Re: ulm black forest
 

ASCII is a way of saving/encoding/keeping track of the letters of the alphabet, both big and small. ASCII and its predecessors are needed to make writing possible. Roguelike games, like Adom or Dungeon Crawl mentioned in the Newbie's First Impressions thread, use ASCII instead of graphics. Player character is presented by @, orc might be o, ogre O, dragon D, Demons in Crawl are presented by numbers 9-through-1 with smaller being more powerful, etc.

Re: ulm black forest
 

I often send my wolves to attack archers...especially if I'm facing crossbows. Wolves tend to die fast but they at least keep the crossbows from firing a few turns it can help.

Re: ulm black forest
 

I'm going to disagree that Sanguine Heratage is necessary or even desireable for BF. By the time you can get Counts, what are they going to do, exactly? They need a lot of equipment if you want to use them as thugs, so you risk all that equipment even if you only use them in your own dominion. As mages, they aren't especially useful.

Re: ulm black forest
 

Hordes of vampires led by Counts seems to be a common trick.

Re: ulm black forest
 

In the early game, being even somewhat tough, immortal and flying would be a big bonus. I'm not sure if they are ethereal, but almost any weapon/weaopn+shield should be enough, and their fear won't hurt... And there is always the chance of finding Bowl of the Lost of a Demon Gate.

Re: ulm black forest
 

Yes, they are ethereal. Their usefulness is also dependent on research difficulty. Hard or very hard research means that vampire counts come in real handy for BF Ulm. All they need is a few blood hunters and you can get a VC about every two or three turns.

Edi