First Civ?

[Airborne101st]

I was wondering what would be the most "noob" friendly civ you can start a FtH II game with?
I picked Sidar as my first nation on my 250 turn 3rd in score and just popped Great Library and Lighthouse with my Industious trait. I feel like I'm doing a good job with Sidar at least.

 

[WCH]

Grigori and Khazad I think are the two best intro civs, because both have a simplified system. Khazad have no magic beyond adepts, so you can ignore magic and learn other aspects of the game first. Grigori have no religion, so you can ignore religion and learn other aspects of the game first. That way you can do a magic-focused game as Grigori, followed by a religion-focused game as Khazad, and between the two learn both systems without having to juggle them together like you might with another civ.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Hippus are pretty good too. They get all the normal mechanics with no weird twists on them, so when you experiment with them most of what you learn will apply to whatever civ you try next, and they have really strong troops to keep you alive if you go a little too light on military which might get you killed with most civs.

 

[Jarrema]

I think, that Khazad are the easiest to master. They do not have advanced arcane magic and do have pretty good units.

 

[Jabie]

I'd never recommend the Khazad. A badly run economy - which is most likely to happen near the start of the game for a new player - can easily put a player off of FfH. Grigori, who do not have to worry about religion, and get cool adventurer units, get my vote.

Hippus, Doviello and Bannor are fairly straightforward to play too.

 

[nimling]

The Lanun, despite having a cruddy Champion replacement and a cruddy hero, are a decent pick for those looking for an easier time managing the economic side of things. That they have no religious restrictions or magic restrictions is more a benefit for players who may end up going down that path by accident.

Either leader is good, though I personally prefer Hannah.

 

[Tasunke]

Hippus were my first civ, so I will have to also recommend the Hippus.

Although I admit that playing Grigori 1st and then Khazad is probably a great way to non-intrusively learn about magic and religion.

 

[Cromagnum P.I.]

I say dive right in. Try out all the "crazy" civs with new mechanics on small quick maps. Elohim and Bannor are my two favorite civs to play. Bannor might be in my opinion the easiest to play as: go for cottage economy, eventually declare war (or be declared war on) and switch to Crusade. Instant mass army with free troops popping on towns every few turns. Plus you can pick Capria who will have spiritual, letting you switch between the different government types as you see fit.
Once you've tried out all the different civs or found one you'd like to try out with more of a challenge switch to a bigger map on normal speed.

 

[Gigaz]

I recommend the Clan of Embers, especially with Sheelba. You needn't care about the Barbarians and their "mechanic" is simply to conquer everyone. Even if you fail to understand the equation "Orcs = mean, green guys", you would hardly loose with Sheelba if you'd just build cities.

 

[Airborne101st]

lol, that's just great no one recommended Sidar ah well better finish the game anyways

 

[Tasunke]

Sidar is fun to play on Diety difficulty level.

Play sidar the first time you play on Diety

 

[DooMeeR]

I would not recommend recommending a specific civilization just so you can win your first game. In my opinion, what's really great about FFH is the discovery of new mechanisms each and every game. Losing, winning, who cares?

So my advice is: pick the civilization you think looks or sounds cool. For instance, I'm sure you are already familiar with what elves are: dendrophiliac, long-eared crossdressers with longbows. If you like dendrophiliac long-eared crossdressers with longbows, then by all means start your next game as elves. They are quite different from other civilizations, but if you wanted to play as a "normal" civ, you would simply play BtS, right?

One advice in particular I think is terrible, is to take a barbarian civilization so that barbarians are not hostile. I think having to survive and fight the first couple of hundred turns through the hordes of barbarians is really, really fun. There could not be better motivation to understand the mechanisms of this new game you're discovering.

My first game I played the Amurites. I was actually disappointed because despite the raging barbarians option I did not really see any of them. This is because I started on a small island, easy to fogbust. Anyway, I had fun discovering the complexity of magic, for instance. Sure, I made a lot of silly mistakes such as not using religion at all. But I had fun anyway. Well, until I saw I could win and became bored with micromanagement and quit. My next game was also with Amurites, because I had learned so much in my previous game I wanted to try to put it into practise. I founded Runes of Kilmorph and I had great fun discovering how powerful religion was. Then I played as elves and had fun hugging trees. Then I played as elves again and was forced to start on a island with mostly desert tiles. This is GREAT: it gives you a really cool goal, namely terraform your island into a place suitable for dendrophiliac crossdressers.

To sum up. If your goal is to win, then sure, take a simpler civ. If your goal is to have fun, on the other hand, I would go as far as advising you to play your first game as: any civilization you think looks fun, monarch, raging barbarians, living world, more animals. Barbarian world if you want.

Of course if you never played vanilla or BtS that's a whole different story though.