good races for/against newbies.

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I disagree...Ermor AE is the sure way to get all other players gang up against you, as you ruin their lands through an awful and strong dominions, and is not easy at all to play in a competitive environment... And in an anonymous game you'll get no allies !
At start you're mostly dependent on your pretender, then you get a false sense of power with your hordes of crappy undead, that any skillful player will slaughter quite easily.
For a player used to playing Jotun it's a fully different challenge. Personnally I find Niefel rather difficult to play, given that you will always have small number of very expensive troops, and I prefer Utgard theme, that is quite versatile and has those great Seithkonas and Nornas.