Favorite Faction To Play And Why?

[PBI]

STW: Hojo. Not a particularly exciting faction, just the first TW campaign I ever played and the one that got me hooked on the series.
MTW: Turks. Great mix of units and balance between early and late units.
RTW: Seleucids. Virtually every unit type represented in their army, so as soon as I got bored fighting with one army setup, could switch to another to spice it up. Also, the tough start always improves a campaign; if the start is too easy, as with the Egyptians, I feel as though the hard part has been done already.
RTW:BI: Sassanids. Good smashy cataphract fun.
M2TW: Turks again. Once again the ability to switch from horse archer/light cavalry to heavy infantry/archer to late-period gunpowder keeps the campaign interesting.
M2TW:K: Wales. A nice uphill start and a true heavy spearmen/archer faction, something not found in vanilla.
M2TW:BC: Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Wales of the desert (without the longbows).

[clibanarii immortal]

I don't have STW and MTW so I'm just going to continue from RTW onwards
RTW: Parthians, horse archers ftw! and as a person who uses an extremely aggressive diplomacy strategy, I have 3 wars running at the same time; in my current campaign, I have one in the steppes against sarmatians, another in the homeland against armenians and another in the fertile crescent against egypt and seleucids.
RTW:BI: Sassanids, because they're the only ones who do not have major horde problems
RTW:EB: SPQR, I find their campaign is the most interesting, other than Hayasdan's reform government campaign
M2TW: Byzantines; they somewhat resemble the seleucid's situation from RTW
M2TW:K: Wales, "Has a number of units capable of fighting in multiple roles" (as quoted from the manual)

[uruk-hai]

stw:will get back to you on this one [loads up game]


mtw:byzantine.strat off with littie land or lots of low tech citys.and haveing 2 glowing empires at your front door.makeing for a nice campain.

mtwvi: bearly play this one. so don;t have a favorite for mtwvi .yet.


rtw:two many to pick.romans for there great units.greek citys for there strong spears and spartans.and many others.

rtwbi:western roman empire.there roman. strong infantry.good spears units. they have one good horse unit that is as fast as a horse archer. and is vrey likely to beat them in a one vs one.eagles can be train any were .


rtwalexfotr:gondor and the white hand aka isengard.gondor for haveing to battle the endless hordes of mordor and battleing the white king.the white hand:for haveing uruk-hai.geting to kill many good guy heros like aragron.geting to be evil and have strong units!destroying the forest to fuel my fires of war.


m2tw:byzantine empire.has ever unit you would ever need.gets to take over the big money maker the middle east.geting to fight the hordes.can take rome with out most of the know world hateing you.geting to rebuild the roman empire.

m2twk:byzantine. greek fire. being rich and at last can get pay back on them truks for all they did to you in m2tw.

[CountMRVHS]

MTW: Byzantines: great units that gradually got less great, tough enemies and a precarious position.

VI: I played this a lot more than the big map of MTW, and all factions are fun. In the end, though, I have to go with the Northumbrians. Any faction that makes you really appreciate a little unit like Woodsmen has something going for it!

Dark Age (my mod for VI): Either the Romano-British or Rheged. The Romano-British have great land and potential for wealth, and some great units, but they're constantly having to shuttle armies across the countryside to put out fires. Rheged is fun because of their simple unit roster and brutally difficult starting position.

RTW: Almost impossible to pick here, but I'm having a lot of fun with Spain at the moment. Very interesting starting position with potential for lots of ambushes and fun defensive warfare.... although I do miss the "typical barbarian" unit roster, where you'd just make a big long line of infantry, group 'em, Warcry, and charge.

BI: Can I have 3 favorites? The Western Roman Empire for its crazy start position, great units, and perfect "end of the empire" feel. The Saxons for their great infantry lineup. The Romano-British (I once modded it so you could play as the RBs with Eburacum as your only starting province) because you can do like Macsen Wledig, declare yourself Emperor with the British legions, and invade Gaul!

Fourth Age: Total War: As the good guys, Rohan. Make a long line of Riddermark Spears and Riders of the Mark, group them, and charge the enemy... riding down Easterlings and Orcs is just awesome. As the bad guys, Harad or Rhun. Rhun has some nice barbarian units, great horse archers, and *WAINS*!!! Harad has, of course, Mumakil. Plus, Harad has access to some fun buildings, a good navy, good agents, some decent cav, and fairly good-looking if not always effective infantry.

[caravel]

STW/MI: Shimazu

MTW: Turks, Egyptians, Almohads or Byzantines

VI: Welsh or Picts

RTW: Numidia, Gaul, Greeks or Brutii.

BI: N/A

M2TW: N/A

[professorspatula]

I suppose for me, it would have to be the Julii. Just because, and I expect I'm not alone in thinking this, but it feels like the proper Rome experience. It's the closest you get to being Julius Caesar, and unlike the other Roman factions, you won't be drowning in riches during your campaigns so the challenge is arguably higher.... although the barbarians you face are probably a weaker foe than the Egyptians and Eastern enemies that the Scipii face, and the phalanx armies the Brutii are up against. I just enjoy fighting in forests with my legionaries, rather than featureless desert plains. The Roman unit roster and buildings seems more complete than the other factions too. I do enjoy playing as the Seleucids with their mighty war elephants, but their campaign like most others gets stale fast, whereas the Roman campaign has the benefit of a civil war to keep things interesting for longer.