Ulm beefed up ...

[Sandman]

Why would one ever buy this? It is a bad researcher (3 points), cannot cast any useful battle spells (65 gp for 4-5 Iron Wills/battle is not useful IMO), cannot forge any useful items... Master Smiths are what Ulm has. They are cheap, and moderate researchers when one remembers that you get 120 free points from their drain immunity.

It's a more efficient researcher than the Master Smith; 1 RP for 22 gold, versus 1 RP for 28 gold on the Master Smith. Note that the Sage is 1 RP for 20 gold for Ulm (unless you try putting them where your dominion is weak).

The apprentice can forge one item which I consider useful; the Girdle of Might (+3 strength, +3 reinvigoration) for only 3 earth gems. There are a few other semi-useful items at earth-1, Boots of the Behemoth being one example.

And yes, the apprentice is pretty limited on the battlefield. So are lots of other low-level national mages. Their main role is supporting the Master Smiths via research and simple forges. The Master Smiths are then free to perform more important stuff; complex forges, summons, site-searching and combat.

No! With "low Earth" this would take away Ulm's specialty, drain-immune mages - and Ulm would get nothing out of it! Ulm's Master Smiths already are immune, and Ulm would have to find independents to make this useful. Other nations, OTOH, would be able to make Drain-protected Vanir, Mystics, Sea Kings...

Fair enough. I can't really see any other nation being very competitive if they were employing a drain scale and drain stones strategy, though. I mean, is it worth taking max drain as Vanheim or Arco now, and making up the difference with Owl Quills?

But I'm happy to drop this one. It can't be modded anyway.

I agree that some kind of a bonus would be appopriate. Just making it magic weapon able to harm ethereal opponents could do, I think, but extra damage against magical creatures would be very powerfull. I don't know if it would be too much. Is it possible to mod Moon Blade-like extra damage for magical units?

I don't think that it is... I'll just go with the ability to hit ethereal stuff.

But then, both are known for their high power in ways of magic. Ulm, the nation with as little magic as possible, with higher-than-normal magical resources? Thanks, but no thanks.

Hmm, that's true. But then again, the Forges of Ulm are, well, forges. And Ulm is known for forging stuff.

I may try enacting some of these changes via a mod. I'll probably use the Black Acolyte (useless unit) as the graphical base for the Apprentice Smith.

[Arralen]

It's Heavy Inf and Knights is (nearly) all that Ulm has, troops-wise, that is. Now, if I compare those troops to other nations (esp. those which came into the game later) heavy troops, it's clear that Ulms troops quite suck compared to other nations heavy infantry !:

- They don't have +2HP (as it may have been intended), but only +1HP compared with other HI. And 11 or 12 does not make that much of a difference.

- They are 10 gold - ATT/DEF 10 troops. Arco Hoplite costs 10, has ATT/DEF 11 (gold shouldn't be a prob with Ulm, though)

- Add to this the fact that all of their weapons have negative DEF modifiers ..

- They are supposed to be bigger .. but maybe they should train their strength, too (10 vs 11 of the Hoplite)..

- Moral is only 10 vs 11-12 on the others. Add the fact that Ulm does not get Holy-3 priests and therefore cannot cast "sermon of courage" ..

##############################################
Ulm Infantry
HP 12 STR 10
ATT 10 DEF 10
MOR 10 MR 9
ENC 3 MOV 1/7

Hammer 7/0/-1/1 / Morning Star 6/1/-2/2
Full Chain Mail 14/-3/3
Tower Shield 3/4/2

10 gold 23 ress
---------------------------

Ulm Black Plate Inf
HP 12 STR 10
ATT 10 DEF 10
MOR 10 MR 9
ENC 3 MOV 1/5

Hammer 7/0/-1/1
Full Plate o'Ulm 18/-5/5
Tower Shield 3/4/2

10 gold 36 ress
==============================

Pyhtium Principe
HP 11 STR 10
ATT 11 DEF 11
MOR 12 MR 10
ENC 3 MOV 2/8

Short Sword 5/0/1/1
Lorica 10/-1/2
Tower Shield 3/4/2

15 gold 19 ress
---------------------------

Machaka Hoplite
HP 11 STR 10
ATT 11 DEF 11
MOR 11 MR 10
ENC 2 MOV 1/12

Machaka Spear 5/-1/-1/5
Plate Hauberk 14/-2/4
Great Hide Shield 2/4/1

12 gold 24 ress
----------------------------

Arco Hoplite

HP 11 STR 11
ATT 11 DEF 11
MOR 12 MR 10
ENC 3 Mov 1/7

Long Spear 3/0/-1/5
Plate Hauberk 14/-2/4
Round Shield 3/2/1

10 gold 28 ress
-----------------------------

[Morkilus]

Hmm and here I thought I was playing with tough little soldiers... Well since I only play SP so far, I suppose it doesn't matter. So is this thread only about the Iron Faith and default Ulm nations? I seem to be enjoying the Black Forest option, since I can diversify quite nicely with all the astral magic available. Trouble is, with the low luck scale my pretender keeps getting more and more cripples; to the point where he was completely blinded. Ooo scary, a blind Manticore.

The good part about Ulm (i'm probably wrong) is that their troops have a low gold cost for their relative staying power on the field, right? As long as they can avoid massed crossbows, fireballs, and squidheads, they do alright for their low paycheck. Their average strength and HP seems like an oversight, however given their "flavor text".

[Graeme Dice]

Morkilus said:
Trouble is, with the low luck scale my pretender keeps getting more and more cripples; to the point where he was completely blinded. Ooo scary, a blind Manticore.

That's from getting damaged, not from the luck scale.

[Endoperez]

This does not fix balance problems, but might still be quite a nice upgrade for Ulm... Check the screenshot, and look at the crescents. Haven't looked better since Dom:PPP!

And yes, the horses' legs are strange. I'm not a wizard, just someone copypasting. If there's interest, I might elt you have this. I have had it for some time myself, and it does enchance the game, a little.

[PvK]

Nice, Endro!

[Arralen]

Ok folks, as no-one said anything about testing the mod and finding everything f*** up, I did a test game myself and handed Ulm over to the AI.
It squashed everything flat, my Tuatha incl. . But it had a very good start, and got lots of castles to conquer.
Yeah, if you give the AI castles to conquer (it still can't build them by itself), you'll get some decent army from the AI, not only a bunch of LI ... here's a screenshot from the biggest army Ulm send against me: 23 commanders, 448 troops, 19 undead. And it would have been even bigger, if the AI would not have supply problems on 90% of all maps because a) it doesn't know how to forge supply items and b)prov size haven't been nerfed since Dom:PPP by 75% ...

note the big number of Black Plate Infantry ...

[Saber Cherry]

I don't know how true this is in the real game, but in the combat simulator, Ulm's biggest problem tends to be fatigue. The unit descriptions say they have "high endurance" but is seems to have no effect on their ability to fight in heavy armor Giving all ulmish units +1 strength and +2 reinvigoration would be thematic and effective.


As for countering Ulm's magic weakness, here's a thematic possibility, the "Arcane Cripple" :

"More susceptable to magic than their brethren, some poor Ulmians have been twisted and scarred by its harsh energies even while yet unborn. While their presence reaffirms Ulm's long-held fear of magic power, Master Smiths sometimes harness their weakness to acquire the rare gems necessary in advanced forging, using a Cripple's pain like a lodestone to find sites of magic power."

Arcane Cripples are sacred, have rather low stats, are feebleminded, and have another random disability, and MR=6. They are leaders, with 0 leadership and no special actions. However, every turn they have a random chance of discovering a magic site in their province - any magic site, regardless of path or level. They would be quite cheap (maybe 30 gold, depending on the chance of finding a site each turn).


The other possiblity:

Master Jeweler.

"Though best known for forging tools of war, Ulm's metallurgical talents also encompass the area of fine jewelry. The reknowned Ulmish Master Jewelers will search far and wide for prized gemstones to endow upon their latest masterpiece."

Master Jewelers would also have no magic paths, but could use the special command "Look For Pretty Jewels" to find any gem-producing site up to level 1 in any path. Like a level-1 rainbow mage, but including holy/unholy, and unable to find sites like "Damned Merchant" which do not produce any gems. Master Jewelers should cost about 250g and get a random gem in their inventory every season (not every month) regardless of their activities.

[Arralen]

Reinvigoration may be too much, but I'm thinking about lowering the base encumbrance off all Ulmish units by 1 or even 2 ... ok, another test game due ...

And the other things will have to wait until Dom3 at least, don't think the dev will make them available for modding in Dom2 with the final patch ?!

[Saber Cherry]

Another possibility is an Ulm-only national spell, Earth Lore (or something like that) that is 2E and 8 Earth gems to cast, which reveals all level-1 sites in a (land) province, or a spell that reveals all elemental sites in a land province, like Tiamat's Something. Either would make sense for a race of earth-attuned miners. Although I like the special units better, because they seem fun=) But as you say none of this could be done through modding.