Alright, as I played with this more I can offer maybe a little more input (other than just the quick Counts).

Banishment should target the greatest chance of success. As of right now the Ghoul Guardians that people say are up the Gangi's without a paddle can be kept alive with even 9 MR by using the Vampires.

A Vampire Count with just an Amulet of Anti-magic will often outregenerate (and definitely out life drain) 4-5 banishments a turn from 3 Holy Priests (so I would guess they could resist 2 5 Holy Preists laying down the banishment). As the targeting is right now and with the Vampires Ability to fly, they can shotput to the rear (as close as they can get) or a flank and all banishments will target them while the Ghoul's close and mess up almost everything they find. Not to mention that with an Antimagic cast on them Ghouls resist (or have enough HP) Banishments greater than I expected.

Commanders are not an issue at all, since the best one you can recruit has 25 Leadership, you just use Indies since they are just as good and split your forces up into multiple commanders

The Rangers are like Longbowmen for Crossbows. They move 2, have good precision and are 12 gold, 8 resource. For an already resource rich Ulm you can make these by the metric ton. Also when fighting Independants you only need 1 (or possibly 2) Heavy Infantry in front and a crew of 20+ (240 Gold, 160 Resources) of the Rangers behind to mop up even Heavy Cav provinces (on Indep 6) and take minimal losses. Most rout before they ever get to look at the xbows.

In my just early tests I was able to get a Count on Turn 8 with Equipment (Construction 2, Enchantment 2) and have 8 Provinces 3 out of 5 games I played. The other 2 I placed a little off and only got 6 and 7 respectively.

Later in the game the Heavy Troops become more of a factor as you need 'mop up' crews. I haven't found the Zweihander to be very unique in this aspect (mostly because he is one slow motha).

[ January 14, 2004, 17:46: Message edited by: Zen ]