*Oumaji*

The Oumaji are the Dessert Nomad/Arabian/North-African themed tribe, and are a good choice for the first time player. Starting the game with the Riding tech gives them a fantastic edge in the early game, which thier opponents often cannot overcome as the game progresses. Because they begin with the ability to explore rapidly and use the deadly 'rider caricol' tactic they can both expand quickly and attack efficiently. Beware however! If you do not use your starting 5 stars to buy a tech that will let you grow your cities, or, (in a way worse,) buy the wrong one, you may never be able to recover as your rapid expansion will also make each tech more expensive! The desserts of the Oumaji are generally mineral poor, have few forests but almost all of which have zebra to hunt, and their cactus like fruit is the most common type of harvest-able resource early on. All of this of course is a generalization: learn the conditions in your own unique game before jumping into a research choice! (The Oumaji capitol is also rarely costal, for whatever that's worth...)

(For the Oumaji choosing to take workshops instead of explorers when a city first expands is the sounder choice by far, as their zebra riding cavalry will explore quite a bit faster than most other tribes early on and the explorer is a one time use while the workshop is forever. Also note that vilages are often further appart in the dessert than most areas, meaning chosing border expansion over population growth when a city grows for the third time is almost always the better choice. (Though, honestly, both of those are really just generaly sound advice...) Interestingly, the Oumaji rarely choose border growth if under AI control...)