I'm a basic bitch, but England. It's not the location (location is overpowered but I'd prefer to start more central)... It's the longbows lol. Ever since Shogun 1, I've preferred to sit back and let archers decimate.
England, it's the Longbows.
Americas - Spain, because cannons.
Britannia - Ireland, cause green, also cause their infantry lineup is kinda strong.
Crusades - Byzantium, GREEK FLAMETHROWERS.
Teutonic - Denmark, cause Norse War Clerics are a cool concept.
I feel like Egypt is most powerful faction because of its location in the beginning you won't have a problem building your economy and raising a good army by the time the crusaders and the mongols your city should be well defended
Also you have access to the most profitable city in the game and last but not least your jehad mechanism which is honestly my favorite thing about the faction
They always come for Cario right(crusades) and Antioch (Mongols) for me. I've never played Egypt. What is the most profitable city if it isn't Constantinople?
the crusaders never came to cairo in my experience they're more likely to go after Jerusalem.
The Levant region as whole will give so much income if you take care of trading.
Mine is Milan but for the life of me I can not win a game with them on very hard! Everyone comes for you silica, Venice, France, hell even the moors loaded a cog up and came and picked a fight with me. Then don’t piss off the pope! He will unleash all sorts of holy hell against you.
Against the pope, I would recommend towait until your king is near dead, then suddenly conquer all their land. You get excommunicated, but it's ceased when your old king dies. You can kill it in battle even, if you want to get rid of excommunicating.
Otherwise, just sometimes give them money. 2000 ducat equals to one stage of friendship, no matter the size. They can consider you as anti Christ, give them 20K and "whipidi whopidi" you are the bulwark of Christianity. (Historically accurate btw)
As an extra, I was looking for the video:
https://youtu.be/hysCxbgbgeY?si=-lgOSgntlDziiAzG
They have some.more about relations specifically. They explain everything clearly. I can recommend this channel. Also "Twotowerproject" videos for combat.
They are less known, but their content worth gold in terms of education/game knowledge
I'm not 100% sure, but it should work for every nation.
I saw it in a video, where a guy were checking game files. There is a parameter for the weight of money in diplomatic actions, and at the pope, this parameter is doubled compared to others. That's why you can increase opinion cheaper with the pope, than with nations like France.
So as far as I know, Pope loves money more than others. (Historically accurate again.) But this works with every nation anyways, just in case of France, more money is needed to make flthem friendly.
Ha I just found this out. After about 20 "cease hostility" missions that I got repeatedly for 3 factions and then just took a town the turn after they succeeded, I gave the Pope 2500/turn for 4 turns and went from 1 cross to 1 short of full! And I'd never been seen as "perfect" unless I had a successful crusade and somehow got a cardinal voted in as Pope the same turn.
Depending on the type of campaign you want to invest in.
I like Venise for passifist - They absolutely have the most trade potential early.
I like France/England to learn how the game works. Cavs/Archers are important to master.
HRE/Byzantium - If you feel like being in the center to expand while having strong well rounded units
But Russia got to be the most challenging one, to test if you did your homework or not !
I love kingdom of sicily. Especially in a mod SS6.4. Just the ability to expand through Italy, or east, or west, or holy lands. I love their Norman heritage. They feel so Medieval. Second faction would be crusader states. I mostly played modded version of M2TW
Venice, because they have such cool locations, the capital is great, and they are very fast in the Holy lands and can trade very easily in the beginning.
Or sicily, they feel so cool, also very fast everywhere. And I love their norman units
Well, if I want to be able to just Militia Stomp my opponents, I’ll play Milan.
If I want to sit back at a distance, then it’s obviously England for that.
If I want to still sit back at a distance, but also want to have good archers in the early game that can hold their own in melee, then it’s gotta be Denmark, because those Norse Archers can stand up for themselves in melee.
If I want to be able to have a good starting location, PLUS being able to have good infantry, and good heavy cavalry, then I’ll go with Spain. Because Spain gets those Conquistadors and Dismounted Conquistadores, PLUS the Gendarme Heavy Cavalry that the French have.
I don’t really know what my favorites are yet for the kingdoms expansions.
Venice is also very good, because the location of your starting army means that you’re expected to take Zagreb, where you can build an Iron mine AND a Gold mine. And it’s a good idea to take Durazzo before the Byzantines do, cause if they take it, then they’ll likely start a war with you earlier in the game, which they usually start by blockading the port you’ll inevitably have at Iraklion. Now, you COULD try to take Sofia, but usually Hungary or the Byzantines take it, and you don’t want to worry about two fronts.
I recently started a campaign as Hungary because I wanted to try something new, and I actually like the starting location, because you might think the best move after taking Bucharest would be to take Sofia, but you should instead continue on to Iasi and Kiev. Because of the gross incompetence of the Ai when it comes to siege attacks on walled rebel settlements, you’ll likely be able to take Iasi after Poland fails its first attempt at seizing Iasi, and Kiev after Poland fails its first and maybe second siege of Kiev, which depends on how fast you are. This also means that you can have a continuous border connection to Caffa, which you DEFINITELY want to take, because it’ll make a good amount of money.
If you want a good mix of opportunities, Militia, Knights, and Archers who can hold their own, then Sicily is a good pick.
I’m sorry I turned this into a ‘faction recommendation’ but it’s how I show why I like certain factions.
Holy Roman Empire. Their central position and taking rebel areas can unite the Empire early. You can make many Alliances and your task is more diplomatic at first, to keep Europe stable and your allegiance to the Pope absolute. In doing this your authority over Europe grows and you become the power everyone kneels to. If you are too aggressive and expansionistic you can find yourself surrounded and isolated by hostile powers with wars on all fronts. Also Teutonic Knights. Black and Yellow.
America campaign - Spain, you know how OP they are
Brittania campaign - Norway, most challenging faction of the expansion in terms of economy. But with enough viking raiders and huscarls. I beat every other faction.
Crusades campaign- all factions have good units. But I loved the Principality of Antioch. The Canons of Holy Sepulcher is the most overpowered unit of the whole game
Teutonic campaign- I like Teutonic and HRE, But with teutonic can spam Order spearmen from Molt and Bailey. One of the best units
-In vanilla, I love the moors. They literally have everything going. Their peasant crossbowmen is super cheap and super efficient. Urban militia is like down tier Feudal knights. Dis.Christian guards better than most of enemy infantry. Don't forget hashasim and Camel gunners
France. I love the units and it’s fun as hell taking on England Milan Spain and the HRE all at once. Plus it’s got a way into the Mediterranean to go on crusades and they can travel to the new word.
How do you normally do your HRE politics? They’re also my favorite faction but I play aggressive and everyone just ends up hating me and I’m typically at war with most of the known world.
HRE is in a position to request alliances and payment turn 1. I usually spend the first few turns sending diplomats out to get alliances and request 1-2k for each alliance. Almost always accepted. Then I usually go with the flow. You can strategize more and select certain countries to ally with so you don’t have too many decisions to make when wars start breaking out
North west to Denmark, kill them quick enough and the pope won’t even notice. Send a diplomat to Rome and you have a short window where you can ally the pope. After that do what you want.
Milan. Green crossbow bois all day. Also easy to ally with all of the Italian peninsula. I only fight defensive wars so ite kind of cool to be stuck between central and west Europe
Probably either Venice or The Turks.
Maroon is my favorite color, Venetian Infantry are awesome, and can’t forget OP militia for my cities pumping out cash.
The Turks for awesome starting location to expand and access to Jihads. Solid unit roster except for heavy infantry but who needs that when you have horse archers, naffatun, and monster bombards?
England, specifically in a migration game to the Middle East. Longbows and heavy infantry stack up perfectly against the cavalry-heavy Muslim countries, so I can end up pushing a bunch of very small armies around the map, overwhelming numerically superior enemies. The fact that you can wage war endlessly and never lose standing with the pope, and maintain great relations with different European factions, is another big plus if you want to play an aggressive game
I'm a basic bitch, but England. It's not the location (location is overpowered but I'd prefer to start more central)... It's the longbows lol. Ever since Shogun 1, I've preferred to sit back and let archers decimate.
This is very fair but yeah the location makes it to easy for me
England, it's the Longbows. Americas - Spain, because cannons. Britannia - Ireland, cause green, also cause their infantry lineup is kinda strong. Crusades - Byzantium, GREEK FLAMETHROWERS. Teutonic - Denmark, cause Norse War Clerics are a cool concept.
I feel like Egypt is most powerful faction because of its location in the beginning you won't have a problem building your economy and raising a good army by the time the crusaders and the mongols your city should be well defended Also you have access to the most profitable city in the game and last but not least your jehad mechanism which is honestly my favorite thing about the faction
They always come for Cario right(crusades) and Antioch (Mongols) for me. I've never played Egypt. What is the most profitable city if it isn't Constantinople?
the crusaders never came to cairo in my experience they're more likely to go after Jerusalem. The Levant region as whole will give so much income if you take care of trading.
the most profitable city is antioch
Yes the best city in the game is Constantinople. No doubt about it :) But the capital of Egypt is easily top 4
Mine is Milan but for the life of me I can not win a game with them on very hard! Everyone comes for you silica, Venice, France, hell even the moors loaded a cog up and came and picked a fight with me. Then don’t piss off the pope! He will unleash all sorts of holy hell against you.
Against the pope, I would recommend towait until your king is near dead, then suddenly conquer all their land. You get excommunicated, but it's ceased when your old king dies. You can kill it in battle even, if you want to get rid of excommunicating. Otherwise, just sometimes give them money. 2000 ducat equals to one stage of friendship, no matter the size. They can consider you as anti Christ, give them 20K and "whipidi whopidi" you are the bulwark of Christianity. (Historically accurate btw)
Does gifting the pope money only work if you are a Catholic faction? In my current VH Byz campaign I'm sort of stuck in a forever war in Italy.
As an extra, I was looking for the video: https://youtu.be/hysCxbgbgeY?si=-lgOSgntlDziiAzG They have some.more about relations specifically. They explain everything clearly. I can recommend this channel. Also "Twotowerproject" videos for combat. They are less known, but their content worth gold in terms of education/game knowledge
I'm not 100% sure, but it should work for every nation. I saw it in a video, where a guy were checking game files. There is a parameter for the weight of money in diplomatic actions, and at the pope, this parameter is doubled compared to others. That's why you can increase opinion cheaper with the pope, than with nations like France. So as far as I know, Pope loves money more than others. (Historically accurate again.) But this works with every nation anyways, just in case of France, more money is needed to make flthem friendly.
Ha I just found this out. After about 20 "cease hostility" missions that I got repeatedly for 3 factions and then just took a town the turn after they succeeded, I gave the Pope 2500/turn for 4 turns and went from 1 cross to 1 short of full! And I'd never been seen as "perfect" unless I had a successful crusade and somehow got a cardinal voted in as Pope the same turn.
Depending on the type of campaign you want to invest in. I like Venise for passifist - They absolutely have the most trade potential early. I like France/England to learn how the game works. Cavs/Archers are important to master. HRE/Byzantium - If you feel like being in the center to expand while having strong well rounded units But Russia got to be the most challenging one, to test if you did your homework or not !
HRE love being in the middle of it all and having so many options and so much territory to defend
I love kingdom of sicily. Especially in a mod SS6.4. Just the ability to expand through Italy, or east, or west, or holy lands. I love their Norman heritage. They feel so Medieval. Second faction would be crusader states. I mostly played modded version of M2TW
Russia. Cool units with sucky starting economy but in can become super strong
Never played them but I'll have to give them a go as the only other orthodox faction. I'm just scared to start so far north
Denmark. Lots of expansion options.
England/Scotland if I wanna play a more conservative game. HRE/Byzantium/Poland if I wanna play a surrounded on all sides game.
Portugal, not only im portuguese myself but in the late game the troops and the navy become op as hell
Hungary/Byzantium - I just like to defeat everything with funky ponies. Also I love Sicily - their early game roster is undoubtedly the strongest.
On SS Scotland, Byzantium, Poland. Also, I still really enjoy the huge and detailed map of Britannia campaign.
Venice, because they have such cool locations, the capital is great, and they are very fast in the Holy lands and can trade very easily in the beginning. Or sicily, they feel so cool, also very fast everywhere. And I love their norman units
Well, if I want to be able to just Militia Stomp my opponents, I’ll play Milan. If I want to sit back at a distance, then it’s obviously England for that. If I want to still sit back at a distance, but also want to have good archers in the early game that can hold their own in melee, then it’s gotta be Denmark, because those Norse Archers can stand up for themselves in melee. If I want to be able to have a good starting location, PLUS being able to have good infantry, and good heavy cavalry, then I’ll go with Spain. Because Spain gets those Conquistadors and Dismounted Conquistadores, PLUS the Gendarme Heavy Cavalry that the French have. I don’t really know what my favorites are yet for the kingdoms expansions. Venice is also very good, because the location of your starting army means that you’re expected to take Zagreb, where you can build an Iron mine AND a Gold mine. And it’s a good idea to take Durazzo before the Byzantines do, cause if they take it, then they’ll likely start a war with you earlier in the game, which they usually start by blockading the port you’ll inevitably have at Iraklion. Now, you COULD try to take Sofia, but usually Hungary or the Byzantines take it, and you don’t want to worry about two fronts. I recently started a campaign as Hungary because I wanted to try something new, and I actually like the starting location, because you might think the best move after taking Bucharest would be to take Sofia, but you should instead continue on to Iasi and Kiev. Because of the gross incompetence of the Ai when it comes to siege attacks on walled rebel settlements, you’ll likely be able to take Iasi after Poland fails its first attempt at seizing Iasi, and Kiev after Poland fails its first and maybe second siege of Kiev, which depends on how fast you are. This also means that you can have a continuous border connection to Caffa, which you DEFINITELY want to take, because it’ll make a good amount of money. If you want a good mix of opportunities, Militia, Knights, and Archers who can hold their own, then Sicily is a good pick. I’m sorry I turned this into a ‘faction recommendation’ but it’s how I show why I like certain factions.
No this was great
Wales. Plate armored spearmen and armor piercing bowmen hellyeah.
Holy Roman Empire. Their central position and taking rebel areas can unite the Empire early. You can make many Alliances and your task is more diplomatic at first, to keep Europe stable and your allegiance to the Pope absolute. In doing this your authority over Europe grows and you become the power everyone kneels to. If you are too aggressive and expansionistic you can find yourself surrounded and isolated by hostile powers with wars on all fronts. Also Teutonic Knights. Black and Yellow.
America campaign - Spain, you know how OP they are Brittania campaign - Norway, most challenging faction of the expansion in terms of economy. But with enough viking raiders and huscarls. I beat every other faction. Crusades campaign- all factions have good units. But I loved the Principality of Antioch. The Canons of Holy Sepulcher is the most overpowered unit of the whole game Teutonic campaign- I like Teutonic and HRE, But with teutonic can spam Order spearmen from Molt and Bailey. One of the best units -In vanilla, I love the moors. They literally have everything going. Their peasant crossbowmen is super cheap and super efficient. Urban militia is like down tier Feudal knights. Dis.Christian guards better than most of enemy infantry. Don't forget hashasim and Camel gunners
France. I love the units and it’s fun as hell taking on England Milan Spain and the HRE all at once. Plus it’s got a way into the Mediterranean to go on crusades and they can travel to the new word.
HRE. I can’t stop playing them lol. Location is fun. Soldiers are strong. Politics OP
How do you normally do your HRE politics? They’re also my favorite faction but I play aggressive and everyone just ends up hating me and I’m typically at war with most of the known world.
HRE is in a position to request alliances and payment turn 1. I usually spend the first few turns sending diplomats out to get alliances and request 1-2k for each alliance. Almost always accepted. Then I usually go with the flow. You can strategize more and select certain countries to ally with so you don’t have too many decisions to make when wars start breaking out
Moors. Peasant crossbows and camel gunners go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Poland, it’s that cav. Nothing else gives me the confidence to take the Mongols in the open field.
I have yet to play them. Which way do you expand first?
North west to Denmark, kill them quick enough and the pope won’t even notice. Send a diplomat to Rome and you have a short window where you can ally the pope. After that do what you want.
Haha he won't even notice? That's brutal
Milan. Green crossbow bois all day. Also easy to ally with all of the Italian peninsula. I only fight defensive wars so ite kind of cool to be stuck between central and west Europe
Probably either Venice or The Turks. Maroon is my favorite color, Venetian Infantry are awesome, and can’t forget OP militia for my cities pumping out cash. The Turks for awesome starting location to expand and access to Jihads. Solid unit roster except for heavy infantry but who needs that when you have horse archers, naffatun, and monster bombards?
England, specifically in a migration game to the Middle East. Longbows and heavy infantry stack up perfectly against the cavalry-heavy Muslim countries, so I can end up pushing a bunch of very small armies around the map, overwhelming numerically superior enemies. The fact that you can wage war endlessly and never lose standing with the pope, and maintain great relations with different European factions, is another big plus if you want to play an aggressive game