Best Starting faction

[phantom67]

Hey guys, was just wondering what everyone thinks is the best faction to start with?

I've always loved the Swadians (Heavy Cav ftw) but the AI lords seem to have a really tough time defending the borders, and most of the time they get swamped. (In my current game we got reduced to just Suno, and 2 castles, after which I defected to the Vaegirs), the other problem is, in the beginning its impossible to field an army that is big enough to be decisive in the defense against an invasion (try stopping 600+ angry Rhodoks and Nords with a party of 50), on top of this, its not really big enough to take castles either.

So what can I do to make playing Swadia more... I dunno... fun?

FYI my Difficulty is as follows:

Control Block Direction: By mouse movement
Control Attack Direction: By inverse mouse movement
Lance Control: Manual (Hard)
Damage to Player: Normal
Damage to Friends: Normal
Combat AI: Good
Campaign AI: Good
Combat Speed: Normal
Battle Size: 250
Realistic Saves

And I don't really want to turn down the difficulty cause that's basically cheating. If the factions are really supposed to be balanced, then I shouldn't have to.

I'm thinking of giving the Vaegirs a try, since they're tucked away in the corner of the map (thus only have 3 neighbors instead of Swadia's 5) but I don't like the look of the snow, and I'm not that keen on the Vaegir gear (reckon it looks kinda ugly, I'm a big fan of the pseudo-Western European look that the Swadians have)

 

[unknown3056]

King Harlaus has a reputation for slacking off during the middle of a war.

Now for me. I prefer the Rhodoks. They are a foot-based faction (Nords are my second favorite BTW) which is what I prefer. When it comes to long-range combat...the Rhodoks do a good job at it, which is why they are good in both siege offense and defense. They have pretty decent infantry too; board shields.

 

[Rewjeo]

I've generally had luck with the Nords. Plus, since, for me at least, they seem to often be at war with the Vaegirs at first, this will eventually open a door to having Vaegir Marksmen and Huscarls, which is great for defending your land.  Nothing stops cavalry like a solid line of huscarls, and imagine what it'll be like when I can use Vaegir Marksmen, too. In my current game, we've taken all but two Vaegir castles and all their towns as well as Dhirim and most of its surrounding castles and Uxkhal, although nothing past that. This, by the way, was achieved while at war with Swadia, the Vaegirs AND the Khergits. Of course, we've only just gotten any sort of actual border with the Khergits, so...

Of course, PEMN, and I haven't had the game very long, so my knowledge is very limited.

 

[phantom67]

King Harlaus has a reputation for slacking off during the middle of a war.

King Harlaus is a dumbass. He's probably my least favourite bit about Swadia -_-

It'd be awesome if personalities played more of a role in the game, and was randomly generated at the start of each game, it would surely make for some interesting inter-faction conflicts

 

[Mallissin]

I generally prefer to ally myself at some point with the Vaegirs, if only for the delicious sea raiders found in their territory.

Hmmm...brains are so high in omega-3 from all the fish they eat.

 

[HannibalTheCannibal]

Vaegirs are my favorite for exactly the reason you don't like them (I like the snow and their eastern european look), but the best faction to start I'd probably say the Sarranids, you get heavy cav just about as good as the Swadians without the retarded king and bad starting position.

 

[Maksim125]

You should start with nords they are really strong in melee but if you want all rounded you need the vaegirs or sarranids

 

[phantom67]

I'm liking the sound of the Vaegirs so far, and I like how they've got pretty balanced units. With Swadia I used to field entire armies of Heavy Cavalry due to their OPness, but with the Vaegirs it actually makes sense to field mixed armies due to their strong archers.

 

[Felonious]

I love starting as the Khergits, they're fast, in a great position to start and they have good trade.
The only downside is steppe bandits, but as soon as I find Borcha I can outrun them by miles .

I also have a script which makes the lancers and horse archers much more intelligent (read: horse archers don't try to go toe-to-toe with Swadian Knights, but rather shoot them full of arrows as they should.) Thanks to Caba`drin for the script.

 

[Occam]

Khergit are the best faction to start out with.

Don't laugh, hear me out.

When you join a faction as a vassal it shouldn't be your goal to help them dominate all the other factions. You just want to build up your own strength then rebel and wipe them out.

Khergits are the best faction to join because they are the easiest faction to beat.

Just because you join a faction doesn't mean you have to use their troops. Before I rebelled my castles were filled with Huscarls, Rhodok Sharpshooters, and Swadian Knights.  I just used Khergit troops as fillers.
When you are at war with a faction, troops of that faction in your army take a morale hit. If you rebel against a faction--Vaegir, say-- while your army is composed entirely of Vaegir troops their morale will be low. If you rebel against the Khergits with an army of Sarranids...no problem, they love kicking Khergit ass.

Khergits spend most of their time at war with the Vaegirs and Sarranids. They have some wars against Swadia too, but once the Swadians lose Dhirim (which they always do) there's a buffer so they war with each other less.
This allows you to use Nord, Rhodok, and Swadian troops for your army with no morale penalty while you are the Khergit's vassal. Once you do rebel this army will wipe them out fast.

 

[HannibalTheCannibal]

You make a good point.

 

[StinkyMcGirk]

Khergits.  If you take a heavy cavalry faction, you can't really level your companions all that fast because the heavy cavalry will get most of the kills.  Keep a small army of veteran horse archers to spread out the enemy for your cavalry companions to get the kills on, and you'll see them level fast.

Khergits are also the absolute easiest to train faction... so if you're low level yourself (starting out), you'll still be able to utilize your trainer skill to max these units out.  Besides that, they are fast, and because of their low level, much cheaper than heavy cavalry.  While some of the heavy cavalry factions are also fast when you max out their units, Khergit units are all mounted from skirmishers on - so even when training a new army, you'll be nice and quick.

Yet another point in favor of the Khergits is that in large battles with lords on your side, you don't need to worry about what tactics they'll choose - Khergit A.I. almost always charges.  Other factions might hold position, forcing you to take the initiative with whatever smaller forces you can actually control.

When you want to take your first castle, simply take your army of veteran horse archers and companions with crossbows, park them outside the castle walls, and let them empty their quivers on the defenders.  After they run out of ammo, retreat.  Rinse and repeat until the castle defenders leave or you lower their numbers to an easily handled amount.

 

[Blackfish]

So what can I do to make playing Swadia more... I dunno... fun?

You could consider helping Isolla of Suno onto the throne, since Swadia's main weakness (aside from its central position) is Harlaus.

I'm thinking of giving the Vaegirs a try, since they're tucked away in the corner of the map (thus only have 3 neighbors instead of Swadia's 5) but I don't like the look of the snow, and I'm not that keen on the Vaegir gear (reckon it looks kinda ugly, I'm a big fan of the pseudo-Western European look that the Swadians have)

The lower-tier Vaegir gear is ugly, I agree... I always hated all that fur. But they do get some pretty cool higher-level gear - consider the Vaegir Elite Armor (I think that's what it's called), for example, I'd take that over plate armor every time. Or their war mask, which also kicks ass.

 

[ugly]

My first character started out with the Sarranids.
I found it to be a good choice, because they have a well balanced troop tree with some awesome top tier units, another major factor is that their lands are naturally sheltered by mountains, with only three or four entry points into their realms.
Many factions such as Nords and Vaegirs simply won't fight them on their traditional territory, as it's too far out of the way. When fighting Rhodoks, there's really only one front - near Shariz. If course this changes later as the territories change, but at the start of a game, its quite convenient.

Another point of convenience for Sarranids is that theres a high concentration of villages near Shariz, making it easy to quickly recruit troops.

I found that later on in the game after the Sarranids had taken Rhodok lands, things became more difficult due to the distances lords had to travel to reach the front.
It's a long way from Durquba to Yalen.

 

[CriticallyAshamed]

Rolling with Swadians (assuming they actually stop eating and raiding, depends on their marshall) is a great way to pickup free kills. The Marshall usually irritates large enough bands of Kherghits etc so that you can lure them to the rest of the Swadians. Then, because the game mechanics tend to prefer "Strongest guys first" type battles, you can just rush over everything with heaps of knights.

 

[Mallissin]

Occam seems to be the enemy within.

I'm a freedom fighter! Not a virus!

 

[phantom67]

So what can I do to make playing Swadia more... I dunno... fun?

You could consider helping Isolla of Suno onto the throne, since Swadia's main weakness (aside from its central position) is Harlaus.

I would consider this, but Swadia tends to get nailed before I can even build up enough of an army, let alone any sort of relations with the lords. In my last game they lost Praven, Dhirim and Reindi Castle within the first month. feelsbadman

 

[phantom67]

So check this out, I start a new game as the Vaegirs. Swadia end up taking a bit of a beating from the Nords and Rhodoks (2-front wars suck) and end up losing a few castles, but they manage to rally and get their stuff together and have largely subdued the Nords (ended up taking Sargoth and Wercheg) along with a number of their castles, on top of this they managed to get a peace deal with the Rhodoks.

feelsbadman.jpg

 

[Remedius]

I always go with Khergits

Aside from their cheapness and trainability they can catch nearly any enemy - be they bandit or lord - they are also fast enough to run away too should the need arise.

The early game for my chars is all about prisoners and building good relations so a fast light strikeforce is ideal to travel with and take advantage of whatever opportunity presents itself.

On a less practical note - my character is a rise through the ranks Knight of Swadia who can only justify his ignoble horse archery skills by his Khergit origins.

 

[Blackfish]

But won't the morale of your horse archers dip when Swadia inevitably goes to war with the Khergits?