Most Difficult Faction

[*Atlas*]

Hi,
Ive been playing my first game of SS as Ireland and am loving it. The first 30 turns or so were intense. England really put up a strong fight and it was only their preoccupation with Scotland that Nottingham fell, allowing an offensive base of operations. Diplomacy is great (Scotland and France have been allies since the beginning, canceling once but then offering again shortly after, and having few garrisons in settlements adjacent mine) but 150 turns in and things have become repetitive.

The map has ended with France taking the majority of the interior western Europe provinces, Aragorn the Spanish peninsula, Hungary the Byzantinium western block, the Templars the eastern Byzantinium block, and myself the coast of Europe extending into and along the Baltic Sea and from there portions of Lithuania and the HRE. Epypt dominates the south east. Ireland now ranks No.1 in population and production.

I enjoyed the game and really wanted to see out the America's and arrival of cavilermen, but with the Muire working with Longbowmen things are just now point and conquer. I want to play a faction which is a real struggle (like the first 30 turns of this game as Ireland). Because of how long a game takes its not a decision to make lightly. Which faction do you guys suggest? I have read the Templars are tough to play as.
Thanks in advance!

Mick

[*Atlas*]

Gah, nevermind, I just saw another thread named Faction Difficulty which discusses what Ive already asked. Looks like the Templars, Byzantium, or Lithuania from what theyve been saying.

[delra]

My last Novgorod campaign was a disaster.

It's just too much to have Mongols, Teutons and the plague at the same exact time. Especially when you are bankrupt and have only underdeveloped cities spread across whole Asia with no chance to aid each other.

I resigned when Mongols took Kiev and Poles besieged my defenseless Novgorod.

Try it. :-)

[Harald Hardrade]

ahhhhh im so excited im just downloading ss and i need to play as an eastern european power!!! which do you suggest as the most fun with the best units?

[Landwalker]

If you consider the Byzantine Empire to fall into the Eastern European category, there's really no contest as to who has the best units, and their position means you can basically do whatever you want--Hungary, Turkey, Venice, hop over to Sicily or Egypt, whatever.

If not, the Kievan Rus probably have the best units, but their territories (and those of Russia in general) are such that it takes forever to get anywhere. Also, if you don't download Chalupaku's Full-map mini-mod, their starting settlements are pretty much crap (with the mini-mod, they begin with Pereyaslav, a legitimate castle, so they can access things other than militia before Turn 50).

So, if the Byzantines aren't considered Eastern European, and the starting position of Kiev isn't very appealing (and it isn't), I'd suggest trying Poland or Hungary. Lithuania has some fun units, but for some reason almost none of them can ever upgrade their armor and converting territories to paganism is a pain. I'd probably pick Poland, since then you get to go after Lithuania early in the game (so you still get to have their fun units on the battlefield, even if you're killing them) as well as Novgorod (more fun units). There's also the advantage that by the time you get through Hungary to the Byzantines, they'll probably be strong enough to make for a good challenge. Plus they don't have hideous colors.

Cheers.

[Captain Irish]

Hey all, can anyone answer what is likely an incredibly stupid question: I downloaded the full map mod mentioned by landwalker but I know jack about winzip. Am I to assume that the path column is where I need to drop the respective files and allow them to overwrite the older version?

Just want to be certain. Reinstalling everything would be painful

[Landwalker]

Captain Irish:

The "path column" is where you should tell Winzip to extract everything, and it should be C:\whatever\etc.\Medieval II Folder\Mods\Stainless Steel\Data. You'll probably be prompted to overwrite things, and you should accept all of them. Hope that helps--I'm not at my desktop to refer to the process first-hand, but hopefully that'll get you going. Basically, you're going to need to replace all the old files with the "Full Map" version.

Cheers.

[*Atlas*]

ahhhhh im so excited im just downloading ss and i need to play as an eastern european power!!! which do you suggest as the most fun with the best units?

Depends on your idea of fun Tuff game or easy game?

[Inhuman One]

Byzantium is more of a mix, and it having such a powerfull roster is not surprising since all weaknesses where removed from their vanilla roster.

I think that Hungary, Poland, Novgorod and Kiev would be the real Eastern European powers.

I never played long with any of them, but the novgorod appeal most to me due to their great reskin (still waiting for the horses) and their units as well.