Medieval 2 Factions - Ranked Worst to Best 

New microphone. What do people think? Won't be perfect yet. I need to work on the settings more and stuff. : )

The reason Venice don't feel like a trading power is because sea trade is bugged. The Venetians are supposed to get a trading headstart as they have immediate access to a merchants wharf. Problem is trade routes are bugged and spawn on the port tech tree not the sea trade tech tree.

They are "Okay" Puts them in "Good"

I love missile cav. They add such a different dynamic to a battle. You've either gotta have counter missile units or they'll chip away at you, which is historically accurate.

1:14 But how can the Principality of Antioch be a copy and paste of the Kingdom of Jerusalem when the former was founded in 1098 and the latter in 1099? Justice for Antioch!

“France well they are French” no really I thought they where Russian

England, France and the HRE feel the most classically medieval to me. They are my fez

The native factions are a lot of fun to play. Tactically you have to play extra aggressively, flood the battlefield with fast high morale infantry, chasing down and trapping enemy cavalry with multiple spear units to hold them in place then from finishing them with heavy inf.

The video is not monetized, so Melkor puts ads directly into the screen. OUTSTANDING MOVE

See I felt like England was a play only once faction. Play once, beat on the French who are getting attacked on all fronts, too easy of a campaign. Russia you need to survive a war with the mongols and the overcome that event to win the campaign

Bruh, Turk campaign is one of best. You're in the middle of everything, you got crusades and mongols going through your territory. You have to take Constantinople, you can fight in the mediterranean, and you get some of the best gunpowder units and missile cav. Turks are a blast to play. They'd be my #1.

Be careful MELKOR, the French are French, but so are you!

close to a 1000 hours ( including mods ) and not a single England campaign

You forgot New Spain....you only focused on Spain from Vanilla. The mechanics for New Spain make it a unique and fun faction. Also I feel of all the native factions the Apache are the most fun, even though they're like Russia from Vanilla

I'm English and must say Portugal is one of my favourite campaign factions, great roster, great position. Can't get my head around the Ok!

Make your next Tier list of The Satainless Steel mod of Medieval, it may be fun to see comments on each faction with their improvements, complications and possibilities

The mic is good

Great video! Love your work!

Is there a Super Fez tier where Rebels go? Also Byzantines are the closest colour equivalent to pyjama boys, dunno why just good.

Oh aye expect the English guy to say Scotland isn’t the best country to play

Great tier list. You put nomadic horse archers below, I actually like how skirmishing by horseback is a great way to chase routing units.

New mic is hype and also so glad this is coming rn

I really don't like Denmark. Their units are generally too light to make a subtantial impact on enemies, and their starting position leaves Denmark either head-to-head with one of the largest, most powerful factions in the game, or off to go fight rebels in the vast northern wastes. Honestly, I'd rather play as Russia. Spear Militia are surprisingly competent, and at least they stand a chance against cavalry and archers.

I found a way to play as Mongolia on the main campaign and that was quite fun. Made me realize why they are always the richest faction when they emerge. Having no upkeep on their units being the main reason lol

Venice, Sicily, Byzantines, Denmark, and Holy Roman Empire are my top 5. Love the Byzantine units--they only have a few that particularly stand out, but they are among the best units in the entire game, I feel. (At least Vanilla for sure)

Portugal is described as "Excellent light infantry and cavalry, lacks professional units". Yet, they literally only have 1 (mediocre) light infantry unit, the Swordsmen Militia (which even Spain has the far superior Sword and Buckler Men) and 0, i repeat ZERO light cavalry units, they have 1 light skirmisher cavalry unit and the rest is heavy cavalry. On the other hand, Portugal has arguably THE BEST professional units in the game. The Aventuros are the strongest pike unit in the game, beating even the more expensive Scottish Noble Pikemen. The Portuguese Arquebuisers are the strongest gunpowder unit in the game, beating the more expensive Ottoman Janissaries in a 1v1 (Janissaries have better stats and range, but inferior morale so they usually route first despite taking fewer losses) The Dismounted Portuguese knights are equivalent to the Dismounted English Knights and the Dismounted French Knights, which are the strongest infantry of England and France (which supposedly have "great late infantry" and the most professional armies) and they beat the more expensive Gothic Knights, in a 1v1 fight. The Portuguese have conquistadors, which can even beat the more expensive French Lancers, the best and most expensive cavalry in the West, (and the Portuguese Knights are one of the most cost-effective heavy cavalry units in the game, only having a slightly worse armor than the French Lancer for a much cheaper price). Portugal also has access to the best artillery guns in the game, the Basilisk. Portugal's missile game is by far their weakest part, they lack any archers whatsoever (other than worthless peasants) and their Crossbowmen options are basic but decent (they have Pavise Crossbowmen, which are a solid unit) So Portugal's *ACTUAL* strengths are: -Outstanding Pike and Shot units, Great Artillery and Naval units, decent Heavy infantry and cavalry. And Portugal's *ACTUAL* weaknesses are: -Complete lack of archers and light cavalry, poor early melee infantry. Compared to Spain, Portugal has superior pikes (Aventuros > Tercios), superior guns (PT Arquebuisers > Musketeers), superior heavy infantry (Dismounted PT Knights > Chivralic Knights) and superior Skirmishers (Lusitanian Javelinmen > Spanish Javelinmen) and more cost-effective heavy cavalry (Spanish Gendarmes are more expensive than Portuguese Knights, despite having identical stats) Spain has superior light infantry (Sword and Buckler men > Sword Militia) and more cost-effective pikes (Although the Aventuros are superior to the Tercios, the Tercios are far cheaper and thus more cost-effective).

I didn’t expect such a high Scottish ranking, I usually find Scotland being underrated in a lot of things

Milan is a bit overpower in this game they the fact that can recruit knight and unmount knight in the city.

The Turks is absolutely good. They have disciplined army and excellent morale. If u cant lose generals early; they fight till the last soldier. It's also very enjoyable to play. They have to fight everyone. Byzantium, Egypt, Venice and Hungary(Late), Mongols, Timurs and Crusaders.

Imo Apache is fun to play, you can sense the military advancement of the natives by defeating colonizers.

Scots would be my favorite if pikes and two handed weapons worked correctly.

byzantium are a Spartans like, they are the best faction yet they always die in the end, btw you should do more tiers melkor, especially for Rome 1 and for Rome 2, im hoping you trash with style all the copypaste factions

Would this ranking depend on difficulty? If so, what is the difficulty setting you have in mind? With regards to Hard Short campaigns, I had the longest/hardest time playing Denmark, and the easiest/shortest times playing as Milan and Portugal.

What have you done to my boy Byzantium?!

I love playing underdogs--so my favorites are Scotland in Vanilla, and pagan Lithuania in the Teutonic campaign.

England in vanilla play is a right beast if you move quickly enough. William the Conqueror and his sons are excellent starting commanders and can sweep Scotland off the map and hammer the French without over-extending yourself. England in the Britannia campaign is a right nightmare. Trying manage control over your territory in Ireland, keeping Wales in check, managing a hemorrhaging economy, worrying about Scotland targeting your northern settlements while also wondering when the Baron's Alliance will trigger and decimate the landscape and your spiraling economy Ah what a gem of a game. Never has a stress-induced heart-attack felt so good

Thank you from Venice! :)

my personal favorites 1. France. Funny accents, favorite color scheme, top tier archers are extremely solid in melee, some of the heaviest and strongest cavalry, decent selection of heavy infantry. surrounded by rebel settlements so fairly easy to build up. You also have good enough city units that you could conceivably play city-only if you really wanted to. 2. Timurids: OP but that's why i like them. steamroll anyone you like with the Elephant gunners and Elephant arty, backed by cheap spear militia and strong foot archers. 3. New Spain: OP but satisfying, blowing up all those funny little men in the New World with Dragoons, Artillery, Musketeers and Conquistadors. one of the most powerful rosters in the game even if you weren't up against weak infantry. 4. Milan. Easiest faction to be city-only and rake in money. great color scheme. great militia and castle troops. only weakness is lack of archers but thats what mercs are for. 5. Apaches: unique in that they can steal tech and get the fantastic Mounted Thunder Braves. you can kill just about anything with a full stack of those guys. plus the unique Warpath power. 6. HRE: funny accents, good colors, and decent roster with plenty of unique infantry and cavalry. reiters can be good if used right, same for hand gunners. You can easily roleplay and restore the old Roman Empire borders. 7. England. OP longbows. good color scheme and outstanding starting position, once you unite the British Isles. solid infantry and cavalry 8. Papal States. Swiss Guard are strong as hell. good color scheme. can concievably be a city-only faction. anyone you attack is insta-excommunicated which is OP as heck. mercs fill in the gaps of the roster 9. Scotland. underrated due to having so many pikemen but i tend to just forgo the pikes altogether and make a load of heavy dismounted knights/noble foot archers. mostly so high cos of their colors and unit designs. 10. Russia. Dismounted Dvor and Dvor can be incredibly strong as they are basically close combat units that can fire a bow at you.

I don't mind your slower more deliberate delivery, but I find myself enjoying the video a lot more on 1.25x Speed. Love the content and the mic quality is great!

Very clear mic, quite the upgrade

HRE was the easiest time I ever had defeating every faction. Gothic Knights and Reiters crush the Timurids.

I think the Apache and Chichimec campaigns are pretty underrated and worthy of ok/good and great respectively. Stealing gun and horse technology from the Europeans really adds a whole new dynamic to these factions, especially the new cavalry units you get. The Apache are kinda isolated (until France shows up), but the Chichimecs have a pretty interesting starting location. The rest of the native campaigns are boring as crap though imo

Would be interested to see you rank the four Kingdoms campaigns themselves :)

Dude I dressed up as a tutonic knight for Halloween one year

As a Polish I think the biggest downside of playing as Poland is that you have to eliminate Hungary for the victory conditions. The Polish and the Hungarians are known to absolutley love each other, who the heck thought that putting that victory condition was a good idea?

I’m 2 years late but, your mic sounds good !!

Interesting take on favorite factions! I'm not fond of Hungary or France, but enjoy the Moors and Egyptians. England is a favorite.

i m really excited to play venice too for medieval 3. but will we see such days bro?

Im a Portuguese viewer and I gotta say this to you 😤: It's okay bro, I also think its stupid we start with Navarro 😅

If u buy the crusaders. Will u be able to have their faction in the custom battle option

Last night I went through and modified the AI of the med 2 factions. Easy to do (change AI to fortified Genghis, or something like that), and it didn't take long to change things up. Byz and hre are very powerful now.

you should do a video like this but for Stainless steel 6.4

I conquered the whole world map with France. Their late period units are amazing. Any faction that has the serpentine cannons, good gun powder/cavalry units is fun to play

My favourite factions are definitely Denmark (in both campaigns), the HRE (in vanilla), Teutonic Knights, and Norway (Britannia campaign).

I haven't played England, but I do say that I always enjoy playing as Milan and France

What's the problem with missile cav? It's just so epic when they demolish armies before the fight starts.

Agree about Sicily. Very underrated faction. Their best units are available early in the game, and their starting position gives you complete freedom. And you have the best castle in the game Palermo.

Mic sounds good!

Miss you melkor!

"I hate missile cav" Anakin Melkor

oh, you bested me this time ma man

I actually enjoy Antioch over Jerusalem. The slightly different starting position is very interesting. As for the native tribes, yeah all of them are boring.

I love cavalry archers (except jav cav) and I love archery and heavy cav. Infantry and light not so good with.

I know this vid is two years old but man, the mongols + timurids are playable with minor tweaks to code. Super fun campaign with both imo.

Bit late commenting on this video, but the one rating that shocked me the most was Sicily. Sicily does gain access to higher grade military buildings faster than everyone else and are probably the easiest faction to go crusading with. Outside of that, their economy sucks and it can be tough to expand because you are up against the strongest factions in the game surrounding you. Milan, Venice, HRE, and Papal States to the north, France to the northwest, Byzantium to the east, and all of the iberian factions to the west. Outside of that, liked the tier list. I wonder what you think of my tier list (rated in order): S tier - England, Moors, Spain A tier - France, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Turks, Venice B tier - Byzantium, Denmark, Ireland, Mayans, Novgorod, Teutonic Order, Wales, Lithuania, Holy Roman Empire, Jerusalem, Antioch C tier - Egypt, Sicily, Norway, Hungary, Tarascans, Chiminecs, Apacheans D tier - Russia, Poland, Aztecs, Tlaxcalans Barons Alliance, Papal States, Mongols, and Timurids are all unavailable across all campaigns unless you dabble in file editing, which I don't do. I tried to take the average ratings of how I felt about each faction across all the different campaigns, which was tough. I spent about an hour thinking about how I should rank each faction on this tier list. I considered the starting locations, unit roster for the campaign, and how much I enjoyed playing them and facing the challenges that are presented from start to finish. I hope, by some chance, that you will see this comment and have enjoyed seeing my opinions. I can answer questions as to my thought process about putting a faction in a specific place if you want. Thanks for reading if you saw this.

For me Denmark and Scotland , Jerusalem in crusades. My two cents on France is their Calvary is so much better than everyone around them you run them over and meet small campaign requirements by 50-60 turns

I love hungary bc they convine the missile cav with heavy knight

I know you're not a fan of missile cav, but Turkey has a really good roster of infantry and archers that are above average. They're no English Longbows, but you don't need train up all that cav if you don't want to. Historically the Ottomans had tons of infantry and seige. Same for Egypt. Russia is a bit harder to defend, but I can't stop saying how much I love the DIsmounted Dvors. THey are the Longbows of the East. And they're armored enough that you can use them as standard medium / heavy infantry. Just need to protect them with spears. If you don't like missile cav, that's totally, a lot of missile cav factions have pretty phenomenal archer and infantry units. Also melee cav.

Hello man, Im portuguese. and yeah I think Portugal faction is Ok But as a lot of potencial, but you can't conquer too much too early or you won't be able to secure everything. But our history man, our history is much greatter and richer that you will ever dreamed of :o P.s good vids

Wales would have to be on the level above Fez, but that's only because i'm Mexican.

Like the Mic 👍

I’ve only used England and Danes. Got a lot further using Danes that’s for sure. They have Viking units ❤

Depends man,if you play online everyone picks spain for conquistador,and they banned the elephants, there is no a certain option.

Playing against missile cav as England isn't much fun because longbowmen run out of arrows far too quickly and end up being useless.

Meme listttttt. If you enjoyed moors try Turks again having the most fun I've ever had in MTW with them hashashin ftw

One of my favourites is Sicily: From your starting position in Southern Italy you may build up a medieval sea empire. Claim the western provinces of the Byzantine Empire, lead crusading expeditions against Egypt and the Moors of Tunis or turn against the coasts of Iberia.

For a faction ranking a third of them are just thrown in “no” it’s kinda sad....

Mic is good for me. Pretty much agree with fez tier.

Egypt would always drop a tier for me because in Vanilla the Pope always calls a Crusade on Cairo, so you are pushed into wars you're probably not ready for just yet.

Hey Melkor, I was always wondering where are you from? :)

My Fez: Byzantium, the HRE and England My Great: Milan, Venice, Sicily, Teutons, Jerusalem

Mic is awesome

13:10 Ahh, I see you're a man of culture as well

Am I the only person who loves to play Hungary ?

Do Atilla next! 😉

I'd choose Antioch over Jerusalem because of the drip.

Got to agree with Sicily, I loved playing them and re creating the roman empire with them, trying to keep the papal on side till I needed my capital

The micro phone made YOUR FACE better. It's quite gorgeous Chad now

You're not being generous with Milan. Their crossbows are awesome.

My fav/best factions are: Vanilla: England (Best secure starting positions, decent melee infantry and funny general speeches) France (One of the most diverse and powerful late game unit rosters with solid archers, infantry and cav) HRE (Teutonic Knights, Reiters, Pikemen and starts off quite powerful in early game) Moors (Good starting location, very OP peasant crossbowmen, Tuareg Camel Gunners & Christian Guard) Spain (Access to Conquistadores, one of the best heavy infantry in the game, good heavy cav, javelins & gunpower and cannon units late game) Venice (Venetian Heavy Infantry & Pavise Crossbowmen are some of the best missile/melee units in the game) Teutonic: Teutonic Order (Units are very professional, well armoured & they look rly badass esp the Ritterbruder) Denmark/Kalmar Union (Diverse roster of early & late game heavy infantry & unique pike units) Crusades: Antioch (Good starting location, very OP Knights of the Holy Sepulchre & Hospitaller units look badASss, their roster is slightly better than Jerusalem IMO) Byzantines (Greek Flamethrowers are super OP, diverse roster of archers and missle cav)

The Turks obviously wasnt given enough time pal. Yes they're depended on mis cav earlier but then... Mighty Ottoman Empire emerges wow thats the experience right there. Jan. Archers have spikes put them on the front at the deployment stage, then put your jan musketeers which are basicly the strongest most disciplined rifle unit in the game by far and then start the game pull your archers behind your infantry. AND USE THAT GIANT CANNON WHICH ONCE DESTROYED THE WALLS OF EAST ROMAN EMPIRE.

the Turkish start is complicated, but its place should be in "FEZ", because in middle game or late game, it's a Top 3 Faction, they have very powerful technology, if not superior, for example their Yeniceri (Janissary) are in several types, Archer, Musket, and Heavy Infantry, expensive to buy, but profitable to maintain, which makes them a very powerful long term army, Janissary Musketeers are as good as the Russians' Cossacks, ranked as the best Musketeers in the game, add to that their heavy cavalry and harassment, and you get a formidable army, as do their Hybrid troops, like the Ottoman Infantry, who play with bow and sword/shield, like the Russian Dvor, but much cheaper than the Dvor to maintain and buy, as their stats are slightly lower. not to mention their formidable artillery You can also take Egypt up a notch, if you put the Moors in "GREAT" Egypt is even more powerful in terms of striking power in the long term thanks to its "Tabardariyya", they are resistant to musket ball thanks to their heavy armor, and their damage is incredible, moreover these units are city units, so very practical to protect your city without bringing heavy units from your castle if you need to protect yourself (from a crusade for example).

My favorite factions are missle cav factions, especially Turks, RUssians and Byzantines (haven't played Hungary yet), melee cav factions - France, HRE (also Byzantium), archer factions (England). I also love the missile cav factions because they can field all cavalry armies and just put they're infantry to garrison or have them in large, slow moving seige armies. THe cav army fights battles and shadows the seige army, which is the one taking territory. Cavarly armies can ride back and defend against invasion, they're be a vanguard of an invasion, or a harrassing force that ties down enemy troops. I also use them as mobile garrison to take out rebels whenever they pop up.

How do you play papal states.

Fez teir for me England (vanilla) First campaign I ever did, great roster and starting position plus you can get Sherwood archers 🤣 Teutonic (Teutonic Campaign) Great units,cool atheistic, awesome RP potential of crusading the north. Sicily (Vanilla) excellent unit diversity (Norman knights Muslim archers) best starting location in vanilla imo, can easily gain large amounts of land without upsetting the Pope by going after Muslim factions

"Welcum" 💀

Microphone sounds good! 🎤

Portuguese is the best faction, except HRE.

Denmark is definitely my fez! First time I played them, it was love at first sight. They have legit melee infantry from the get-go, and they're armor-piercing to boot. And you can us dismounted huscarls all game long and they will pulverize even feudal knights. My only complaint is the lack of spear troops. My other few would be the Moors. Their Lamtuna Spearmen are arguably the best non-pike spear troops in the game. I never cease to be amazed at how they munch up General Bodyguard units with ease. Throw in the Christian Guard and Came Gunners and you have the best Islamic faction in the game.

Played the game since release... thousand of hours played. Venice is the best faction. roster for everything..You can trade or just flat out buy blog city from the HRE..n turn it into a castle. Either consolidate in north italy n go west(favorite strat) or play out war vs one of the weakest cpu held factions n go east. Italian spearmen Pav crossbows Venetian infantry. Cheap n great stats. Core of your army. This is just a simple take...there are more details why they are #1..feel free to ask me.