[Mardagg]

[quote=Squirrelloid;724703][quote=Mardagg;724690]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

...

What do you do, blood hunt your capital?

That's an awful blood fountain build. Blood fountains need A2 or S3 for mobility reasons if its not being used merely as a bless chassis.

Its also a bad pretender build for LA Ulm longterm because you want S4+ (with a sufficiency of slots) so you can forge the astral rings. You want E so you have S+E to forge coins. And of course you need D3B3 so you can summon vamp counts at all. And as you correctly identified, N is useful to you. Sufficient F to make fire boosters isn't a terrible idea either, and also opens up fire arrows (which since your crossbows are your best troop option, is a really good idea).

Oh yeah, and you want that awake research boost so your research doesn't suck year 1.

You'd also like plausibly decent scales, since you need resources, cash for infrastructure/mages (who are winning no efficiency awards), and so on. Mg1 might help, but Dr2 would at least give you points *and* do something about your perenially weak MR. Of course, your research is *already* bad.

And given how weak Ulm is early, you wouldn't mind some SC help from your pretender. Of course, you aren't going to get that, D3B3, and satisfy your magic diversity needs all at the same time.



Sure. Have you ever heard of an excess of weaknesses? Its exactly what I indicted Eriu for - like Eriu, LA Ulm needs too many things out of its pretender to reasonably get it all.

I dunno, forge flaming skulls so they can Phoenix Power into Flaming Arrows sounds pretty good. Not that you live that long.

Of course, lightless lanterns require that you somehow miraculously made it to Constr 6. Since you probably die early year 2, I am not enthused. Further, weren't we researching iron storm to survive into the midgame?

I read 'they have blood and death, how can they possibly be bad'. Note that neither of these are especially good as early game paths. And they're competing against the best blood nations in the game (Mictlan, Abysia) for the unique blood summons, a competition they lose by lightyards. They're competing against everyone else for the Chalice or GoH, which they also lose because their research sucks. So despite having D+B access they don't actually get to use the good B stuff and can't heal their tarts making tart-farming inefficient. (Also, they have no good tart casters - so they have to spend yet more gems on casters who can plausibly tart summon). If they were an MA nation, they might be a plausible blood power. In LA they're just another might-have-been that never makes it.

Jarkko's 'conventional troops' comment is hilarious, because their conventional troops just die against most opponents. Heck, they have trouble expanding vs. typical LA indies with a lot of their troop line-up. And that's before you even consider the pitifully weak MR. And as if your troops being individually worse than most of the opposition you'll face wasn't bad enough, you're also perpetually outnumbered because you pay so much in resources for the privilege of hiring crappy troops. LA Ulm is one of the easiest nations to rush in the game, bar none. I'd class them as easier to rush than Machaka. (If they do survive, their longterm prospects are better... but they always get rushed).

I have played LA Ulm. It was a disappointing experience. Crossbows aren't very good when your line troops just disintegrate after 2-3 rounds of melee, and did almost no damage while there.

Would you like Wraithlord to also wax poetic about the utter suckitude of these nations, since he agreed with most of my list?

For the record,i would like Wraithlord to also wax poetic about these nations.
Maybe thats someone,that actually is more openminded.

I dont need mobility since i indeed blood hunt my capital given the fact that i get plenty of 0 upkeep chaff troops to patrol it and i want my blood counts being summoned as early as possible.
After all,you got a pretty good allrounder as a summonable right from the start there without the need to research anything in blood for quite some time.
Do you see the synergy here?
I dont took S since u can get S3 with your S2B1 mages via random,its v advisable anyways to build a lot of these guys.
acces to crystal coin+starshine cap is easily.I agree though,that that is the weak spot.you may have to empower 1 S2 mage to S3 in order to repeately being able to forge the rings.
My build allows pretty decent scales with DOm 6.
I might go for O3P2G2L-1C3M1.
Luck -1 is ok imo due to fortune tellers.
As i stated,i consider the 0 enc Ghoul guardian which is insanely massable as ULm with Prod scale to be vv strong troops early-midgame.U counter all bless rushed with that and together with Rangers,they are v powerful with decent MR right from the start.+ they make great underwater units when lead by undead commander with Manual of Water breathing,since the enc penalty is ignored.
I repeat,i dont think ULM is weak in early game,just in early research.If you can come up with solutions here,Ulm is great.
How can u say that Ulm is easily rushable,when everyone knows that the ghould guardians counter most rush options?
I assume u never did build these guys.
Put in antimagic and/or tempering the will and they got v good MR,too.
U played it wrong.
Its that easy.