Forge of Ulm

[Mightypeon]

But Ulms chaff has map move 1, and Shinus chaff is avaialble on very short notice. If they play their cards right, they will be able to attack Ulmish troops with sizeable local superiority. They also have Stealth, something Ulm once again totally lacks.
Also, Destruction can be available early on (Shinus mages being old does not stop them from being great researchers) and makes it very easy for Shinuyama to defeat Ulmish troops on a cost efficient basis.
Given that Shinu is also a very good archery nation, destruction really makes it very very easy to kill Ulms stuff from afar. Pangea can also counter Ulm using destruction and archery, but is much less powerfull in general.
And Shinu also has room for much more variability in Pretenders as it does not need much from one (other than preferably awesome scales, to an extent, Drain 2 is a very good choice for them due to Shinuyamas researchers not caring that much about loosing an RP)
It should also be noted that Shinus mages are sacred and all of them can cast earthpower. Given that a A4E4 Celestial General is rather popular for Shinu, reinvig 6 in major battles (where the prophet is available) is not awfully uncommon.

This does not mean that Forge should not be changed, but I seriously see Shinuyama as stronger, especially in a direct matchup.

[rdonj]

Why are we discussing this in terms of a direct matchup, a direct matchup is pretty useless to figure out which nation is stronger in this game. That'd be like saying ma vanheim is stronger than vanilla ashdod because ashdod has no easy way to handle air magic.