Which Faction Should I Play as Next?

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Succesful Pontos Campaign Succesful. At least that's when I repelled the 25th Seleucid stack besieging Antiocheia while I rampaged on Greece and the Pontic Steppe, fat bank account and the likes.

Now I was thinking of either playing the Romaioi or a barbarian faction, or anything that uses little in the way of phalanxes since I got a bit tired of the style. Here's what it comes down to:

Arverni
Aedui
Getai
Sweboz
Casse
Romani
Lusotannan

[Andy1984]

If you haven't played as the Romani, I suggest you try them. They may not be difficult, but their many reforms and their construction options are good reasons to consider them. Besides these things, their elite units (pedites extraordinarii, camillian trairii,...) are really sweet and you get to fight the Aedui, which can be though on the higher difficulty levels.

However: if you're a blitzer, I'd choose a different faction.

[HunGeneral]

I suggest Romani: they are really a unique experience.

[Megas Methuselah]

Choose the Aedui, then migrate to the northern Balkans, or a bit further to the north in modern Poland, or maybe central Anatolia.

[Kevin]

I'd say try the Lusotannan. I've never played them but they sound good. They get the best infantry in the game (Dosidataskeli) and the best horse in the east (Iberi Lanceari). Though, their armies are more about skirmishing than fighting I think.

Another choice would be the Getai, they have some good units, or the Sweboz because they can train 4exp units
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=121193
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=120688

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I thought Dosidataskeli had been taken out?

Anyway, do a Sweboz campaign. I'm recently thinking about doing the same either, but I had to revert many changes everytime I play them, basically switching manually between Sweboz and Arche Makedonias files...

The Sweboz are just great and have a really cool feel to them... not caring about the mediterranean political fuss, but maniacally trying to subjugate the Lugii, than invading Gaul. Yeah!

[mountaingoat]

play as the casse , u can spent most of the time sitting around.

[Kevin]

Nevermind, don't play as the Sweboz. They're boring as . All of their units look the same :/

[Geticus]

If you are sick of the heavy infantry grind then you might consider Casse, use chariot bodyguards exclusively as cavalry, along with skirmisher/light infantry hordes and see how many chevrons and how strong of charioteer forces you can build up during the invasion of the mainland.

[antisocialmunky]

SABA. Man up.

[Apázlinemjó]

You should try an SPQR campaign, it will offer a different experience after the H&A tactics of the phalanx based factions. Or if you want to go berserk then pick any of the barbarian factions. Casse is the easiest and the Gaul factions are the hardest of them imho.

[Aemilius Paulus]

You have not played EB 'till you played the Romani. No further explanation required.

[satalexton]

indeed, thes best barbarian faction to go berserk and stack-spam with is the romani. Their economy is strong, and their infantry multiply like rabbits. you can easily make 10k a turn while fielding 3 or more stacks.

[Hotseat_User]

ARVERNI!!!! After a Pontus-Game you should play them. Funny thing in my running game was, that Galatia rebelled to my in autumn '72. Crazy as I am, I roleplayed a journey of one of my starting fms. Right now I've abandonned my holdings in MicraA, Seleucid have gone rampage-mode, and Installed a buffer Aedui-state down there after I pushed them out of Gaul. Currently holding Gaul and the Po-valley + Tylis. Ransacked Sicily and Rome, Sicily is colonizied by Aedui-Settlers to cut down the Spam-Barbaroi.
I have plenty of options to roleplay - ohhh and before I forget it, the sweboz would have killed me already, but FD safed my a*, currently waiting for a CasseFM with at least a halfstack to move him to Scandinavia. Btw. Winter '42.

[Blxz]

Go averni. AI cannot control them and they always get steamrolled. Give the poor faction a chance. Plus their green is way better than Aedui green -> deciding factor

[Ca Putt]

so you don't want to fight phalanxes(had the same problem after a KH campaign ^^)? the least phalanx influenced faction is probably the Casse, Getai have one of the best unit rosters yet I think you'll have to face quite a lot of phalanxes(provided you don't only expand to the northwest and the KH defeats macedonians and Epirotes)
I personally never really tried playing the casse I don't like chariots´, still they have cool champion units.
the gauls wold be an option aswell.
but I would still suggest the Sweboz, they face phalanxes farely late, and they have infantry bodyguard which is a great difference to pntic kinsmen.
you will neither fight with HAs nor with sophisticated formations, in fact sweboz are exellent formation breakers.

[Macilrille]

I am sort of on the "You have not played EB till you have played Roman"- wagon as I love playing them.

However, they are still embroiled in Mediterranean politics and culture. Influenced by Hellas and will have to fight many of the same enemies as you ahve already faced. Using the same H&A tactic against them.

My other favorite faction is IMO a much better choice Raaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!

They are nothing like any civilised faction and face different enemies (I always go for Casse as my first major conquest when I have put my economy in order and created a safe base). The units are different (get Medininkas), the buildings are different, the FMs are different, and you run about in the big northern woods. It is such a different experience from any other faction I have tried (Rome and Macedonia) that it is as starting on EB anew...

[The Celtic Viking]

Forget about the Romani. After you've played Pontos successfully, the Romani are just too easy to take seriously, as you can field practically endless amounts of stacks and still make tons of money, with no real threat. There won't be any challenge at all unless you vigorously impose clear, restricting rules to make it so, and that's no fun.

Out of the others, anything goes, but I chose the Arverni because they are my favourite faction. All of them are excellent choices, but if you don't just want to stop playing with phalanxes but also against them, then the Getai should quickly be ruled out as well. Pick whatever has the most appeal for you.

[Lysimachos]

Why don't you just play all of them, perhaps in alphabetical order?

[DaciaJC]

Play as the Getai, naturally. You say you are tired of fighting with phalanxes? Then wipe them out with Drapanai or a host of other excellent units.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Play as the Getai, naturally. You say you are tired of fighting with phalanxes? Then wipe them out with Drapanai or a host of other excellent units.

Have you ever typed a post without including either Getai, Dakians, or Drapnai?

Forget about the Romani. After you've played Pontos successfully, the Romani are just too easy to take seriously, as you can field practically endless amounts of stacks and still make tons of money, with no real threat. There won't be any challenge at all unless you vigorously impose clear, restricting rules to make it so, and that's no fun.

Yeah, that is really the only downside of playing them. Otherwise, they have the most unique & developed everything, including troops, skins, building trees, voicemod, traits, offices, a nice location, rich history, etc, etc.

Really, the EB Team put more effort into them than the next three or four most-worked-on factions - if not more. Most other factions hare a great deal, but Romans are neither Hellenic, "barbarian", nomadic, nor anything else. Qarthadastim had the chance to be equally unique, but we simply do not have enough information on them, as they were the losers of Punic Wars. And still, I would rather go with Romans . Carthies never were militaristic, highly organised peoples. Mercenaries are hardly unique.

It is not about whether you love Romans or not, it is simply the gameplay quality factor.

[Moosemanmoo]

I'd reccomend the Romans for their beastly VCs and like AP said they're absolutely unique

[Owen Glyndwr]

Haha they're unique in that they derived their ideas from other people...bit of a paradox, no?

But seriously, if you don't get bored by the Romans, they should be fun. I suppose all the choices have their own elements to make the game fun, so why not do what I do, and play them all?

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Really, the EB Team put more effort into them than the next three or four most-worked-on factions - if not more. Most other factions hare a great deal, but Romans are neither Hellenic, "barbarian", nomadic, nor anything else. Qarthadastim had the chance to be equally unique, but we simply do not have enough information on them, as they were the losers of Punic Wars. And still, I would rather go with Romans . Carthies never were militaristic, highly organised peoples. Mercenaries are hardly unique.

Ehrm you should remember that the line between "Mercenary" and "Non-Mercenary" was blurred at that time. Pyrrhus employed a large number of mercenaries, and the effectiveness of his army was top notch. Same, alas, with Carthage - they employed extremely large numbers of "mercenaries" and apparently did not miss the need for Citizen soldiers as mainstream history makes us tempted to believe.

I would rather trust more a mercenary army at this time than a citizen soldier one. OK, the Citizen soldiers are far more loyal, but the Roman army of the time was merely a militia with a touch of semi-professionalism. Citizen soldier armies are only effective when every citizen soldier is replaceable, a truism that was unique only to Rome at the time. All the other Mediterranean powers in the game either did not have the manpower because they were too scarcely populated, or because their effective pool was restricted to people who wouldn't turn their weapons against you on the first opportunity.

Forget about the Romani. After you've played Pontos successfully, the Romani are just too easy to take seriously, as you can field practically endless amounts of stacks and still make tons of money, with no real threat. There won't be any challenge at all unless you vigorously impose clear, restricting rules to make it so, and that's no fun.

That's what I was thinking. But then most "barbarian" factions have so limited VC's, and that's one of the reasons why I like Romani. They get to fight every conceivable army on the game, and not just this army, or that army. They may simultaneously fight heavy infantry in Gaul, archers in the Steppe, and phalanxes in the East.

But then Romani are also so obscenely easy it's not fun! The SPQR should become a proper challenging faction in EBII.

As you see I'm still divided . Good posts alas.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Oh and how did Meth vote twice ?

[Moros]

Getae or Saba'!

[Aemilius Paulus]

Oh and how did Meth vote twice ?

Muahahaha! Muahahahahaha!! Hohohoho!!!







Ahem, sorry. Must have been the FunDip I just snorted...

[Kevin]

Play as the Getai, naturally. You say you are tired of fighting with phalanxes? Then wipe them out with Drapanai or a host of other excellent units.

Have you ever typed a post without including either Getai, Dakians, or Drapnai?

You know what? I'm gonna try them just because of Frontline

[Aemilius Paulus]

You know what? I'm gonna try them just because of Frontline

Then you are in for a disappointment. Drapnai is basically all the Getai have...

*scurries away*

[Kevin]

Hm, I just checked their units on multiplayer and you're right
Only Drapanai and the armored version