Pangaeda: New Age - the redheaded stepchild of Dom2?

[Blitz]

Ugh... Ulm. I've been trying desperately to come up with a winning strategy for black forest Ulm. It works, but not well enough. It seems to be a mish-mash of mediocre units thrown together with almost no synergy. That theme badly needs a 180 gold DDD necromancer with some research ability. Then we'd have a theme.

Iron Faith Ulm on the other hand, is pretty decent. The problem is that Ulm's infantry is at best on par with grove guards (cost/unit), and superior magery and flanking would carry the day. Ulm badly needs cheaper crossbows, and not those slow alabests or whatever they are called.

I know in theory Ulm beats Marignon, but as a Marignon player, frankly it never happens that way. The Emor rolling scenario isn't theory, but a reality. It's not so much Vanilla Emor, but the other two themes that are the problem. In our playgroup, we've Banned both the Vampire Queen and the two Emor alternate themes. Everyone knows the theory behind beating Emor (banish, holy pyre, solar rays), and there are ways to kill a Vampire queen, but we believe that just because it's POSSIBLE to beat a strategy dosen't mean it's not overpowered.

Anyways, let's not turn this into another Emor/VQ thread. Everyone already has an opinion, it's probably already been stated. I only posted mine because I've never adressed the issue before. It's Banned in our games, the rest of you can do what you like

1) New Era don't get any archers.

2) New Era cataphracts have 20 prot, not 18.

1) Everyone gets archers, you just have to go look for them . Would be nice if New Age got a longbow centaur, but alas we only get independant archers.

2) Fixed.

[ April 27, 2004, 23:46: Message edited by: Blitz ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Blitz:
It seems to be a mish-mash of mediocre units thrown together with almost no synergy. That theme badly needs a 180 gold DDD necromancer with some research ability. Then we'd have a theme.

Fortune tellers only cost 90 gold, and give you 5 research, that's definetly good enough. As for their other units, the rangers are the best missile unit in the game, they have very high protection infantry, and infinite supplies of cannon fodder from the wolves. The vampire counts make an amazing defensive force when given only minor items.

Their other mages are also very stealthy spies, which can shut down enemies production centres very well. They can also cast antimagic to remove Ulm's weakness to MR negating spells. Then they also have access through communion to all the sorcery battlefield spells.

Iron Faith Ulm on the other hand, is pretty decent.

I very rarely use IF Ulm, since they have no research ability to speak of.

[Blitz]

Fortune tellers only cost 90 gold, and give you 5 research, that's definetly good enough. As for their other units, the rangers are the best missile unit in the game, they have very high protection infantry, and infinite supplies of cannon fodder from the wolves. The vampire counts make an amazing defensive force when given only minor items.

Their other mages are also very stealthy spies, which can shut down enemies production centres very well. They can also cast antimagic to remove Ulm's weakness to MR negating spells. Then they also have access through communion to all the sorcery battlefield spells.

Well you've given me some things to think about to be sure. I know Rangers are pretty good, but I maintain that compared to other themes, Black Forest leaves something to be desired. Obviously the Vampire Counts are the big draw.

It's not a theme I've used in MP yet, just played around with it against the AI a few times. I can tell you one thing though... that Burkhard Nachtzehrer hero might just be my favorite from any theme. Not the strongest to be sure, but one of the coolest.

[Cheezeninja]

cooler than Etimmu???? 8O (<--this is a face) this i have to see.

[ April 28, 2004, 01:08: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

BF is by far the strongest theme of Ulm. There are alot of drawbacks to normal Ulm but you can still play them very well, but BF if played correctly is hard to rival. Their inherent weaknesses are very apparent, but if you use your Pretender to circumvent that flaw, they are very competitive.

BF Ulm is the consummate Rusher.

[Cohen]

It's that hero only of Black Forest theme?

[HotNifeThruButr]

Stay the (insert swear word of choice ) on topic!

Ahem, I've found that New Era Pangaea is an excellent theme. You've got some of the toughest infantry and cavalry around (Centaur Cataphracts can take a buttload of punishment, with knight-like armor and inhuman hp while Satyr Hoplites are no pushovers. You supercharged minotaurs (Grove Guards or Keeper of Traditions) are many times better than Caelian mammoths or Arcosephalean elephants because they don't rout through your infantry as much. Even though you only have spears and battleaxes, your units' natural strength makes up for this.

I won my first game with New Era