Which faction(s) do you play as?

[Martok]

We haven't had a good old-fashioned poll here in a little while, and this is a question that -- strangely enough -- I've not actually seen asked in a very long time.

So who *do* you normally play as in vanilla MTW/VI (main imperial campaign)? I would have say that for me, the Spanish & Egyptians remain the two factions I play most frequently, with the Danes, Byzantines, & Sicilians rounding out my top 5 (in that order).

[caravel]

Turks, Byzantines, Almohads, Egyptians. In that order. In terms of "favourite factions" then the Hungarians, Novgorodians and Poles would be in there with those.

[Ironsword]

English, French, Italians, Turks, Danes. - In that order. Mostly in high too.

I would have voted, but "You can not vote on this poll"

[caravel]

You cannot vote as you are still a junior member.

[Aldgilles]

In general, I like to start small, so the Danes, Poles, or Hungarians are my favorites. But I also like the Byzantine lineup so I favour them too. And last but not least, the English and French as the 'Classic' medieval countries, especially the French if you can manage to drive off the English. (but basically I've played them all one time or the other...)

[Jxrc]

Danes and Sicilians are the one I play most often.
I like England but it gets a bit too easy when you've dispatched the French.

My preferred faction are the HRE and Aragon but theyr make a more demanding campaign so I only play those when I feel up to it.

Got the game since 2002 and I still have not tried the Almohad ... Probably due to the fact that I came to hate those guys when playing the unpatched original version when they almost always ended up being the dominant faction.

[seireikhaan]

Come on! Best faction, hands down, is Hungary! You get to fight the horde in whatever manner you choose to, plenty of rebel provinces, a mix of eastern cavalry/horse archers and western chivalry! Plus, they start with two provinces that have Iron, they can get Moldavia easily for Avar Nobles, and, if you play your cards right, you can get a very nice 'triangle' of territory stretching from Venice to Kiev to Constantinople, making for a very wealthy empire indeed. Plus, the almighty bridge leading to Kiev from the west all but saves the average Hungarian player from the Mongol threat.

[putts]

You cannot vote as you are still a junior member.

HERESIES!!!


DOWN WITH THE INFIDELS of Poll Nazism!!


On a side note.......HRE and Poland

[caravel]

Come on! Best faction, hands down, is Hungary! You get to fight the horde in whatever manner you choose to, plenty of rebel provinces, a mix of eastern cavalry/horse archers and western chivalry! Plus, they start with two provinces that have Iron, they can get Moldavia easily for Avar Nobles, and, if you play your cards right, you can get a very nice 'triangle' of territory stretching from Venice to Kiev to Constantinople, making for a very wealthy empire indeed. Plus, the almighty bridge leading to Kiev from the west all but saves the average Hungarian player from the Mongol threat.

I agree that Hungary are indeed one of the best factions, though the poll question was "Which faction(s) do you play as?", which is why I have replied as such.

Anyone who hasn't tried Hungary yet though really needs to give them a go. I didn't bother with them after about 3 years of owning the game. Finally I was bored one day and decided to give them a go. I discovered that they are a superb faction as they are the only catholic faction that has horse archers and a special horse archer unit of their own and as such can fight battles in the Turkish fashion. It wasn't long before the Hunnic Horde had taken most of the east.

[macsen rufus]

I'm a (not-so-Young) Turk by natural inclination, I like my hybrid infantry and horse-archers, and never having to worry what the Pope thinks

Actually, I think I've still not tried the Hungarians, for some reason Eastern Europe just doesn't appeal to me that much.

[putts]

Following Caravel's post about Hungary's nice special battle unit....

I was very disappointed with Poland's Horsemen. In the end, they are a slightly more expensive Steppe so once you have Kiev, there's really no point in building them.

[Taedius]

The Hungarians are a great faction, but after installing XL they became harder. But since the question refers to vanilla...

I find myself starting campains with the HRE on a regular basis. However, their size and position often turn out to be more a hassle than a challenge. They require a perserverance that I cannot always muster.

I also like the Aragonese. Fun position.

[seireikhaan]

I agree that Hungary are indeed one of the best factions, though the poll question was "Which faction(s) do you play as?", which is why I have replied as such.

Anyone who hasn't tried Hungary yet though really needs to give them a go. I didn't bother with them after about 3 years of owning the game. Finally I was bored one day and decided to give them a go. I discovered that they are a superb faction as they are the only catholic faction that has horse archers and a special horse archer unit of their own and as such can fight battles in the Turkish fashion. It wasn't long before the Hunnic Horde had taken most of the east.

True, I wasn't directly answering the question, but in my bizarre, twisted, and convoluted thought process, I tend to associate, in the game world, the word 'best' with the word 'favorite', in that they tend to mean one and the same. And as they are my favorite, I tend to play them the most in Vanilla.

[Raz]

Ahh, the Turks... I also voted for HRE, English and French.
My first campaign was with HRE, but I didn't get very far before I was broke financially. The Turks were my first successful campaign and I've been playing them the most over other factions ever since.

[Gaius Scribonius Curio]

The Byzantines and the Russians are interesting due to the alternate units, the Turks and the English being my favourite otherwise. Always start in early or high.

[Kerdied]

Byzantines and (sometimes) Egptians.

[Xehh II]

Byzantines, Russians, Danes and sometimes Italians.

[Youngie]

You cannot vote as you are still a junior member.

Shouldnt i be classed as a junior member, yet i got to vote.

[Ravencroft]

Poles, Turks, Byz and Spain/Almos in that order.

I voted Polish then.

By the way, I only noticed now that I've been promoted to a member! Joy!

[caravel]

Shouldnt i be classed as a junior member, yet i got to vote.

You are not a Junior Member, but a full Member, hence why you are allowed to vote.

[Heidrek]

Chose England, Danes and Ruskies.

I love the idea of Vikings taking over the world. Nothing but unruly berserkers with axes who love to fight. The idea of these guys from their single little province in Demark dominating Europe is damn cool.

The Russians i like for their Boyars. In XL there are plenty of other options for good hybrid cavalry, but the mix of solid infantry, ranged units and a good hybrid cavalry unit ames them very capable. plus they have easy access to Steppe Cavalry as a good fast light cavalry unit with enough Charge to make it's presence felt as a strike unit.

[caravel]

You need to play as Novgorod in early Heidrek. This is a faction that has Vikings and Boyars. They are very easy to make playable. Just go to your MTW VI 2.01 installation directory and find the following path:

\campmap\startpos

For example this is mine:

E:\Medieval - Total War\campmap\startpos

You will find a text file here called "early.txt". First make a copy of it as that all important back up file* then open it with notepad and find the following section:

//========================================
//Active Factions
//which factions are to appear in the game
//and which of these factions are playable
//========================================
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ALMOHAD		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_BYZANTINE		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_EGYPTIAN		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ENGLISH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_FRENCH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_GERMAN_HRE	FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ITALIAN		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_POLISH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_SPANISH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_TURKISH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_DANISH		FT_MAJOR
				   
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ARAGONESE		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_HUNGARIAN		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_SICILIAN		FT_MAJOR

SetActiveFaction:: FN_NOVGOROD		FT_MINOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_PAPIST		FT_MINOR

Change as follows (don't worry about sorting it alphabetically):

//========================================
//Active Factions
//which factions are to appear in the game
//and which of these factions are playable
//========================================
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ALMOHAD		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ARAGONESE		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_BYZANTINE		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_DANISH		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_EGYPTIAN		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ENGLISH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_FRENCH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_GERMAN_HRE	FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_HUNGARIAN		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_ITALIAN		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_NOVGOROD		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_POLISH		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_RUSSIAN		FT_MAJOR
SetActiveFaction:: FN_SICILIAN		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_SPANISH		FT_MAJOR 
SetActiveFaction:: FN_TURKISH		FT_MAJOR 

SetActiveFaction:: FN_PAPIST		FT_MINOR

You can also make the Papacy playable if you wish by changing the FT_MINOR to FT_MAJOR.

When playing as Novgorod avoid GA mode as it will cause a crash when you check the goals.





*If you mess up the early startpos file you can find it at the following path on your VI CDROM:

X:\Setup\Data\Campmap\startpos

Where X is the drive letter of your CDROM driver.

[Spongie]

You can also make the Papacy playable if you wish by changing the FT_MINOR to FT_MAJOR.

Whoa, what effect does that have on excommunications and crusades?


(I've only played as the English as this is my first MTW game, so I haven't voted so as not to skew the results.)

[caravel]

Whoa, what effect does that have on excommunications and crusades?

Well the important thing to remember is that MTW has two enitities for this purpose: The Pope and Papacy faction. The former is the crusade authorising, warning delivering annoyance. The latter is the actual faction that works like any other faction except that it can continually reappear, cannot be wiped out through assassination of the leader and cannot produce heirs. The Papacy faction is also under the protection of the Pope.

When playing as the Papacy you have no control over the Pope only the Papacy faction. This means that you cannot authorise or call for crusades nor issue warnings to other catholic factions.

[PBI]

I moved on to RTW a while ago, but I recently dusted off my copy of MTW and played an Early campaign as the Almohads. I found it a very rewarding challenge trying to muster an army to fight the Mongols out of only light infantry, archers and light cavalry.

But my all time longest and best campaign was as the Italians, mostly because the Byzantines expanded and built up an empire almost as large as mine covering all of Eastern Europe, setting the game up for a huge late-game showdown.

The factions in the later games don't seem to do this, it's a shame.

[caravel]

The reason that this doesn't happen in later games such RTW is because the AI does not cope with the campaign game very well and diplomacy in general is very volatile. Generally only the highly overpowered / fantasy factions such as the Roman factions, Britannia, Egypt and maybe Pontus will expand significantly. The STW/MTW map enpowers the AI to do just as well as the player due to it's simplistic design.

[putts]

Just modded up to XL on Friday.

Now, I need to add the Lithuanians to my list. That faction is really fun.
I love having Boyars for my Royal Guard. Of course, you have to deal with fighting them too because Kievans and Novgorods have them as well and one of those two is likely to be your first conquest but the AI doesn't seem to be able to wield them as well as I do so that's all good for me :P

[ArtistofWarfare]

I agree that Hungary are indeed one of the best factions, though the poll question was "Which faction(s) do you play as?", which is why I have replied as such.

Anyone who hasn't tried Hungary yet though really needs to give them a go. I didn't bother with them after about 3 years of owning the game. Finally I was bored one day and decided to give them a go. I discovered that they are a superb faction as they are the only catholic faction that has horse archers and a special horse archer unit of their own and as such can fight battles in the Turkish fashion. It wasn't long before the Hunnic Horde had taken most of the east.

I had a Hungarian campaign about 3 years ago...H/H ...I remember it was at about the peak of my days.

I very well may be trying a similar faction when I load up M2TW:K this weekend. I've been constantly going at it with the old western european, infantry/knight scheme for quite some time now...and my MTW:VI campaign is Italy. I think in M2TWK I'll go with something in the central Balkans or the Turks...

Trying to force myself to get used to a little more ranged/speed. Naturally, horse archers are the answer. Been thinking about it for 2 weeks, even though I've been sidetracked picking out my new computer.

Still, I'd have to say that all in all I'm best with the English. Quick hit raids in any campaign followed by virtually offensively defensive approaches to enemy counter attacks. It's just a great faction to wage war with...

That backbone infantry, the longbows, auxillia and their knights up on lush hilltops is just not something anyone wants to deal with. Throw in some mercs from Scotland and you have a deadly army that is by no means overly expensive. Not to even mention the cast of characters as far as leaders/generals that goes with England.

Then again if you ask me tomorrow, I'll probably say another faction. You know how it is...

[cegorach]

I have played only a little before I have switched to mods.... so Poland would get my vote here.

[Motep]

France, Italy, and The Danes in that order. They have fun campigns, and I get a kick out of having a Europe solely dominaed by Denmark. It appelas to my nerdiness.