good races for/against newbies.

[Edi]

Your strategy also has to take into account how large the map is. Pure armies will work well on a small map, especially if research is set to hard or very hard.

I've so far taken part in two multislayer games, and my experiences varied quite a bit.

One of them was a Faerun game where I picked Vanheim, and due to the mistakes and crappy design decisions on the early versions of that map which really screwed Vanheim over, I got curbstomped.

The other one was a Cradle game with Zen's version of that map where I played Abysia, and I got pretty far with that, into the final three. Atlantis finally stomped that game, largely uncontested becase the Man player who was the other claimant to the throne just abandoned it.

Abysia and Man are both solid options, depending on what kind of play style you use. Abysia and Ulm both suit me well, as does Vanheim. I'd stay away from some of the trickier ones like Pangaea and T'ien Chi until you get more familiar with the game.

I don't like the unmodded game much anymore, because magic plays such a completely dominant part in it, and certain spell combos are basically the only game in town. I much prefer the CB series of mods in its present incarnation.

Edi

[Huzurdaddi]

Edi,

WRT Faerun what do you think would be the best solution to the problem of not being able to get your dwarves off of the island:

1) put the capital on the mainland
2) give the dwarves sailing
3) make a connection between the islands and the land ( even if it is not super logical )

[Nerfix]

I don't know if there are any nations that are particulary deadly against beginners in the hands of the computers.

I think that Abysia, Ulm and Jotenheim are good beginer nations. Sure "waah Ulm is teh sux" but that only aplies when fighting against humans.

[Edi]

Huzurdaddi said:
Edi,

WRT Faerun what do you think would be the best solution to the problem of not being able to get your dwarves off of the island:

1) put the capital on the mainland
2) give the dwarves sailing
3) make a connection between the islands and the land ( even if it is not super logical )

Umm, you obviously have not gone and donwloaded the updated map files from Arryn's site, have you? I fixed that problem months ago by adding land bridges through Snowdon to the Nelanther Isles to Tethry Peninsula, and an Alaron-Mintarn-Waterdeep and Alaron-Mintarn-Baldur's Gate (or was it Orlumbor?) connection. These would represent major ports of call and a smuggling route, and neatly solves the problem.

So off you go and download them and you'll be all set. I also hardcoded the populations for Alaron, Gwynneth and Norland so that there are a few large provinces so lack of income won't strangle Vanheim right at the start.

Edi

[Cainehill]

Edi said:
Abysia and Man are both solid options, depending on what kind of play style you use. Abysia and Ulm both suit me well, as does Vanheim. I'd stay away from some of the trickier ones like Pangaea and T'ien Chi until you get more familiar with the game.

Yeah, Abysia is easy and simple for a non-expert player to roll along with. The troops are solid, and simply by researching conjuration 3 (phoenix power) followed by evocation to 5 (falling fires), the mages & troops have incredible synergism : the troops are immune to fire, while the mages can pretty much all act as fire-based artillery without harming the troops at all.