Which faction is easiest to master?

[WhiteWolf]

My description was meant to a beginner. Yes, to an experienced player it doesn't matter that which race is he/she fighting with against which. But if you are a beginner, (for example), you shouldn't fight with dwarves against elves. But it may depend on the map too.

[UK1]

I mean if it's straightforwardness you're looking for, Undead are quite straightforward. Recruit as many DA's as you can protect with melee units and keep them alive long enough to kill the enemy. Stick 'em with the pointy end!

[Renard]

Rebels seem pretty easy to pick up, which is amplified by the fact that you play them (or at least play elves) in several of the mainline campaigns, not to mention the tutorial. Sure, it takes time to realize that Woses don't kill everything, that most of your units have low health, and that Shamans are friggin sweet, but you can pick up on some of the core strengths and weaknesses just by looking at the units and playing with them for a bit. They have diverse attacks, good mobility and (on the surface) are only slightly affected by ToD changes, so someone just starting Wesnoth probably wouldn't got roflstomped on their first MP game as the Rebels.
Loyalists are also easy to start up, and I would definitely recommend starting with them over, say, Undead, but they have a few more intricacies than the Rebels. For one thing, their complete Lawfulness encourages attacks at day, but when night falls a beginner might not understand that Loyalists generally shouldn't attack at night. I guess you could hypothetically start a new player on Loyalists or Rebels, but Rebels might be less painful to start with.
Mastery is a whole different bunch of bananas.

[Dunno]

Well, thanks a lot for your input guys. I've already drawn some conclusions from what I've seen while teaching my brothers. It seems that rebels indeed are the simplest, although it's interesting that loyalists take the 2nd place. When they played loys for the first time, they've noticed mages and horsemen and recruited way too much of them, and since they all are very expensive (horseman being the most expensive unit in default!) it was a painful lost. Northerners though, are completely different. When they noticed that trolls aren't as good as they seem(especially when you don't have terrain defs mastered yet), it still wasn't too late to recruit some grunts and change your plans. So I'd give a big vote for northerners, just to make them second. I hope someone will find this poll as helpful as I did

[Caphriel]

(horseman being the most expensive unit in default!)

Gryphon Rider?

[Dunno]

Ah, shoot! You got me (that's because GR is useless, ha, ha)
My point still stands, though

[Great_Mage_Atari]

Well the obvious choice is the Rebels. They have no great skills or tactics until they advance, and it's extremely straight-forward.

[hhyloc]

Well the obvious choice is the Rebels. They have no great skills or tactics until they advance, and it's extremely straight-forward.

Ahem, what made you say so? . IMO to play this faction the player will need more tactical thinking and careful planning than one would do with Northerner. Rebels are more terrain-dependent and agile, they also have "special" like heal, slow, ambush.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

The one unit with heal and slow is the shaman, which is very combatively weak and is hard to level up. As for Ambush, thats the only plus.

[hhyloc]

Well, shaman is not meant to be a offensive unit, she is a supporter, to heal allies and slow enemy. You use shaman to slow enemy, move other units in for the kill and cover shaman with them, then the shaman from behind will heal any wound they may have during the attack. IMO the slow ablility is very powerful if used right, it halves enemy's movement and attack power at the same time.
And will you surprise if you are ambushed by a fearsome Wose?

[Great_Mage_Atari]

If you can see the wose before it enters the forest why not just recruit mages?

[Noy]

I actually think that rebels are not that easy. Immediately you need to balance two types of units with different alignments and movetypes to have any chance of success. It is out of the realistic range of newer players skill to learn to play without the Mage. Moreover many of their units are less forgiving to errors due to low HP. I think because its a main part of HTTT that people think its "easier."

[Parag]

Rebels are ideal,i am learning the game myself and am finding it's easy to learn with rebels...

[Rya]

The trick with Loyals is to buy mainly Spearmen. As long as you don't have to play against undead they rock.

[Gambit]

Perhaps the new Khalifate. Not many people have played them, so it is potentially easier to become the master of using them. (I know, not what you meant. )