To limit the game's complexity for newbies, what would be the best factions for new players? Are some un-recommendable? Thanks!

In my opinion, the best races for newbies are (from best) Muaat, Letnev, Sardakk N'orr and Sol. Their abilities are fairly straightforward and easily grasped.

Sol and Sardakk are vulnerable at the start of the game, but in an all-newbie game that's rarely a problem.

The intricacies of Sol's and Muaat's spawning abilities can be learned later, and still those abilities see use with new players.

If one needs more races to the list, the next ones I'd go for would be L1z1x and Naalu. L1z1x I find difficult to play for the win, but they are a lot of fun regardless, since they have an awesome home system and lots of tech. Newbies like tech, so that makes L1z1x fun!

Hope this helps!

I'd pretty much agree with that; if there are any brand-new players, I'd leave out the Yssaril, Naalu and Saar from the game. Their abilities go against the rules quite a bit, which can be confusing.

possumman said:

Yeah. I meant to say Mentak, not Naalu. Naalu is a race that our group hated for a long time because of their 0 initiative. It always got us confused. Mentak, on the other hand, is another one of those 'simpler' races, and although they are considered quite weak they are fun to play!

Be careful with the Muaat. New players tend to think that warsun is indestructible.

possumman said:

Completely agree. I would throw in possibly Jol Nar because I've seen too many newbies get sucked into the "get-lots-of-tech" vortex and never score any points. Also, my group had the hardest time getting the production capacity/resources thing down, so I would suggest getting rid of the Yin because of their flipping ability.

I would say the L1z1x because they are easy to start off, and have a good armada in the early game and can push thier weight even in the late. They also have awesome production at 5 starting.

Only to races i recomand for newbies Letnev and Sol. Special abilityes is a bite straight foward, and they are not bad races.

Newbies in Ti3 rearly win anyway so another way is to give them the races they think is kewl and they would like to play. If they like there race its more likly tehy will play again(unleas they are really soor lossers,and then its not there kinof game) No mater we have all been Newbis some ppl like my self not so long ago. And new players will no mather what race you give them(unleas they are realy good at strategy games, and i mean realy good)**** it up.

Comen newbie or new player mistakes is

1: tech hording its kewl

2:war war war

3:not thinking about Vp

4: not understanding the game properly(when to take the right Sc and to playe AC)

5:War war again, cause in the end it realy looks like a war game to begin white

I first played the Sardak nor in the first game, and I thought them rather straightforward. The tech deck, however, does complicate the game a bit I fear with so many options...

Hi,

i played my first game with the Universities of Jol-Nar and won

But generally i would recommend Sol. They are pretty balanced, own a powerful race technology and are able to summon Gorund Units where they need them.

One of the players in our group played Muaat the first time and said they would work well too, but i think it could be a bit hard with only the 1 War Sun at the beginning for a newbe, exspecially if the game is played with Distant Suns it´s a bit risky.

On the other hand, do you think that the "straight forward"-races are the best for the beginning? In our games these races usually highly depend on having fight successes in the early game, which could be a problem for players who first want to look the other players and learn a bit.

In this case maybe the Hacan would be good, next to the pretty balanced Sol - he can build up a huge tower of trade goods and build o lot of units to defend and conquer.

All the best, Alex

silenceindigo said:

The good thing about the deck are the prequisites - they ensure that even the new player only has to read 3-5 tech cards at a time.

My first game was w/ Mentak and I had no problem with their racial abilities. I also found winnu quite easy to handle : yellow tech spec., always HP influence, immune to one action card (if 1 GF) and no CC for tech 2nd ability.

Sardackk Nor are simplisimistic in racial abilities, they are fine for "initiation" lol

Lizix are fun too for newbies. They won't run for VP but they will have fun, and that's what they want right?

Sol and Letnev are fine too.

I would add the Hacan to the race. They soon make friends, obviously, have many resources and a fairly strong fleet.

When teaching new people the game, I remove the following races:

Naalu: 0 Initiative is a bit confusing their first couple of games.

Muaat: Almost every newbie leaves that WS far too vulnerable. (no FF or DD escort)

Saar: There are so many rules that Saar breaks, I would never suggest a newbie play them until they have at least 5 games under their belt.

Newbie friendly races:

Mentak: Very simple straightforward race. Build cruisers. Tech stasis capsules. Kill stuff. Their finer points can be learned as they go.

L1z1x: Probably the single simplest race in the game. Impenetrable HS and they can build tons of ships and have easy access routes to most of the good techs.

Letnev: About the same reasons as L1z1x. Very simple to learn. (This is the first race I learned to play and the first race I won a game with against better players.)

Jol Nar: Techs usually make it hard for them to be eliminated. Just make sure they don't get sucked into purchasing all that tech and forget about ships and objectives.

Hacan: Trade and build. Very simple.

Norr: The easiest race to learn since their only ability is +1 to all combat rolls.

Sol: Easy to learn and as said before, the spawn intricacies can be learned later. Just make sure they realize Sol's vulnerability to their carriers early in the game.

Alright, but sometimes confusing:

Winnu: Their racial tech is a bit confusing and overpowered. Also, most newbies forget that they don't require a CC to do Tech Secondary.

Yssaril: This race is a newbie's best friend. The confusing part is the skip action and the unlimited ACs. This race (along with an unmodified Winnu is probably the most overpowered in the game.)

Yin: This race just takes some getting used to, in order to use their abilities effectively. (especially to not rely on the GF conversion and to use the DD/CA suicide on the right ship.

Make sure the newbies understand these facts: (most of these were stated earlier in some fashion)

1. Try to focus on scoring an objective on every round. Note this is usually not possible on round 1.

2. Do NOT tech too much. About 6 techs is all you should ever need with anyone besides Jol Nar, Muaat and L1z1x.

3. War is expensive. Don't go to war simply to blow stuff up. It should be accomplishing you at least 2 VPs or be severely hurting a player with at least 3 VPs more than anyone else.

4. Learn the counters. Destroyers counter Fighters. Fighters counter PDS grids. PDS grids counter capital ships with no Fighter support. Cruisers are useful for quick surgical strikes. War Suns counter planets with lots of GF and a PDS or two. Dreads should be used for defensive purposed mostly since they have a movement of 1. Carriers are necessary for any large scale invasions.

Beren wrote:

When teaching new people the game, I remove the following races:

Naalu: 0 Initiative is a bit confusing their first couple of games.

Muaat: Almost every newbie leaves that WS far too vulnerable. (no FF or DD escort)

Saar: There are so many rules that Saar breaks, I would never suggest a newbie play them until they have at least 5 games under their belt.

I think that is spot on!!

Personally. My first game was with Yssaril and I won (agaisnt 6 others that had all played several times before). The power of the pass ability escaped me until maybe round 3 but I also was getting to ACs a round so I felt like I was getting something cool. And by round 3 I was getting how to play with them.

I actually think they are the newbies best friend as well. As long as the newbie has SOME apptitued for strategy games.....if not. Give them L1Z1X

I think what Railarian said is most important, pick whatever race sounds/looks the coolest and go with it. That being said, avoiding the rule breaking races is a good idea too, but other than that anything goes. The N'orr might have a straight forward racial ability, but understanding racial abilities won't help you understand the game. There are finer points to making the N'orr playable. Racial abilities are meant to be applied to the game , not the other way around. Go with what you think is cool and you'll enjoy yourself more.

Moreover, you're going to mess up the rules. There are too many for a first time player to remember without spending most of the game time in the rulebook. My advice is to read the rule book a bit shortly after playing. Most likely you'll find something in the book that you did obviously wrong, and you're more likely to remember it next time. Besides, if a player was screwed by a mistake, they'll have fewer hard feelings next time and be more inclined to play. =)

I think important races NOT to consider are JolNar and Yssaril, but especially the first.

That depends on the cards, pull the right ones for public or secret objectives and 'tech binging' become a route to victory. And a good thing too, pulling a combat card (like mine that required me to threaten two homeworld systems) is really had to fulfill for the Jol Nar. That and having tech on the Jol Nar is the way to redress that -1 to all combat rolls.

I have only played one game so far and I was utterly crushed, but there was honestly no way I could have won as a newbie since I didn't understand the complexities of smart and dumb combats, or the importance of victory points. I don't think giving them an "easy" or "simple" faction will help.

However, I do think giving newbies a race with XRD and/or Stasis Capsules will help (I believe I started with XRD as the Winnu). In my experience, the easiest way to make a newbie never want to play again is when they have a bad start and spend most of the game watching their side in decline. This is effectively getting eliminated early while still being in the game. With these techs, at least I spent the important first 3/4 of the game as a contender since I can colonize fast, and therefore build a fleet fast.

It's a good feeling to know that you can own an eight system empire with most of your plastic on the board...before the more experienced players eat up said empire for the last 1/4 of the game for objectives because you can only have THREE capital ships per system (first and last time I'm making that error).

Tepes said:

A) It does help to have a simpler faction simply because people learn how to play them faster. I played against two newbies (their first game) as Norr. They had Yssaril and L1z1x. I got crushed. I would say the races do matter.

B) A thousand times yes. More expansion means they can make up for the little mistakes. Winnu start with Stasis, not XRD. They are one tech away from XRD.

C) You can have more than THREE capital ships per system. You just have to allocate Command Counters to Fleet Supply.

Beren_Erchamion said:

A) Like I said, I've only played once, so you are probably right. I'm just saying that my experience matches that of the posts that say the newbie will be hard pressed to win not because of misunderstandings of the rules or races, but because of misunderstandings of game nuances like the importance of the Bereaucracy card or Fleet Supply.

C) I miswrote and I don't know how to edit posts on this site. I meant to write I could not have more than three capital ships in a system because every time I got CCs I thought "I don't need a bigger fleet supply, I have all my full carriers and dreadnaught on the table and I'm on the verge of war suns" then got overrun by a 10 strong fleet with one sun and no dreadnaughts. Sure they are Jol Narr cruisers and destoryers, but they roll a lot more dice with Direct Hit to back 'em up.

Tepes said:

Not surprising considering the edit button is only available for like 5 minutes on this site.

I think, in general, this game just has a steep learning curve in general. I think the "best factions" for new players are those that have powerful abilities that don't have to be strategized too much. The L1Z1X, for example, are powerful. Their abilities are relatively simple, and you don't have to really try and set them up. The Yssaril are about the same.

In general, I think the newbies first game is going to be more in watching the nuances, and trying to incorporate them. With the right group, too, this game can be almost as much fun and interesting to lose than to win, especially if you pick up some new tactics along the way.