Quote:
MaxWilson said:
That's why Helheim and Niefelheim are 5s in the early game. There really aren't many normal troops that can stand up to them at all--you NEED mages to fight them.
Ulm's forge bonus is a 33% boost in gem production relative to just hammers. That's non-negligible, but considering how little their mages can actually forge it seems more a midgame issue to me than a true lategame strategy. By the time people are throwing around Tartarians and Seraphs, how much does it really matter that Ulm can forge Earth Boots for 5 gems instead of 7? The lack of high-level mages and poor Astral/Death, unmitigated by access to good thug chassises, seems to me a serious weakness.
Not that that has to stop Ulm. As noted several times elsewhere (including by yourself), the endgame ratings are iffy anyway because there's a good chance you can diversify your magic with indies or your pretender.
-Max
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Well let me put it this way, if Marverni rates a 4 in troops, what could possibly rate a 1? I agree that helhiem and niefelhiem are in their own tier, but there is a whole range underneath them, largely revolving around the power of their sacred troops.
As far as the late game rating, the reason why for the most part I would not put much stock in it specifically because access to high astral/death is the sort of thing easily fixed by anyone. An additional 25% forge bonus (stacked with hammers and maybe even forge of ancients) on the other hand is one the very few things a nation can off that can't be reproduced. And it's hardly just earth boots, those smiths can get to probably half the most important bits of SC equpment- fire shields, marble armor, frost brands, boots of flying, resistance rings (also very important to protect against flames from the sky), etc. Anyway, my point was less how outstanding they are later, but just that they hardly go down hill.