Ulm beefed up ...

[Graeme Dice]

I think all I'd really like to see with Ulm is the master smith's boosted to E3F1, since that gives them everything they need to deal with most of the situations out there.

[PvK]

Oh weird, I thought Blade Wind was a national spell of Ulm, but it's not. Just Legions of Steel...

PvK

[PvK]

Endoperez said:
... I don't see water and/or air fitting with Ulm, much less any sorceries. And third pick of water would make them quite different, also... Maybe E2D2 for the Smiths? Also, what do you think about IF's Black Priests, should they get another (non-random) pick?

An E2D2 Smith... sounds good for a Diabolical Ulm theme mod.

Adding another magic level to Black Priests would certainly be a strong plus for them. I'm not sure they "should", but if one is convinced IF needs a boost, making them E2?1, E1F1?1, or even E2F1?1 would seem ok to me, or even offering several or all varieties at a range of costs.

I could see it with their crossbowmen as well.

I agree.

Faster (map-move wise) units would help Ulm much.

Yes, and they do when I play them - I use both national troops and independents, to complement each other in various ways. For move-2 armies, for light archers to safely support the heavy infantry, etc.

That idea about only shieldless units getting the move bonus is interesting. Did you read Arralen's post about differences of Chain and Plate armors? That explains quite nicely why he did most of the changed he did.

No I hadn't - let's see... ah ok. Yes, that's an interesting post. If reinterpreting the way armor values are assessed, though, I'd want to see similar adjustments for everyone, not just Ulm, which is of course a big task.

Again though, I don't see a need for Ulm to have better armor than they already have. Ulm HI can be quite strong when it ends up in the right conditions, meaning ample numbers, supporting troops, etc. I don't see it needing to be better at what it already does well.

I am not sure about the cost, but Caelum's Temple Guards were quite awesome in Dominions:PPP when they weren't limited to citadel... They have protection of 24 in Cold 3, low encumberance and good skills, and are sacred to boot! Back then blessing was just straight Str/Att/Mrl bonus, undepended on pretender. I still have to try out high Water/med Earth blessing with Caelum, but it could work...

I think part of the problem is, however, that Heavy Infatry is thought to be quite useless.

Call me Ulmish, but that seems incorrect to me.

I agree to almost everything here, except the morale bonus for drain. Maybe +1 bonus at Drain-2, but not per scale. That would give all Ulmish units +4 to morale in friendly dominion!

Well I was thinking that some people think Ulm is seriously disadvantaged, and that a frequent complaint is low morale, so it would be a thematic way to address those issues.

One improvement ordered!
Code:

---

#modname "Improved Ghoul Guardian"

By Endoperez

#description "Simple enough to save into any .dm file and enable."

-- Ghoul Guardian is given the armor of Guardian he was and cost changed: 20->17 gp, 31 -> 35 res.

-- Magic resistance changed to 11, to protect them from banishment. 



#selectmonster 1020

#gcost 17

#rcost 35

#mr 11

#armor "Full Plate of Ulm"

#armor "Full Helmet"

#end

---

I added that to my Ulm Upgrade, also.

Cool, thanks!

Already done. Check my Version of the Ulm Upgrade mod. I added the new mod with Ghoul Guardian improvements to this post. EDIT: it had a bug. Fixed.

Ok, I will have to check that out.

PvK

[PvK]

I still wonder how much of this is from the perspective of having tried really hard to figure out how to make Ulm work in practice, or is from the perspective of having played other nations but not really tried to make Ulm work. Most of the magic improvements mentioned seem to be things which can be done already (via 5-gem Earth Boots, Hammer o the Forge Lord, empowerment, pretender magic, independent mages, etc), but are just harder than being given the ability from the start.

I'm still thinking adding MR, +1 Strength and maybe a little morale to the standard troops would go a long way without needing to add something counter-thematic like more magic.

Other brainstorm ideas:

* Units just get +1 Strength, but Ulm gets a national holy spell which adds MR.

* Ulm gets an optional dominion which actually reduces the magic power of enemy casters... I guess that would mess up spell scripts in too annoying a fashion, though.

PvK

[PvK]

Lowering base encumbrance by one sounds good.

However, I don't think that's really needed. Ulm fight just fine if they have enough critical mass in their infantry. In on of my current games, I've just fought off two massive attacks from Marignon using a moderately large block of Ulm infantry, one holy-3 caster for Surmon of Courage, and a flank of a few Ulm leaders with earth trinkets and 7 black knights. I've lost one infantry of Ulm in each battle, and killed about 80 enemies in each battle including several commanders. No Ulmites routed or collapsed from fatigue.

Morale and magic resistance are worse weaknesses for Ulm than fatigue. Fatigue is solved by bringing enough troops to battle.

PvK

[Saber Cherry]

Versus undead Ermor is where fatigue really comes into play. Actually, considering the MR-negates weapons of Soul Gate Ermor, that'd be pretty nasty against Ulm as well.

For me, reducing Ulm's encumbrance is more based on the description, which specifically states they are larger than normal humans and can take much more punishment before collapsing. And yet, they are no better at fighting in heavy armor than normal humans... which seems amiss. Yet indy Barbarians get an encumbrance of only 2, so there is precedent for nonmagical humans of extraordinary build having such endurance.

I'm not going to claim that changing encumbrance will make Ulm a top nation, or protect its Achilles heel - but giving a weaker nation a positive change that makes thematic sense can never hurt, IMO.