Faction Details

[Jubal]

Okay, here are some more preview details of the factions for everyone. 

Marauders
Flavour: Wild, aggressive tribes of the North
Philosophy: Independent tribes welded together by religious devotion to the Witch.
Strengths: Berserk troops, cheap fighters, strong aggressive force
Weaknesses: Unpredictable armies, weak starting position and infertile lands
Selected unit: Talking wolves, huge mass of berserk light cavalry that can sweep across a battlefield.
Harfang
Flavour: Flamboyant man-eating Giants
Philosophy: Absolute Monarchy
Strengths: All units are giants.
Weaknesses: Expensive units, only average morale, poor starting position
Selected unit: Giant Noble, single huge armoured giant with a hit strength commonly seen on artillery.
Dwarfs
Flavour: Tough, independent hill-Dwarfs: mistrustful of humans and outsiders in general.
Philosophy: Elective for-life Senate rules over scattered towns and villages
Strengths: High morale, good starting territories
Weaknesses: Expensive troops, long training times for armies, aggressive neighbours
Selected unit: Dwarf War Mammoth, huge beast capable of taking on Giants with a crew of deadly accurate Dwarf archers.

Narnia
Flavour: Huge range of mythical beasts and humans in wild but productive country
Philosophy: Absolute, Imperialist monarchy, very benevolent though with extreme monotheistic religious overtones
Strengths: Huge unit selection, true combined arms force; access to several unique units
Weaknesses: Start surrounded by Telmarine Narnians with only two provinces rebelling with Caspian
Selected unit: Centaur Archers, deadly and fast-moving light cavalry force providing excellent skirmishing capability
Archenland
Flavour: Mountainous realm of knights & castles, on Narnia's southern border.
Philosophy: Feudalism, King as first among Equals with his nobility.
Strengths: Powerful knights and good defensive territories
Weaknesses: Few possibilities for profitable expansion without getting drawn into major wars in Narnia: likelihood of clashes with Calormenes
Selected unit: Knights of Archenland, deadly heavy cavalry troops
Kingdom of Terebinthia
Flavour: Seafaring island Kingdom with benevolent monarchy and professional army
Philosophy: "Philosopher Kings" Plato-style
Strengths: Powerful knights and good defensive territories
Weaknesses: Few possibilities for profitable expansion without getting drawn into major wars in Narnia: likelihood of clashes with Calormenes
Selected unit: Terebinthian Sharpshooters, incredibly hard-hitting archery troops.
Lone Islanders
Flavour: Mercenaries and pirates in breakaway, abandoned Narnian colony
Philosophy: Untrammelled libertarian capitalism, rules are for other people
Strengths: Excellent early naval forces, cheap troops
Weaknesses: Powerful opposition makes expansion difficult; poor unit selection
Selected unit: Lone Island Caravel, powerful and cheap early warship to dominate early-game naval warfare

Calormen
Flavour: Huge orientalist Empire
Philosophy: Semi-divine Emperor with the strong war-cult of Tash prevalent.
Strengths: Powerful professional army, very wealthy territories
Weaknesses: Poor at naval warfare; potential enemies on all sides.
Selected unit: Calormene Chariots, deadly unit capable of disrupting enemy formations and doing catastrophic damage.
Lands of Munesh
Flavour: Peaceful farming towns, in alliance.
Philosophy: Polytheistically religious priesthood from whom representatives of the states are elected.
Strengths: Rich territories, good starting location
Weaknesses: Poor unit selection, aggressive enemies with more professional forces
Selected unit: Faceless Ones, religiously inspired warriors with incredibly high morale

Tribes of Surval
Flavour: Zulus riding Zebras
Philosophy: Traditional tribalism, with alliances against major threats.
Strengths: Good starting location and unit choice, most units can do shamanic chants to boost nearby friends
Weaknesses: Few truly elite troop types and unruly forces
Selected unit: Zloranti, masses of cursed shambling slaves under the ritual control of a shaman.
Erinese Confederation
Flavour: Scimitars, lots of scimitars.
Philosophy: Tribal Elders wield full control over increasingly linked alliance of tribes
Strengths: Decent unit selection, easily defensible start location
Weaknesses: Mostly infantry with few exceptional unit types
Selected unit: Tarlahad Infantry, tough hill-spearmen as the backbone of an army

Telmarine Narnians
Flavour: Professional army, strong "civilising" ideals
Philosophy: Strong hereditary monarchy recently usurped by Miraz
Strengths: Rich territories, strong professional army
Weaknesses: Narnians occupy central Narnia, with outer provinces weak and exposed. Possibility of several early wars.
Selected unit: Telmarine Pikemen, disciplined heavy pike lines forming a strong infantry backbone to the army
Old Telmar
Flavour: Feudalistic state with very weak monarchical control
Philosophy: Baronial feudalism with retinues relied upon for war
Strengths: Few nearby foes in early game, good cavalry forces
Weaknesses: Starting territories not wealthy, units not the strongest in the game.
Selected unit: Telmarine Knights, deadly feudal cavalry force.
Kingdom of Koraly
Flavour: Expansionist, disciplined state with extremely tight central control
Philosophy: Authoritarian "Kings" usually dictators by survival of the fittest.
Strengths: Good starting location, very professional military
Weaknesses: Few easy early opportunities to expand.
Selected unit: Falx Guards, armed with war scythes to cut down enemies with ease.

[comrade_general]

Excellent info collection there! Nice work.