What's your favorite nation and why?

[Aleph]

EA Mictlan - I love their awe-inspiring return per gold with Mictlan Priests and Jaguar Warriors. I play Imprisoned F9E4S4B4D2 Growth 2 Luck/Turmoil/Sloth 3 Heat 1 Dom 6 Smoking Mirror. I do think that Lanka is actually a stronger nation overall, but I resent that someone is outblooding Mictlan (who should, by definition, blow everyone else out of the water in the blood game) so I don't play them.

Honorable mention to EA pangea with a sleeping E4D4N4(SorA)4 Gorgon - very effective with minimal Alteration and Conjuration investment, unlocks LA Pangea undead summons. A nation with reanimation, blood, freespawn (I play turmoil/sloth/growth/luck 3), great archers, and powerful stealth preaching/unrest engines. Lots to like here, I just can't quite put my finger on the missing element that catalyzes the synergy between all these elements.

2nd honorable mention to EA Abyssia for pure joy of no friendly fire battle magics.

MA Ermor - Usually a fountain, either F9orD9 S9 depending on whether I want early or late game power, sometimes with E4 snuck in to help out communions. Shadow Vestals give you ridiculous early game expansion, which you follow up with the best gold-recruitable reanimators in the game from your capital and excellent communion power (easiest way to H4 in the game for a nation who really benefits from it). Solid regular troops give you an option against an enemy who has invested too heavily in priests.

Honorable mention to MA Abyssia for reasons mentioned by others in this thread - probably my favorite MA blood magic nation, and no slouch across the board magically.

LA Ermor - a thematic nation executed to a T; the reason I bought the game in the first place. Much too strong against the AI. Some micro-management HA, but nothing compared to R'yleh's issues due to insanity.

LA Ulm for it's wonderful spies, rangers, counts, mix of death/blood/freespawns, and slow rise to magical dominance. Somewhat clunky gear-shifts in this nation make it a definite second best to Ermor, but this makes it somewhat more interesting to play against the computer.

[Swan]

EA i like sauromantia for their story because i always liked scitian but also marverni(for the same cause)

MA pangea for the theme of wild and civilization together and agartha for the falling of a race that they cannot stop
i forgot ctis that mix very well egyptian and mesopotamic theme also i always liked swamps where the intruder get poisoned if they dare to enter

LA ctis because they fight the doom without been crazy or dead or demoniac(ok ctis use dead but their army is also made of good lizard soldier)an la atlatntis first beacuse they are the first Inuit nation i ever saw and because they choose a god that doesnt curse them

[PvK]

Seems to me the Sauromatian amazons hold up pretty well in comparison to the Androphags except for the Witch Kings.

As for Ulm, they do have such a spell: Tempering the Will.

[Dectilon]

Well, magic is strongest and most important in EA, so I was sort of refering to the Witch Kings. : )

Humm... so they do... Heh, shows how big of a noob I am : P