[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

I don't think this is really realistic. Never mind the "only kill one dude each time" aspect, which kinda matters when their dudes kill dozens of yours at a time with Iron Darts/Blizzard ; but the baseline ulmish dude has MR12 (meaning you're already going to fail 1 times out of 2), and in any big battle it's a given that Ulm will use their battlefield-wide MR boost on top of that. It's not even that hard to research. That's 18 baseline, 19 in dominion. Yeah, you go ahead and Enslave Mind, dude, I'm sure those 3% chance to turn a single guy are going to turn the battle right around.
MR resist spells are just wasted on Rose Ulm, period. Spamming and hoping it sticks works statistically on lone SCs, but it's preposterous to suggest them as a workable solution on armies of 100+ guys at once.

Enslave mind has the useful aspect of then making Ulm kill their own unit, or it getting to do damage to them.

And if you hand out some penetration gear, your success rate will go up noticeably. Also, communion masters will have enhanced penetration. Its not an ideal counter, but when their army is only 80 strong even slipping 10 enslave minds through over the course of a battle is a substantial hit. Would not be the first thing i tried.

That would be one point where I reckon the mod is a bit OP, TBH. Either give them high nat MR, or give them easy ways to boost normal MR, but compounding the two just shuts down like 80% of offensive sorcery magic.

Because all the other magic i suggested that didn't involve MR is useless, clearly.

Also, I find that whole "well, if they're at research level 6 you should have more than that/fight them with tons of high level summons" bit of yours just silly.
Either their level 6 spells are balanced with other level 6 spells, or they're unbalanced. Either their level 3 spells are in line with other level 3 spells, or they're unbalanced. You don't get to make a pair of level 3 spells as good and easier to cast as a level 8 one with the rationale that "no but it's OK because really we'll get it at the same time guys !".

Their spells are balanced *for Ulm* at level 6. Ulm is going to have Drain scales. (If nothing else, their capital is going to be at Dr3 no matter what they do, because they have a capital site which increases Drain). Their best research mage provides *5RP* per turn, and their 5RP option outside the capital isn't even sacred. Pythium can *double* that before considering scales, and *all* its mages are sacred.

And then you have to consider that, outside the capital, to get a iron blizzard caster they have to hire a 3RP Black Priest instead of a Smith.

Ulm doesn't have such a particularly horrible research rate either, I don't even know why you seem to be operating on this assumption :
* it's filthy stinking rich from O3/P3 which the latest CBM made even more lucrative than ever. You're probably going to throw G3 in there as well, because why not. Its troops are relatively cheap, superbly cost-efficient and you won't have all that many of them anyway, certainly you don't need many to expand. So Ulm should have little trouble matching Man for architecture - it's trivially easy to have 3 castles either up or in construction by the end of year 1. Most other nations are happy when they get 2, and many also need to have temples in theirs while yours can wait.

There's no reason Pythium can't run as scales either. If you aren't running scales as Pythium, you should be getting other benefits to compensate - benefits you chose over having those scales.

* it has a forge bonus to make lightless lanterns by the cartload, and construction is one of their priorities anyhow

....And pythium can make lanterns and owl quills. I might note that MA Ulm has no native F income, and rarely gets better than F1 to enable site searching.

* it doesn't need mage slots for expansion and

No one does?

* it doesn't even need to divert that many mages from research for early or even midgame wars: One mage to drop the MR boost, one to drop the armour boost, maybe one back home to summon steel standards, you're good to go. Can the opposition hope to match or circumvent your force multiplication with just two mages of their own in the field ? At these rex levels ? Not bloody likely.

Fog Warriors would go a long way.

Heck, a pile of crossbows would go a long way.

Hell, in the Heroes of Slight & Tragic game you're in the upper middle of the pack research-wise, gaining faster than the other slowpokes, and you've been stuck with only 2 forts for most of the game ! (not to mention busy conquering one and a half of your neighbours)

Yeah, I don't understand that at all. Its inconceivable to me that I'm not trailing in research. I think the explanation is more in what everyone else is not doing, and less in what I'm doing. I've even had to commit substantial mage forces to combat. So something is weird in that game, and it has nothing to do with Ulm having a stellar research rate. (Seriously, i'm not even to Const 6 yet!)

Anyway, I would reasonably expect Pythium to have double Ulm's RP at *every stage of the game* given both positions are about equal otherwise.

The only reason i'm not a flattened pancake is because my aggressors found themselves attacked from other sides. I haven't been conquering anyone - i've been defending myself from aggression. Gained a whole 2 provinces relative to what i had initially. And 3 of my provinces have basically zero population thanks to Sylvania (including their capital and another province that had >10k people before).
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Anyway, Ulm's infantry are supposed to be able to be made ridiculously strong. *That's its endgame*. There are *piles* of answers to infantry.