Yet another new person with a question...

[HoneyBadger]

So, your argument is that new players playing Dom3 right out of the box should already be somewhat educated, and know their way around the Forums?

You'll run into just as much trouble from Wolf Tribes, barbarians, and calvalry, with Niefelheim, as you will elephants with Tien Ch'i. Tien Ch'i, however, can deal with elephants by making chariots, which are size 4, and then killing them with archers. This should be a little more obvious, I would think, than trying to find a solution to innumerable little guys with daggers, lances, 2 handed swords, etc (it's a lot easier to educate yourself about your own equipment, than it is about the enemy's stuff). And again, it's a lot more forgiving than Niefelheim, where you can pretty easily lose a 500 gold unit, which may not be easily replaceable, with the wrong scales.

Ok, so assuming that you do start playing as Niefelheim, and haphazardly manage to be successful: How much are you actually learning? How many other Nations play like them? There's very little integration of forces, and almost no National spells. The "best" Blesses are very specific, you won't learn much, if anything, about integration of forces, their mages and priests are powerful, but you won't be doing any Communing, or any mass spellcasting. If, per your argument, the new player is gonna go for a "big flashy unit", they're gonna get a SC Pretender, which is one of the worse picks for Niefelheim, and obviously doesn't work all that well for a lot of strategies. You're also not learning a whole lot about province defense, except that Niefelheim hasn't really got any, and the ecomony of the game is decidedly skewed. You might learn about Forging, but spending multiple turns lovingly equipping your Niefel Jarl with a full suit of (the wrong) magical gear is not going to be very useful at all, in competive play. If all you're building is Niefels, you're not gonna learn a whole lot about building castles in an efficient way, are you? You're also going to have a fairly tough time dealing with fire, poison, and shock damage, and not really understand why, because HULK SMASH. Fighting in the water, as you mentioned, is gonna be a long, long way off, if you ever get there. Oh and Independents? They're gonna die from all that cold, so you're gonna learn that, but that's about it.