The MA Ulm issue.

[Burnsaber]

DrPraetorious said:
..*lots of stuff*..
with no changes in the army list *at all*.

Hmm. Those are not certainly bad ideas, but I really think that Ulm shouldn't rely on his mages in order to have his troops "not suck". It'be like this;

Ulm soldier: Damn we hate mages. They're like vile and stuff.
*enemy attacks*
Ulm Soldier: Where are our Mages? We need buffs to not run away/ die to exhaustion/to hit opponents! We are DOOMED!

Besides, I don't that AP weapons are necessary. Ulm troops already have high damage weapons and good strenght. They just need to actually hit troops.

[Xietor]

"Besides, I don't that AP weapons are necessary. Ulm troops already have high damage weapons and good strength. They just need to actually hit troops."

I do. MA man's KOA have ap. Vans may as well have it as you will never see one without an ap double attack.

Why should a nation who relies on steel and has a forge bonus be unable to forge an ap weapon for its best soldiers?

[Nikolai]

> Are they -so- unbalanced that you just can't win with them against good players? Certainly not, I've won with them before,

News flash! They were NOT good player, if they lost with Ulm. Unless by "won with them" you mean - I was someone's smith ***** since turn one, and we ganged a real nation.

Ulm is helpless to blesses, SCs, tramplers, and even good human infantry supported by priest (on turn 1) If you get a SC to stop them, you sacrifice diversity... and because you need scales, their SC is better anyway.

[PyroStock]

The nation of steel should not be subpar in combat to almost every other nation. I would give their black knights a 1h sword of sharpness as well. MA Ulm's warriors should be feared-not ridiculed.

"Mechanical" national summons for *non-combat roles* - ritual spell-casting, preventing bad events, protecting stacks from mindhunt, etc.

their special blacksteel armour could justifiably be 1 or so less encumbering, or even stronger, because it's supposed to be special and because the troops would clearly have trained in it often, building up the muscle needed to carry it around without tiring instantly.
On the subject of actually hitting stuff - Ulm could justifiably have superior versions of basic weapons. Blacksteel flail, blacksteel sword, Ulmish hammer etc. These could carry att 1 def 1 or whatever, representing the kind of quality seen in the Jomonese weapons.

I like these best.

The AP swords, even if sometimes unnecessary in troop battles would make them a little more threatening against SCs. Similiar to what Micah mentioned in the Most Useful Research thread about weapons of sharpness, except Ulm's black knights wouldn't need a mage to cast weapons of sharpness.

If some feel Dr.P's constructs/summons are "too magical for Ulm" then maybe a high cost/resource national unit. Expanding on the anti-mind attack idea, perhaps an expensive immobile/slow unit that acts like a giant lightning rod or dome (low % based on balance) since they fear magic so much. An Ulm only dome spell with a low research requirement is another idea.