Mod: MA Ulm : \

[Arralen]

Here you find the latest version of the "Black Steel of Ulm" mod for Dom3 :

Did some more balance testing and bugfixing - here's the latest version:

Black Steel of Ulm D3 v2.2


Scroll down to my latest post for the readme.txt.

(sry, forgot to activate html for this post, and everything else doesn't work out that well, with "code" tag broken and all)

[DrPraetorious]

After a brief experiment, I think I can say at least that this mod *isn't unbalancing*. To put it another way - I didn't think that Ulm's military was particularly too weak, but I don't think this mod makes them too strong, so, fine.

Would you mind if it were packaged into a larger mod?

[Xietor]

I have it loaded and have looked at it. At 1st blush it looks fantastic. Black Duke of Ulm looks like a great commander, and I like everything about it just from loading it up and reviewing the units.

Good job! raising the mr was necessary imho to make Ulm a viable race. It was no fun watching your black knights and black lords be crushed by smites, especially in a dominion with a magic scale.

Looks very very cool.

[Xietor]

The very 1st black duke of Ulm i recruit has old age(:

Take away his conscript ability, his standard, and do not make him borderline old age.

I really think Ulm needs a good thug. Maybe incorporate Endoperez' warlord with some mr and added movement.

Doubt i would ever use a 200 gold melee commander who was old. I would just stick with the vanilla black lord(now a count). The extra command is nice, but with a couple of
stars, the black lord can lead all the men he needs.

Why waste your time getting an old melee hero into the hall of fame when he is going to get afflictions? you wouldn't.

It is still a good mod, but i am disappointed that the unit i thought would make a good thug, will not. But i actually do not think any melee units should be near old age, so i have issues with the game's version of ermor as well.

I think 5 units a turn conscript is a bit much. These are not chaff units like militia. Making the guy old that does the summoning does not make up for a race getting 5 free high resource units a turn. If you bought 2 of the dukes early on and had them conscript the whole game, you would have quite an army there.

[Arralen]

Thanks for the kind words and all ;-)
Some remarks and ..

.. questions:
- what kind of pretender / settings did you use?
- did you have any trouble keeping your dominion up; how many monks did you use for preaching?
- did you get any hero during the test?
- did you ever use a captain for recruiting milita?
- did you use the sergeants as squad leaders (thugs with bodyguards)?

Black Duke
Actually, this is a new unit (#newmonster) without any age set.
Obviously the game itself decides that a human unit with those stats (and name ? ) must be quite old.
I think I'll set the startage to ~37, though.

Conscripting 5 milita per turn might be a bit much - I think I'll change that down to 3 or 4 (the duke costs 13,3 gold upkeep per turn, so it's still pretty cheap).

Warlord
Just play on, and be surprised
Unless you play with misfortune-2 or more, that is...

Incorporating in a big mod
I would not be that fond of this, because
a) Black Steel of Ulm isn't finished
b) I'm working on /planning a 'complete mod' anyway, where Black Steel will be a part of.
That said - there's little I could do to stop you from borrowing everything you wish, anyway, therefore go forth and do what you like - would be nice to see my name mentioned in the readme/credits somewhere, though

[Xietor]

Let us know when you modify the Duke's age, so i can update the mod.

Thanks!

[Arralen]

v2.1 attached at the top !!

Mostly bugfixes only ...

[Quitschi]

ALthough a chain mail is useful at protecting the wielder from cuts and stabs, wouldn't a heavy blow from a war hammer or a mace ram all those little rings right throught the underlayer into ones skin?

[Baneslave]

Well, I think heavy blow from a war hammer will break bones and stuff with blunt force alone. It is pretty same thing with heavy two-handed sword too, it can break bones without piercing chain mail itself.

Of course if you wield chain mail you also wield something under it, so those little metal rings don't get forced to your skin so easily.

[Saulot]

As someone who knits maille for fun, I feel I have to speak up in a discussion about it.
Maille is highly effective against slashing weapons, moderately effective against broad/slow thrusting weapons like spears or daggers, lightly effective against blunt weapons, and ineffective (*and possibly harmful) against ranged piercing weapons.
To understand why, one should examine how maille protects a user. It would usually consist of about 40** pounds of a coif and hauberk, and various other assorted pieces. It consists of one ring, connected to four other rings, this allows it to be both flexible, and to distribute shock through overlapping rings. Mass, gained by the weight of the armor itself, also assists in the absorbing some impact.

So to answer your question, would a warhammer or mace simply ram through the armor? No, probably not. Would it fragment some rings, probably yes. Would the armor prevent a broken bone? Probably not.

You see, maille was worn over several multiple layers of cloth or untreated leather, to create a buffer zone between the maille and the user's skin. This would catch most fragmenting rings that move inward, and most fragmenting rings would actually fly off and away from the armor. Medieval physicians (even in Roman times) could actually mend and set bones with some skill. What the maille would do is prevent infection from significant skin loss/cut, and the medieval physicians did little against that.

* - I recall reading some information from a historical document about how an arrow shot from a longbow when through a shield, through plate armor on the leg, maille armor underneath that, the leg itself, the other side of maille and plate armor, the saddle, and the horse itself. In cases similar to this one, one can assume that there will be some minor mail fragmentation, but it's likely that it will go deep inside a wound.

** - A maille shirt can weigh as little as 20 pounds, depending on how long it is (how far down it reaches). It must be noted that most professional/wealthy soldiers actually wore two layers of maille.

Edit:
Oh, and in terms of Dominions, it wouldn't be totally unrealistic to make warhammers/mauls and similar weapons do AP damage (since most of the damage is impact/shock/bonebreaking ) . So a maul for example, could instead of doing 9 damage, would do 3 ap damage.
Just a thought.