Re: LA Ulm - Undead Commander
 

more great stuff from calahan :)

While KO explicitly stated that the percents stack, it's always good to have experimental proof.

Re: LA Ulm - Undead Commander
 

I'm the sacred hydra wielder in this case, and those ghoul guardians are a nightmare. I thought I had it made against his E9 blessed templars, which were hammered by the hydras, but jazzepi pulled a blood marshal hero early, massed ghoul guardians and set to against my hydras. I didn't expect him to be able to field such large numbers of poison resistant troops so early. It gave him a strong edge for several turns, now its kind of a weird situation where that army kicks ***, but if I send my hydras anywhere else they have an easy job against Ulm's armies, whose high protection is largely irrelevant

I don't think an available recruitable undead commander is really necessary. As has been mentioned there are summons available, or a death pretender can be taken. Sacred hydras are a very particular threat with a lot of inherent risk, as poison resistance very very heavily neutralises the strategy, so they will typically only be very effective for early expansion (if not for that damn blood marshal! :( ). A specific unit for such a specific threat seems unwarranted to me. Anyways, a good undead leader is clearly available through luck, so the player can mitigate the risk through scale as well as pretender selection.

Re: LA Ulm - Undead Commander
 

Yes, this:

It makes a whole lot more sense to me that the guardians would have a leader unit than that they'd run around following some random fortune teller that can speak to the dead (and they're not mindless or anything.) Having to bust out summons or a pretender to lead your national troops is pretty lame, and I don't think Ulm is rocking its way to any OP awards.

Re: LA Ulm - Undead Commander
 

To me, the answer is simple, just look at the ghoul guardian description: "...In the ruined Keep, they still live and exercise their military code, ready to march if called by the Lord of Ulm. ..."
Exercising their military code would imply some sort of military structure, which would require commanders (that could lead them in battle). There's also the "...ready to march if called..." part, if they have no commanders of their own they clearly aren't ready to march anywhere.