Tips and/or suggestions for starting game

[Chazar]

An important thing is the survival of your tools, err, troops! Wait long enough to built a sensible army in order to conquer without much losses in the beginning:

• If you have an immortal pretender like the Vampire Queen or something else that is pretty strong like a Wyrm, they can give you a high expansion rate by going on their own right away. Scout ahead nevertheless.
• Some pretenders need plenty of archer backup to conquer (Air magic for AirShield or EarthMagic for high protection helps here), so take 1-3 turns to produce enough archers. A medium expansion (since the later you conquer the less money for more troops you have as usual).
• If you sport an Immobile commander like I often do, you'll have to wait a bit before going out and conquering (say, 3-6 turns). The troops consist on your nation, e.g. with caelum, you need a level 4 prophet seraphine priest and a certain fixed number of mammoths and wingless (5-8? I forgot...). Later on add as many archers and mages as you can, without ever stopping the army. The late expansion is usually offset by incredibly good scales (high money income) and fast early research (by good scales and by your bored immobile pretender).
• Human pretender without the Conceptual Balance Mod or similar: Restart right away if you do not have a well-thought plan!

This is for an initial setup only. No research, temples, labs or fortresses are built usually during this phase of aggressive expansion. Only bored mages, if any, search for sites. Occasionally some forging for your pretender or prophet (-> early SC).

A few turns later that changes drastically, with research, forging and most important, site searching taking priority...

Another key is to setup a sensible strategy AT PRETENDER DESIGN. This cannot be stressed enough, as the game becomes unplayable with a badly designed pretender or not knowing the masterplan behind it. There are many nation specific threads which discuss pretender design and the idea behind it. Just search for nation names...
(its really a shame that there is no canonical set of pretender templates with a short description revealing the idea behind them!!!)

Oh, and I strongly advice against strong indipendents, as it makes for boring games, deciding the outcome long before nations clash. I usually choose small maps with easy independents to get right into the thick of it. More fun that way.... ...and that's how I learned how to design a pretender. Play 10-20 turns, loose and learn, rinse and repeat

[shovah]

and decide on what late gamespells/summons you plan to use. if your nation dosnt have any super expanders like mammoths and lacks good ranged power use some heavily armour units (or try a bless) to minimize casualtys. bless's can also be good (mictlan can get some nasty bless's, try a lord of the night with f9 d4 b4 e4, great summons and a nice bless+hes strong and gets 2 free fiends of darkness in battle.

[Endoperez]

You might want to try Clash of the Titans map. It is a two-player map without Water nations, and while it works better against another human, I'm sure you'll also have interesting times against an AI. Test against one nation that your nation can counter naturally, in the beginning. As an example, Ulm can be hard if you don't have crossbows and you need expensive mages against their armor, and Abysia can be very hard if you can't protect your troops from fire or destroy their troops from afar.

[Sandman]

Troop placement is very important for the early game. Learn to anticipate the attack plans of the various indy troops, so your soliders can 'hold and attack' to score the first hit. Use chaff units to draw indy missile fire. Always keep your own missile units are far forward as you dare, unless you're using ALL missile units, in which case stay at the back of the battle map.

[Saxon]

One thing you might want to try is taking Ermor. In single player, they are pretty powerful and will give you a chance to learn a lot about the game while not worrying about getting run over right away. They can also go underwater, which can give you and advantage.

You might also want to start a game as one of the underwater races and make sure you do not include any others or Ermor. It will provide you a nice safe start, a training ground and a retreat. It is more fun learning the mechanics of the game when you have a decent chance of living past the first few turns.

[shovah]

i dont think ermor is a good intro, i used it to introduce my friend and he found it hard due to their reliance on magic and stuff (which can be hard to grasp at start)

[Agrajag]

I found AE Ermor a very good point to start from, it the first race I played, and I had a lot of fun with it.
I still often play AE and SG against the AI, though recently I have decided to try other races, because the AI just isn't good at handling Ermor (especially SG, against AE he is a bit better in my experience).
So now instead of "pwning" the AI with SG I get my *** whooped with some other nation

[Gandalf Parker]

I usually start people with Ulm. Buying armored troops and building armies to ravage provinces tends to get them a ways into the game. Then I can get a taste for their tactics and recommend a better match

[Saxon]

True, Ulm is very much classic heavy infantry, so it makes more intuitive sense to a new player. Also, the units are pretty durable and are more forgiving. Just stay away from a blood strategy, they are tricky for even experienced folks. Think of blood as that interesting class you can take after you pass first year!

If you take Ulm and are winning, make sure you start experimenting with magic later in the game. It is critical to many of the other races, so experiment with it a bit when it is safe. Ulm is not great in this area, but you can still learn from it.

[Nerfix]

Ulm is also good for forge practice and thug practice.

Forge Earth Shoes for you smiths and deck out Black Knights with Swords/Axes of Sharpness, Charcoal Shields, Elemental Armors and Girdles of Might and then send them out, with troop support.

Not the strongest strategy, but I like it.