cavalry until very late and don't have any good ranged units. Total reliance on infantry with light cavalry backup.

You know I am playing the danes right now and I didnt find it very hard to get a small empire up and running. I disagree with non quality ranged units as the danes, Norse archers with a bit of expirence are a nice complimentary unit to the Danish OOB. I do agree that scotland and Denmark are harder, but Denmark has the ability to expand to Oslo and Stockholm with little to no fear of anyone else taking them before you.

Denmark also has plenty of rebel cities/castles around it and just needs to pick which ones to grab before the race starts.

You and i do agree on Scotland though that is a harder faction to play and the one i would reccommend to xehh

[FactionHeir]

Err what are OOB?!

[Odin]

Err what are OOB?!

An order of battle (often abbreviated as ORBAT, OOB, O/B, or OB) is an organizational tool used by military intelligence to list and analyze enemy military units. In United States Army practice, an order of battle should relate what an American unit might be expected to encounter while on field operations. Orders of battle analyze enemy units, personnel, and equipment.

The United States Army breaks down an order of battle entry by the following factors:

Composition: the command structure and organization of headquarters and subunits
Disposition: geographical locations of unit headquarters and subunits
Strength
Training
Tactics used by the enemy unit
Logistics: how the enemy unit obtains its supplies
Combat Effectiveness
Electronic Technical Data
Miscellaneous
Personalities
Unit history
Uniforms and insignia


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle

I would have described it myself but this is far more definitive and a decent read. :)

[Xehh II]

You and i do agree on Scotland though that is a harder faction to play and the one i would reccommend to xehh

I have already played as Scotland, they are the most easy so far.

[TinCow]

If you want a difficult game, play Portugal and DO NOT attack Spain until they attack you or you pass turn 10.

[Odin]

I have already played as Scotland, they are the most easy so far.

good for you.

@Xtiaan72: Scotland is by no means super hard, none of the factions are really, but as catholic nations go, its one of the harder ones.

Good luck !