Which countries are the best marches

[Krajzen]

When NIs were revealed people would regularly discuss the best potential marches of them.

In my Ottoman game I used marches VERY extensively - to the point of having 4 of them sometimes, and for 200 years I had 3 of them - and here are my experiences.


WALLACHIA!

Seriously, these guys as a march were more badass than most of independent countries in my game. Their NI set + march status allows them on having 10 - 15 000 good quality troops with good general, and generaly they can create surprisingly big mess for the enemy.

Not to mention the fact that they have +100% hostile creation cost + mediocre income so you shouldn't annex them anyway. Also, their strategical position is cool: just between Ottomans/Byzantium, Lithuania, Poland and Austria/Hungary. Very useful for dominating Balkans


GEORGIA!

Next top quality march which also - for some weird reason - looks really cool on the map. I mean, they have very nice colour. Their troops have worse quality than Wallachian, but they recompensate it with more provinces/better income so they field army enough big to help significantly. Also their terrain is mountains + hard to siege + often some sillier AI armies go to siege Georgia and can be exterminated easily.

Again: +100% core creation cost and Orthodox make them not worth to annex, while they are very useful march due to being between Ottomans, Timurids, Hordes and Russia.



CROATIA

'wait, what, Croatia?'

Yes, because Croatia lies in this perfect place between Italy/HRE and Balkans. It was extremely useful for my Ottoman Empire as help against HRE/Italian coalitions, but I can imagine being very useful for them in the same way. Also Croatia is able to maintain decent fleet and block invasions on Balkan/Italian coast from the other side.

Plus it has relatively small culture, so there are limited chances of you being able to tolerate it anyway.

 

[jazzroen]

Im playing Prussia and I have Brandenburg as a march. with their Prussian ideas and Offensive idea group they really are a fantastic attack dog

*some neighbor country looks funny at me.* me to Brandenburg: "go get them boy''

 

[herrmarisa]

Georgia has the color that should have been given to Muscovy instead of the weird beige

 

[oblio-]

If you give marches tons of money (especialyl during wars), do they spend everything for buildings or do they actually make a bigger army?

(I haven't used marches yet)

 

[Olligarchy]

I've found Finland to be useful as a Scandinavian AND Russian nation. Those provinces are dirt poor anyway and have high attrition so what better way to slow down potential enemies than having them siege down a ton of high attrition/low value provinces whilst fighting decent soldiers in mostly defensible terrain?

 

[Frossa]

I could imagine Finland being a great March for Sweden/Scandinavia against Russia. Harsh winters and enemy attrition bonuses is pretty lethal.

Edit: Ninja'd

 

[Agoria]

Playing as Timurids.
Conquering India
Forming Mughal Empire.
Releasing Persia.
Best March ever.

 

[Aries666]

Any country that can be integated via decision like lithuania or aragon shame its country specific though

 

[Razzien]

I did a game with austria and made a march out of Brandenburg and other out of wallachia gave them both 55-60 base tax and they were very good vassals.

 

[matk]

Playing as Timurids.
Conquering India
Forming Mughal Empire.
Releasing Persia.
Best March ever.

I did this in my Byzantium game: a great way to build up a large vassal. Besides, once you give Persia back everything, who wants to spend the dip and time to annex that, then convert it?

 

[unmerged(783218)]

Playing as Timurids.
Conquering India
Forming Mughal Empire.
Releasing Persia.
Best March ever.

Play as Ulm
Conquer France
Release it
You don't even need an army at this point

 

[TheDanish]

In the east, Nepal. Great warfare ideas and a lot of mountainous provinces. If you're a non-European kingdom, they provide a fantastic attack dog and buffer against the British and French in India.

As Ming, I plan on making one of the reformed Hordes a march to combat Russia.

 

[.Raistlin.]

I have the Livonian Order as a march in my Commonwealth game. They're pretty good for one.

 

[Ranjid]

Najd. Can't get better than this. So you're a catholic King of Jerusalem but don't want to go through the hassle of converting land on your own? Just give it to Najd. If someone walks over their land they'll also lose half their troops to attrition, thanks to the NI+Defensive ideas.

There's also a big plus for them being in such a poor region. Arabia is full of 1-2 BT provinces, which ironically causes your March to have more manpower, thanks to the 60 BT maximum.

 

[GabbyDieJaeger]

Late game, Smolensk, with their ridiculous Artillery bonuses.

 

[zemuzil]

russia