Whom should I play as next?

[zooeyglass]

Fairly simple: I'm finishing up my Casse campaign, if I can keep the Sweboz in check (they are charging into my lands, of course), and can't decide who to play as next. Your advice would be gratefully received.

[Maion Maroneios]

My vote goes to the Getai, mainly because all others are considered hard factions.

Maion

[johnhughthom]

Voted Pontus, Getai are great fun but very easy. Sauromatae are considered hard?

[Megalos Danielos Psychopatos]

It depends on which difficulty u play on...if hard/hard or higher try Hayasdan or Pontus-it will be hard time against Arche Seleukeia+someone else...My vote for Getai-interesting location+cool units. Sauromatae are boring for me.

[Hax]

Hayasdan is really cool. Really difficult, but really cool. On the other hand, the start is somewhat easier than Pontos/Pahlava, because you can hold off the Seleukide hordes quite easily at the mountain passes.

[Dutchhoplite]

My vote goes to the Getai, mainly because all others are considered hard factions.

Maion

What's wrong with hard factions

[Hax]

..he can't hide behind phalangites with those factions <_< >_>

Just kidding Maion.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

I would say Getae; they are not very easy as it sounds, and besides they have the potential to expand into Greece and Rome early on. Not counting the "feel" barbarian factions have, which makes for a cool game IMO. I'm playing Casse now and will play the Arverni or Aedui when I finish.

[Maion Maroneios]

..he can't hide behind phalangites with those factions <_< >_>

Just kidding Maion.

Well, it's the hard truth...

Maion

[SwissBarbar]

I voted for Pontus, because they are really good during my romani campaign, and i'd like to play them soon. And the colour is cool *GG*

[Tartaros]

My go for Hayasdan, because it´s epic with the orontid empire reform!
Sauromatae is also fun, but Hayasdan can use the same tactics - but with alot more diffrent units

[Ibrahim]

Hayasdan FTW!

they got good troops, a potential powerhouse economy, and a chance to simulate the old persian empire.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I cannot let you pick any "barbarian" culture, as theie decendants made this drab looking flag. (GOD its boring!)

http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/images/...lonel_Flag.jpg

[Morte66]

Pontus: Pretty much guaranteed an extended slugging match against the Seleucids, whose armies are much like yours only bigger and better. Settle down for a long hard war. Try to only fight one superpower at a time. Decent tech and government, but not much native recruiting area. You need to improvise a lot with this faction, your troops and position and enemies are always changing.

Getai: Easy start, decent units in an interesting mix. You get to pick your enemies more than most factions. You really need to work that recruitment viewer and plan the conquests/MICs to get your good troops, as recruitment is somewhat variegated. Not so great for tech tree, government zones etc -- government and logistics get to be a bit of a slog once you're past about 15 provinces.

Hayasdan: Pretty much guaranteed an extended slugging match against the Seleucids; you have better cavalry and worse infantry. Your family members will really earn their living on the battlefield. Government reform system makes for a slow start, then it "encourages" you to expand in a certain direction (you get lousy governments unless you go southeast).

Sauromatae: If you're really good at this, you can turn the rest of the map into as big a wasteland as the place you came from -- it's not like you have the tech tree to build anything after conquering. Battles get a bit samey. Horse archers are not natural siege troops, but it can be done.

I'd play the Sauromatae, since they offer the biggest different from your previous faction.

[zooeyglass]

I would say Getae; they are not very easy as it sounds, and besides they have the potential to expand into Greece and Rome early on. Not counting the "feel" barbarian factions have, which makes for a cool game IMO. I'm playing Casse now and will play the Arverni or Aedui when I finish.

i was tempted by arverni and aedui...but after the battles in gaul i've had with them, i wanted something different.

i have in fact tried sauromatae before, back on 1.0 i think. it was fantastic, but those wastes do seem vast, even with the speed of the HAs and all.

thank you for everyone who's been responding. morte66, thank you in particular for your estimation of the pros & cons of each faction, gratefully received. I suppose I'm fairly attracted to pontus/hayasdan simply because they start small, like casse. I imagine all three factions will have fairly different troops (all cavalry strong) from my all-infantry casse style fights. so yeah.....i'll wait and see how the votes pan out. thank you again everyone.

[TruePraetorian]

I said Pontos, mainly because i've played all 4 of those and Pontos was the most interesting.

Though, if you are just coming out of a Casse campaign and want to have the same general "flow" of gameplay, i'd choose the Getai..barbarian is as barbarian does

[penguinking]

Play Hayasdan! Hayasdan, along with the Casse, are my favorite faction. They are challenging but not impossible and have an excellent unit roster, with great horse archers and heavy cavalry and high-quality late game heavy infantry, together with excellent foot archers. I played Pontos and it was pretty good but not nearly as cool as Hayasdan.

[zooeyglass]

I said Pontos, mainly because i've played all 4 of those and Pontos was the most interesting.

Though, if you are just coming out of a Casse campaign and want to have the same general "flow" of gameplay, i'd choose the Getai..barbarian is as barbarian does

oh no, i don't want to play another very similar faction, hence steering clear of arverni/aedui/sweboz. obviously there are differences for all of those factions, but yeah, thought i'd head further east. :)

hayasdan vs pontus it seems now...what to choose, what to choose.

[zooeyglass]

so as it's 12 to 10, pontus it is. just taken sinope but feel i must disband just to stay alive financially.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Getai sound fun. They have a nice starting position and a great unit variety. Unit variety is really why I did not choose Sauromatae. One gets mostly all cav/HA battles with them - which are fine in their own respect, but it is fun to play with infantry as well, not just cavalry. Pontos has phalanxes, and I do not like phalanx-based factions. It is just too easy and boring to fight battles with phalangites IMHO. As Hax said, "he can't hide behind phalangites with those factions" if you are not playing a phalanx-based faction.

Phalanxes, even the levy ones are almost invincible in EB. It is very difficult for soldiers to pass through those pikes. Phalanx will inflict hugely disproportional casualties on your enemy, as many as a thousand soldiers dead for a single unit on Large Unit Scale. All the while not tiring even a bit. If you keep a phalanx in guard mode and let the enemy come to you while pressing "Backspace" every time you notice a phalanx unit is actually fighting (the crossed swords on the red background on a unit card), the phalanx will kill just as man men with no tiring at all.

Haysadan is is another possibility, but I did not choose it because i simply do not like the units they get. Plus, I am not really a big fan of the Eastern factions anyway.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Getai, absolutely. Nothing better then to rampage into Greece and totally show them Greeks what a "barbarian" empire can do.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Getai, absolutely. Nothing better then to rampage into Greece and totally show them Greeks what a "barbarian" empire can do.

ACIN is right. C'mon people! Vote Getai for 2008!

[Pontius Pilate]

I voted Pontos because they have a neat unit roster and I like the look of their elite phalagites. also they're the only civilized faction out of the choices given. so it's either them or nomads and barbarians. you should really play as the Romani though and conquer the known world, just like they did in real life.

[Apgad]

I've gone with Getai, as I found them lots of fun.

Unlike some other "barbarian" cultures, you can't really sit back and develop your economy. To support your armies you really need to keep expanding or raiding all of the time. Most of your units are very offensive, so if you enjoy a fast-moving, on-the-go type of attacking campaign, they're a good choice.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Yes, victory for all us Getai lovers.

[LordCurlyton]

No Phalava choice? Boo! You can stay nomad or go go Parthian, plus they have better units/recruitment/economy/position/etc than Hayasdan, especially once you start up with the reformed gov'td. And they get an Early and Late FM. Otherwise I'd play Getai and be original and storm the Baltics and Russia. Let those overbearing Greeks slaughter each other for all you care.

[zooeyglass]

No Phalava choice? Boo! You can stay nomad or go go Parthian, plus they have better units/recruitment/economy/position/etc than Hayasdan, especially once you start up with the reformed gov'td. And they get an Early and Late FM. Otherwise I'd play Getai and be original and storm the Baltics and Russia. Let those overbearing Greeks slaughter each other for all you care.

i was tempted by pahlava, but my last campaign (prior to the casse one) was baktria, so i felt a break from that side of the map would be good, hence the rather central choices.

they may well be the next one. although a northwards getic expansion, or a hayasdan campaign, are both strong contenders.

[Ignopotens]

Yes, victory for all us Getai lovers.

Woot!

[johnhughthom]

Poor Sauromatae, probably the least loved faction in EB.

[Ignopotens]

Poor Sauromatae, probably the least loved faction in EB.

haha, I actually just started a campaign with them a couple days ago

[Celtic_Punk]

I voted for Getai, ive never played as them but they seem pretty interesting, and a very rich and fascinating history too.