Best Starting Kingdom...

[MythTrip]

What is best start kingdom? I have played a practice game and am ready for the real thing. I want to play on normal difficulty and have a reasonable chance of winning....thanks everyone, happy gaming......

[biepbot]

Depends on how you want to play it, larger kingdoms usually are stronger at first, but smaller ones may have better units.

I personally like the Teutonic Order (very strong melee units)
Athens (Feudal knights)
Or any time of byzantian country; Nicea or Byzantium. They both have Roman Soldiers and Catapracts

[Electric Antartica]

The normans are always good they have norman infantry which are the size of peasents and are exceptional fighters. They also have a good chance for early expansion into France and/or Germany for resources for trade value and getting those luxury goods. (I had this game before I had steam so I don't have any steam hours on record).

[Butterbjork]

I would recomend starting off as ireland, and slowly taking over the british isles. that way you can have an easily defendable area(you can travel by sea very quickly to all of your cities) and you get longbowmen, which cut down most units from a distance and very rarely die so you wont have a problem getting them to 3 star. Plus you can just build harbors in all your cities so $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Hope this helps:)

[Commander]

Ulster, @ Ireland, i think is the best starting point to win this game very quick (about 3 hours). u only need to conquer the Islands Ireland & Britania, which u can controll with only 1 marshall. Cause there u get a lot of harbours and u get from beginning longbowmans ( best unit in game ). If u conquered Britania go to northern France and finish with the small win, with the accomplshments.
Have fun

[biepbot]

longbowmen aren't the best units in game... Best ranged units maybe, only as defender though.

Teutonic knights; best defensive foot melee units
Teutonic order. duh

Roman infantry; best aggressive foot melee units
Byzantia or any split country of that.

Feudal knights; best aggressive horseman
Uh, Athens.. But other countries as well, a lot actually.

Cataract; best defensive horseman
Byzantia.

Longbowman; best defensive archer
English countries usually

Heavy crossbowman; best aggressive ranged unit
Around Italy

So comes down the Byzantia has the best kingdom bound units

[dinanm3atl]

Scotland. Use same strategy as mentioned here with Ireland. Take the British Isles. Take Ireland. And you can expand out while being able to pretty easily defending the Isles.

[biepbot]

normandy and take fooping England
(because normans armies are as large as peasants, but much stronger)

only replying this because it seems no one cares about best units..

[Harlaus]

I began with norway and it was a good idea :)

[ContraWindsor]

Ulster

[Girao]

i always start whit portugal, if is a game were galiza is solo its easy to take, if is earlyer you need to fight back the infidels, however is very easy to expanto trought spain and then frace and like england easy tho defend whit a marchal whit feudal knights... and because is on the couner of a map there are not many countrys trying to kill you at start...

[futbolluva]

I'm really enjoying starting with Sweden actually. Have access to silver and coastal towns right off the bat to really get that economy booming and without the downside of having a bunch of countries waging war with you like you would in the England/Ireland area or when you start with a big country. Also their unique unit, the Viking, only requires an axe smith to make, is relatively cheap, has a crazy +3 morale, and is deceptively powerful especially against all the weak early game units they'll come across like peasants and regular axemen. I'm late game and still using an army of Vikings actually, they're just so reliable and I'm starting to think that their charge attack actually has some hidden bonuses.

Novgorod is also a good starter, no one at war in the beginning, northern provinces have Viking local special unit and the Boyar heavy cavalry is your Kingdom Special, you start off with towns that have coasts and the ability to build Men-at-arms, archers, horse archers, and spearmen.

[Ckapc 3x6]

Any devided kindom (Moesia/Bdin/Karvuna for example) when you conquer the other kindoms you'll have an option to restore the former kindom and by that you'll get alot of gold, and an additional free province (Moesia/Bdin/Karvuna will form Bulgaria, you'll get 10k gold and Macedonia from Syrbia without any war decarations from them, only nostalgia); Byzantia is way too easy in the early period;

[Ckapc 3x6]

Originally posted by Biepbot:

normandy and take fooping England
(because normans armies are as large as peasants, but much stronger)

only replying this because it seems no one cares about best units..

when you conquer a province with said best units, but yeah starter good units are always good

[BetterBite]

If your playing in the early eras I suggest Poland. Make sure Lithuania isnt at war with you though

[Ragnaman]

I started with German empire; I just used diplomacy to to have trade and non-aggression pacts with my neighbours. I then built up my towns until my neighbours went full-batman on each other. I decline all the requests for treaty breakage (bad for business), until one of my neighbours decides that he will conquer me...with peasants...*slight laughter*