What faction is most appealing to new players?

[Tenebrion]

Right now I want to avoid any faction that has any glaring strengths / weaknesses. In other words, I don't want her first faction to be something like EA Abyssia, because they have a exceptionally powerful infantry but no range. Likewise, I wouldn't want her to play a faction like Caelum due to their fragility and high mobility, or Ryleth / Atlantis for obvious reasons.

In other words, I'm thinking the best choice, for a starter faction, is a jack of all trades kind of nation. That way, once she tries the other factions, she can have a better appreciation of their various strengths and weaknesses.

[Ferrosol]

I would say MA Man they have decent and varied troops reasonably high quality mages and access to some national summons. and if she gets stuck she can always just build a ton of longbowmen

[Kamamura]

ULM!

[llamabeast]

My ex-girlfriend absolutely loved getting interesting random picks and working out what to do with them. Every time one of my games hosted when I was at hers (and later her own games), she would straight away insist I check all my recruited mages to see what picks they'd got. She also really liked searching for magic sites.

As such I'd recommend Arcoscephale or T'ien Ch'i. They are nice races anyway. EA T'ien Ch'i is pretty cool, with the Warriors of the Five Elements as well. Also they are kind of goodies - I think it's nice to start off playing the goodies. Oh, and they have national summons - always nice to see what weird beasties you can conjure up.

[Cor2]

I was actually thinking Ulm as well.

Do tell us how it turns out. My wife refuses to play because the game involves killing and war.

[Revolution]

Ferrosol said:
I would say MA Man they have decent and varied troops reasonably high quality mages and access to some national summons. and if she gets stuck she can always just build a ton of longbowmen

[sector24]

For learning a bless strategy and general AI stomping, Niefelheim is the best. But they don't really teach you anything about magic.

For complete security and the freedom to make mistakes, EA Atlantis is great because the AI basically can't attack you. Plus you have a good spread of the straight forward magic paths like Earth, Water, Fire.

For a general experience I'd say the best nations are EA Agartha, EA/MA Arcosephale, and Tien Chi. If the AI gangs up on you (like they do) it's nice to have a ridiculously overpowered unit like Troglodytes, Elephants, etc. There's also very little in the way of tricky combat scripting or micromanagement.

Ultimately you want to pick a nation and pretender that your wife will find interesting, even if it's not that easy to play. If graphics are an issue, the newer nations are generally prettier: Fomoria, Bogarus, Lanka. Older nations tend to have some blurry sprites.

[hnchrist3]

One of the greatest discoveries of this game, is who you are.

When I started, I chose a random nation (having no base), and from there I progressed to Helmheim. I played that for many games, and eventually I came up against Ermor.
Ermor got me time-and-time-again.

So I switched to Ermor.
If you think Ermor is easy, go away now.
As Ermor, you are literally on the brink of collapse at all times. Timing is your god. You have to choose between strength and research ALL THE time.
---------------------------------------------------------
I have exceeded the thread.

Know this: (LA) Ermor is subjuctive, but FEW can fulfill it.
TIMING is your God.
I mean you LITERALLY have to be on top of everything, or you lose AUTOMATICALLY.
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Faithfully submitted,
HNC3.

[llamabeast]

Having thought on it some more, I reiterate T'ien Ch'i, although actually I think I prefer MA. I think they are nice - nice military, nice magic, lots and lots of choices for mages, everything looks good, nice sacreds and interesting national summons. I think it would be good for getting someone excited.

[Kamamura]

ULM!!!