The Dominions of Khaldun

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Ctis is a great race. The early era host a distinct lack of archers and scouts, however. You can get those in independent provinces, and I recommend doing so. Defenders usually match the pop-type, so you can find archers that way. Scouts are a bit more of a hit-miss affair, so you'll want to summon undead scouts, i.e. a Black Servant. You have more than enough death gems to do so, and its a low-level spell. You can use them for other things later. As well, your nationals are all coldblooded. This won't effect you much in your own territory, but it does mean you'll have trouble invading (and they'll conversely have trouble invading you) colder nations such as Caelum and Niefelheim.

Ulms a nice race, lacks cavalry, but has quite a few archery and stealth options. No experience with them.

For both these races the resource cost per unit is fairly affordable. But you will want a lot of them, they're good and not high in gold cost. You'll need to put some care in the placement of your forts and the resulting resource production. Blesses can be useful in battle, but will not be central to your strategy. You have some useful sacreds, but you cannot (or should not) produce them in large numbers.

I don't know if they're right for you, but you may want to give Sauromatia a whirl. They've got plenty of unit choices, as long as what you're looking for is not infantry.

[Potatoman]

Their primary magic type is blood, however, which is fairly newbie-unfriendly.

You might really like T'ien C'hi, actually. They've got decent front line troops, access to almost every path of magic, and some of the best archers in the early age. I might be switching nations again anyway.

And yes, I'm planning on naming my pretender (and important units, probably) after a Kohan from the game .

[Niarg]

I'll choose C'tis for now, there's quite a good wiki on them and they seem to be what I'm looking for.

Just need to wait for the game to arrive now, it's taking ages

[Slobby]

I've just had to reorder the game, so I won't have it for another week or 2.

[Excist]

Reorder??!

Please, do tell.

What happened? You sat on the cd and broke it before you had a chance to install it?

Or you received an e-mail from Gamer's Front that they do not sell to uncleanly persons?

Why would you have to RE-order?

[Slobby]

Well I ordered Dom3 via Ebay early November hoping I wouldn't have to wait for the delayed shipping through gamers front.

Having yet to receive my purchase I got in touch with the seller who said that his stock had been recalled for some defect and it would be a bit longer to get the game from him.

In the chance this 'recall' was shinanigans I cancelled with him and ordered from gamers front. It's shipped as of last friday, so I hope it comes soon.

[Slobby]

Also I'd like to change to Helheim.