Best beginner faction?

borisblue · Post by **borisblue** » August 17th, 2006, 11:46 pm

What do you guys think is the best faction for beginners?
Most of my friends whom I introduce to wesnoth tend to gravitate toward elves, and sometimes loyalists (Httt influence)-

But I got pwned by a noob (well, noober than me anyways) friend of mine who used the northerners- and I now think that they are a good race to introduce new players to multiplayer.

Orcs have cheap, versatile units (so recruitment errors don't hurt as much) that are tough (so tactical errors don't hurt as much)

Jew unit · Post by **Jew unit** » August 17th, 2006, 11:52 pm

I would say you're sort of on the right track as Drakes and Undead are probably the worst to use as a n00b but I would say either northeners because not a whole lot of complicated units (poision sort of) and Rebels (because of tutorial) but honstly you havet to know a little of what you're doing to win with any race

Elestel · Post by **Elestel** » August 18th, 2006, 12:40 am

Drakes of course not! I know a friend that began with them... fly and fire... too easy... until he met arrows and spears

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » August 18th, 2006, 1:07 am

I learned drakes the hard way :P
IMO, the best faction if you are beginning is loyalists as they usually have an answer for anything and are relatively easy to use. If you focus more on avoiding shots than taking them, play rebels. Dwarves are also a good start since they soak up damage.

Post by **Noy** » August 18th, 2006, 3:24 am

Knalgans, and here's why.

First off you have a limited number of units to chose from, that are probably the most terrain specific faction in the game. It forces you to learn the basics the hard way. They also are pretty forgiving units with high reses and good HP. Sure their attacks are unconventional, there is no magic. But then again it forces you to get better at the basics of the game before you start getting into the advanced stuff.

jg · Post by jg » August 18th, 2006, 12:44 pm

Knalgans used to be my favourite, now they are the Northerners because they have poison ...

jg

Post by **zookeeper** » August 18th, 2006, 1:21 pm

I find the loyalists to be the best all-rounders (which is usually what a newbie needs). They have a wide variety of clear specialists - mage, HI, horseman. They have one of the best (IMO) basic fighters, the spearman. Merman fighters own most other scouts and swimmers in or next to watery terrain. They have a rather strong land scout (cavalryman). And a skirmisher, too. I don't think loyalists are stronger overall than other factions, but their units somehow seem to find their specific roles more easily, which might make it easier for a newbie to learn to understand when and why to use certain kinds of units against certain kinds of enemies. Maybe.

Elvish_Pillager · Post by **Elvish_Pillager** » August 18th, 2006, 1:56 pm

On the other hand, most of the loyalist units are specialists, which could easily lead newbies into losing all the time getting too many specialist units.

Post by **Jetrel** » August 18th, 2006, 3:10 pm

zookeeper wrote:I don't think loyalists are stronger overall than other factions,

I do, at least in age of heroes (being able to hire the lieutenant, white mage, -and- lancer makes them kinda scary).

Still, I think they make an excellent all-around faction, both for beginners and experts. They have certain clear strengths (mages, horsemen), and they've got a counter to darned near everything; moreso if they level a mage into a MoL.

Post by **Baufo** » August 18th, 2006, 3:27 pm

I think Rebells are a nice start: they have a good melee unit (fighter) and 2 good ranged units (archer and mage). Their gameplay follows simple rules (just put your units into forest) and you have not got to keep ToD in mind such a lot (of course you have) as when playing a faction that is affected itself by ToD.

krotop · Post by **krotop** » August 18th, 2006, 5:04 pm

According to me, the knalgan alliance is the easiest for beginners, for the reasons mentioned higher.

Their units are easy to choose, you can make an army of 2 mains type and complete with very few others and still be competitive.
Ex : vs undeads ---> mainly warriors and berzerkers
vs drakes ---> mainly thunderers
vs others ---> mainly warriors
on forest/plain map ---> gryphons and poachers
Even if your others units aren't well chosen, if you have good defensive positions, you'll be a challenge to kill.

Moreover, their quality/price ratio is good for basic warriors.

The elves come in second, because you can also turn around few types of unit with confidence (warriors, archer, mage). Moreover, they have efficient defence on a lot of lands and their quality/price ratio is good for basic warriors too.

Northeners aren't so easy to play because they're not very good for breaking a Zone of Control. And most of games are made with few experience which disables the poison efficiency, and your numerous "short-living" units, except trolls, will provide tons of XPs to make your opponent promote and heal in the same time. Not that Northeners are worst than other factions, but harder to play in my opinion.

Elvish Pillager wrote:On the other hand, most of the loyalist units are specialists, which could easily lead newbies into losing all the time getting too many specialist units.

That was my case, and it didn't learn me fast what specialist I had to use to overcome my errors.

Sum up : the easiest faction is the faction where recruit choice is the easiest ---> Knalgans or Elves. Note : undead's recruiting is not-so-hard too, but the handling of day/night shifting is really hard to deal with for a newbie.