Which of your Playthroughs Has Been the Most Enjoyable So Far?

[stevepine]

So far I have done one playthrough as a Vlandian noble and one with the Sturgians. I haven't actually got as far as starting my own kingdom yet.

I much preferred my Sturgian playthrough and I think it's because I liked how brutal and savage they are and, as much as I wanted to like playing the Vlandians, I didn't like their background of betraying the Empire. The only problem, of course, was that Sturgia did what they always do.. and went to war with EVERYONE!

How about you? Which factions have you played as ...? and which did you like the most? and (most importantly) why?

 

[Kryten]

I had two pretty long plays so far. The first longer one was when I had my own kingdom and about half of the map was mine. I stopped because I could not control the constant wars anymore and it was getting tedious to fight off the enemy and replenish garrisons all the time.
The last one was even longer, as a vassal of battania. I stopped when we controled all of the map except for two Aserai cities. The main quest was bugged. Although defeated and in peace now, it still showed the quest to kill off the northern empire. Also my oldest child was only 9 and I had never seen it, not much reason to go on. I keep to not having a kingdom for myself for now, that needs more options to manage and control warfare/diplomacy first.
Oh, and I like the Battanians most for their general style (cities, units, tournaments) and their archers. Unit wise I try to have a mix in my army, mostly battanian and imperial though.

 

[Ironsun]

So far I've played Sturgia, Vlandia, Empire and Khuzait (tried Battania but didn't get far).
Empier was quite enjoyable, they have decent cav, ranged and infantry.
Khuzait are hilarious, spam horse archers and watch the world burn, very amusing.
Sturgia are crazy when it comes declaring wars, less enjoyable but fun nonetheless (going to give it another shot wit hte 1.3.0 changes though).

If I had to pick I'd say, so far, Empire was most enjoyable just due to how balanced their troops are and how well they work together.

 

[Brynjahr]

Battanian petty lord - was the first release so unstable but fun and everybting was unbalanced
Own kingdom - was easily customisable but there was the snowball issue but I probably played this one the second most and invested a lot into the kingdom and the lord a there
Sturgian warlord - the third play through I probably found the most boring as it offered nothing new and was constant wars and raids sort of drained my energy for playing as it was extremely repetitive and felt like a poor quality warband
Vlandian kingshand - my current playthrough, probably my favourite and most unique of all my campaigns, conquering castles with lords and having to really think about diplomacy and relations, have a large family and many fiefs which are fully developed and thriving, this playthrough will unfortunately end at some point soon as every single lord simply wont rebuild their parties for some reason even with enough gold so armies aren’t formed therefore I’m taking castles almost unopposed

 

[MojoJojoGR]

I've done multiple playthroughs, all of which started really promising and enjoyable, but ended with me rage quitting due to some unimplemented or bugged aspect of the game, and regretting the time i invested taking that path.

 

[Nakh]

Mercenary one, in which I was mostly fighting and donating prisoners to keep my contract profitable. As soon as I "upgraded" to vassal and received first castle game become a neverending slog of defending two villages while making attempts to recruit some troops for garrison. After king gave me second castle on another side of continent I just deleted this save.

 

[BMan]

First playtheough - I was a sturgian lord and i recruited anyone i could get my hands on so had a very mixed party of troops.

I had to keep cheating (just the declare war cheat) to help with the steam rolling certain factions was doing in the very first versions.. I didnt like having to keep the game going with cheats to stop it from ending. (I was basically getting most factions to declare war on the biggest faction)

Second playthrough- I am an imperial mercenary, only recruiting imperial units and only level 2+ on the infantry so that all my inf have shields (makes the shield wall much more effective I find). I'm kinda rp'ing an elite merc so I dont want any rabble in my group

I have been going between the 3 imperial factions and offering my services, whoevere is offering the most money (no loyalty). I am debating whether to become a lord or just to stay as a mercenary.. not sure!

Though I like the constant of fighting different enemies and different locations so I reakon I will stay a merc.

I have a couple of caravans and a workshop dotted round the empire.

So far I am enjoying this playthrough- much more than my first

 

[COOMER]

1st playthrough: I got 1.7m denars. Lost the purpose of playing
2nd playthrough: Every lord in Calradia is getting captured by Looters. Can't do main quest. Lost the purpose of playing.
3rd playthrough: Corrupted save. Lost the purpose of playing.
4th playthrough: Crashing on bugged save spot. Lost the purpose of playing.
5th playthrough: Main quest still bugged. Can't advance. Lost the purpose of playing.
6th playthrough: Southern Empire steamrolls the map. Lost the purpose of playing.
7th playthrough: Endgame is boring, has nothing to do. Non existent diplomacy, constant war because I'm the "player". Lost the purpose of playing.
8th and current playthrough: Khuzait horse ****Ker character. So far, so boring.

Multiplayer is fun tho. Miles better than Singleplayer.

 

[Brynjahr]

Multiplayer is fun tho. Miles better than Singleplayer.

lol.

 

[xdj1nn]

So far I have done one playthrough as a Vlandian noble and one with the Sturgians. I haven't actually got as far as starting my own kingdom yet.

I much preferred my Sturgian playthrough and I think it's because I liked how brutal and savage they are and, as much as I wanted to like playing the Vlandians, I didn't like their background of betraying the Empire. The only problem, of course, was that Sturgia did what they always do.. and went to war with EVERYONE!

How about you? Which factions have you played as ...? and which did you like the most? and (most importantly) why?

the ones I've blatantly cheated extra focus points, attributes and items that are impossible to find in-game. But that only to the extent of forming a kingdom or empire, after that (after the "main qUeSt") I simply lose the will to continue playing because the way the game works on internal politics (or not works) makes me quite annoyed. One thing that kills me me is the fief distribution, and the disgusting internal border-gore caused by that

 

[Skatan]

My first was with the southern empire on the first days of the release. I chose the kingdom that looked strongest because I wanted my first playthrough to be rather easy just to experience it. I got one single fief while the south empire snowballed (as they did back then) and took over the entire map. After maybe 10 years or so, there was nothing to do since all lords had joined the southern empire and the entire world was united. Rather fitting in a way, so I quit.

Played a couple of shorter ones trying out azerai, vlandia etc. Then started a long playthrough as khuzait, wanted to try horse archers en masse since I tend to always do that myself in most playthroughs. Played mostly only 1.0X and 1.2 and the world remained very stable actually. It was a great playthrough until I started killing nobles of Azerai to steal a city from them to start my own kingdom. This started a very strange process of all vassals to move about and change kingdoms willy nilly, ending up with azerai stealing empire vassals so the empire recruited sturgians, sturgians rectuited battanians etc etc until it became a mess. I ended up with around 5 or so fiefs around azerai territory, killed of all nobles available (except a couple stuck at that buggy cliff by rhesos castle). This was still a very enjoyable playthrough up until the point where I killed my first noble, I just realized the game start to go downhill from there and it takes away from the overall and long term fun even if it is good in the beginning.

The most fun overall has been the start and mid phases. I've tried the trade route and the merc route to get going and both were fun in different ways (no mods). The latter goes quicker since killing lords even after the loot debuff still gives easier and faster money then trading most of the times. The late game is rather stale as it is now if you've killed to many nobles, as I did. Won't do that again when I reroll a new char but I think I need a break for a while.

My personal feelings to create the "perfect" playthrough campaigns;
* Don't kill off lords
* install the attribute point per level so you don't hit a wall in leveling skills which is super boring.
* Join a faction instead of creating your own, it's more fun and owning fiefs isn't really any point of anyways since managing them is so bland. You only really a few thousand of gold, and that's it (without mods I mean)
* Don't install the cleave mod. I've seen plenty of lets plays out there where they kill off 5 enemies in one swing and it makes you way, way too powerful. Being powerful is fun but being able to score 30-40 kills in a battle from behind will erode the challenge.
* "realistic" is not that hard, actually a bit too easy still. I tend to put campaign map speed to easy though once I get up to 200+ clan troop size since moving at 3,5 base speed is really boring. That's the only cheat I use to keep it fun for me personally.

This is all IMHO of course.

There are many great mods out there already, but I will hold on installing too many and see what direction TW takes this franchise first. I just tweaked the leveling to keep it going forward and that's pretty much it.

 

[Fungo]

Mercenary one, in which I was mostly fighting and donating prisoners to keep my contract profitable. As soon as I "upgraded" to vassal and received first castle game become a neverending slog of defending two villages while making attempts to recruit some troops for garrison. After king gave me second castle on another side of continent I just deleted this save.

That pretty much sums up what I have come to realize. At least when it comes to creating my own kingdom. The second I have to maintain cities and castles, I loose interest and want to start over.

 

[Folca]

Undoubtedly my Aserai one where I went on to create my own Empire. Late game Aserai armies feel so insanely strong. Heavy Mameluke Cavalry and Aserai Vanguard Faris are two of the best cavalry units in the game and I honestly think they're better than even Khuzait cavalry. It takes a while to get them rolling, the early Aserai army might be one of the weakest, but once you upgrade them to the max they just wipe the floor with everyone and everything. With a decent mix of archers, infantry, cavalry and cavalry archers there's so many different battle styles/tactics you can adopt.
The only weak point in their army roster is their infantry, which I supplemented with Sturgian Veteran Infantry very early on in my game (right at the start I went north and got myself a bunch of Sturgian recruits before heading south). More than a decade later that same Sturgian Infantry core is still in my army.

I went on to conquer about half the world (Aserai, Khuzait, Southern Empire, half of Sturgia and bits and pieces of Western/Northern Empire), but I don't play as much anymore. I've sort of hit critical mass and actually closing out the game feels like a grind at this point. I still play occasionally, add some more castles/cities/vassals to my collection, but at this play rate it'll be some months before I actually take all of Calradia.

Some other playthroughs I've done or am doing: Vlandian -Joan of Arc styled- Vassal (probably my second favourite), Battanian mercenary/freebooter, Sturgian merchant-prince and Khuzait independent Warband. That last one is the one I got bored of the fastest, Khuzait armies are very one dimensional (i.e. you just spam cav archers) and every battle therefore feels the same.

 

[Cheator]

My sturgian raider char that only recruited men he defeated in battle (prisoners) and gear he looted or won in tournaments

 

[Kryten]

Update: My most recent one, where I finally gave in to using some mods to make the late game bearable. Its a bit easy mode now, as I can choose which wars to fight and which not and I always have good trained units ready in my garrisons when I need to replenish, but at least that makes the lategame with my own kingdom playable for me.
I chose the empire side this time for the first time, but only after playing a long time before. I started as trader until trade 225 perk, then earned some renown and money through being a merc and having max workshops and caravans. I married a vlandian noble woman and became a loyal vassal afterwards. I helped this kingdom gain a lot of land, but felt them becoming too powerful after some years. That was also the time I found some mods and thought about trying to form my own empire again
I left Vlandia and took Rhotae and a castle with me and used the bug that makes peace again when completing the banner quest.(Note: They are still at war with my Clan and will forever be, because my Kingdom is somehow something entirely different)
From there I expanded with the help of some merc Clans and my wife, who had a nice Party of over 100 by now. Getting vassals is still extremely annoying, but over time I will get enough, I am sure. The two I have now seem to stay, and more will follow. Searching for Clans that have no fiefs in other kingdoms seems to help there, one even joined me without any bartering at all.
I think I am getting close to capturing 2/3 of the imperial settlements now...and I am also quite confident that I might even see at least one of my childs(3 so far) become a real person

 

[Bramborough]

First run was Vlandian vassal. Was the main "learning" playthrough. Liked it fine. Had a Vlandia/Battania/Imperial/Sturgian mixed army.

But I think I'm enjoying second run a little more, if only because now I understand the leveling system a little better and am developing character more efficiently. It's an Imperial "merc" playthrough so far, at least as far as game mechanics go. RP-wise, I'm conceptually a semi-independent Imperial force dedicated to the Empire but trying to stay out of the internal civil wars. So I hop around among the 3 empire factions helping them all with "external" wars against the non-imperial factions.

Kinda set myself some rules: 1. Imperial faction troops only in own party (can't fully control what the companion parties do). 2. Spouse must be Imperial. 3. Can only merc for one of the three Empire factions. 4. Only attacking non-Imperial armies/parties. None of these are particularly hard or limiting, just RP stuff. Eventually will go to vassal stage, which will necessitate dropping "rules 3 & 4".

As far as the pesky main quest, I went as far as assembling the banner, just to ensure the whole thing didn't expire. But now just ignoring it...I don't need the Conspiracy thing chiming in every 20 days for years. If this playthrough ever goes long enough that one Empire faction remains and is big enough to conceivably take the whole continent, then maybe I'll give that ruler the banner and see how it goes. Have zero interest in forming own faction (and will stay that way until all the diplo & kingdom management stuff is worked out...at current stage of the game, I'm kinda puzzled why TW even gave us the "own kingdom" option via main quest at all).

Biggest setback so far: My wife Sora died in childbirth (on her eighth child). I had known that was a possibility, but hadn't really thought it through, I guess. Discovered the Achilles' heel of using wife for a clan role (in this case, Quartermaster). She had developed up to almost 250 steward, so party size took an enormous hit. Now I'm frantically running around the empire trying to find a gal with good Steward and compatible-enough traits to get through the dang persuasion checks. Even with unabashed save-scumming, am getting nowhere with Panalea so far. (The thought occurs to me, this potential problem can only occur with a wife; female character with husband wouldn't have to worry about it. Afaik, a female player character cannot die in childbirth...is that true?).

 

[SimplyStupendous]

The most fun I've had so far in a playthrough was with my latest one which included the separatism mod. It actually allows prominent clans to defect and create their own kingdoms and surprisingly stirs up the map in ways I've never seen before.

I played maybe 4 long playthroughs prior and the newfound randomness and spontaneity from the mod is really enjoyable and refreshing, I would def suggest people try it out for a playthrough.

 

[Gambles]

My playthrough have just gotten progressively more frustrating and/or boring with every patch playing on realistic. I attempted using a compilation of mods to customize the campaign for myself but ended up just dropping a lot of that due to many of them just not being updated in a timely fashion to keep up with the game.

So I've moved on to captain mode multiplayer. Except for the random server disconnects that's been a lot less frustrating than dealing with the grind spiral that has been the single player update path.

 

[artemis_entreri]

I've enjoyed early and mid game on all my playthroughs. Have played exclusively Vlandian though, for the 30% troop upgrade bonus. The other cultural bonuses seem weak. I tried Aserai but did not see a reduction in caravan costs.

All my playthroughs end the same, me getting bored with being a merc/vassal and starting my own kingdom. I get frustrated at not being able to recruit and keep lords and at the constant zerg war against the Player Kingdom. Doubt I will play as my own kingdom again, it is far too frustrating at this point.

If/When I play again I'll probably go Battanian. That kingdom needs more marriage eligible women though.

 

[The Great Grub]

Honestly my first and only playthrough has been fun I started off as a vassal of sturgia which swiftly got destroyed by the western empire and battania who were also at war with WE but then peaced out with WE and declared war on sturgia, after we got wiped I joined the WE to fight those traitorous Battanians but they started steamrolling the WE and I joined them after we had one city left in which we continued to steamroll most the map before I got bored of killing the same Lords over and over again