Halt Heretic - Opinions

[Tuidjy]

Worthless. Which fits very well, given that 'worthless' is MA Ulm's theme.
So much effort, new abilities, new summons, new weapons... and it all adds
up to 'not nearly enough'.

MA Ulm are like a nation of martial art fanatics in a world where assault rifles
grow on trees.

Oh, in case anyone wonders... The iron angel is nothing much. Nice hps, OK
fighting stats, great magic resistance. But he is a level 8 summon, and he
cannot hold a candle to, for example, a Nifelheim Jarl, let alone a high level
summon from a real nation. And I assume that it is simple sloppiness, but his
uberweapon (which is anything but uber) goes away if you give him a weapon.

[Ylvali]

Oh, I wouldn�t say that. I�ve had some great times with ulm.

[Zeldor]

Hehe, in SP I guess

[Tuidjy]

Once upon the time, I challenged people to duels to show them how utterly
worthless Ulm is. Later, I wrote long posts explaining why Ulm's troops suck,
and backed them up with probabilities. Even more recently, I ran battles in which
Ulm mighty and finely equipped warriors were whipped by non-sacred, build anywhere
troops like principles, men at arms and defenders.

And still, there are those who chime in with 'Oh, Ulm is not so bad'.

So I have decided not to engage in rational discussion anymore. My answer now is
'Shut up you newbie, you have no idea what you are talking about'.

[Twan]

I've already seen Ulm winning in MP, it just need an awake great sage to avoid to lose the magic race, some luck for starting position -not being rushed by a neighbour- and not too strong indies (indie 9 or maps like WoG are not good for Ulm).

As your troops are tough you don't need many summons, so you can keep your gems for some globals and/or forge boosters for all your battlefield mages (once you have the level for magma eruption it's sad to continue to cast magma bolts).

The only big ulmish problem is how slow the infantry is. Instead of any other boost I would have given mapmove 2 to all troops without black plate.

[Ballbarian]

Ulm may not have a chance in multiplayer against experienced players, but it is still one of my absolute favorites.

[Twan]

Ballbarian said:
Ulm may not have a chance in multiplayer against experienced players

It's nothing but a legend. If you look in the MP hall of fame you'll see 2 ME Ulm victories, and as I doubt that Wraithlord and CKUnknow play in newbie games it was probably in games with (at least some) experienced players.

There was also an uncounted victory of Ulm in one of the first dom3 games -ended by a bug when Ulm was first in gems and research with 4 or 5 globals up- so weak or not in theory, ME Ulm is only beaten by two or three nations for the number of (not duel) real games won (here, but I think it's the place where you find most experienced players).

Unbelievable isn't it ? (as well as Arco still having 0 victory)

[coobe]

i second that Ulm is viable in MP, Now with the new stuff in the patch i think even more

You just have to play them differently like any race in dom3

[Endoperez]

Tuidjy said:
Oh, in case anyone wonders... The iron angel is nothing much. Nice hps, OK fighting stats, great magic esistance. But he is a level 8 summon, and he cannot hold a candle to, for example, a Nifelheim Jarl, let alone a high level summon from a real nation. And I assume that it is simple sloppiness, but his uberweapon (which is anything but uber) goes away if you give him a weapon.

Is Iron Angel really that bad compared to other units available in MA? I don't remember what angel Pythium/Marignon get at level 8, but I think it's Angel of Fury. One against one, it's Blood Vengeance won't do anything against the Iron Angel, and I think they're comparable besides that. Halt Sacred +8 should stop attacks even against blessed, sacred commanders, though. And as far as national go, the only buff mages I can think of are Deep Kings and Skratti.

The special ability of Guardians' Black Halberds and Iron Angel's sacred fist is 15 armor-piercing stun damage on AoE 1. That means that it works better against light sacreds (anything that is massed) than heavily armored sacreds (sacred thugs). The fist goes away because his whole idea is "strength in self", not "strength via items X, Y and Z". The attack he loses deals pretty bad damage to magic beings and stuns sacreds, but it's not that special - against most things, he's better with a forged weapon.

Iron Darts and Iron Blizzard seem to be about in line with Magma Bolts/Magma Eruption, but I'm not sure how the armor-piercing affects their use or how useful their scaling is.

[Zeldor]

IF someone is too lazy to check, stats of Iron Angel:

63 HP
6 base protection
6 encumbrance [ouch]
Morale 30
MR 21
Reinvigoration 4
Str 22
Attack 16
Def 13
Precision 12
Move 3/11
Ldrship 0

halt heretic +8, flying, FR 50, SR 50, NNE

Built in black steel full plate, black steel helmet, swword of sharpness, divine graps.