Dud nations

[Dedas]

You have to use drain scales, iron will and tempering the will or you be dead.

[Xietor]

Drain scale is only in your own dominion. Are you not supposed to send your armies into enemy dominions, which may have a magic scale9mr 8 now for ulm).

Temper the will is a joke. It is down a tree ulm does not research, and it is deep in that tree for ulm. Meanwhile, your expensive black lords are being one shotted by races that get smite from the start of the game(they do not have to research to level 5 a tree they would otherwise not use to get smite).

I can see crippling units like elephants with low mr, but why Ulm's entire race? Ulm already has no priests to speak of, crappy mages and research, (to add insult to injury, its crappy mages get old age lol), resource hog troops like abysia's, but nowhere close to their power.

If low mr is the price of drain 3, remove drain 3. Id rather have better units than a "free" 120 points. It really is not free in that it cripples you in use of independent mages. Take away that small chance for an additional magic slot, and give better troops.

one race should really be able to win with little or no research on the back of its armies. And that race should be MA ulm.

[Dedas]

Yes, "tempering the will" is level 5 but "iron will" is level 3. It can save your expensive units if you place the mages nearby scripted with it.

And why are you fighting inside the enemies dominion? That is not a good thing unless you have a lot of morale and in some cases magic resistance. Instead, slowly advance forward preaching and building temples and castles (production bonus) in the manner of Ulm MA. Almost all their unit have map move 1 anyway so don't rush it and play like your playing Caelum or something. If you do it right you can let the enemy tie up his forces against your high defense fortresses whilst you turtle your way to his capitol.

[Xietor]

If you are always able to fight in your own dominion, then god bless you. What if your enemy is ctis and he took dom 10 to start. Ulm has crappy prists, it will lose a preaching fight against most races.

I have never found it to be a successful battle strategy to only fight in your own dominion. And a race like Ulm should not have both low mr and low morale to force it to. I guess ulm basic infantry does not have low morale, it has 10 morale, but is handicapped unlike most every other race, with no way to boost it.

So we have no blessed troops(blessed troops get 2 morale among other things), beyond weak priests, poor research, poor mages, low mr, average(at best) morale, poor mages(with old age), a natioanl spell that tries to compensate for a penalty that Ulm should not be saddled with, a forge bonus, but no unique construction items or national summons, very limited magic access(so limited the manual says to take an awake alchemist, which of course makes a great sc(saracasm on).

And in return Ulm gets infantry that would be crushed by many of the other races that have high mr, good mages, strong priests, ways to heal afflictions, low resource troops with high defense, wide acces to magic, strong national summons.

Ulm does get spies, which are not a great fit with a nation forging its path with steel. So i would not cry to see them removed either in return for better fighting infantry.

[HoneyBadger]

I think that Ulm should have to research as much as any other race. I just think this research should be mostly confined to Construction, and that they should have access to magic weapons and armor that other races don't get-especially ME Ulm.

don't have a big problem if they get a few national Evocation spells that their smiths can use, though, because that's reasonably thematic.

They definitely *should* have a lot of access to black steel armour, though, with all the benefits that entails.

[Xietor]

I thought of 2 theme-based abilities for endoperez' Warlords:


Battleshout: a unique battle cry that puts the blood lust in fighting men. plus 2 morale to all friendly units.

Demoralizing shout: -2 morale to any unit within 10 spaces of the warlord.

it may be better to put the demoralizing shout on a different commander, as you do not want the warlord overpowered.

[Xietor]

Honey,

Why should a race that disdains magic have to research as much as any other race? In fact, as a price for the improved troops, and a beefed up construction tree, I would like to see Ulm's access to many spells removed, certainly any global magic using either death or astral magic, including dispel.

I think Ulm should get a much reduced research tree since they disdain magic, and be a race that relies on steel, forged items, and thug commanders. But you cannot have a good thug with a mr of 9(8 in a hostile dom having magic scale).

[normalphil]

Xietor said:

(snipping any and all supporting statements to the conclusion, because the conclusion is the thing and the whole of the thing)

"One race should really be able to win with little or no research on the back of its armies. And that race should be MA ulm."

Yes.