Question about Ulm and iron faith

Arralen · #1 November 6th, 2003, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Morkul:
Normaly Ulm are not affected by drain on the Magic/Drain scale. To get iron faith you need one step towards drain. Now to the strange part, when selecting iron faith you become affected by it. Why are Ulm with iron faith affected by drain? /Morkul

That's because Ulm smiths don't get affected by drain.

Other magicians (from indipendents) get affected vry well as far as I know (from DOM1).

So "iron faith" with drain1 looks much better than standard Ulm with drain3, if you take away the smiths... .

And why can't you use "golem cult" with magic1 .. apart from having too few points in the race wizard? But than again what you're expecting - you'll have to pay for that golems somehow.

Things may be a bit unbalanced, but saying "it sucks" is a bit too much IMHO.

A.

HJ · #2 November 6th, 2003, 10:11 AM

Because otherwise they would be all too similar to master smiths? And the only difference would be the presence of holy units, and there would no point in taking regular Ulm then? To me it seems very thematic, as iron faith is one step even further away from magic since they now worship iron, and are even less concerned and more conservative about magic.

Nagot Gick Fel · #3 November 6th, 2003, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Arralen:
And why can't you use "golem cult" with magic1 .. apart from having too few points in the race wizard?

Actually I designed an Ulm/GC pretender... but really, having to pay 210 points for the theme and only get +1 research on your smiths is a bit costly. Not to mention your troops have a base MR of 9, and direly miss the drain bonus.

PDF · #4 November 6th, 2003, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Arralen:

quote:
Originally posted by Morkul:
Normaly Ulm are not affected by drain on the Magic/Drain scale. To get iron faith you need one step towards drain. Now to the strange part, when selecting iron faith you become affected by it. Why are Ulm with iron faith affected by drain? /Morkul

That's because Ulm smiths don't get affected by drain.

Other magicians (from indipendents) get affected vry well as far as I know (from DOM1).

So "iron faith" with drain1 looks much better than standard Ulm with drain3, if you take away the smiths... .

And why can't you use "golem cult" with magic1 .. apart from having too few points in the race wizard? But than again what you're expecting - you'll have to pay for that golems somehow.

Things may be a bit unbalanced, but saying "it sucks" is a bit too much IMHO.

A.

Maybe, but the Black Priests are crappy mages, and you have to pay the price of a good priest to get them ..With Drain 1 they only have 2-3 RPs, half of what a Smith get !

Additionnally they are only buildable at the capitol, in the early game you can't build much of them because you also need to build fighting commanders..

In the end IF Ulm looks unbalanced to me - or at least worse than standard Ulm, note also that you have to PAY for getting IF theme !

Leif_- · #5 November 6th, 2003, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PDF:
[In the end IF Ulm looks unbalanced to me - or at least worse than standard Ulm, note also that you have to PAY for getting IF theme !

Blessable knights, however, are down right evil. Try a pretender with Death 6, Earth 6 or Nature 4, Earth 6 or a green dragon with Nature 9 - and base your initial game on blessed knights.

Keir Maxwell · #6 November 6th, 2003, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Leif_-:

quote:
Originally posted by PDF:
[In the end IF Ulm looks unbalanced to me - or at least worse than standard Ulm, note also that you have to PAY for getting IF theme !

Blessable knights, however, are down right evil. Try a pretender with Death 6, Earth 6 or Nature 4, Earth 6 or a green dragon with Nature 9 - and base your initial game on blessed knights.

I agree with Leif on the general point. If you play the IF theme and don't abuse the whole sacred thing then I you are missing a big part of the advanategs of IF Ulm. Ulm IF is particularily magic weak so bless effects become a good substitute as you start with them (no need to rersearch them) and they are just like magic really. Also a pretender with powerful bless effects can make a good research at the start to get construction up.

Happy Metalling,

Keir

Karacan · #7 November 6th, 2003, 12:01 PM

Many players stated in other threads that Ulm's speciality lies in heavy infantry... which I entirely disagree. I've always been a fan of the Black Knights, and blessed templars with the right dominion now finally don't suffer Ulm's major weakness: They can survive a few misplaced arbalest bolts.

Magic is for weaklings, have faith!