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Sorry if this has been done before.
I started playing Total War with Medieval.
My favorite factions for Medieval are the English and Holy Roman Empire.
For Rome: the Brutii, the Scipii, the Seleucids, and the Carthaginians.
For the Barbarian Invasions expansion the Franks, the Eastern Empire, and the Sassanids.
What are your favorite factions?

For Rome it's all about the Greek Cities. The Phalanx is just awesome, and there's no better way to defend a city than with a phalanx at the gate.

In Barbarian Invasion, I like the Eastern Empire. I'm still not good enough to really do anything with them, but they are fun.

I'm a nationalistic bastard sometimes, so for Medieval it's Poland.

In Rome, either the Seleucids or any of the Roman factions. Yeah, I know, not very creative, but they both kick ass.

I loved running Poland in the original M:TW. Interesting to see how they're gonna be handled in the sequel.

In Rome, I normally run the Scipii. Fighting the Gauls is fun. Haven't played enough of Barbarians to really get a feel for the factions.

I'm a hopeless nationalist when it comes to the Total War series:

- Shogun: Not Applicable

- Medieval: Greeks (i.e. the "Byzantines"): I will always love the Kataphrakt, Pronai Allagion, the Varangian Guard, and "Byzantine Infantry". The infantry are great because they're both powerful and come in large unit sizes. Competitive infantry even in the late game, where the Greeks are weak.

- Rome: Seleucid Greeks: Silver Shield Pike, Kataphrakts, Companion Cavalry;

- Medieval 2: Greeks, for the same reason. The Pronoia Allagion better be in it though. Also, the Byzantine Infantry seem to have changed somewhat- their swords are supposed to be curved, not straight.

EDIT: in essence, I'm a massive cavalry fan. I love the freedom of maneuver and the unstoppable charge, as well as the triumphant pursuit when the enemy routs. Infantry are there to pin, not to win battles. I hate it in Rome when I don't have sufficient cavalry to annihilate the enemy and the enemy is crushed solely by my infantry, because then they can get away clean.

My armies are very horse-heavy.

Played only R:TW and Barbarian Invasion.

For pure Rome, the Julii, I love to hunt in Gaul, with the Brutti and Seleucids tied for second place. Nothing is more fun than shooting at a phalanx formation with heavy catapults set to flaming ammunition

For BI the Roman Empires, east and west. I really like the plumbatarii.

And I'm really looking forward to M:TW2

Shogun - I used to love the Mori. Warrior Monks for the win.

Medieval - Holy Roman Empire.

Rome - Praetorians. People feared me when I played as Praetorians (insane kill ratios 'r' us?)

Britannia/England.

You just gotta love the two fingered salute.

Rome - Seleucids. I'm right on THAT bandwagon.

Like Vympel, I use my heavy infantry to simply pin the enemy and charge/break them with cavalry. That's basically the tactic I use in 98% of battles, and the AI always, always falls for it. I only lose when I don't have enough (or good enough) heavies to hold the whole enemy line for the ten seconds it starts to rout them.

The Julii/Romans/West Roman Empire and Greek Cities for Rome. I love the Greco-Roman... well, everything.

For Medieval, I'm more torn. I've got a top 5 in no particular order of: England, France, Holy Noob Empire (am i rite), Eastern Roman Empire (;)), and Russia.

For R:TW: what Gandalf said. Nothing beats the Phalanx in the defence (and a formation full of pointy sticks just looks awesome) + Greece starts in one of the richest areas of the game


Never really got into R:BI tough

Rome: Selucids and the Spanish. You have to edit a file to get the Spanish and there isn't much to do with them, but damn do the Bull Warriros kick ass. I also managed to take control of 'the holy land' by sailing a fleet down the African coast.

Medievil: I only remember playing with the English. Highlight was definately managing to get my inquisitors to burn the Pope at the stake (IIRC he had the 'atheist' trait.)

Vympel wrote:EDIT: in essence, I'm a massive cavalry fan. I love the freedom of maneuver and the unstoppable charge, as well as the triumphant pursuit when the enemy routs. Infantry are there to pin, not to win battles. I hate it in Rome when I don't have sufficient cavalry to annihilate the enemy and the enemy is crushed solely by my infantry, because then they can get away clean.

My armies are very horse-heavy.

That's how I like to roll.

Once when playing as Egypt, I fielded an all cavalry army. It was an insanely fun way to play. In a battle I sent a large group left, send one right, then had them both charge for the centre of the lines. In the ensuing chaos many units will rout, and the rest will make for easy pickings. Of course, this was only because the Scipii were sending army after army into my kingdom, so I wasn't fighting to gain territory, but to annihilate.

When it came time to take cities, I just moved some infantry up.

Vympel wrote: EDIT: in essence, I'm a massive cavalry fan. I love the freedom of maneuver and the unstoppable charge, as well as the triumphant pursuit when the enemy routs. Infantry are there to pin, not to win battles. I hate it in Rome when I don't have sufficient cavalry to annihilate the enemy and the enemy is crushed solely by my infantry, because then they can get away clean.

My armies are very horse-heavy.

Hehe. I know what you mean. I used to cackle like Palpitine in Viking Invasion on the original MTW. Have a nice Saxon army with heavy infintry and spearman backed by archers. Always attacked with a numericaly inferior army so the AI happily charged in to attack.

Used the armored spearman units as a wall to receive them (with my archers pelting them all the way in), swung the Hussars out from the flanks onto THEIR flanks to pin them....then all my cavlery who I had casualy walked around the edges of the battle suddenly charge into their rear, grinding them up against infintry to the last man.

Always costs me spearman, but they're expandable. Preaty much used the same tactics in RTW. Receive the enemy infintry with a solid mass of good defending infintry, keep the heavy infintry on the flanks to curve in and charge THEIR flanks from the side (or even slightly from the rear), then charge the cavelry in. Often sending a few contingents away to take out missile units or seige engines...or cowardly enemy Generals who decide that it would be a good time to leave.

Often sending a few contingents away to take out missile units or seige engines...or cowardly enemy Generals who decide that it would be a good time to leave

I wonder what the balance of enemy Generals suicidal-factor will be in Medieval 2. In Medieval they fled the field all the time, it was hard to corner them unless you had cavalry waiting along their route, in front of them, since they were so fast.

By contrast, in Rome enemy Generals often stayed in a battle that they should really flee. Much easier to kill enemy generals in Rome.

That's also in terms of their life- how many times in Medieval had you surrounded a single King with countless spearmen and he just wouldn't die? Who is this guy, Conan?!

Vympel wrote:

Often sending a few contingents away to take out missile units or seige engines...or cowardly enemy Generals who decide that it would be a good time to leave

I wonder what the balance of enemy Generals suicidal-factor will be in Medieval 2. In Medieval they fled the field all the time, it was hard to corner them unless you had cavalry waiting along their route, in front of them, since they were so fast.

By contrast, in Rome enemy Generals often stayed in a battle that they should really flee. Much easier to kill enemy generals in Rome.

That's also in terms of their life- how many times in Medieval had you surrounded a single King with countless spearmen and he just wouldn't die? Who is this guy, Conan?!

Heh, nearly forgot about the godlike avatars of destruction that were faction kings in Medieval.

Even compared to Rome though, if the demo's any indication, Medieval 2's generals die if the wind changes direction.

Heh I remember once in MTW I was attacking some Byzantine army. I wipped them out and their Emperor -2 Royal Bodyguards and him- started to run for it. I had planed this, wanting to kill him as the line ended with him and spread 60 cavelry along his only real escape route. Killed his escorts almost instantly, then sat back to watch him die.


The fucker killed FOURTY of my elite cavlery before breaking through and getting to the edge of my map, the rest of my caverly following him and 'poking' him all the way, but I couldn't kill him!

I mean what the hell??!!!

ROFLMAO. Damn if that doesn't sound familiar. Trying to kill a King in the original Medieval is almost a waste of effort.

I actually prefer the Romans over the Seleucids in RTW, although those are my two favourite factions for sure. The phalanx is awesome for defending ground, but I get impatient with it on attack, and I don't like the way all of the Seleucids' better units take 2 turns to train. It's a slow game when you play as Seleucids. The Romans also get better archers than the Seleucids do, but the big thing about Rome is being able to train up large armies of legionary cohort in relatively little time, and being able to grind through enemy infantry on city walls like there's no tomorrow.

The Generals in Rome were no slouches - I managed to kill half an enemy army after being reduced to nothing but my General once.

He just charged into units, knocked a few to the ground, and then ran away before they could retaliate. It was hilarious.

Hmmm. For R:TW, my absolute favorite faction to play was Macedon. Light lancer spamming FTW!

In R:TR, I really liked the Roman Republic. Their units were solid, and they were complemented very well by local mercenary or AoR units. My favorite, though, is the Greco-Bactrians, because you get decent phalangites Kataphrakts, horse archers, and Indian elephants. Seleucia is a moderately challenging opponent, and surprisingly, Parthia is one tough nut to crack. The variety is refreshing.

RTW, no question, Julii.

Medieval: Holy Roman Empire, Poland, and the Turks. As the Turks I conquered the Byzantines, all of North Africa, the Iberian peninsula, and then moved into France and the British Isles fairly easily after a little conversion from my waves of religious workers.

Rome: the Brutii, the Scipii, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians. All are very fun to play, and can quickly make great Empires outside of the Italian peninsula. Plus, the Julii are too easy.

Barbarians: Sassinids and Saxons. Sassinids have the only religion other than Christianity and Pagan, so you have fun spreading your faith while conquering. Saxons sit in a nice position and can slowly conquer southward.

In Barbarian Invasion, I personally think there's no substitute for the plumbatarii, so I go with the WRE. Nothing ever gets past a line of plumbatarii without horrible casualties. Back them up with some Sarmatian cavalry and carriage ballistae and you're ready to kick ass.

For Rome:
Brutii. You can build some awfully powerful units from your bigger cities, and you are in a position (and are guided to) take Greece, which is where the gold is. Lots and lots of gold
For Shogun:
It might have been Oda. I'd have to check the map again, I know they were in the west, and in a fairly decent position to defend from the start.