Which Faction?

[Fishrudder]

Hey, this is my first time playing since 2.0 And I really can't decide what faction to be, Harad and Rhun are out of the question, but I'm up for most anything else. What do you guys suggest?

[Pinkie Pie]

Why are they out of the question? In my opinion they are two of the easiest factions to play as.

[Garriath]

Without further details as to your play-style, I can recommend Eriador or Rohan.

Eriador makes for a very exciting game; your troops start at very, very poor, but your bodyguards are excellent. You're threatened by three enemy factions (Isengard, Misty Mountains, and Gundabad) yet have very significant allied help against all three of them (from Rohan, both elf factions, and the dwarves.) You start out with Aragorn and Gandalf, which is great for flavor, and because you're likely to do a lot of fighting in the Misty Mountains, your chances of getting the Ring are fairly good. Forming Arnor is a long, somewhat frustrating process, but is incredibly satisfying when you're done. Getting to finally save Rohan and Gondor from Mordor in the end-game is very, very rewarding.

Rohan is actually the easiest good faction, in my experience. I'll admit that it's generally a very fast start (Isengard gets a few full stacks very early on), but you're blessed with a strong economy, only one enemy to worry about for the early game, easy access to ents, and armies dominated by cavalry, which, when properly used, are very, very powerful. It's a very busy first few turns, but if you know what you're doing, there's no reason not to have destroyed the Isengard faction by turn 25. Once that's done, it's entirely up to you as to whether or not you save Gondor, or push north or east.

All this said, I'll agree with Martin, that Rhun and Hard are the game's easiest factions. Harad has a great unit selection and is almost never threatened, while Rhun has great units, a very strong economy, and the easiest adversary faction (Dale).

[Jaldithas]

I would say Dale,as it have a quite good units, good chances of expansion, and it don't have too much regions at start of game

[Garriath]

I would say Dale,as it have a quite good units, good chances of expansion, and it don't have too much regions at start of game

I'm intrigued; I've always found Dale to be the absolute most difficult faction for me by far. I've actually even found both of the goblin factions to be a lot easier. I feel like their archers are supposed to be their strong suit, but they can't compare with the wood elves next door, while their infantry just gets mauled by the Easterling cavalry. I also feel like expanding is difficult, since Rhun puts a lot of pressure on you from early on.

[Pinkie Pie]

Any extra info would help as Garriath said, you have not even asked what type of faction you want, an easy one, a tough one, one that relies on large amounts of weak units, ones that use small amounts of strong units etc.

[Trailhog250]

Well... What sort of faction are you interested in? Dwarves can be fun... Isengard has cool units and a good start position with many avenues for expansion. Gondor has some great units and sees lots of action. Eriador gets more and more interesting the longer you play. HE and SE have some of the best units. Mordor is a true force to reckon with once it obtains trolls and their Uruks are fun to use... It's up to you. All these factions have varying play styles which appeal to various people. At some point though, I like them all

[Spits32]

Any faction that is surrounded by more than 1 enemy can be very challenging, since they will all attack you... at once. So HE would be easier I imagine except for having Imladris. My first faction I played was Rohan since you really only have to fight Isengard at the beginning. However once you defeat Isengard in 50-60 turns or so, Mordor can pose quite a challenge depending on how effective Gondor borders are.

If you are looking for evil, perhaps Harad because they have lots of cities to start out with (nice economy), and you only really have to fight Gondor.

[Fishrudder]

I know I didn't give you guys much information and I apologize for that, but, your advice has been quite helpful. I ended up going with the High Elves based off of prior playing experience. For the record, I generally use archers and Cavalry.

On my next play through I'll use your guy's advice as to what Faction I play with.
Thanks for the responses even though you had nothing to go off of!

[Legolose]

I had a blast playing the Dwarfs so