What factions do you think are the hardest in the base game and dlc.

[Quantuvius Maximum]

I'm trying to figure out the hardest faction for teutonic, crusades, americas and the base game are. But the internet doesnt say much. I'd like to hear your opinions.

[Gunther von Rittersburg]

Teutonic I would say Lithuania.

Crusades: Not sure.

Americas: Natives, most likely.

Base game(Vanilla): Anyone you please.

Busy right now I'll go more in depth later!

[McLovin]

In the base game some factions have a smaller (weaker?) roster than others, like Novgorod, or Poland.
This may be a weakness, yet this force to play with strategies that differ from the classic "all rounded" army.
I'm afraid the only army I never managed to understand or like very much is Denmark. Still, the starting position in the campaign allows you to conquer a lot from a defended place, and allows you to play pretty comfortably (easy).

Crusades: Antioch? Because of starting point? Not sure. The easiest is probably Byz tho.

Americas: Natives, some of which have really good rosters, like Apaches, but the way to evolve/unlock the strong units in the roster is pretty hard to understand and do.

Teutonic: Poland Novgorod and Denmark are here, but they play much better, because the other rosters in the region are more compatible IMO.
I may say too that Lithuania is hard, but if you play aggressive, you can destroy the teutons pretty early, and you have the instruments to do so.
Yet, this apply to any "hard" start in this game.

If you are looking for a more challenging MTW2 experience, try some mods like "Stainless Steel 6.4", or "Broken Crescent".

[[BR1] R0XIZ]

Russia in the base game is challenging but fun to play as.

[Quantuvius Maximum]

Alright, thanks for the feedback!

[Red Spot]

The Moors or Byzantium. They have a difficult unit roster, crusades vs them and not very loved by their neighbors in general.

[Inardesco]

What? Moors have peasant xbows with 12 missile attack that shred through everything + heavy infantry equal to Christian factions.

Byzantines have the strongest non-Mongol horse archers available on t1 alongside dependable heavy infantry available in both city and castle alongside some very good high range archers.

[Red Spot]

They do not reach those units until much later than other factions. I own the map with feudal knights long before the Moors/Byzantines reach their heavy infantry .. and I do not rely on ranged units, I despise HA and do not use them myself ever cause of the OP nature of the unit in the hands of the human. In an aggressive playstyle I have found those factions some of the most difficult if not the most difficult.
Note that OP asked 'what do you think'.

[Inardesco]

What...why not use a cheap ass peasant unit that can obliterate a generals bodyguard in a couple of volleys?

[Red Spot]

Stats alone make me turn away from units like x-bows. Their ranged stats may be nice, for the rest they are not even worth giving pants. Pants should give them more armor than they have stats-wise :D
As Moors I only build spears and Christ Guards and only cav I used were generals. Made for a spectacular campaign though :)

[Inardesco]

Why though? Their stats are high because they shoot slower than bows to compensate.

Its like having a nuke and be like, yeah...nah

[Red Spot]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Its like having a nuke and be like, yeah...nah

Playing Supreme Commander or Titans I do not use Nukes. I wreck my opponents the conventional way :D
I love England, Milan, Sicily cause their 'core' units are well formed and balanced. Unbalanced units I tend to not use. Specially so with HA's, they are just so darn OP.
If it was not for their easy location I would play Denmark exclusively. I just love their basic castle infantry including Norse Archers. I tend to use few or no cav when playing them but it never feels like I am limiting myself with their unit roster.
It is preference, I like my units well formed and armies well organised. I am somewhat horny for uniformity as well (even IRL).

Might want to add I was raised as an orphan and heavily influenced(read: drilled) by my grandfather who was navy instructor. So it is part of me ... and I am strict ...

[Kibey]

In the base game, Scotland can be tough.

In Americas: the Aztecs. Tlaxcallans are already at war with you and the Tarascans are waiting to declare war. Add New Spain to that mix.

In Teutonic: Both Lithuania and the Teutonic Order can be tough. Lithuania's starting units are weak whereas for the Teutonic Order, you need to have a minimum percentage of Catholicism to be able to recruit the top quality units like Ritterbruder and Order Spearmen.

In Crusades: there are no hardest faction (all of them are more or less equal). But economy-wise, Egypt might be the hardest.

In Britannia: Norway (because their economy for the first few turns is very weak).

[Jambie Lionheart]

I think it depends on exactly what you wanna do with the game. If you're trying to complete a long grand campaign in the base game then I'd say England is the hardest because you start pretty far away from jerusalem but it's almost impossible to get wiped out so long as you have even a half decent navy because you start off on the south end of an island with the Scotts to the north. They're easy to cut off from mainland Europe and take out early. They're glorified target practise in the game... basically.

They also have the single most useless spears in the entire world. Peasents are better than their levies but their spears are ok so long as you get a few armour upgrades for them. They don't hold their own for long though. This makes fighting against Cavalry heavy factions a bit of a pain in the ass. Can be fixed using mercs but the downside to that is you can't stop midway through the crusade to get them armoured up. Mongols have devestating cavalry too.

If ya want hardest and most fragile start then factions like Poland and Holy Roman Empire are kinda harder because they never have their backs to a wall until you've taken over half of the map (at which point you're unstoppable anyways). Haven't played the DLCs much myself so dun really know 'bout them.

[Ashur_Arbaces]

Sicily in the basegame cause it's starting position is ass.