What's a good starting nation for newbies?

[Buatha]

Is there one nation ideally suited for new players to the game? I'd hate to inadvertantly pick a frustrating or difficult nation to play.

[mac5732]

personally, I'd take a good Death or Nature race, easier to get lots of troops by magic without high cost. IMHO also be sure to use intrinsic defense for your provinces

[Foodstamp]

LA Ermor

[Graeme Dice]

Buatha said:
Is there one nation ideally suited for new players to the game? I'd hate to inadvertantly pick a frustrating or difficult nation to play.

Late age Ermor is one of the easiest nations to play against the AI, as defeating it requires specialized strategies that humans are good at, but the computer is not. Any water nation that is alone under the seas can survive pretty well, as most other nations will have difficulty mounting effective attacks against you. Jotunheim is a decent choice, as your troops are very powerful. Personally though, one of the easier nations to figure out is Man. Recruit longbow archers until you think you have twice as many as you need, then recruit some more. Put the archers at the very back, and put tower guards or wardens in front of the archers. Watch as entire armies melt away from your massive missile barrages. You can do much the same thing with Marignon and their crossbowmen.

Don't play Mictlan unless you are willing to deal with being smacked around horribly by the AI for your first one or two dozen games, followed by a sense of glee once you finally figure them out.

[Theonlystd]

Ea Bander is pretty simple

And you get to mess with a bit of everything.. national Summons,battle magical, sacred units ect

I recruit Atari Archers,Bandar Warriors rush for Blade Wind and watch meh mages basiclly defeat armies single handily..

[dirtywick]

Two things I'd recommend, apart from what's been said:

Avoid blood magic for now. It sounds cool and the effects are powerful, but it's harder to get the hang of.

The other is to pick a nation with normal troops, like heavy and light infantry, archers, and calvalry, and assign good scales to your pretender so you can build large armies early. You'll have an easier time learning the game if you're not getting beat down constantly.

[Archonsod]

EA Ulm is a good choice. Solid troops, magic isn't great spell wise, but you don't really need to rely on it. You just want enough to forge some decent magic items for your heroes, and a couple of mages for blade wind and your ready to rock. You only really need to concentrate on Earth magic (with perhaps a little fire or nature for a bit of diversity).

EA Sauromantia is another powerful nation. Magic is a lot more diverse, and the troops are also excellent. The massed archers trick works here too, especially with Androphag archers and their poisoned arrows.

[Gandalf Parker]

I tend to recommend early age Ulm. They dont rely much on magic or summoned creatures. They are mostly heavy armored human troops. People tend to understand how to play an armored army. That way you can learn the game before getting into the stranger strategy stuff.

And if you are basically a "tank commander" type of player, it might even be the race you settle into.

[NTJedi]

Graeme Dice said:

Any water nation that is alone under the seas can survive pretty well, as most other nations will have difficulty mounting effective attacks against you. Jotunheim is a decent choice, as your troops are very powerful.

I would also suggest starting with a water nation if you're worried about losing. If you play a map where you are the only water nation then you should last a long time without any threats. As you get more experienced I would advise not playing the water nations unless the map is mostly water and your opponents are also water nations and/or easily able to travel into the water... another exception is if you're playing multiplayer.

[PDF]

Take LA Jomon, buy Samourais, cut heads !
You don't have "big" mages but they are somewhat varied so you can experiment with several paths without being overwhelmed, and you have many cool national summons !