Yes, of course. But unless you have decent national mages you would be stuck at the beginning not knowing where and how to get more power for them. And you have to have a decent military, too. So it just seems that MA Ulm wasn't the best nation to start with in any case - you have to know how to utilize their forging abilities...
My own first Dominion death, by the way, had been when I tried to look up two nations simultaneously, had them started as neighbors by random placement and then got one accidentally Dom-killing the other (Titan vs Rainbow)...
Another nation that is good for beginners seems to be MA R'lyeh - at least that is what I've started in Dom2 with and it has good enough troops, is somewhat protected by being underwater and already has solid Astral and Water mages with smattering of other paths for future experimentation...
