> Have you ever played a lich?
No. I do not play male pretenders, and the Lich Queen loses 40% hps, 3 protection, 3 attack, and 3 strenght, compared to the Lich, and gets 2 Dominion for it. But even the lich itself is hugely underpowered. It is vulnerable to fire, and is both an undead and a construct, which makes it useless in middle-late game as a combatant. Immortality in my book is mostly a crutch for weak players - sure it is useful in the initial expansion, but I have never lost a pretender in the initial expansion. The lich does not fly, it is not etherial, its paths are relatively expensive for a low power combatant... Basically, it has nothing to recommend it.
> Do they need to be un-nerfed from oblivion?
Oh, yes, please! For starters they should be cheapers, in base cost as well as path cost.
> The VQ was nerfed with the lich in mind.
Well, if you want to balance pretenders with the lich in mind...
Nevermind, keep going, nothing to see here, forget I said anything...
> GK is not immortal. Immortals are difficult to evaluate as the immediate use of immortality might not be apparent (perhaps if you are flying).
Immortality has two benefits for the good player. Recuperation and willingness to fight to the death in friendly domain. The first is a major benefit, but the undead are poor middle game combatants anyway, so it applies less to them. The second is only important if you are supporting your pretender with troops. But if you are fighting in your domain, you are either in trouble (because you are defending) or the other player is weaker than you (because he could not maintain his domain when he knew he was against an immortal)
> > By the way, I have not seen Black Forest Ulm much lately, either. The VQ was a way to make them half-way viable.
> Half-way viable? I thought they were considered one of the most powerful nations by some players at a time.
That must have been before my time. I was fully indoctrinated over the Summer vacation. By then BF Ulm was labeled as limited in late game, too dependant on indies, and 'a few tricks pony'. Not as bad as the other Ulms, which are completely useless, but bad.
> I never got the impression that the VQ was the main reason for this.
I don't know, using a VQ with Black Forest felt right. Now, it's impossible.
> But you are right, there is not much talk about BF Ulm anymore (in either direction, wich perhaps means that it is balanced ).
Or maybe that it lost its charm, and no one bothers with it?