The Ages

[Ygorl]

I always thought Abysia was a good first nation. You can do well with just the heavy infantry and some evocation (which won't hurt your troops, since they're immune to fire); by the time you're comfortable with the game, you can start thinking about fun things to do with blood magic, or just ignore it and focus on things you can do without it (which is still quite a lot, later in the game).