MA Ulm and Drain scale?

[Gargoyle711]

I'm not exactly a newbie, but new-ish

I took MA Ulm with a Forge Lord... but didn't take any Drain scale. I understand that Master Smith's do not suffer from the effects of Drain. But what about the Forge Lord? And any other recruited mages other than the Master Smith? And are there other detriments to Drain?

So you guru's out there, was I wrong for taking no drain?

[Nerfix]

They all suffer from Drain, but taking Drain 3 is the default way of doing things with Ulm since you can use it to pay for Prod 3 which they pretty desperately need.

[Endoperez]

Also, your Master Smiths will be your most common mages. Your most common researchers. If you build lots of fortresses, which you probably could as your units are more expensive in resources than gold, it could be feasible to make many fortresses and labs and just build insane numbers of Master Smiths. Drain helps to get points elsewhere. It's not total immunity, but worth it. If you are still skeptical, take Drain 2. It gives other researchers just -1, and doesn't hurt your main researchers.

[Shovah32]

As endo said, take drain 2 if you want lots of non smith mages, otherwise go drain 3.

A good idea for MA ulm (imo) is: 3 prod, 3 drain, 3 order, 2 misfortune, a rainbow mage, possibly dormant (2-3 of all paths, maybe higher earth). You can quickly get a large gem income which your pretender can use without alchemy, a nice trick is using cheap earth items (heavy armour, strength boosters, a shield) forged by your smiths and maybe 1 or 2 special items (horror helm ect) forged by your pretender to make early game thugs from black lords/black servants ect. Sorry for going OT there.

Basically with ulm drain should be taken for prod and order (order also lets you take misfortune) to boost your income (which means more castles and smiths) and resources to make heavy units (black knights rock).

[PDF]

Nerfix said:
They all suffer from Drain, but taking Drain 3 is the default way of doing things with Ulm since you can use it to pay for Prod 3 which they pretty desperately need.

Smiths do suffer from drain now ? Huh, Ulm wasn't really a powerhouse, another crippling blow wasn't needed...

[Arralen]

PDF said:

Smiths do suffer from drain now ?

They don't, AFAIK.

Check the nations blurb, err, info screen ..

[Endoperez]

PDF said:Smiths do suffer from drain now ? Huh, Ulm wasn't really a powerhouse, another crippling blow wasn't needed...

Read again. It can be a bit confusing, but this is how I interpreted it:

Gargoyle:
And any other recruited mages other than the Master Smith? And are there other detriments to Drain?

Nerfix:
They all suffer from Drain, but taking Drain 3 is the default way of doing things with Ulm since you can use it to pay for Prod 3 which they pretty desperately need.



The important part here is the other than. Master Smiths are drain-resistant, and sometimes get a random pick.

[PDF]

Ah OK, sorry for the confusion, this really baffled me ..
Thanks for the clarification !