What's a good starting nation for newbies?

[mivayan]

1) Build centaurs with early era pangea.
2) ...
3) profit!

[Arralen]

EA Ermor - build Lizard Auxiliarii until they come out of your ears, then build some more... they might be even more cost-effective then Pangean Centaurs. Just make sure not to get into cold provinces, they're cold-blooded and suffer heavily then... .

[Twan]

Yes EA Ermor is very good for learning I think. You can start with pure military power (some of the best armored troops for the early era + a cheap sacred unit), then learn more magic oriented strategies during the game.

Take an imprisoned pretender with good order and production scales and 1 in growth (to avoid too bad effects from aging), and give him some magic paths at 4 to make blessed cavalry a little better (F4/W4 ie). You have very good soldiers and priests, so you don't need a battle pretender nor to use a lot of magic support for early expansion (but you will have a very good one with level 3 alteration and evocation spells).

Then search as many death sites as you can and learn enchantment/conjuration to add undeads minions to your arsenal, or continue to developp evocation to use the very powerful death/astral and death/fire combos.

Another good option is to take the forge lord as pretender and give priority to construction once you have some schools at 3, the sole weakness of Ermor EA being the forging area as your national mages can't have earth magic. Give him earth 4 or 6, if this earth bless is not very useful for your cavalry it's a big boost for your flamen and pontifex, as well as your other mages if you give them a shroud of the battle saint (easy and cheap to forge).

[Graeme Dice]

Arralen said:
EA Ermor - build Lizard Auxiliarii until they come out of your ears, then build some more... they might be even more cost-effective then Pangean Centaurs.

Really? They're statistically quite inferior to principes, especially in the all important morale and protection categories. The roman based nations all survive based on their ability to create a meatshield for the mages to do their work, so I'd still build principes.

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont agree with Ermor as a learning nation. They are easier for a newbie to win with, but I dont think they teach the game. Their method of play is so differnt thant the other nations.

[Foodstamp]

Ermor is a great nation to learn with, I know first hand. I was almost turned off of Dominions 2 until I tried Ermor Ashen Empire. I could never get far enough into the game to experience more than getting stomped by the AI after conquering a few independents until I tried Ermor.

I won a few games with Ermor, was able to understand the game a bit better beyond the initial conquering of my indy neighbors, and then I moved on to other nations. I still used death summons mixed with "live" troops and eventually I was weened away from the summoned fodder troops completely.

[Sindai]

Foodstamp is right. Ermor is a fun one to experiment with different strats with because you're pretty much unkillable. The AI just can't push very far into your territory when their whole army is starved and diseased in a couple of turns.

[Twan]

Only LA Ermor is really different to play. EA Ermor is a very ordinary nation, MA something in between.