Aksum, Lakhmid, or Himyar?

[bill.stevens]

I've been pulling 60-hour work weeks, and just don't have the time to invest in every single faction. As you may guess, knowing which one to pick in advance is a bit of an issue.

As I'd like to try an eastern nation next and have narrowed it down to these three. Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions about which is best/ most uniqe / challangeing / memorable?

[Delacourt '27]

These applies if you are not playing any overhaul mods.

Aksum and Himyar will have war with each other very early, scripted due to historical causes, so be prepared.

All 3 has tier 1 main temple give +1 Osmosis and can hire priest advantage.

Lakhmid is the hardest since they start with only 1 minor city, and there are only 2 ways to break vassalge from Sassainds. It is either independence through war, or abandon your home city and capture another city to settle down. I tested this out, no war immediately, but didn't test past initial success to see how Sassinds or it's 2 military allies will react to your peaceful independence.

As for the other 2, they play the same way, take over the other one's beginning 2 cities, and the world is open to you.

https://www.honga.net/totalwar/attila/

Use the info there to decide which faction's troops you like better. Short version, both have good city spearman which get upgraded with first military tech. Himyar has better armored med tiered infantry. If cheap city spear infantry is good enough for LegendofTotalwar on Legendary, in one of the video I saw, not sure about others, then it should be enough for us mortals.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=801695045

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=454321516

Highly recommends these 2 mods, if you are going for any of their longer religious victory conditions. At least get the first one for all desert factions.

[tbassett]

Aksum or Himyar are awesome to play. Lakhmids are kinda boring and have crummy bonuses.

Aksum has some awesome units. The spice warriors and spice guard are great units. The spice warriors are a devastating early game melee unit. Spice guard are devasting axe warriors with bows and as far as I know they are the only unit like that in the game. They don't survive auto-resolve well, but on the battlefield they're insane. I don't remember much about their religion, but their corruption reduction is a huge benefit in late game.

Himyar has a armored javelin unit that has spear wall that is totally awesome. Judaism is one of the best religions in the game. It is very similar to semitic paganism except they get the same research bonus as Greek Christianity. They are really easy to run the board once their tech advantage takes over.

Also, don't forget about Tanukids or Garamantians. Tanukids converted to Greek Christianity is very powerful. Garamantians, although not objectively a good faction, they're very well placed on the map and it's very easy to eat Africa early. Any of the desert kingdom factions can hit very hard with armored camel warriors.

I play vanilla, so I can't speak to any of the mods specifically, but getting rid of fractured faiths and local traditions sounds like it would make Aksum and Himyar way too OP.

[肥皂]

有没有中国人买查理曼LDC进入游戏确不能玩的 情况啊

[bill.stevens]

OP here.

Prior to this thread, I was leaning towards choosing the Lakhmids for their position, their "arabian nights" asthetic, and because I remember them from my World History class. However, I set the Sassanids aside in the first place because I didn’t want the hassle of dealing with puppet states, much less actually BE one. What exactly is the appeal of being constrained and limited by a big-brother superpower?

At your suggestions, I’ve started a Himyar campaign, and am having a blast. Their melee capable javelinmen in particular bring back fond memories of the Spanish and Portuguese Almughavars from Total War; Medieval 2.

I prefer my campaigns to have reliable troops mixed with volatile situations on the campaign map, and Himyar has delivered both. (I’m at war with both the Sassaninds AND the ERE, and the only reason I haven’t been squashed yet is because they’re at war with each other, giving me a chance to unite Arabia/Ethiopia. It’s quite a mess down here, and I absolutely love it.

Anyway, thank you for your input and your willingness to help; it has been most appreciated.