[PDF]

1. Having a steady ecomomy with surpluss enough to continually pump out leader class units, what is the best strategy here? I was pumping out priests and Smiths of Ulm, and other non-combat leaders from indipendants, and was getting overwealmed. Anyone have any tips or guildines on this? Is there a system to the madness? Should I setup provinces that are devoted to research, and provinces devoted to item production?

Don't build leaders just to fill the queues, build them to do stg :
Scouts/Spies => info gathering, instill unrest (for Ulm spies)
Smiths (mages more generally) => research, item constructions, rituals, accompany armies for support
Other => lead troops, you should have at least 20-30 troops per leader, troopless leaders (except very powerful ones) are rather useless. Overall indy commanders suck/are weaker than Ulm commanders anyway

2. Priests - What is the best way to utilize them? Should they command troops with every army? Should I make enough to have one praying in every province? With Ulm atleast, they are cheap enough that I can make one in every province with a temple, every turn.

Ulmish priests are crappy...level 2 priest only.
Their prayers can't increase much your dominions, Ulm has no sacred troops to bless, and they aren't good as support...
Make only a few of them, make them build temples and "counterpray" on border territories, possibly use them as support vs undead enemies.If you can manage to find good indy priests (amazons, druids..) use these rather than your own.

3. Magic is still a mystery to me. I have different magic types searching the land, but as Ulm, I primarily use only their melee oriented commanders to lead the armies. Any strategies here on how to utilize them. Not only that, but any tips in general on how to maximize efficency and potency when using Ulm?

Ulm is very straightforward in magic : its main magic strength is CONSTRUCTION : pump all your resarch on that, then built Earth boots when you have Cons2, then your Smiths have Earth3, so they can build a couple Dwarven Hammers to have a 50% gem cost reduction for all items.
Also on Cons5 you get the nice CW Horror summons, on Cons6 you can build Fire Lanterns for Research boost, etc...
Apart from that Evocation has nice offensive spells (Blade Wind...) and Enchantment has cool "buffs" too - get at least level 3 quickly in these. After that call's yours

4. Castles - What is the best guidlines to use when setting up a network? What kind of situations should I look for in determining a site? What situations should I avoid? This is assuming I have expanded and have a thriving economy and such. Is it wise to build a network of forts on the front line for defense and rely on my inner provences to recruit sodiers from?
Also, I had a couple of forts having 200 + resources, my home one had almost 300, even with a castle discovered in one right next to it (a site), and my next one I built was stuck at 62, even though no other castles were closer then 3 provinces away.

Your castles should be located either :
* in a defensive position to deny easy conquest by enemy
* and/or in a resource rich province with rich neighbors you control : a castle allows for adding its Admin% of all the neighboring provinces resource.
That's surely why you get 200+resources in one case and only 60 in another- it was put on a poor province...

5. Armies - Can anyone give an example, playing as Ulm, what their favorite Army Groups looked like....especially what commanders they used, what squads they assigned to them, and what if any Items or gems they made sure they had. Having only played 2 games so far, I am sure I could be making a more effective Armies.

Well, at least I can tell you how I organize my Ulmish armies ! My Groups are of 20-30 units if possible.
Basic :
Ulmish Commander + "light" Pikeneers (those in chaimail) + some Guardians (for morale boost)
This group deals with light enemies (indies), and can soften any other (first strike)
Ulmish Commander + "heavy" Axemen (plate) + some Guardians
This guys wreak havoc on heavies...
Support
Commander + Crossbowmen . The crossbowman should be put on a wing, so they don't kill too much your own troops...
Indy Cdr+Archers/longbowmen . Can be useful and is resource cheap
Black Knight wing - 10-12 of them, on a wing, set to strike rear, can do tremendous damage, but are soooo expensive ...
Add a couple Smiths w/bodyguards (any Inf)
That's it for a start! Then you get summons, it's a different story
Items : there's so much of them ...some nice early combat items : Elem Armor, Charcoal Shield, Fire sword , Bracers of defense. For Smiths you have Earth Boots and the girdle that reinvigorates (don't remember the name)

6. I was planning to start a new game because I chose only 2 AI for a HUGE map. What is an ideal setup for a fun game? You can waste a lot of time before you realize you nerfed the game.

Try a 80-100 provinces map, with 10-12 provinces per nation (so 7-9 players). Those games are nice : 20 turns inital expansion, then nations start to clash with just "a little" magic support, by turn 40 the war is in full swing ...

And you know, I kind'a like Ulm too ...

[ January 12, 2004, 12:08: Message edited by: PDF ]