Mid Game - Newb in Need

There are ways to get rid of afflictions on your Manticore.

1. Keeping him from getting them! The best and simplist way is to not get hit (High Protection, Defense, Spells). The second is Regeneration. You are less likely to recieve an affliction when regenerating.

2. Gift of Health (for you, but note some other nation/themes have some other options). This is a Nature spell at Enchantment 5.

3. Magic Artifact, the Chalice. Hard to get, but it will take away afflictions.

4. Kill your God and Call him back. He'll be less powerful magically (-1 to all magic paths) but he will come back fresh as a daisy (sometimes he'll have a minor affliction, but most of the time he'll be all good)

As for commanders, I usually will not have a commander who is commanding a squad fight, unless he is qualified as a 'super combatant'. Because if your commander dies you won't be able to command them unless you have one who can command the men in his place. Though if you have replacements, you can do so without fear.

This is not the case with the "Super Combatant". These usually have alot of survivability and are pretty well protected, though they may rout or die too so don't think they are invulnerable . Most supercombatants are Pretenders and Summoned creatures.

With Ulm your magical 'combos' are pretty limited. For casting spells these are some of the better.

(As Alex noted) Summon Earthpower, Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants. Blade Wind, Magma Eruption, Earth Meld, Weapons of Sharpness

For items. There are so many it's hard to say unless you are asking what type of 'supercombatant' you are trying to equip. I wouldn't equip any normal commander with anything except maybe a Horn of Valor (to combat some of Ulm's Morale issues).

Edit: Changed the commander routing portion.

[ January 14, 2004, 06:10: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Zen:
As for commanders, I usually will not have a commander who is commanding a squad fight, unless he is qualified as a 'super combatant'. Because if your commander routs (fails a morale check by getting hit or feared) or dies everyone under their command will rout.

I don't think that this is true. Routing is only forced from commander death if you have no commanders on the field whatsoever, so a mage with a leadership of 10 can keep 2000 troops from autorouting.

Edit: Graeme is correct. Your army will only autorout if there are no commanders on the battlefield. I don't know if there is any negative penalty for being leaderless, it doesn't seem to have an effect.

[ January 14, 2004, 05:34: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Others have answered the essential points. I'll add just one more tip:

It may not seem obvious, but don't neglect Blood Magic with Ulm. Empower a Smith in blood (up to blood 3). Forge Blood Stones and give them to your support mages so they can cast (with Earth Boots and Summon Earthpower) level 5 battle spells like Weapons of Sharpness (these mages can also Petrify/paralyze things with ease).

Don't lose time binding Demon Knights or Devils with that mage, though Hordes from Hell may be OK. Otherwise have him do what he's best for: a Lifelong Protections for 10 slaves, or a Soul Contract for 40 (pays for itself in 6 turns) are quite a bargain. And if you want that Father Illearth, it's unlikely someone will beat you to it - your competitors will rather race for Ice Devils.

[OG_Gleep]

It is now close to turn 70, and although I have a huge domain, and by far the largest army, I am on the ropes, or atleast it feels like it.

I have about 6 or 7 provinces with forts, and all I can do is put an army together to replace one that just got destroyed. My Dominion is really spread out, so I am fighting everyone. And I can't advance. I have armies stationed at the border...but if I use them to take a enemy territory, the AI attacks the hole in my lines that just opened up.

My north eastern terriotories are all in danger, as I lost every border province and the armies defending them, and the AI is romping through very lightly defneded, or vacant provinces.

It sure is fun =)

Couple new questions:

1) As the game progresses, you gain access to indy mages with different paths. What is the best way to go through and search for magic sites? It is really painful to have to start the search all over again each time you get a new type of mage, especially when your dominion is huge.

2) As I mentioned before I am having a little bit of a problem kick starting an offensive on the border. What is the best strategy for advancing? This is a bit of a vague question, so I hope this narrows the focus, if I can explain it correctly. Many times an enemy can have 4 of its provinces bordering one of yours. If you launch an attack into one of those enemy provinces, you are still left with 3, and now instead of an army glaring back over the border, there is only local militia. This is what its like all over. Even with 7 provinces pumping out units every round, I am losing the war of attrition. Every time I get an army made, I have to park it in one of the border provinces, or send it to take back one of my provinces, and then park it there because the previous garrison was overrun. That and I am running out of gold every turn. Atleast one or 2 production centers are left with a surplus of resources because I have run out of gold.

3. SuperCombatants - after reading the replies in thsi thread about the subject, I scowered the forums and got a much better idea about the concept. Does anyone know of any specific threads that goes into more detail? I can't tell from the spell lists what summoned aren't and are. Also I understand that the list for items are huge, but normally in these types of games, some items while appearing equal to other items "on paper" (or in this case "in the description"), turn out to be uber tide turning items that every commander that has an applicable use for it, must have it. Even items you just particularly like.

4) Battlefiled Orders: I thought the system was fairly simple at first, especially since I am playing Ulm. Place HI w/Shields at the very front, then place spear/flail to each side. Place archers in the back somewhere. Then after seeing my defense force (value 30) win because my crossbows were deeper that got me thinking that there may be more to it then I thought.
Generally, what orders would you give to an army of this composition, and where would their starting positon be relative to back middle or front:

a) Block of Ulm Infantry Shield
b) Block of Ulm Infantry 2hnd Axe
c) Block of Ulm Infantry Spear
d) Block of Xbow
e) Block of Xbow
f) Block of Heavy Calv
g) 2 Ulm Smiths
Assume there are vanilla Ulm commanders as well.

Thanks again

[PvK]

My Ulm commanders include some who stand back and command (and hold army-useful items like supply generators or morale improvers, and/or magic ranged weapons), and others who wade in and hack, and often get up to being very powerful fighters, equipped with magic items etc.

The "wade in" type always have a bunch of bodyguards so they don't get isolated and overwhelmed in battle. The bodyguards should mostly have at least as much battle speed (action points) as the commanders, so the commanders don't out-run them. That's can be a problem with overly-fast commanders (e.g. unicorn-riders like Hildegard and Barthulf).

I didn't see mentioned one of the most important points when arranging an Ulm battle force: include some cannon fodder! Put them in their own squads, so when they die, the main Ulm HI doesn't rout too. Ideally, have at least one group of cannon fodder arrive before the HI, and one group of cannon fodder arrive after the HI - this will keep your HI alive much longer, and multiply their effectiveness, and your chance of winning, even if the fodder hardly does any damage itself. You don't need a lot of fodder (and watch the supply level), but you should have at least some.

Also, when something nasty shows up that your armor doesn't help against, avoid fighting it with your HI - send something else to deal with it (mercs, tribals, pretender, summons, whatever). Examples of such ways to lose all your HI to no purpose include: poison gas, psychic attacks, and soul vortex.

PvK

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by OG_Gleep:
1) As the game progresses, you gain access to indy mages with different paths. What is the best way to go through and search for magic sites? It is really painful to have to start the search all over again each time you get a new type of mage, especially when your dominion is huge.

To ease MM and save mage time, you can reveal all sites in a province (bar holy/unholy sites) with the low-level scrying spells you get in the Thaumaturgy, Conjuration, Evocation and Blood schools. Most require a level-2 (sometimes 1) mage to cast, and 2-3 gems. Voice of Tiamat reveals all elemental sites underwater, and Acashic Record reveals everything (including holy/unholy) but is costly and requires an astral-3 mage.

2) As I mentioned before I am having a little bit of a problem kick starting an offensive on the border. What is the best strategy for advancing? This is a bit of a vague question...

Well in MP you can try the guess/outguess game, but the AI is so unpredictable... I fear I have no good tip for you. Although you can count on the AI moving his armies every turn - so if you want to force a battle, it's often better to attack where he isn't yet.

3. SuperCombatants... items you just particularly like.

Look for magic resistance, regeneration, elemental resistances, luck, protection, defense, aura items, life drain (also gives you reinvigoration), and reinvigoration if you trample and aren't undead.

4) Battlefiled Orders: I thought the system was fairly simple at first, especially since I am playing Ulm. Place HI w/Shields at the very front, then place spear/flail to each side. Place archers in the back somewhere. Then after seeing my defense force (value 30) win because my crossbows were deeper that got me thinking that there may be more to it then I thought.
Generally, what orders would you give to an army of this composition, and where would their starting positon be relative to back middle or front:

a) Block of Ulm Infantry Shield
b) Block of Ulm Infantry 2hnd Axe
c) Block of Ulm Infantry Spear
d) Block of Xbow
e) Block of Xbow
f) Block of Heavy Calv
g) 2 Ulm Smiths

I avoid Xbows with heavy infantry/cavalry (unless I've an air mage to cast Wind Guide).

Basically if the enemy has more firepower or magepower than you, deploy far ahead and attack, with the shielded HI in the middle (attack closest) and the knights on the flanks (attack rear/archers) with the other HI in between. Sometimes it's best to leave the shields on hold/attack (diverting enemy fire) while the unshielded attack with their better 2-handed weapons.

Otherwise deploy in the rear with hold & attack. As simple as that. Use the smiths to cast Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants on your shock troops. And Weapons of Sharpness if you can.