Xl

[Xehh II]

I've just downloaded XL and I haven't even tried to play a proper Campaign, can someone please suggest a faction.

[Martok]

The Bohemians and Portuguese are standard favorites of mine, although you may find them to be a bit challenging (I have yet to take the poor Bohemians very far in my campaigns!). The Scots are fun, especially if you want to smack the English upside the head a lot. The Norwegians can be interesting, although they're sort of a one-trick pony, if you will -- far and way their best strategy it to just conquer Scandanavia very early on, starting with Sweden and working your way clockwise.

A number of people enjoy playing as the Cumans, as they have a fairly unique unit roster that includes Bashkorts and Cuman Heavy Cavalry (which are probably the best HC unit in the Early game). Quite a few players like the various Christian knight Orders in the High period, particularly the Teutonics and the Crusader States (and Maloncath currently seems to be having a great time with his Hospitaller campaign as well). And then there's the Genoese, who have the potential ability to rival Venice and the Byz in becoming a great maritime trading empire....

As you can see, there are any number of factions that are worth checking out. It really depends on your playing style, and/or if you wanted to try something different from what you usually do.

[Peasant Phill]

You forgot theVolga-Bulgars. A Steppe faction with some good infantry and a destiny to take on the Golden horde full force.

[Xehh II]

Well I have to try one of those factions soon but fight now I'm playing the Serbs, man I love Voynuk Swordsmen!

[Maloncanth]

Lithuanians
The Lithuanians are a faction that can be quite exciting. They are utterly surrounded by enemies in every possible direction. Either the Teutonics or the Cumans or the Mongols are always nearby, so they are often in a constant state of horde invasion. But they play extremely smoothly as well and lend themselves to extreme amounts of aggression on the player's part. The Lithuanians probably border or nearly border more different factions than any other in the game perhaps excepting the Hungarians.

Fun times.

They do have a tendency to be outclassed (often grossly outclassed) in terms of units though and until you conquer the whole Steppe, forget about having good borders. Against this they often have nothing more than the fact that their Grand Duke is the awesomest guy in the area at the start of game.

Caution: Lithuanian military uniforms may cause cancer.


Volga Bulgars
The Volga Bulgars as mentioned above. They do have several unique units and an interesting mix of infantry with "Curse Berries" (a type of spear) and Kazanchis although the latter is the weakest polearm in the game. Unfortunately, despite being on the steppes, their cavalry is absolute rubbish. They have a challenging time breaking out during Early and can be an absolute roller coaster in High when the Horde is on the horizon.


Cumans
Finally, the Cumans can be a nice beginning faction. They tend to draw the ire of the entire eastern side of the map. They have no good spears ever and no heavy infantry of any kind whatsoever after Early and start off with a sprawling but underdeveloped and poorly managed empire. However, they have access to magical horses and CHC's are the cureall of Early XL. If you like cavalry charges and want to slam horses into virtually anything and watch it crumble like so much chalk, this is your faction.

[Peasant Phill]

Volga Bulgars
The Volga Bulgars as mentioned above. They do have several unique units and an interesting mix of infantry with "Curse Berries" (a type of spear) and Kazanchis although the latter is the weakest polearm in the game. Unfortunately, despite being on the steppes, their cavalry is absolute rubbish. They have a challenging time breaking out during Early and can be an absolute roller coaster in High when the Horde is on the horizon.

I don't entirely agree with what you said above about the Kazanchis. IMO they aren't the weakest of all the polearms. This is what I've written earlier about them:

A unit comparible to billmen (worse melee, better defence) or Swiss Halbardiers (better defence, less armour, better morale) available in early. Agreed, they need some teching up but by the time most other factions get their hands on those new pole arms, your troops will have painted theirs red with the blood of hundreds of soldiers.

They are also exactly the same as the Korean variety the GH get. You can't compare them to normal halbardiers because they serve another task just like billmen and Swiss halbs.

Statwise they maybe just a a bit less then billmen, but they are the only halbs I know of you get in early. If you play it right, you get veteran polearms before other factions can train their first unit.