Re: MA Ulm Pretender, because I'm crazy
 

Best. Sig. Ever.

Re: MA Ulm Pretender, because I'm crazy
 

Easiest is probably to download the latest version (from here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43949 ). There is a changelog in the beginning post that combined with the readme in the download should get you started.


There are quite a lot of vocal CBM-players here on the boards, so, as Fantomen said, it is a good idea to get familiar with it. Otherwise it can be hard to understand a lot of the posts here, as it is often not said explicitly if it is about CBM or vanilla (ie regular Dominions).


As for which version you use for MP, you should choose the one you prefer. There are enough vanilla games around to fill your day if you land on that side of the fence.

Re: MA Ulm Pretender, because I'm crazy
 

FYI, by default most MP games that start up here use CBM. Occasionally a vanilla game will start up, but these are generally quite explicitly declared to be vanilla. The general consensus is that CBM makes MP more enjoyable by doing a better job of balancing so that many more things are viable in a competitive environment. Vanilla has a large number of components which are significantly not cost effective compared to others so are never used by competitive players.

Re: MA Ulm Pretender, because I'm crazy
 

As does CBM, though they are different ones, to be sure. :p
Specifically for Ulm, though, CBM raises forge bonus of a Forge Lord to be 50%, so here you may want to try it. On the other hand, current CBM version effectively bans gem producing items, including the Earth one. And this is very important for Ulm in MP, especially as it is also one of the few Earth boosters... well, so it goes.
Also, I sometimes tried Luck/Turmoil for Ulm (of course, it may be counter to your vision of it). It's better not to go all-out for Turmoil, though. Luck gets you a number of various gems, which can be useful, though less so than in conjunction with Magic.
As for Dragon, it is definitely better with 9-10 Dominion, though this is not crucial - I once had quite a good position with a Dragon with Dom 5-7 iirc. However, such a build is usually aimed at getting a single high bless in a nation with relatively good sacreds, but not so good as to base an entire strategies on them. Dragon helps with expansion and switches to raiding and artillery support by midgame. This isn't so useful for MA Ulm. Though I wouldn't say it won't work. But Dominion shouldn't be as low as 4 - if nothing else, it will require you to make lots of priests and preach a lot and it's not as if you have lots of hold just lying around or your priests have nothing better to do. Plus, remember that if province doesn't have your Dominion, it gets no bonus from your scales...

Re: MA Ulm Pretender, because I'm crazy
 

My choice for MA Ulm pretender currently with CBM would be a Great Sage with rainbow paths (preferably with F3W2(and the rest at 1 or 2) so that you can craft a staff of elements later on with the help of RoW and other and a water or earth booster (plus the runic hammer for some penetration goodness) and the ability to cast Strands of Arcane Power. You'll want to research Evocation anyway for the Iron Blizzard, and you'll get SoAP up as a collateral thing. SoAP will accomplish two things:
1) More special sites (hopefully with varied mages)
2) You'll be even less of a prefered target for a mid-game war (although once people figure out you have Iron Darts (not to mention Iron Blizzard) tends to make them think twice if it is *really* worthwhile to attack Ulm)

Sure, one could say it depends lots on luck (that you will find some good sites with SoAP), but even if you found just some gem sites, it would still allow your Great Sage to utilise the rainbow paths.