...But before we do, we'll need to pick a nation.
Our choices are above. There are other nations than the ones I listed, but... I kind of suck with them.
So, the factions:
Part 1 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375796-Poll-Lets-play-Medieval-2-Total-War#14612811]
Part 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375796-Poll-Lets-play-Medieval-2-Total-War?page=2#14621590]
Part 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375796-Poll-Lets-play-Medieval-2-Total-War?page=2#14670958]
At the time I started, Denmark was winning, so that's what I went with. Maybe I'll do another one after with England.
Our choices are above. There are other nations than the ones I listed, but... I kind of suck with them.
So, the factions:
England: Really powerful longbowmen, strong infantry and acceptable cavalry. Starts with London, Nottingham and Normandy, and should secure the rest of the British Isles before turning their sights on continental Europe.
France: Strongest cavalry in the west, and later on gain infantry capable of standing up to England and Denmark. Their crossbowmen are acceptably good. Unfortunately, most of modern France is currently held by robber barons who do not recognize the authority of the French King, so they'll have to be brought to heel before they can start looking outside their borders.
Spain: In my opinion, the strongest military in the game... except at the beginning. Early on, their infantry is an absolute joke, though their cavalry and crossbowmen are decent. Later on, though, their infantry and cavalry get much better. Their starting position is in the Northern Iberian peninsula, with the rest of the peninsula being occupied by Spanish rebels (Including El Cid, funny enough - in fact, he's got the strongest rebel army in the world at this point), Portugal and the Moors. Their first goal should be to take the rebel settlements nearby (Though again, El Cid might give them some trouble) and then to take out the Moors and Portugal.
Holy Roman Empire: Rules over Germany. Their land is quite unified, compared to the western nations, so they don't have to spend as much time consolidating their land and can make an early invasion of France or Denmark. The Kaiser in in low standing with the pope as the gae starts, though, so avoiding conflict with other Catholic nations for the time might be prudent if they wish to avoid excomunication. Their army is... average, though they do have an awesome unit, called Rieters, who basically use the same tactic as the steppe horse archers, except with pistols. Kewl.
Italian city states: They are Milan, Venice and Sicily, and unit-wise are very similar. Italian militia units are superior to other militas, and their professional infantry and crossbowmen aren't bad either. Their cavalry is quite weak, though. They start in Italy, of course, and if they dn't want to anger the pope, they'd be best served by building a navy and attacking non-catholic nations.
Byzantine Empire: An empire in decline, and it shows. Their army, while strong, is outdated. They can't use gunpowder, their kataphractoi are functonally similar to but weaker than knights, their crossbowmen are average at best and, to top it all off, they are not catholic which makes them a safe target for both the muslims AND catholics. On the upside, they do have some strong infantry, but they alone can't keep the empire together for long.
Poland or Hungary: Similar to each other, hence the grouping. Recent converts to catholicism, they fight more like their steppe bretheren than western europeans. Both have weak infantry and archers, but strong melee and missile cavalry. They both have a lot of land into which to expand, though they will most likely come into conflict with each other at some point.
Denmark: The Danes have some of the strongest infantry in the world (They are descended from Vikings, after all) and their archers aren't too shabby either. Their cavalry leaves something to be desired, though. They start in... wait for it... Denmark, in a position that basically guarantees a fight with the Holy Roman Empire. The Danes can match the Germans man-to-man, but at the start of the game, there are a lot more Germans than there are Danes, which could complicate things.
Why didn't you list X?
Scotland: Scotland is really, really weak. They're somewhat similar to Denmark in that the focus of their military is in infantry, but their infantry is still inferior to England, who is more than likely going to wipe them out without much fuss.
Russia: This one is more subjective; Russia can be very, very strong, if played right. The main proble is that I suck with horse archers, which is one of the focuses of Russia's military.
Portugal: Spain, but weaker and in a worse position.
Moors and Egypt: Decent units and alright starting positions. Their main problems are that 1) They will almost certainly be the subject of some crusades, which can be quite difficult to overcome. 2), and much, much worse, they (Egypt especially) are the first nations to see the Mongol and Timurid invasions, and will assuradly be ROFLstomped by the frankly ridiculous strength both bring to bear. Nations further to the west have the advantage of the invaders being more split up with several fronts, as well as more time to prepare (and the catholic ones can request a crusade against them as well).
Turkey: Makes extensive use of horse archers, which I suck with. Other than that, they have good infantry and gunpoweder, and easy pickings in the Byzantines.
SO. Let's pick a nation. If one of the grouped options wins, I'll pick the one with the most written requests in the thread and, failing that, I'll pick one at random.
France: Strongest cavalry in the west, and later on gain infantry capable of standing up to England and Denmark. Their crossbowmen are acceptably good. Unfortunately, most of modern France is currently held by robber barons who do not recognize the authority of the French King, so they'll have to be brought to heel before they can start looking outside their borders.
Spain: In my opinion, the strongest military in the game... except at the beginning. Early on, their infantry is an absolute joke, though their cavalry and crossbowmen are decent. Later on, though, their infantry and cavalry get much better. Their starting position is in the Northern Iberian peninsula, with the rest of the peninsula being occupied by Spanish rebels (Including El Cid, funny enough - in fact, he's got the strongest rebel army in the world at this point), Portugal and the Moors. Their first goal should be to take the rebel settlements nearby (Though again, El Cid might give them some trouble) and then to take out the Moors and Portugal.
Holy Roman Empire: Rules over Germany. Their land is quite unified, compared to the western nations, so they don't have to spend as much time consolidating their land and can make an early invasion of France or Denmark. The Kaiser in in low standing with the pope as the gae starts, though, so avoiding conflict with other Catholic nations for the time might be prudent if they wish to avoid excomunication. Their army is... average, though they do have an awesome unit, called Rieters, who basically use the same tactic as the steppe horse archers, except with pistols. Kewl.
Italian city states: They are Milan, Venice and Sicily, and unit-wise are very similar. Italian militia units are superior to other militas, and their professional infantry and crossbowmen aren't bad either. Their cavalry is quite weak, though. They start in Italy, of course, and if they dn't want to anger the pope, they'd be best served by building a navy and attacking non-catholic nations.
Byzantine Empire: An empire in decline, and it shows. Their army, while strong, is outdated. They can't use gunpowder, their kataphractoi are functonally similar to but weaker than knights, their crossbowmen are average at best and, to top it all off, they are not catholic which makes them a safe target for both the muslims AND catholics. On the upside, they do have some strong infantry, but they alone can't keep the empire together for long.
Poland or Hungary: Similar to each other, hence the grouping. Recent converts to catholicism, they fight more like their steppe bretheren than western europeans. Both have weak infantry and archers, but strong melee and missile cavalry. They both have a lot of land into which to expand, though they will most likely come into conflict with each other at some point.
Denmark: The Danes have some of the strongest infantry in the world (They are descended from Vikings, after all) and their archers aren't too shabby either. Their cavalry leaves something to be desired, though. They start in... wait for it... Denmark, in a position that basically guarantees a fight with the Holy Roman Empire. The Danes can match the Germans man-to-man, but at the start of the game, there are a lot more Germans than there are Danes, which could complicate things.
Why didn't you list X?
Scotland: Scotland is really, really weak. They're somewhat similar to Denmark in that the focus of their military is in infantry, but their infantry is still inferior to England, who is more than likely going to wipe them out without much fuss.
Russia: This one is more subjective; Russia can be very, very strong, if played right. The main proble is that I suck with horse archers, which is one of the focuses of Russia's military.
Portugal: Spain, but weaker and in a worse position.
Moors and Egypt: Decent units and alright starting positions. Their main problems are that 1) They will almost certainly be the subject of some crusades, which can be quite difficult to overcome. 2), and much, much worse, they (Egypt especially) are the first nations to see the Mongol and Timurid invasions, and will assuradly be ROFLstomped by the frankly ridiculous strength both bring to bear. Nations further to the west have the advantage of the invaders being more split up with several fronts, as well as more time to prepare (and the catholic ones can request a crusade against them as well).
Turkey: Makes extensive use of horse archers, which I suck with. Other than that, they have good infantry and gunpoweder, and easy pickings in the Byzantines.
SO. Let's pick a nation. If one of the grouped options wins, I'll pick the one with the most written requests in the thread and, failing that, I'll pick one at random.
Part 1 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375796-Poll-Lets-play-Medieval-2-Total-War#14612811]
Part 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375796-Poll-Lets-play-Medieval-2-Total-War?page=2#14621590]
Part 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.375796-Poll-Lets-play-Medieval-2-Total-War?page=2#14670958]
At the time I started, Denmark was winning, so that's what I went with. Maybe I'll do another one after with England.
