Favourite country to play?

[UhtredRagnarson]

In the 1440 or 1200 scenario? And why?

I prefer starting as countries ranked between 80 and 300 and building my empire. Starting as a major power is too easy. I've played as some of the tribes ranked over 400 and it's kind of fun the first time but that gets tedious as well. So medium countries are my preference.

Also playing in Europe is too easy because it's too easy to take over all those high populated 1 or 2 province little German states in the HRE and the HRE does nothing about it.

What are other people's preferences?

[VidyaGamez]

My favorite countries are the ones who start as tribes, with other tribes around them. the ones where you have to start the game fighting, then you move into a phase of empire-development, then you move back into war with whatever giants formed over the oceans. I like going through all the phases of gameplay.

I do this by playing on at least hard and turning the AI aggresivness up to at least 165 or so, that's the biggest factor in making the other countries play more like a human, the AI aggresivness.

My favorite countries to start as have been the Aztekian Empire, or the Abyssinian, the Kongo, or the Mali/Song. Those all fit my list of fun.

[bdpq]

Apart from the tribes, Korea or some japanese nations can be fun.

[Garde]

Aztecs, Byzantium and Shimazu because i like these civilizations in History. I play always in empty map. 1440 scenario. Don't try 1200 scenario.

[KingeOrge]

Play as Castille and Aragon to form my own country, Spain... I know it's typical, but it's my favourite thing in these kind of games...

[Firebird]

Decided to challenge myself so started playing as Serbia in the 1836 scenario. After about 100 years I ended up founding Yugoslavia. To challenge myself further I decided to not expand outside of Yugoslavia and see how far I can go to develop my country. I was surprised when I saw my country climb to great power status, and eventually little Yugoslavia became the #1 nation on earth. At this point I decided to have fun and go on a world conquest campaign. So far I'm almost done steamrolling through Russia, and I have a precense in Italy and the middle east. This game is a lot easier than it looks. Wish they had mutliplayer on here.

[VidyaGamez]

Автор сообщения: Captain Remover

Decided to challenge myself so started playing as Serbia in the 1836 scenario. After about 100 years I ended up founding Yugoslavia. To challenge myself further I decided to not expand outside of Yugoslavia and see how far I can go to develop my country. I was surprised when I saw my country climb to great power status, and eventually little Yugoslavia became the #1 nation on earth. At this point I decided to have fun and go on a world conquest campaign. So far I'm almost done steamrolling through Russia, and I have a precense in Italy and the middle east. This game is a lot easier than it looks. Wish they had mutliplayer on here.

Once you set the AI Aggresivness high enough you get the AI playing more like a player, tested it at 180% on the 1440 map the other day and once I got to Europe I found The Golden Horde had taken over all of Europe and Asia, just about the entire thing. Takes a lot more care and diplomacy to get yourself into a strong position since the vultures are always watching and getting bigger themsevles.

There's also the difficult level itself, but I haven't tested the ones past hard yet. I wonder if the AI cheats or actually plays better?

[Castiel]

Start as Rome from the very beginning. Think I need to change that.

[Firebird]

Автор сообщения: Zulgaines

Once you set the AI Aggresivness high enough you get the AI playing more like a player, tested it at 180% on the 1440 map the other day and once I got to Europe I found The Golden Horde had taken over all of Europe and Asia, just about the entire thing. Takes a lot more care and diplomacy to get yourself into a strong position since the vultures are always watching and getting bigger themsevles.

There's also the difficult level itself, but I haven't tested the ones past hard yet. I wonder if the AI cheats or actually plays better?

Actually the problem with AI is them being too agresive with one another. As a matter of fact, I use this to my advantage using the following technique:
I sign non-agression pacts with all my neighbors, as well as improve relations with them. Usually I have no problems doing this, however every once in a while I will get a neighbor that is insulting me and not signing nonagression pacts. Anytime I get even the slightest hint of an AI wanting to fight me, I just make a trade deal with all of its neighbors to declare war on the AI for 100 gold. I am almost never turned down on this offer. The fact that the AI fights so much among each other means that the world is a barren wasteland, compared to the country I rule which lives in peace because aint nobody has the time to fight me. Occasionally I do get invaded, but when that happens my economic strength and highly populated provinces is more than enough to take care of the enemy, and when it's not, I just get all of the country's neighbors to fight them.

In conclusion the reason the AI isn't challenging is not due to them not being agressive enough, but them not focusing nearly enough resources on economic development. The fact that they fight too much among each other (wether it be due to their agressiveness setting, or me provoking them to do so) means in the long run they become weakened, while my country of 30 provinces or less can take on an empire of 1000 provinces no issue.

*note: I went back to my Yugoslavia game, and I do have some worthy global adversaries. It turns out though those countries that stand the best chance against an invasion by me happened to have been at peace most of the game whereas some of the larger warmongering ones don't have the population or economy to stand a chance.

[mizuena]

i playing chosun(korea) 1440 scenario. japan is shattered. so if korea invade japan and unify japan for korea, it is huge synergy economy, population...

[TheFirstHi [Fry]]

Any country that can form into a bigger country

[JRICH0724]

i like to play as a country i havent played yet.

[Basil_II_The_Bulgarslayer]

personally i like playing as any minor nation in europe. you start by researching and investing and you end up as a large empire. Personal favorite so far is Samtskhe

[Problem Solver]

Playing as Korea. Took over Japan while it was shattered. Jumped into North America and own 98% of its land. Pushing east toward Europe now