What is the best pretender for Ulm?

[SCKnight]

Which pretender is the one for Ulm? I have always used the Virtue for Ulm in the Dominions 2 demo, and I have always given her mastery of astral and air magics. However, some people seem to go with the master alchemist and other pretenders. I need to know if I picked the right pretender.

[Shovah32]

There is no 'best pretender'. Some people go with an oracle with great scales, some with a cyclops(earth globals) or some other form of SC god to make use of ulms forging ability. My personal favourite is an awake/sleeping rainbow pretender with enough death magic to summon thugs(black servants, banelords, maybe even wraithlords) and forge items my smiths cant

(black servants with heavy armour, a charcoal/black steel shield, probably strength boosters and maybe antimagic amulet/lucky pendant from pretender make excellent early thugs/raiders)

[SCKnight]

Alright, then, what about my pretender who is skilled in astral and air magics. Since Ulm uses fire and earth magics, did I create a bad pretender?

[Die51]

My preferred Ulm Pretender:

Crone pretender, 3f 2a 2w 1e 3s 3d 2n. Scale: Order 3, Production 3, Heat 1, Drain 3, Dominion 4

Just fits my style best.

[Endoperez]

Master Smiths occassionally get Air or Astral randoms. Your pretender would probably have found few sites that would have generated gems, and depending on how much Air/Astral your Virtue had and how high you are in construction, you would get some magic-boosting items for your Smiths. S2 for Starshine Skullcap, Air 4 for Winged Helmet/Bag of Air... Even without Air boosters, Earth/Astral and Earth/Air item combinations can be very nice, and now you'd have the gems to use those.

Virtue is pretty expensive to take just for some magic in Air and Astral, though, because you'll have a hard time getting much use out of them. Astral 2 to 5 is enough for all forging purposes (and 4 is enough for mages with Head slot for Starshine Skullcap), and Air 4 gives you all major Air items I can think of. There are no Astral or Air spells in Construction that your virtue could cast, and very few useful things in Evocation or Conjuration. Enchantment, on the other hand, would allow you to protect your armies from lightning and give you access to Antimagic. There are only few Earth spells in Enchantment, but at least Enliven Statues can be used to great effect.

Most Ulm strategies rely on Conjuration 3 (Earth Power, +1 Earth for Master Smiths), Evocation for battles (Magma Bolts, Blade Wind, Magma Eruption, perhaps Rain of Stones, Gifts from Heaven, Phoenix Power/Falling Fires for the Smiths with randoms) and Construction for fancy items. Your Virtue won't fit this strategy, but as I said above, Enchantment-based strategy based on keeping your tough units alive might work.

[Jack_Trowell]

It's only a good or bad prenteder depending of wich use you want to make of him :

Sometimes you will want to use the same magic on your pretender as what you get on your national mages because you're sure to have a starting income of gems for those magics (moreover, your national mages will be able to search for more sites)

Other times you will instead prefer to use other magics, as you did, in order to eitheir get a good blessing, or get access to some spells/units or items not usually available to your nation : it will be harder to find air sites or cast air spells with only your pretender having air magic, but later in the game this might give you access for exemple to the Air Queens, that's 3 unique units that can make good SC (super combattants), and each one is a powerful air mage.

Astral has its uses too : akashic record can improve your gem income by finding all sites on your provinces, and some of the most powerful items are astral (ring of sorcery and ring of wizardry for exemple, but also the classic ring of luck, amulet of antimagic, ...)

Of course some pretenders will be easier to play that others, but whatever configuration you choose might be useful anyway (you could even have a pretender with no magic (or just its starting magic), and use the points to by a combattant prentender (a wyrm for exemple) and very good scales and/or dominion.

You will then be able to recruit (and maintain) easily very large national armies.

[SCKnight]

It was 6 for both Air and Astral. BTW, does having a magic drain domain affect my prophet and pretender?

[Endoperez]

Master Smiths can research without Drain malus. The ability is unique to them, and pretenders or prophets who don't start with it aren't immune to it. Master Alchemist might be immune to Drain, like Master Smiths.

[PDF]

I like an E9 Cyclops and good scales. He's a pretty tough SC and once he has racked up afflictions he can summon Living Statues by droves and/or cast all the big Earth globals.

Giving him a few "something else" (a couple Fire or Water) makes him more versatile but you may have to make it Dormant.

[HoneyBadger]

I like dormant Pretenders. You get 150 building points and only lose your first year-a year that you can spend building up your home province, building armies, researching spells, and building magic items. You aren't immediately in a big push to expand, and you can't do a whole lot that first year, even with a Pretender available, because you'd quickly overextend yourself when your nation is weakest. Another advantage is a year of contemplation about your nation, any special events, and your surrounding neighbors. Sometimes that's worth a whole lot too.