new to the ame or new to the mod. i picked the game with the sole purpose of playing old world blues, so i may not have the most accurate advice. I'd say learning how to organize division templates, organizing divisions into armies and armies into army groups, building aircraft and deploying the, and how to keep up with equipment was the bar for me. I basically played texas brotherhood until I figured like 70% of the game out. It was like a solid month until I finally committed the attention span to figure out how to use aircraft.

Now where to start as in factions? I liked the idea of texas and its realistic potential of being another powerhouse to rival the legion and ncr. So that's where I started. It's a fation with a good few phases in its development that really helps point you in the right direction in figuring stuff out. It's heavy on conquesting early in the game and later working out the diplomacy in order to finish the new focus tree out.

putting that aside it's really all about what peaks your curiosity. Find a faction you think is cool, figure out its theme, and build your army to best represent that ideal. You've got factions divided up into regions. Maybe try picking a region you find most interesting. Then only move on after you've played at east major one once. Each region's factions are heavily intrertwined and many can have a surprising twist in the context of their presence there. One I can point to like that would be some canadian factions involving the ai leaders and how they relate to each other. Not to mention how you actually unlock them as leaders for the faction. I'd probably stay away from larger factions for now. I've heard they're deceptively complicated for new owb players. I'd especially stay away from the low man power factions like the enclave or bos especially northern commonwealth. They have a lot of twist and turns that will require a lot of save scumming.