Good starting faction?

[Kuromiya]

New Atilla player here. Sort of. Veteran of TW (been playing since Shogun 1) and technically I have played Atilla before, way back when it was first released, but tbh I don't remember anything about the game, so "new" is probably correct.

What are some good factions to play as in the Grand Campaign?

I've been looking for some brief faction overviews, but haven't found anything suitable.

My general playstyle:
I tend to enjoy English tactics the most (i.e. great missile troops, defensive terrain-aware posture)
Not a big fan of javelins and light skirmishers. Cav archers can be fun tho.
Quality is more fun than quantity.
More northern (Viking or German) the aesthetics, the better.
Small safe home -> chill empire building would be nice to begin with. Doesn't have to be an "easy" starting position, but no WRE.

And finally, while ahistorical, I'd also like a faction with some female or mixed units.

Thanks!

[Sn3z]

From the factions I have played, I think the Caledonians best fit that and you start small. You have T3 archers and T3 spear units.

[K1tt3nM4ng0]

For me the Garamantians were my first faction. It's one of the desert kingdoms, so decidedly no northern aesthetics there. It's fairly remote, you start with few enough territories but still can/have to wage war against the WRE or ERE almost right off the bat for meaningful expansion.

As mentioned above the Caledonians (and likely the Picts) certainly fit that bill a bit more if you absolutely want "northern aesthetics".

I'd possibly advise the Ostrogoths though, fairly northern, definitely not an 'easy' starting position (you do have to expand against the ERE or WRE and would have to defend against the Huns). The Ostrogoths are closer to the most regular difficulty level for the game, as they have same-ish ability tree as most of the other factions of the game (except the Celts and Desert Kingdoms, which have such good ability trees that it makes the game noticeably easier).

[MaxCrow]

European factions with good archers are Barbarians and Slavs.

Since you are a new player I'd go with Suebians, Langobards or Franks.
Slavs have good infantry and the best archers but they are hard for a beginner.
Suebians are an horde, but they are easy and have a complete roster.
Langobards and Franks are more traditional because not hordes.

Vikings have trash archers, Celts have crossbows but bad archers.

[Daedrius]

Personally Burgundians are my all around favorite barbarian faction. They have good heavy spearmen, heavy cavalry and heavy slingers. They also get Elite archers later on and even better heavy cavalry. Decent start position too when you can immediately take out the Varnarians on your first move. Purchase a bunch of mercs with the army nearest to them, attack-surround, then bring over the leaders army to back them up on the attack.

[Hark]

Visigoths.

[Ponos Is Vagina]

Originally posted by MaxCrow:

European factions with good archers are Barbarians and Slavs.

Since you are a new player I'd go with Suebians, Langobards or Franks.
Slavs have good infantry and the best archers but they are hard for a beginner.
Suebians are an horde, but they are easy and have a complete roster.
Langobards and Franks are more traditional because not hordes.

Vikings have trash archers, Celts have crossbows but bad archers.

Do you have problems with river battles in multiplayer? Because I do. The game keeps crashing

[MaxCrow]

Originally posted by Ponos Is Vagina:

Originally posted by MaxCrow:

European factions with good archers are Barbarians and Slavs.

Since you are a new player I'd go with Suebians, Langobards or Franks.
Slavs have good infantry and the best archers but they are hard for a beginner.
Suebians are an horde, but they are easy and have a complete roster.
Langobards and Franks are more traditional because not hordes.

Vikings have trash archers, Celts have crossbows but bad archers.

Do you have problems with river battles in multiplayer? Because I do. The game keeps crashing

Often I had problems with river battles in coop campaigns.

[Ponos Is Vagina]

how did u solve those problems?

[MaxCrow]

Originally posted by Ponos Is Vagina:

how did u solve those problems?

Auto-resolve the battle