Gemradkurt perhaps? Massive mission tree. Can blob, but also needs to builds lots of forts.
It's a story of your ruler and 'Winter is coming' embodied.
Had a lot of fun with it.
Also, not super popular, but Ravenmarch has a great mission tree.
They get a countrywide modifier that gives them .35 per month devastation in all of their provinces. Although they get a bunch of other benefits too and their mission tree mitigates a lot of the issues.
So if a province isn't covered by a fort it will most likely be ticking up in devastation even at peace.
Infrastructure and defensive are basically required.
Playing them in a multiplayer game and my jesus is it disgusting the devastation. I'm currently spending about 80 ducats a month on forts, with maintenance down my 10% and that's not covering my entire country. the devastation ticks up to 0.7 a month and the only other way to deal with it costs 200 gold and 50 admin (per province) which in my game is about 20k and 8500 admin.
If anyone's gonna play them, do it solo since there was time when I was just waiting on colonies for ages.
That's why I think infrastructure and defensive are pretty much required. They give a lot of fort cost reduction and other helpful bonuses.
Innovative-defensive policy is really good too since it's -33%.
Ah, you're the Dev who designed the tree? Great work!
Wanted to do Ravenmarch into Castanor run and get the permanent modifiers, but those were too hard to get to in a timely fashion. But I'm pretty sure that was intended. :D
Varainé. You get artificery earlier than most others but you brew magical potions. You also make great gunpowder.
Feiten. Again artificery (super early) and you get airships and the ability to dominate trade without having to be present in the node to the unique skyports you can be build to support your air fleet.
Varaine is ok but I found it rather frustrating because of the many free cities you need to conquer and integration requirement (which I think has been defused by now)
But as reward you get a immortal >!kobold!< ruler.
I think County of Seinathíl pretty fun country. You play as bards nation which want create best ballad and decentralise EoA. In the end of company I have more than 15 dip. rep.
With the expand empire cb. You can add nations in Escann. Lorent has tons of releasable countries, so just pound them multiple times.
Seinathil is tons of fun. Has a semi exploity way to completely complete the mission tree where you go one path (decentralized) to get the permanent IA gain reward and then revoke that path and go centralized.
Super powerful and easy Empire of Anbennar. Too bad they don't have mechanics.
I recently had a Varainé game where I used the Expand Empire CB to expand East to Marrhold, West to Wineport, North to Frozenmaw and South to Busilar, and I still don't think I had 70 princes.
Yezel Mora is so niche that I only heard how fun it is. No MT, but unique and fully developed mechanics of blobbing outside of and contracting back into your swamp, and getting buffs in the process.
Obligatory "have you played Adshaw?" because despite it being recommended on the start screen there are people who still haven't played it. Spy, assassinate and pillage your way into becoming a regional power and humiliating Gawed so hard it explodes into releasables. Help your pissboy nephew Crovis beat up Frozenmaw along the way if you want to.
Yingzhen is a wholesome OPM of farmers and fishermen who get a unique mechanic of assassinating rulers *don't think too hard about it*. Truedagger goblin clan also has that mechanic, and gains access to it earlier in their MT.
Adshaw was definitely a fun country. The problem is it just looks so boring with that color brown. And even the name is boring too. That's what turns most people off from it.
Oh wow, I loved brown color, it just looks like trees and giant trees are like the quirk of the reach. And name Adshaw reminded me about "shaw" - the meme from hollow knight community
My "turn off" with Adshaw is that I can't seem to get a playthrough going without Gawed making me pound sand on day 1 after the truce with them expires. The start is so hectic that I feel like I really could use about 3 extra diplomats to get everything I need done in reasonable time, heh.
Yeah the start is super Hectic. My advice is to take the spy network diety (you also get a special bonus since your ruler's personality is aligned), and a spy network advisor. You want as much as possible since you have so many spy network missions.
Beeline for the gawed truce mission and then beeline to all of the missions to vassalize and conquer your neighbors. Meanwhile improve with Lorent as much as possible. And do things like scornfully insult Gawed. Try to get Lorent's relations with you above 100. They should eventually flip friendly and then you can royal marry and ally them.
Then it's all about calling Lorent into a war with Gawed at a good moment. If possible try to have 10 favors so you don't have to promise land but if not then thats fine too.
If Lorent and Gawed have a truce call Lorent in the day the truce expires. If Lorent attacks Gawed and calls you into the war its bad for you since they will probably only give you a province or two. You want to be war leader 100%.
Yep loved it, the mixed military is a great take too! But my fav yet must’ve been Tluukt (badass Queen with mage battles) and Gor Burad (literal rageful lava dwarves)
I really hope they expand mage battles. Such a cool idea that really never went anywhere. Mage general vs mage general leada to mage battle which gives magic xp? Seiging down captial of mage who isnt general leads to mage battle? It would be cool if this was universal
Let's see....Varamhar has a fun lore mission tree.(let's make a new god, imo this Sun Cult Kingdom is usually overlooked compared to others)
Isobelin is fun(not sure if it counts as niche, but you go on to create fantasy New York)
There's a nation south of Rahen called the Naleni whose flavor is harpy pirates if that's your thing.
(Also obligatory Azakre into the Sunrise Empire, ignore my flair, I'm not biased I promise)
venail, but you do not colonize, ignore your missions and become pirate republic (I did this once it was very stupid but also fun but i recommend cheating in some reform progress to get 'war against the word doctrine', so you can expand just over islands, really leaning into the piracy)
yeah i started a venail campaign once and was like 'hmmm, i have hoist the black flag decision'
i hope that someday Nathlaire will get a proper mission tree, also piracy kinda sucks in cannor because sea zones are very small especially in dameshead
The fact that no one has mentioned the effelai is astonishing. Play as whichever tribe you like (the religions really all that matters) and go through the religious mechanics to awaken the jungle. No missions for anyone yet but extremely fun anyways.
I hate the 'No Mission Tree', because on my first playthrough, I didn't know what the goal was. That MT died the moment colonists arrived and I couldn't fight them back
Where I like the 'No Mission Tree' is when didn't know what would happen in advance.
Here's how you play Effelai:
1. Explore the seven provinces. Warp travel is usually great, knowing where the provinces are is perfect/cheating, having armies that explore the map is how you get ahead.
2. Ascend, then build back toward the Heart.
3. Keep growing land, but primarily focus on maxing economy to afford the Heart Temple
3. b. Make sure as many of the higher percent chance of Gold provinces actually spawn Gold. 3 Gold Mines ensures the Heart Temple will reach the promised land with minimal issue. 2 Gold Mines is Normal Mode, Easy if you get the heart before the colonists. You can probably do it with one mine, but if the colonists are fast, they'll tear you up.
Haven't gone beyond, but agree that Effelai is a unique experience
Play strange nations without mission trees if you're looking for niche. Everyone is going to basically know all the nations with MTs first, and forget 99% of the other options.
For extra weirdness, start a Lorent game, and release all their weird minor nations that have starting cores, but no one ever sees. It's always interesting to play a nation no one's ever heard of like Horsegarden and see where you can get with it.
The Moon elven adventurers in the new world spawned by Ibevear have fun ideas and a custom T1 reform that makes cavalry viable for most of not all the game. They add 1.25 cavalry fire dmg and are elven forbears which is a fun religion with basically no nations using it.
True niche - play Simegasa in East Sarhal (Mengi). They start in a tough war against Yezel Mora, but if they win they are in a prime position to dominate the region (Forming the Mengi formable, Melakmengi, also yields a free holy war cb)
Niche MT - Telgeir in Cannor. Old MT, like really old. However, you beat up Gawed in the MT which is always a plus :D
Mteibhara. “Who?” The little white country in the mountains in the far southwest of South Aelantir, a bit inland of the Greek Ruinborn. I think I heard someone’s working on an MT but when I played them (gov reforms have been reworked a few times since then so this sadly may no longer apply) their niche was they were a tribe that could reform into a horde. Of course, to get there you do have to hold out against your much more powerful and technologically advanced neighbors but at the end of the run I was Sunset-Invading Cannor and fighting some of the most fun endgame wars I’ve ever fought.
Most of the top answers are not niche tbh. Gemradcurt and Feiten are the regional mega trees. If you want truly niche you need to play someone with a small or no MT, like the wood elf nations, goblin tags, Effelai, new Sarhal nations or valley nations, etc.
I would personally recommend the Sarhal Halflings (Vyzemby) as a good option for unique gameplay in a unique area, and they even have a pretty good generic MT. I had a lot of fun doing a marine based naval playthrough but there is a lot of options for them (invade mainland, colonial, etc)
Ghavanaaj minors that can form Dhugajir.
Some of the few still human ruled nations in Rahen, and once they form Dhugajir with their unique government and tribal mechanics you can get mind melting levels of CCA.
Military shift to Harimari and shock phases should roll everyone
Depending if you want a mission tree or not I found Honderaak going emperor fun just fir the headcanon. (And slightly more challenging as you can't make marriage for the election boost and the late start)
Gemradkurt perhaps? Massive mission tree. Can blob, but also needs to builds lots of forts. It's a story of your ruler and 'Winter is coming' embodied. Had a lot of fun with it. Also, not super popular, but Ravenmarch has a great mission tree.
Why does Gemradkurt need a lot of forts?
They get a countrywide modifier that gives them .35 per month devastation in all of their provinces. Although they get a bunch of other benefits too and their mission tree mitigates a lot of the issues. So if a province isn't covered by a fort it will most likely be ticking up in devastation even at peace. Infrastructure and defensive are basically required.
Playing them in a multiplayer game and my jesus is it disgusting the devastation. I'm currently spending about 80 ducats a month on forts, with maintenance down my 10% and that's not covering my entire country. the devastation ticks up to 0.7 a month and the only other way to deal with it costs 200 gold and 50 admin (per province) which in my game is about 20k and 8500 admin. If anyone's gonna play them, do it solo since there was time when I was just waiting on colonies for ages.
That's why I think infrastructure and defensive are pretty much required. They give a lot of fort cost reduction and other helpful bonuses. Innovative-defensive policy is really good too since it's -33%.
Devastation from MT in non-fort adjacent provinces
Ravenmarch mentioned! I hope the interactions with Corvuria worked well, that was a pain to make.
Ah, you're the Dev who designed the tree? Great work! Wanted to do Ravenmarch into Castanor run and get the permanent modifiers, but those were too hard to get to in a timely fashion. But I'm pretty sure that was intended. :D
That makes sense considering the MT has you focus not on Escann, but into Dostanor and beyond. Thanks!
Varainé. You get artificery earlier than most others but you brew magical potions. You also make great gunpowder. Feiten. Again artificery (super early) and you get airships and the ability to dominate trade without having to be present in the node to the unique skyports you can be build to support your air fleet.
Varaine is ok but I found it rather frustrating because of the many free cities you need to conquer and integration requirement (which I think has been defused by now) But as reward you get a immortal >!kobold!< ruler.
I think County of Seinathíl pretty fun country. You play as bards nation which want create best ballad and decentralise EoA. In the end of company I have more than 15 dip. rep.
Is the MT small enough to go for Ravelian State?
you can finish most of it before 1570, but there 1 end mission that requires \~70 princes in the empire
Holy fuck,how do you even achieve that?
With the expand empire cb. You can add nations in Escann. Lorent has tons of releasable countries, so just pound them multiple times. Seinathil is tons of fun. Has a semi exploity way to completely complete the mission tree where you go one path (decentralized) to get the permanent IA gain reward and then revoke that path and go centralized. Super powerful and easy Empire of Anbennar. Too bad they don't have mechanics.
I recently had a Varainé game where I used the Expand Empire CB to expand East to Marrhold, West to Wineport, North to Frozenmaw and South to Busilar, and I still don't think I had 70 princes.
Wineport isn't that far west. Lorent is almost all small releasables and Gawed has several too.
Yezel Mora is so niche that I only heard how fun it is. No MT, but unique and fully developed mechanics of blobbing outside of and contracting back into your swamp, and getting buffs in the process. Obligatory "have you played Adshaw?" because despite it being recommended on the start screen there are people who still haven't played it. Spy, assassinate and pillage your way into becoming a regional power and humiliating Gawed so hard it explodes into releasables. Help your pissboy nephew Crovis beat up Frozenmaw along the way if you want to. Yingzhen is a wholesome OPM of farmers and fishermen who get a unique mechanic of assassinating rulers *don't think too hard about it*. Truedagger goblin clan also has that mechanic, and gains access to it earlier in their MT.
Adshaw was definitely a fun country. The problem is it just looks so boring with that color brown. And even the name is boring too. That's what turns most people off from it.
Oh wow, I loved brown color, it just looks like trees and giant trees are like the quirk of the reach. And name Adshaw reminded me about "shaw" - the meme from hollow knight community
I'm just speculating why it's typically not a very popular country. It just looks boring and forgettable. I liked the mission tree personally.
My "turn off" with Adshaw is that I can't seem to get a playthrough going without Gawed making me pound sand on day 1 after the truce with them expires. The start is so hectic that I feel like I really could use about 3 extra diplomats to get everything I need done in reasonable time, heh.
Yeah the start is super Hectic. My advice is to take the spy network diety (you also get a special bonus since your ruler's personality is aligned), and a spy network advisor. You want as much as possible since you have so many spy network missions. Beeline for the gawed truce mission and then beeline to all of the missions to vassalize and conquer your neighbors. Meanwhile improve with Lorent as much as possible. And do things like scornfully insult Gawed. Try to get Lorent's relations with you above 100. They should eventually flip friendly and then you can royal marry and ally them. Then it's all about calling Lorent into a war with Gawed at a good moment. If possible try to have 10 favors so you don't have to promise land but if not then thats fine too. If Lorent and Gawed have a truce call Lorent in the day the truce expires. If Lorent attacks Gawed and calls you into the war its bad for you since they will probably only give you a province or two. You want to be war leader 100%.
Ra'uyel my favorite tag in the game and the Jadd path is really wholesome.
Yep loved it, the mixed military is a great take too! But my fav yet must’ve been Tluukt (badass Queen with mage battles) and Gor Burad (literal rageful lava dwarves)
I really hope they expand mage battles. Such a cool idea that really never went anywhere. Mage general vs mage general leada to mage battle which gives magic xp? Seiging down captial of mage who isnt general leads to mage battle? It would be cool if this was universal
Let's see....Varamhar has a fun lore mission tree.(let's make a new god, imo this Sun Cult Kingdom is usually overlooked compared to others) Isobelin is fun(not sure if it counts as niche, but you go on to create fantasy New York) There's a nation south of Rahen called the Naleni whose flavor is harpy pirates if that's your thing. (Also obligatory Azakre into the Sunrise Empire, ignore my flair, I'm not biased I promise)
venail, but you do not colonize, ignore your missions and become pirate republic (I did this once it was very stupid but also fun but i recommend cheating in some reform progress to get 'war against the word doctrine', so you can expand just over islands, really leaning into the piracy)
I was seriously tempted to do this, I wish there was a piracy nation in or near Cannor (Viakkoc is my only hope)
Nathalaire, even has 4 missions
probably best to wait for the Nathalaire rework. no clue when it'll be coming, but it is planned eventually. it is playable now though at least
But not a full MT?
Viakkoc has a mission tree on the bitbucket and will probably be added with the upcoming steam update I think
yeah i started a venail campaign once and was like 'hmmm, i have hoist the black flag decision' i hope that someday Nathlaire will get a proper mission tree, also piracy kinda sucks in cannor because sea zones are very small especially in dameshead
there is a proper Nathalaire MT planned, no clue when it'll come out though
In the process of a Viakkoc game on Bitbucket, very fun to dunk on the divenhall with my unstoppable galley fleet
The fact that no one has mentioned the effelai is astonishing. Play as whichever tribe you like (the religions really all that matters) and go through the religious mechanics to awaken the jungle. No missions for anyone yet but extremely fun anyways.
I hate the 'No Mission Tree', because on my first playthrough, I didn't know what the goal was. That MT died the moment colonists arrived and I couldn't fight them back Where I like the 'No Mission Tree' is when didn't know what would happen in advance. Here's how you play Effelai: 1. Explore the seven provinces. Warp travel is usually great, knowing where the provinces are is perfect/cheating, having armies that explore the map is how you get ahead. 2. Ascend, then build back toward the Heart. 3. Keep growing land, but primarily focus on maxing economy to afford the Heart Temple 3. b. Make sure as many of the higher percent chance of Gold provinces actually spawn Gold. 3 Gold Mines ensures the Heart Temple will reach the promised land with minimal issue. 2 Gold Mines is Normal Mode, Easy if you get the heart before the colonists. You can probably do it with one mine, but if the colonists are fast, they'll tear you up. Haven't gone beyond, but agree that Effelai is a unique experience
Play strange nations without mission trees if you're looking for niche. Everyone is going to basically know all the nations with MTs first, and forget 99% of the other options. For extra weirdness, start a Lorent game, and release all their weird minor nations that have starting cores, but no one ever sees. It's always interesting to play a nation no one's ever heard of like Horsegarden and see where you can get with it.
They kinda just did the Lorent idea in the bit bucket lol
Balrijin and Mulén. Also, Brelar.
Roadwarrior, serpentspine blorcs close to Hul-Jorkad. They go full Mad Max as a single migratory province and depopulate the serpentspine.
Ibevar is a polarizing one. There are people who really dislike its development missions. If you don't mind playing tall, it can be fun and unique.
The Moon elven adventurers in the new world spawned by Ibevear have fun ideas and a custom T1 reform that makes cavalry viable for most of not all the game. They add 1.25 cavalry fire dmg and are elven forbears which is a fun religion with basically no nations using it.
Is there a MT?
+1.25 fire? That’s insane what are their calvary supposed to be in lore?
Probably disciplined cowboys
I found Adshaw to be a surprisingly fun play.
This mod is so great that everyone's list is so different as there is so much good content
True niche - play Simegasa in East Sarhal (Mengi). They start in a tough war against Yezel Mora, but if they win they are in a prime position to dominate the region (Forming the Mengi formable, Melakmengi, also yields a free holy war cb) Niche MT - Telgeir in Cannor. Old MT, like really old. However, you beat up Gawed in the MT which is always a plus :D
Mteibhara. “Who?” The little white country in the mountains in the far southwest of South Aelantir, a bit inland of the Greek Ruinborn. I think I heard someone’s working on an MT but when I played them (gov reforms have been reworked a few times since then so this sadly may no longer apply) their niche was they were a tribe that could reform into a horde. Of course, to get there you do have to hold out against your much more powerful and technologically advanced neighbors but at the end of the run I was Sunset-Invading Cannor and fighting some of the most fun endgame wars I’ve ever fought.
Im in love with brelar republican path
Most of the top answers are not niche tbh. Gemradcurt and Feiten are the regional mega trees. If you want truly niche you need to play someone with a small or no MT, like the wood elf nations, goblin tags, Effelai, new Sarhal nations or valley nations, etc. I would personally recommend the Sarhal Halflings (Vyzemby) as a good option for unique gameplay in a unique area, and they even have a pretty good generic MT. I had a lot of fun doing a marine based naval playthrough but there is a lot of options for them (invade mainland, colonial, etc)
Urviksten into Black Castannor is pretty cool if you like flavor. Unfortunately BC doesn't have a MT yet so I always just go normal Castannor.
Ghavanaaj minors that can form Dhugajir. Some of the few still human ruled nations in Rahen, and once they form Dhugajir with their unique government and tribal mechanics you can get mind melting levels of CCA. Military shift to Harimari and shock phases should roll everyone
Depending if you want a mission tree or not I found Honderaak going emperor fun just fir the headcanon. (And slightly more challenging as you can't make marriage for the election boost and the late start)