[CUnknown]

Since I am the only one defending MA Ulm here (I am the one "Ulm is not underpowered" vote), let me go ahead and state my case.

First off, let me preface by saying that Ulm clearly isn't a top tier nation. I'd say they're somewhere in the middle, but since I am their top supporter apparently, the truth is that they are probably in the lower 50% in terms of power. But, is that a problem? I mean, -someone- has to be in the lower 50%. Are they -so- unbalanced that you just can't win with them against good players? Certainly not, I've won with them before, and I've come in 2nd place several times with MA Ulm (well, to be honest, it was Dom2 Ulm). 2nd place out of like 10 people is pretty dang good. By the logic of "Ulm is compelte crap!", you all would have to argue that I would have won those games with ease if I was playing Vanheim, say, which I don't think is the case.

Now about the specifics Burnsaber mentioned.

1a)Ulm's troops are slow, both tactically and map-move-wise.

It is a disadvantage, sure. Balanced races have disadvantages. Tactically, this is not even worth mentioning as a disadvantage -- your incredibly cheap pin-cushion units are getting pinned. So what? I think you guys view Ulm's units in a different light than I do. They're the toughest and cheapest cannon-fodder in the game, they don't kill much stuff without buffs (such as Weapons of Sharpness), their real function is to absorb damage cheaply. Ulmish warriors do not hope to come back alive, their only purpose is to die in your service!!

1b) AN attacks and MR negates attacks make their troops easily counterable.

See above. If you are speaking about Black Knights instead of standard troops, surely, there are counters available against them. Again... so what? Black Knights are a great mid-game unit, but towards the end-game I never build them. They have their moment of usefulness where they can really turn the tide of a battle. When the counters arrive, you stop building them.

1c)Arbalests make normally high-prot Ulmish troops vulnerable to friendly fire.

A minor side-effect to having the best missile troop in the game (with the possible exception of Jomon's longbows). Again, see the "Ulmish troops are there to die for you" comment above.

1d)Their high encumberance doesn't synergize with the high protection value since it diminishes the lasting power that high protection presents.

I am just repeating myself here. See above.

1e) Their troop selection (while allowing different weapon combinations) only consists of high resourcecost, highly armored troops, limiting army construction, and making their armies predictable.

Why would you build anything else besides heavily-armored troops when you have them available for 10 gold? If this is a comment on the lack of early-game expansion power of Ulm, I think that is greatly exaggerated. Buy mercenaries and independent troops and you will expand with the best of them. You are guarenteed to get just about all the mercenaries for the first 10 turns.

1f) Ulm's troops have average morale (expect for guardians and Black Knights) and few means to boost it (see argument 6), diminishing their lasting power in combat.

Yes, this is a problem that I would like to see addressed. But one generally of minor importance.

2) Their weak mages can't allow them to be succesfull in mid and late-game. They're also borderline old age.

Ulm's mages are great! They only cost 140 gold and they can all cast Blade Wind and Magma Eruption! What else is there? I'm being semi-serious, too! Weakness of their mages is not an issue, but lack of magic diversity is. Ulm's mages are very potent at what they do.

3) Their pretender design is limited by being "forced" to take Production:3

Yes, but you get Production-3! And you can take Drain-3 to pay for it without losing anything of significance.

4) Reliance on resource-heavy troops limits their early expansion since massing their troops early is difficult.

It's not at all difficult if you take Production-3. I think MA Ulm has an excellent early game, as long as we're just talking about indies here. A nearby human with a bless rush can ruin anyone's day.

5) Their forging ability is diminished by not having a reliable Thug/SC chassis and their low magic ablity doesn't allow them to summon one easily.

Black Lords are actually pretty good thugs. If you gave them a much better thug than that, Ulm would quickly catapult into a top or second-tier faction.

6) No sacreds and priests to speak of.

So don't take a bless, this isn't a problem.


Done with Burnsaber's list, now to add some of my own points.

1) Spies + Lots of early castles = good

2a) Forging. Give any other nation an undispelable Forge of the Ancients and see how good they are.

2b) Forging for other people. You can make serious bank by selling items as Ulm. Or you can get tight with an ally by doing the same thing. Despite people's distaste for this, it really is a great advantage.

2c) Empowering and forging Blood items. Other races might want to do this, but with Ulm you are silly if you -don't- do it, it's so good.

2d) Research ability. Lightless lanterns put Ulm as a good research race. I think people don't realize how good the boost from these items are, and how cheaply and quickly Ulm can forge huge numbers of them. Combined with the blood stones from 2c) and the large numbers of castles mentioned above, and you've got yourself the ingrediants for a good turtle race.

2e) Little commander zap wands. I love these things. Given that you are going to have a large number of commanders ferrying around the huge numbers of troops you make as Ulm, giving your guys flame wands is a fun game. Later, you can upgrade them to fireball wands or the Rods of the Phoenix which are very powerful.

2f) Artifacts. Get 'em all. You know you've got the construction magic before anyone else.

3) Arbelests. I just wanted to prove my assertion earlier that Arbelests are the best missile weapon. Here are the stats (assuming no random numbers and that every shot is a hit.. which is of course false, take this with a grain of salt):

Weapon -- DPR (Prot 10) -- DPR (Prot 12) -- DPR (Prot 16)

Shortbow -- 0 -- 0 -- 0
Longbow -- 3 -- 1 -- 0
Crossbow -- 2.5 -- 2 -- 1
Arbelest -- 3 -- 2.67 -- 2

Anything with a prot less than 10 can be killed easily by your hoards of indy shortbows. At 10, Longbows and Arbelests are equal in terms of DPR (damage per combat round). At protection 12, Arbelests are head and shoulders above Longbows, and higher than that it's just not comparable, Arbelests are the King.

Arbelests have an additional advantage in that they fire on the first turn (not the second or the third, for example) so that your damage is heavily front-loaded. Therefore, on any particular round of combat, arbelests will have done much more damage then they are "supposed" to have done.