Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

How do you guys do this "battle simulation" thing to evaluate the performance of your troops? I want to figure out which national units of Ulm I should recruit. Currently I'm thinking "all Templar Knights", or maybe "Templar Knights, Guardians, Arbalests". But maybe some Black Steel Shield Bearing Heavy Infantry is worth it. What do you Ulm masters think?

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Hrrrrrrrrm. Can you really afford that many Templar Knights?

(Templars? Must be Iron Faith. Their utility will depend on their blessing, so what's your pretender like?

Also depends on target/timeframe. Templars should stomp many indies, but if you're up against R'lyeh mindblasters quantity matters a lot, and against a lightning-hurlin' Caelum or Pythium you may need more Master Smiths researching summons, casting Rain of Stones or what-not.)

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

She also posted the calculations it did.

The simulator is still available, and it could be used to compare groups (militia vs hydra, flails+cavalry+morningstar vs pikemen+hammer+morningstar) but IIRC all the units could hit someone on each turn. This is only simulation, but very good at it.

From thread "Melee Power Rankings Chart":

Everything is one-on-one in the charts I listed. However, in Deathmatch mode, the battle ends when a unit dies, and in Gauntlet mode, the survivor keeps fighting a new unit over and over, in roughly 40 round blocks. You'll notice that soulless do MUCH better in Gauntlet mode, because they do not accumulate fatigue, so they eventually wear down a living unit until its attack and defense are also very low=)

New effects modeled: Glamour/Mirror Image and Decay. Most important effects not modeled: Heat, Chill, Ignition, Freezing, Shapeshifting, Wounding, Becoming Dismounted, Trample, Routing, Magic, and anything ranged.

Deathmatch:

Ulm Guardian ---------------- Wins: 69.3% Power: 1821 Overall: 3140
Ulm Inf Battleaxe 1 --------- Wins: 48.8% Power: 964 Overall: 1000
Ulm Inf Battleaxe 2 --------- Wins: 56.2% Power: 1204 Overall: 1594
Ulm Inf Flail 1 ------------- Wins: 58.2% Power: 1280 Overall: 1517
Ulm Inf Flail 2 ------------- Wins: 66.7% Power: 1670 Overall: 2888
Ulm Inf Hammer 1 ------------ Wins: 50.5% Power: 1016 Overall: 1432
Ulm Inf Hammer 2 ------------ Wins: 48.2% Power: 947 Overall: 1521
Ulm Inf Maul 1 -------------- Wins: 47.4% Power: 925 Overall: 892
Ulm Inf Maul 2 -------------- Wins: 55.8% Power: 1190 Overall: 1477
Ulm Inf Morningstar 1 ------- Wins: 54.7% Power: 1151 Overall: 1574
Ulm Inf Morningstar 2 ------- Wins: 54.6% Power: 1146 Overall: 1857
Ulm Pikeneer 1 -------------- Wins: 48.8% Power: 966 Overall: 960
Ulm Pikeneer 2 -------------- Wins: 56.8% Power: 1226 Overall: 1726
Ulm Black Knight ------------ Wins: 84.4% Power: 3545 Overall: 15878
Ulm Black Lord -------------- Wins: 87.3% Power: 4284 Overall: 20900
Ulm Commander Hammer 1 ------ Wins: 58.5% Power: 1288 Overall: 2190
Ulm Commander Hammer 2 ------ Wins: 57.0% Power: 1233 Overall: 2180
Ulm Commander Morningstar 1 - Wins: 61.2% Power: 1398 Overall: 2478
Ulm Commander Morningstar 2 - Wins: 61.8% Power: 1424 Overall: 2831
Ulm Crossbowman ------------- Wins: 36.0% Power: 642 Overall: 558
Ulm Lord Guardian ----------- Wins: 74.2% Power: 2180 Overall: 5279
Ulm Master Smith ------------ Wins: 30.5% Power: 526 Overall: 359
Ulm Sapper ------------------ Wins: 17.8% Power: 287 Overall: 195
Ulm Siege Engineer ---------- Wins: 4.2% Power: 65 Overall: 56






Gauntlet:
Ulm Guardian ---------------- Wins: 61.6% Power: 1416 Overall: 1334
Ulm Inf Battleaxe 1 --------- Wins: 47.5% Power: 927 Overall: 935
Ulm Inf Battleaxe 2 --------- Wins: 51.6% Power: 1049 Overall: 1033
Ulm Inf Flail 1 ------------- Wins: 55.4% Power: 1175 Overall: 1207
Ulm Inf Flail 2 ------------- Wins: 60.7% Power: 1378 Overall: 1373
Ulm Inf Hammer 1 ------------ Wins: 48.4% Power: 953 Overall: 949
Ulm Inf Hammer 2 ------------ Wins: 47.0% Power: 914 Overall: 922
Ulm Inf Maul 1 -------------- Wins: 46.5% Power: 900 Overall: 914
Ulm Inf Maul 2 -------------- Wins: 51.4% Power: 1042 Overall: 1041
Ulm Inf Morningstar 1 ------- Wins: 50.9% Power: 1028 Overall: 1025
Ulm Inf Morningstar 2 ------- Wins: 50.9% Power: 1026 Overall: 1022
Ulm Pikeneer 1 -------------- Wins: 47.9% Power: 938 Overall: 955
Ulm Pikeneer 2 -------------- Wins: 52.4% Power: 1074 Overall: 1064
Ulm Black Knight ------------ Wins: 75.9% Power: 2329 Overall: 2320
Ulm Black Lord -------------- Wins: 78.9% Power: 2654 Overall: 2628
Ulm Commander Hammer 1 ------ Wins: 53.7% Power: 1117 Overall: 1108
Ulm Commander Hammer 2 ------ Wins: 52.7% Power: 1083 Overall: 1076
Ulm Commander Morningstar 1 - Wins: 55.6% Power: 1182 Overall: 1169
Ulm Commander Morningstar 2 - Wins: 55.3% Power: 1171 Overall: 1152
Ulm Crossbowman ------------- Wins: 39.5% Power: 721 Overall: 768
Ulm Lord Guardian ----------- Wins: 65.7% Power: 1611 Overall: 1533
Ulm Master Smith ------------ Wins: 34.7% Power: 614 Overall: 673
Ulm Sapper ------------------ Wins: 23.6% Power: 391 Overall: 472
Ulm Siege Engineer ---------- Wins: 9.0% Power: 140 Overall: 220

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

I use the Ulm crossbow, which this last post undervalues, because it is melee ranking.

For the price, I would reccomend black plate flails and crossbows. Put them all in back and set the black plate on hold and attack against independents. Most independents run when slaughtered by arbalasts.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Yeah, these charts show that Black Plate Flails are significantly better than the other infantry.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

They get 2 attacks.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

I strongly recomend using good sized groups of crossbows guarded by small groups of black plate flails to take independent provinces.

Don't overlook the Lord Guardian, he is one of the best trained units (high base scores) you can recruit, and benefits greatly from equipment.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

I think all the units are good, and though best used in the right circumstances. Morningstar or hammer depends on whether the enemy has shields or not. Shielded or unshielded depends on whether the enemy has lots of missile weapons or not. Full plate versus chainmail depends on whether you have more time and resources and a strong enough army, or whether you have more gold and need to grow your army as quickly as possible.

Arbalests don't mix as well with heavy infantry as shortbows do, because shortbows generally don't hurt if you shoot your own men with them.

Templars are good if you have a good bless bonus. They're much cheaper to maintain than black knights.

PvK

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

This is a fun choice. If I thought I could win early on, maybe go for a high bless and stack up on templars and rush. If not, maybe I'd be better off with a rainbow so you can summon some magic users to make up for ulms lack. In which case black plate & arbalests might be more my style.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Clarification:

I send my commanders out in squads of around 51 units, for a full squad. 30-40 crossbows. 5-15 black knights/black plate flails. 1 well equipped commander either black lord or lord guardian. Set the crossbows in back on fire at whatever you need to kill (you can set them in multiple groups). Set the melee units on guard commander. Put the commander immediately in front of the crossbows on (hold)x5 attack closest. A squad like this can defeat most indies. I would be surprised if 2-3 squads couldn't take any normal indep. force even on independent 9. Casualties are rare, and commanders rack up lots of kills on LI (I had a black lord with 160 kills!).

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Templars cost 3 gold per turn upkeep whereas Black Knights cost 4 gold per turn upkeep, right? 90 / 30 vs 60 / 15.

Ulm is fun. :-)

I think I'll get a Fortified City.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Ya, I really enjoy playing Ulm against the AI. I work to build up a core of experienced troops, supported by other stuff. It takes a while to build up, though. Templars (or black knights) and black plate are both a lot slower to build up a large enough force, though, so I usually start with chain and shield troops, with some chain w/o shield troops behind them. Otherwise, it takes me too long to gather a large enough force to be confident enough of success. A small force in full plate can much more easily get tired, demoralized and overwhelmed, but that's much less likely to happen to a larger force in chainmail. So the knights, guardians, and black plate comes later for me, rather than at the start. I think Templars and black knights generally work best as a delayed flanking force than a main assault force, though maybe with enough blessings that might work...

PvK

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Yes, 3 gold vs 4 gold.

PvK

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

Versus militia, incidentally...

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
'18*Militia' versus '5*Ulm Inf Hammer 2' in 40000 bouts.

~ Attacker's Deathmatch Statistics ~

Score: ---------------------- 564
Wins: ----------------------- 56.49%
Losses: --------------------- 43.52%
Timeouts: ------------------- .01%
Kills per battle: ----------- 3.17
Kills per round: ------------ .25
Deaths per battle: ---------- 14.86
Life expectancy (rounds): --- 29.34
Life expectancy (battles): -- 2.26
Avg. Rounds Elapsed: -------- 12.99
Avg. Rounds to Win: --------- 13.86
Avg. Rounds to Lose: -------- 11.86
Hit Rate: ------------------- 82.97%
Evade Rate: ----------------- 39.59%
Repel Rate: ----------------- 59.00%
Damage done per swing: ------ .50
Damage done per hit: -------- .60
Damage taken per hit: ------- 14.10
Total damage taken per life: 16.89


C:\Projects\Java\Dominions&gt;java Fight 18*militia 5*ulm_inf_hammer_1

'18*Militia' versus '5*Ulm Inf Hammer 1' in 40000 bouts.

~ Attacker's Deathmatch Statistics ~

Score: ---------------------- 181
Wins: ----------------------- 18.16%
Losses: --------------------- 81.85%
Kills per battle: ----------- 1.48
Kills per round: ------------ .16
Deaths per battle: ---------- 17.02
Life expectancy (rounds): --- 11.30
Life expectancy (battles): -- 1.17
Avg. Rounds Elapsed: -------- 9.66
Avg. Rounds to Win: --------- 11.75
Avg. Rounds to Lose: -------- 9.20
Hit Rate: ------------------- 54.46%
Evade Rate: ----------------- 35.67%
Repel Rate: ----------------- 27.96%
Damage done per swing: ------ .41
Damage done per hit: -------- .75
Damage taken per hit: ------- 14.08
Total damage taken per life: 16.81
</pre><hr />

Against weak masses, Ulm's light units ("1" is full chain, "2" is full black plate) are much more effective than the heavy units. Militia can't really hurt either of them until they get tired, and heavy units tire faster. But in other situations (against jotuns and barbarians, or with magical reinvigoration, for example) the heavy units are probably better.

Re: Which Ulm national units should I recruit?
 

My empirical experience suggests that against Jotuns, the cheaper the better, and in fact, may as well use independent fodder. Dodging boulders is much more effective than blocking them. Giants do so much damage that Ulmish armor doesn't help much, and it doesn't make all that much damage whether it is chain or plate. However they do have to hit, and they do get fatigued and fearful over time, so the more high-defense (not high-prot) masses, the better.

PvK