To Control
9x 0.5A-1.4A DC Motors
1x Nema 34
So far iv ordered
1x Half Size Breadboard + 78 Piece 22AWG Jumper Wire Bundle
1x USB cable - USB A to Micro-B - 3 foot long
1x Premium Male/Male Jumper Wires - 20 x 3" (75mm)
1x Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Shield - I2C interface
1x N-channel power MOSFET - 30V / 60A
1x 1N4001 Diode - 10 pack
An Uno should be able to control all of that and it is the best Arduino for starting out as most code and add-ons work with an Uno.
I'm a fairly new arduinite myself. So, I'll leave the board recommendations to the pros. But even with my limited experience, I can tell you 3" jumpers force you to cram all your components into a fairly small area. I would recommend getting a pack of the longer (8" or so) Male to Male jumper wires. You'll thank me later. And you may eventually want to upgrade to solid core wire. Much easier (IMO) to keep track of what wire is going where. The typical jumpers can end up looking like a bowl of spaghetti pretty quickly.