[Xietor]

I gave all melee heroes a summons and a ranged weapon. There was no special reason the Blood-Cursed Champion got a Bow of War. Mictlan stinks, and i wanted a weapon that fired 13 arrows!

The Black Duke of Ulm idea was a commander from Arralen's Black Steel Ulm mod. Though i made some radical changes to him, i liked the name, the sprite, and the fact he summoned-all of which were borrowed from Arralen(with his permission).

But i created the Black Order Soldier he summons,added the forge ability, the magical steed, and because Ulm suffers from a horrific mr penalty, decided to give the "Black" Duke of Ulm a reason to be black. Obviously Arralen intended him to be black named after his black plate he wears. Since I wanted to make the Black Duke of Ulm formidable enough that Ulm became a valid mp choice, I added the 2d to him.

With the Black Duke of Ulm, Ulm gains:

1. access to death magic
2. a well equipped thug hero
3. black order soldiers-the best make units of any hero.
There are better strong dominion summons, but they are hard to amass, and will not come at all unless the dominion is strong.

Beowulf, Black Duke, and the other melee heroes can make troops in any dominion, and you know what you are getting each turn. Some of the stronger nations with melee heroes, do not get a very good make unit ability.

Ctis, Caelum, arcos. all have melee heroes, but the units they can make on a per turn basis are not nearly as good as the Black Duke. Though i changed the yeti from wingless to something more thematic. He is a creature of the wild, there was no thematic tie-in for him to make wingless.

So in the next version you will see something-different. More thematic.

4. great forge bonus-including a modification to all ulm units wearing full plate of ulm

In short, MA Ulm needed a reason for more people to play them-the Black Duke of Ulm is that reason.