Best faction for a beginner?

[Eukanuba]

I've been trying to get my friends into playing FA, and I've said to them that the best way to learn is to play through the Vanilla campaigns (to get used to the unit roles and basic dynamics) as UEF first.

The reason I think UEF is best for a beginner is because they are generally good all-rounders and their units look like what they're supposed to be. Do you agree that this is how I should be pitching it to potential new players, if not why not? What faction do you think a new player should start with and why?

[Iszh]

UEF was the faction for beginners. at the moment i would recommend seraphim. they are like uef allround just more easy. and uef for example needs a bit of knowledge like your destroyers dont have a good torpdo weapon etc. with sera nothing to think. they dont have a lot of units but all are effektive.

[Eukanuba]

How about recommending they play the Vanilla campaign first? Obviously the balance is massively different, but I think it's very useful as an introduction to the backstory and also to learn the unit roles. Or would a new player be best off jumping straight into AI Skirmish games?

I would say that the FA single-player campaign should probably not be played by anyone ever.

[Benoker]

How about playing a survival map, like black sun defence?
+ Multiplayer, you can play together, which is always more fun than playing alone
+ You can set the difficulty (needs a few experiments, just don't make it too easy)
+ You really need to master your economy to win
- Some turtling, but at some point in time you still need to go out of your base and kill stuff
- Ignores the early game with T1 units, as they are not useful in a survival map
- Always the same thing, it gets boring after a while

... and never tell them there is a x2 mod. Because that will really ruin their play style

[uberge3k]

Eukanuba, you're absolutely correct. UEF is a great starter faction for the reasons you outlined, and is exactly how I train new players as well.

[FunkOff]

Campaigns are great practice for newcomers because they gradually introduce new units and structures. If you complete the vanilla and FA campaigns, you'll have a strong grasp of all the underlying concepts and a basic idea what each unit and structure does.

Then start to play a few skirmish to familiarize yourself with changes to balance. Then start playing actual games. You'll still be newb, but you'll have enough foundational knowledge to learn quickly.