Favourite factions

[Kendji]

So there was a thread pre-launch on what factions each of us wanted to play first. Now then, which factions are your favourite?

Personally I really like Suppiluliuma II as a faction the most. Heavy army, defensive buildings etc. I find the Hittites to wither be too easy or too hard depending on gameplay and that the map on Anatolia is not as thought through.
But as per mechanics and thus most enjoyable I find Amenmesse, especially with Akhenaten legacy. I don't like the Egyptian military side as much, very light weight sometimes. Amenmesse makes up for that in Archers though.

Honorable mention would be Irsu as a faction and starting pos I find really interesting, but I just don't like his specialized style of play.

Next I'm going to attempt a Bay-Akhenaten play.

[EatExcreteRepeat]

Bay is Bae

To be fair, I haven't played any other faction.

But also, to be fair, I'm not done playing Bay yet.

[Riggs Esquire]

I have been been playing Bay on legendary and it is so far... pretty epic.

[Aluminum Elite Master]

Bay is not fun for me... that start is horrendous, because Irsu gobbles things up before you even get rolling.

Bay, on paper, looks fun, but the start is just one issue after another and not even having a major settlement for a start complicates things.

I mean, if you want a challenge, there you go. Maybe I should go back and try it again, because I think Bay might have been my first campaign when I didn't know a lot about what to do to be efficient yet in Pharaoh.

My favorite pick is Irsu, his fellow Canaanite. Irsu's roster is a bit more fun, and just wrecking everything in sight and attacking into Egypt was pretty fun. Taking on all of Egypt in the late-game as Irsu is a sight to behold.

[Defmonkey]

Originally posted by Aluminum Elite Master:

Bay is not fun for me... that start is horrendous, because Irsu gobbles things up before you even get rolling.

Bay, on paper, looks fun, but the start is just one issue after another and not even having a major settlement for a start complicates things.

I mean, if you want a challenge, there you go. Maybe I should go back and try it again, because I think Bay might have been my first campaign when I didn't know a lot about what to do to be efficient yet in Pharaoh.

My favorite pick is Irsu, his fellow Canaanite. Irsu's roster is a bit more fun, and just wrecking everything in sight and attacking into Egypt was pretty fun. Taking on all of Egypt in the late-game as Irsu is a sight to behold.

Really? I'm shocked to hear that. I haven't played an Irsu campaign yet so will have to see.

Bay's potential is disgusting. Super overpowered in a fun way to me at least. You do need to plan and work the system but you can break the game with Bay.

[Kendji]

Originally posted by Aluminum Elite Master:

Bay is not fun for me... that start is horrendous, because Irsu gobbles things up before you even get rolling.

Bay, on paper, looks fun, but the start is just one issue after another and not even having a major settlement for a start complicates things.

I mean, if you want a challenge, there you go. Maybe I should go back and try it again, because I think Bay might have been my first campaign when I didn't know a lot about what to do to be efficient yet in Pharaoh.

My favorite pick is Irsu, his fellow Canaanite. Irsu's roster is a bit more fun, and just wrecking everything in sight and attacking into Egypt was pretty fun. Taking on all of Egypt in the late-game as Irsu is a sight to behold.

I gobbled Irsu up lol :D

[Defmonkey]

Originally posted by Kendji:

I gobbled Irsu up lol :D

Well this is the thing. Once you have Gubla and two adjacent provinces providing bronze and gold you don't really need anything more. If you build properly you can produce free upkeep armies as long as you situate them in Gubla. Its impossible to loose as Bay.

You use Gubla as a garage and forts as batteries. I'm at turn 60 in my current Bay campaign and have 150k food in the bank and turning over 4k a turn. The problem i have is i cant make armies fast enough. If you can get workforce up to max, you can get 4 unit recruit slots per turn.

[Darth Glorious]

I beat Irsu in the race to Damacus, after that expand to the south, sell to Irsu a region to get him in the alliance and I just steamroll from there...Bay can gain a lot of food and by rushing the tech tree for upkeep reduction, I got about 100k food mid game, whcih help a lot in later game war with Sea people. I buy friendship with Ramses to consolidate the South than start to conquer the north and became Hittite Great King.

[Defmonkey]

Originally posted by Darth Glorious:

I beat Irsu in the race to Damacus, after that expand to the south, sell to Irsu a region to get him in the alliance and I just steamroll from there...Bay can gain a lot of food and by rushing the tech tree for upkeep reduction, I got about 100k food mid game, whcih help a lot in later game war with Sea people. I buy friendship with Ramses to consolidate the South than start to conquer the north and became Hittite Great King.

That's interesting, did you still get bays special abilities in court for the Hittities? Bay gets 3 free court actions per 6 turns and also can steal plots. This is pretty substantial.

His research tree rush is scary and this is what gives him enormous power in recruiting native units as well as resource bonuses.

[Gibbo]

lol I stayed away from Bay because it said it was hard?

Seti is good if you like lots of fights and enemies everywhere. He's also near gold mines which help a great deal. I'm gonna play Bay next time.

[Defmonkey]

Originally posted by Gibbo:

lol I stayed away from Bay because it said it was hard?

Seti is good if you like lots of fights and enemies everywhere. He's also near gold mines which help a great deal. I'm gonna play Bay next time.

Yeah., the consensus from people i've seen who have played the campaigns through are Bay and Amenmesse. Will have to see over time though.

I almost also skipped Bay because of the hard label. Hes definitely very strong, i played him with the merchant ancient legacy and all very good.

[Darth Glorious]

Originally posted by Defmonkey:

Originally posted by Darth Glorious:

I beat Irsu in the race to Damacus, after that expand to the south, sell to Irsu a region to get him in the alliance and I just steamroll from there...Bay can gain a lot of food and by rushing the tech tree for upkeep reduction, I got about 100k food mid game, whcih help a lot in later game war with Sea people. I buy friendship with Ramses to consolidate the South than start to conquer the north and became Hittite Great King.

That's interesting, did you still get bays special abilities in court for the Hittities? Bay gets 3 free court actions per 6 turns and also can steal plots. This is pretty substantial.

His research tree rush is scary and this is what gives him enormous power in recruiting native units as well as resource bonuses.

Yes, in Hittite Courts, he can still see all the plots and can steal them.

[Kendji]

I havent played Seti and Tausert yet. Next game will be one of them. On the surface they don't seem as interesting. I have also been saving them incase I managed to get some MP going they would be perfect duet.

[Defmonkey]

Originally posted by Darth Glorious:

Originally posted by Defmonkey:

That's interesting, did you still get bays special abilities in court for the Hittities? Bay gets 3 free court actions per 6 turns and also can steal plots. This is pretty substantial.

His research tree rush is scary and this is what gives him enormous power in recruiting native units as well as resource bonuses.

Yes, in Hittite Courts, he can still see all the plots and can steal them.

OK, that's good to see.

At turn 60 i have had the Lucca wave show up and they are all running away.

[Darth Glorious]

Originally posted by Kendji:

I havent played Seti and Tausert yet. Next game will be one of them. On the surface they don't seem as interesting. I have also been saving them incase I managed to get some MP going they would be perfect duet.

A tip when playing them is getting out of that starting military alliance as fast as possible because your starting positions are far from each other and your partner somehow is very aggressive. You can keep him/her as friend by gifting land to get defensive alliance instead so you get less wars to worry about when civil war starts.

[Wolfie]

I've been playing Irsu, and something not well known his eco is absolutely insane, while he cant upgrade certain structures, his garrison is unaffected and every work camp increases a province by 50%. you can run early two full stacks of those desert two handed axe guys which are arguably the best early units in game, veteran versions can route full stacks of gold tier units. After taking all of Canaan you can send a couple of heavy invasion waves in either direction while still keeping a strong reserve army for sea people. An interesting note is the northern invaders were neutral only attacking the Hittites