Help me decide....

[Xtiaan72]

I've been playing Eb for quite a while and I want to go back and try a Medieval II campaign ( even though I'm a little disappointed with it) I want to try a campaign with the most challenging faction. Which faction do you think gives the best challenge?

[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.

[Xehh II]

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

Why is that hard? I did that and it was easy.

[TevashSzat]

How about this, play HRE and do not blitz instead take only a maximum of 1 rebel settlement a turn until turn 60. Until then, you must fight a defensive war even if someone else declares war on you. On turn 60, declare war on all of you neighbors at once and get excommed if you are faced with it. That would at least provide some very intense and large battles and would be pretty hard to do extremely well in.

[FactionHeir]

That would be tough for any faction though and in fact easier for HRE because of superior troops. Playing complete defense and keeping to your own lands is quite boring too.

I'd still suggest playing Denmark focussing on infantry instead of trying to get chivs as quickly as possible

[HoreTore]

Well.... As I am an infantryman, danes are no match. I don't see poor cavalry as a con, I use very limited cavalry, and you don't need anything else than order knights anyway.

And hungary, poland and russia are all dirt poor, that's why they'll be a challenge.

[econ21]

I would imagine playing a "turtling" game as Egypt or even Byzantines would be fun. No sooner would you have endured the crusades, but the Mongols and Timurids would come along.

[TinCow]

Why is that hard? I did that and it was easy.

Well, frankly, they're all easy if you do them right. The hardest games are ones where you handicap yourself in order to compensate for your vastly superior skill over the AI. Get creative. For instance, try the following:

Play as England. Do not expand into any rebel territories. Immediately build a semi-large fleet and load onto it a large army with all of your generals. Sail all the way to Antioch and capture the city. Immediately disband all units in Europe, destroy all happiness buildings, pump the taxes up, and make them revolt. Play the rest of the game as England in the Middle East, with a 10-20 turn lag in development and the Mongols and Timurids fated to invade your lands. If that isn't hard enough for you, do it with Scotland instead.

[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 !

[Foz]

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 !

I agree with your take on this, Odin. It does no good for players to come in and say "no way, that faction is easy." The fact is that to some players all the factions are easy. The point of the thread should be to compare and contrast the experience of playing different factions, not to try to judge the experience of any given faction on its own. It does everyone far more good for players to comment that a faction is harder or easier than the others, and explain why, than it does for them to simply comment that a faction is "easy."

[Odin]

I agree with your take on this, Odin. It does no good for players to come in and say "no way, that faction is easy." The fact is that to some players all the factions are easy. The point of the thread should be to compare and contrast the experience of playing different factions, not to try to judge the experience of any given faction on its own. It does everyone far more good for players to comment that a faction is harder or easier than the others, and explain why, than it does for them to simply comment that a faction is "easy."

I have no problem with people posting exactly what they desire and the means they desire. I have been here 3 years give or take and I understand that we have lots of members that english is not thier first language so communication is often times blunt.

That said, I learned a long time ago that the web is a place where you cant worry to much about what other people think. I agree with you that a compare and contrast post is far more productive then

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

, and besides it didnt answer the posters question.

I'm glad its easy for that guy, still I stick by my reccomendation Scotland is one of the harder catholic factions to play.

[gingergenius]

Not necessarily the hardest, but the most challenging: the Turks.

After all the initial rebel settlements are hoovered up, you have borders with Byzantium, Russia and Egypt, all of whom are powerful. You have excellent and interesting units to fight with, and varied terrain (from steppe to mediterraenean to desert). Plus, being muslim means you are likely to have crusades declared against you, meaning a lot of catholic bashing. Then come the Mongols and the Timurids, at which point your empire will be tested to breaking point, as your troops will most likely be on your frontiers rather than at the heart where the Mongols invade.

[Czar Alexsandr]

I like playing Russia. What thosse two catholics do in my games is always interesting to.. Well the Hungarians and Polish really like to give you problems on your border. And while you're engaged in a fight with two catholic powers you also have to worry about thosse Mongolians who are arriving in a couple years. And all with the knowlege that in a matter of years the Timurids will show up to. If the Turks wern't in a fight with the Byzantines all the time they'd also be a threat. And who says they won't be? Lol. Sorry. The key to Russia is to plan ahead.

I'm really good with winning the battles but sometimes the situation really gets out of hand. But definately a challenging, exciting game.

I'm starting a new campagin where I hope to make the steepes Stalingrad all over for thosse Mongols.

[Furious Mental]

If you want a challenge move the starting date forward by 120 years and play as the Turks or Russia on VH/VH.