Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

Ulm cannot have a Rainbow pretender, unless you want to be conquered by someone having an SC Pretender, or a general SC ...

Regular Ulmish troops lack of the strenght for dealing with a VQ or a Titan or something else with the right equip and buffs.

Admitted this, Ulm cannot rely on magic too for summons and other things.
Ulm now is doomed to death in all MP games not in ultra-small maps.

Bless lose efficiency too in mid late game.
Ulm needs, bot IF and default, of better troops ...

Think on, 12 Black Knights losed against 12 Fiends of Darkness ... the most elite a default Ulm can afford against a basic blood summon of Mictlan.
And when I've to face Devils? Or bigger summons? I've to go AI directly?

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

Just because you can't have a rainbow doesn't mean you can have a pretender with 3 good paths. Which is more than enough to get you where you need to go. IF uses this advantage by being able to forge their own bonus items with a little help.

Common Pretender for IF is a PoD with at least 4D and another magic or two based on desire. It's not easy or simplistic, but certainly not doomed in any sense of the word. I've won a couple of games using base Ulm and IF Ulm with such games and it was because of their forge ability that I did.

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

I though that IF Ulm could forge Ring of Lighting easily once they have the gem income, and same goes for Lead Shield and even Antimagic Amulet, IIRC right - and even those are only needed against nations who have Air/Astral. Well, I think Nature has sleep too, but in the early game mr isn't that important and later there are lots of items that help. And in their own dominion the drain would give black templars one more mr automatically.

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can't use clockwork horrors and mechanical men?

[quote]Think on, 12 Black Knights losed against 12 Fiends of Darkness ... the most elite a default Ulm can afford against a basic blood summon of Mictlan.[/QUOTE}

Where were your bladewind casting smiths? Fiends of darkness have little protection, so bladewind chews them up.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Make your own devils. Soul contracts pay off for Ulm in just 6 turns.

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Make your own devils. Soul contracts pay off for Ulm in just 6 turns. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">125 blood slaves just to get a smith up to Blood 3 plus the slaves for a blood thorn and a brazen vessel is a pretty large investment for a nation that's going to have trouble getting a better searcher than a scout (a sage with a sanguine dousing rod is probably your best bet). But if you start early enough it's a very good investment and you'll probably want some blood magic forged items anyway.

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

Black Priests really should be drain immune. The fact that they aren't is really a kick in the nuts. It's great to be able to forge research bonus items for cheap, but:

1. You don't actually have the gems to make a skull mentor, or anything else, because you only start with earth gems.
2. Even if you did have the gems to make a skull mentor cheap, you still couldn't make one at all, because you don't have anyone with death 2.
3. You have to actually get to Construction 2 before you can make any research bonuses at all - at which point you'll need to have solved the research problem by some other means or it doesn't matter.

---

So yes, the Black Priests should be Drain Immune. Ulm is just too slow when that isn't the case. On another side note, Black Acolytes should be Inquisitors. It says that they are Inquisitors right in their description, but they aren't. Also, they should be Drain Immune, since they are "allowed to use magic". It won't actually make any difference, since you probably are not going to empower them, but from a flavor perspective, that's an ability they should have.

-Frank

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

I'm kind of torn on the issue. On the one hand, it seems strange that IF should usually take less drain than base (by not being drain immune). But on the other hand, they would be much better magicly than base Ulm if they ignored drain, which obviously also would not fit.

The best option, IMO, would be to leave the magic alone and just boost the priests and sacred units.

Re: Iron Faith: Comments and Suggestions
 

They would be quite a bit better than base Ulm if they did ignore drain; after all, you already keep the forge bonus, most of the unit goodness, have stronger priests, add the Black Templars which are just -begging- for a good blessing, *and* increase magical versatility.