[Beginner] Pointers about magic usage

[Alneyan]

Thanks for the pointers! I didn't expect a guide such as "How to become God/Goddess/Omnipotent Being in three easy steps", so such advice was what I had in mind.

I will toy around a bit with these other toys with Ulm, as it does seem to be effective. (Much more than my previous Pretender, but it was hard to think of some worse design)

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by ywl:
Trampling inflict armor negating damage and a well protected trampler can easily take out 100+ heavy infantries.

Trampling is armour piercing, not armour negating.

[mlepinski]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Trampling is armour piercing, not armour negating.

This may be a stupid question, but what is the difference between "armor piercing" and "armor negating"?

- Matt Lepinski :->

[ March 30, 2004, 04:27: Message edited by: mlepinski ]

Armor Piercing = 1/2 Protection Value for Damage.

Armor Negating = 0 Protection Value for Damage.

[velk]

I think an important thing to keep in mind while designing a magic pretender is how well your troops fit in with the kind of magic power you are aiming for.

In general, unlike supercombatants, magical pretenders are going to need to have troops with them to stop them being overwhelmed while they are casting. So you need to keep in mind what troops you are going to have available for your nation.

Some of these are obvious - the battlefield death spells are going to be as dangerous to your troops as they are to the enemy if you use primarily living troops - and some are not so obvious - such as does your nation have a mage capable of casting thunder ward so you can get wrathful skies out an extra round earlier because your pretender does not have to cast it.

One other note I guess, is that it depends a lot on whether you are aiming for multiplayer or single player. Nothing you are going to do will suprise the computer, but taking something non-standard that doesn't have immediately obvious advantages can be devastating to multiplayer opponents simply because they were not expecting it.

The best way is probably going to be to experiment - there are so many subtle touches to dom2 that it is extremely difficult to make a plan in isolation.

[PrinzMegaherz]

You could, as an example, go for water magic. That would allow you to lead your troops into the sea and conquer some provinces your enemy can't attack.

I would not recommend to have a single high path, as there are no sacred Ulm troops.

[Yossar]

My favorite Ulmish Pretender is a Vampire Queen with 3 Water, at least 3 in Blood, and as an many in Death as you want. This gives you easy access to blood magic for forging (soul contracts with a dwarven hammer can be useful), and lets you easily summon Ice Devils, which give you great commanders to give all your great forged items to. It also gets you a pretty badass pretender once you give her the right items.