Help! It's not fun!!

[llamabeast]

Abysia is very cool. If you are more of a fan of human nations with cavalry and archers, Marignon is another excellent option.

[Sombre]

llama makes a great point about guides by the way. They often inspire me to play nations I had only briefly tried before.

I also find if I see a TV show or film about romans or greeks or dragons or demons, I want to play a related nation in dom3. Reading the book Rubicon had me playing EA Ermor for quite a while.

Btw llama I'm moving to oxford next month for a job at OUP. Little studio flat on Woodstock road.

[Gandalf Parker]

Generally for hold-back researchers I recommend Arcoscephale.

Also if you set the independent strength higher you will keep the AIs off your back for longer. They dont tend to be as smart as you in choosing who to attack and when to attack them. Strong dependents give the AI setbacks early in the game. Dont give in to the temptation to set the game parameters to easy magic research. The AI will be blasting you before you get it figured out.

If you use the games map-generator to make maps then two things can help you in the early learning curve.

A) Turn up the mountains. Setting it about 50 will give you lots of chokepoints. Basically a maze. You will be able to use those better than the AI.

B) Make the maps skinny. A really large map (1000-1500 provinces if your machine can handle it) that is only wide enough to handle one nation at a time can keep you from getting swarmed. I have two versions. Tower (really tall but so thin that its only about 10 provinces wide). And Pipleline (really long but only tall enough for about 10 provinces). That way I have two enemies, one on each side, to worry about. At least until the magic research hits a fun level.

[Clownhammer]

Again, thank you. I will check out those nations and their respective guides.

That last post was particularly helpful. Much appreciated, Sir.