[13lackGu4rd]

HoneyBadger, my point is that you should never estimate new players as being completely clueless. the tools and information are out there for the taking, it's up to the individual to find and make full use of them. also, actual game play is required to connect the theories you can read about with the practice of actual game play, and how much of the theory actually works for you.

EA TC can and will lose to indies if you're coming from a completely clueless attitude, there's only so much you can produce in order to outproduce 3-6 AIs... with Niefelheim you can easily do that because you don't rely on masses but on small groups of quality groups that suffer much less attrition damage.

as for what you learn from it. the first game is not about strategies, communions, etc. those are far more advanced things. the first game is to get a clue on what the game looks like, the actual visuals, scripting, etc. now, obviously if you're not winning you'll give up a lot faster than if you are, so it's advised to take a strong simple nation instead of a weaker more complex nation. you don't want Niefelheim, fine. take Mictlan/Lanka/Sauromatia/Hinnom. dual bless(or more) works well for all of these nations, and you don't even need to delve into blood to win against the AI. show me an AI army that can effectively stop an army of 100 Jaguar Warriors lead by a High Priest of the Sun(to Divine Bless them) with a proper Mictlan blessing. show me an AI army that can deal with Sauromatia's sacred cavalries with the proper bless, or even mass Androphag Archers without any bless. same goes for Lanka and of course Hinnom. there's a reason why these nations are consider the "EA Powerhouses". they're all very simple to play and completely steamroll the AI without doing anything complicated(battle magic scripting, communions, heavy reliance on blood, etc). sure, these nations, played by a skill player, are completely terrifying, but you don't need to unlock even a quarter of their true potential in order to steamroll the AI and learn the very basics of actual game play.