MA Ulm Pretender

[Baalz]

Hmmm, I wonder if CUnknown is actually one of my alter egos I'm not aware of. Your thinking on Ulm is spot on my own. I was going to write a MA Ulm guide until I saw you had written one and it covered basically all the points I would make. I think people really underestimate how effective Ulm's advantages can be in mid game. Focusing on construction early? How weak are those swarms of cheap dudes when buffed with weapons of sharpness and strength of giants while your enemies are earth melded? Magma eruption is arguably the strongest mid-line evocation spell and every one of your 140 gp mages can cast it. Destruction is brutal when cast by several mages in a battle and you should have *lots* of smiths. Then there's that little forge bonus...

As to being defenseless against elephants, I again call phooey. Obviously this boils down to player skill, but a couple reasonable counters come to mind depending on what you've got available- again, keeping in mind what Ulm does have going for it. With Ulm you should have a couple castles up pretty fast and plenty of smiths to field if you're rushed. Magma bolts. Bonds of fire. Body ethereal (from pretender, smith randoms, mercenaries, lizard shamans, sages - you only need a couple S1 mages) cast on 12 or so Black Knights can easily take out a similar gold cost of elephants. Assuming you took a rainbow pretender depending on your research paths you can combine the above with panic/terror and all the classic MR check counters. My preference is also the enchantress for Ulm and I find it very viable.

Personally, I research some of the above spells for exactly this reason before I begin focusing on construction. If you do end up being rushed, push through for destruction or magma eruption depending on what's coming at you. With just those spells a handful of smiths can beat back some pretty strong advances by just hiding behind PD meatshields.