Ulm beefed up ...

[Huzurdaddi]

Hey Huzurdaddi! We're not making special pretenders to win on a small map. We're playing standard mid-size map pretenders.

And I have a chance to win every game, and not just on turn 8-9.

Doh my bad then. If you are going for mid game power then I expect to see Ghost Kings. Let he who can construct the best ghost king win!

You could have human pretenders on each side. This would make the national troops more of a factor. Or you could specify immobile pretender ( and when I say immobile I mean the sphinx -- this would almost totally eliminate the pretender from the game ).

Oh and while you were specifying which nations were allowed and not allowed I see that you did not mention Jotunheim. Those giants like to crush humans in cans.