Easy factions for starting?

[WitchKing]

What are some easier factions to start with?
England is an obvious choice but some other recommendations and why?

[dnzunlu]

I'm gonna guess the HRE since even the AI goes crazy with them everygame. But in general eurocentric factions are better with better rosters and better everything. Crusader State is also pretty easy despite their location because they get crazy amount of heavy armor units and everyone around them has horse archers and . It's funny cuz Jerusalem really should be the hardest faction on the map.

[a Dictator's Cigar]

I would say the Zengids are an easy start faction. you get a father of five generals ruling two wealthy cities and the strongest fortress in levant. that and enough agents to maintain your economy and diplomacy. also they have the best mercenary choice in their region of the world in my opinion.

[DaGrenadier]

I would argue that the Zengids are a really tough faction, Aleppo is constantly targeted by the crusades and the Abbassid Caliphate are keen on gaining Mosul

[kostic]

I would choose Pisa or Venice because they have good financial resources and can have good balanced armies. Otherwise Castile and Leon, Poland, kyiv or the Fatimids seem quite accessible to me...

[JB59114]

Indeed the Zengids are not an easy faction.
You have to deal with the crusader adn abbasids during the first turns, quite a challenge.
But even after defeating/subjugating them, you still have a lot of ennemies : Georgian in the north, RUM or Byzantine in the west, Fatimids in the south and Seljuk/mongol in the east.
The campaign is quite fun, unfortunaltly my FL can't get the crown for some reason, had to put this campaign on halt for that.

[Kavhan Isbul]

The ERE and HRE would be the obvious answers, as long as you are OK fighting multiple enemies at once all the time. Any small faction that borders these two is usually not much fun because you will face their stack spam quite early, before you have built up your economy to have the funds to deal with them.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem is extremely strong - you start with a diplomat in Rome, and thus can get allied with the Pope and get a Crusade called on Turn 1. Your units, especially in the first 200 turns or so are much heavies than pretty much anyone else, if you build the military order chapter houses. Jerusalem gives a 10% happiness bonus to all your settlements, you can fight Muslims and Orthodox neighbors so you do not risk excommunication and your economy is pretty strong too. It may actually be the easiest faction in the game.

I found the Seljuks of Rum to be very powerful as well, because of the script that gives you a full stack of cavalry if the Roman AI sieges Angora. You can use the stack to easily conquer Constantinople and everything in Western Anatolia. Dealing with the ERE early makes the campaign relatively easy, and you do not have to deal with the HRE unless you decide to expand toward Central Europe.

I have not played with the Seljuks or Fatimids but they appear to have a strong starting economy and relatively easy to defend positions in the early part of the game. The Seljuks would have to deal with the Mongols and the Fatimids would probably get crusaded against at some point though.

The Pope might be relatively easy too, since other Catholic factions tend to not attack (but not sure if this would stop the ERE). The funny thing is that it is quite hard to get a Crusade called as the Pope himself.

[Macaras]

The ERE and HRE would be the obvious answers, as long as you are OK fighting multiple enemies at once all the time. Any small faction that borders these two is usually not much fun because you will face their stack spam quite early, before you have built up your economy to have the funds to deal with them.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem is extremely strong - you start with a diplomat in Rome, and thus can get allied with the Pope and get a Crusade called on Turn 1. Your units, especially in the first 200 turns or so are much heavies than pretty much anyone else, if you build the military order chapter houses. Jerusalem gives a 10% happiness bonus to all your settlements, you can fight Muslims and Orthodox neighbors so you do not risk excommunication and your economy is pretty strong too. It may actually be the easiest faction in the game.

I found the Seljuks of Rum to be very powerful as well, because of the script that gives you a full stack of cavalry if the Roman AI sieges Angora. You can use the stack to easily conquer Constantinople and everything in Western Anatolia. Dealing with the ERE early makes the campaign relatively easy, and you do not have to deal with the HRE unless you decide to expand toward Central Europe.

I have not played with the Seljuks or Fatimids but they appear to have a strong starting economy and relatively easy to defend positions in the early part of the game. The Seljuks would have to deal with the Mongols and the Fatimids would probably get crusaded against at some point though.

The Pope might be relatively easy too, since other Catholic factions tend to not attack (but not sure if this would stop the ERE). The funny thing is that it is quite hard to get a Crusade called as the Pope himself.

I would say that the most important factor that determines if its easy is if the faction is surrounded by many other.. So except Byz and HRE, that would be the first thing to consider. I am surprised that KoJ is so strong, because they have Fatimids, Zengids, later Byz and Abbasids to fight, they are surrounded. And then come Mongols, even more difficult enemy. So maybe we should make the KoJ more difficult, or in general the diplomacy became too easy ?

[Kavhan Isbul]

To be fair almost all factions are surrounded by many enemies, or ultimately get surrounded after some limited early expansion. You will inevitably reach the ERE and HRE and their stack spam (unless you play as one of them). Some factions however can rely on natural geographic chokepoints. The KOJ can get those chokepoints in the Sinai and in the north limit exposure to Edessa and Antioch or Adana. Sicily can stop early expansion at Ancona and avoid the free for all that happens in North Italy (but the ERE will launch naval invasions). Eastern European factions however get very little in the way of natural chokepoints and have to defend over a really wide front with crappy economies, which makes those significantly harder to play. Unless looking for an extreme challenge, one should stay away from things like Serbia, Lithuania, the Rus factions or even Hungary and Poland.