[CUnknown]

Schmoe--

I'm the one playing Ulm in our game, not SlyFrog. No, I wouldn't complain about being weak, but I'm not exactly sure if I'm the strongest. Abyssia seems pretty scary to me. Man is pretty powerful, too!

SlyFrog--

I've refined my Ulm strategy a bit since we started that game (in which you were Jotunheim), but it's mostly still the same. I make no claims to being an expert at this game (of course), but I think I can give some advice on Ulm. Here is my strategy:

Rainbow pretender (for searching, forging all those cool items the smiths can't). I took the Great Enchantress to get astral income, so I can more easily make clams to get more astral to have item-forging flexibility.

Scales: Order 2, Production 3, Misfortune 2, Drain 3. This means I have a -ton- of cash, especially in the beginning. As Ulm, you can hire every mercenary available and just crush anything close to you in the beginning. Ulm has got to be the strongest faction early on.

Castle: Fortified city. I know people would doubt that choice since they're so expensive, but with this combo, you get the best production possible in the game. Making black plates even relatively early on is no problem. Crank those suckers out. And with all your money, making another city isn't too terribly hard. Although you could always go with the Castle and make another one earlier on.

Commanders: I forge items like mad and equip all my commanders (including even some items for my priests). I love those barbarian commanders, they're cheap and they kick *** once properly equipped.

Magic: Independent mages are important, but those smiths can lay some serious smack down just by themselves. Blade wind, magma bolts.. Also the unit pumping spells like legions of steel and strength of giants can really help. Suddenly your units all have 14 str and 23-27 protection.

I'm not sure how all of this will work in the late game, but it seems to do great from the beginning to the midgame.