Unit Size

[Emelio Lizardo]

I'm playing Ulm a lot as spg. I only create spell caster commanders and a few black knights. With the religious option you get some decent priest/smith commanders and sacred calvary. Nothing stands up to that calvary. But luck blades, rainbow armor, etc are a must. Invest a lot in death and some in fire and you can create a horde of bane archers too. Massed formations of Ulm crossbow men deliver a deadly first strike, and they melee well too, so that's my main force. Only problem I've ever had is with Emore, once it crawls out from under its rock I just get swamped by the endless undead and any recaptured provinces are effectively dead zones. Doesn't help that my priests banish spells mostly target empty space. Which is the other problem with ulm, precision sucks.

[OG_Gleep]

Iron Faith? If thats what your talking about, I haven't tried them yet. Been playing standard, and I still don't get the hang up about their commanders.

I deck them out in full battle gear. Favorite spec is, BP Ulm commander, Frost Brand/Charcol Shield/Boots of Stone/Luck Pendant/Burning pearl.

Yes its a lot of points to invest, but these guys normally can hold the flanks for a block of infantry...and have turned back enemy units multiple times.

Right now, my two main melee generals are Bane Lords and BP Ulm Commanders. I back them up with Smiths with boots, and some type of regen, atleast one casting Legion of steel, and one or two blade wind specialists with Clockwork horror units racing for archers and rear units. The Banelords command summoned undead. I am finding Archers are liabilites in anything but pure Ulm armies, which by now I don't have many of. Any of my mainstay summonms, Clockwork horrors, and Pale riders get mowed down.

[Emelio Lizardo]

I traded the earth boots (sore feet) in favor of reinvigoration shoes/rainbow armor. Dump the burning pearl for missle protecton. My main undead commanders are mound fiends. With a ring of wizardry the unholy goes up to 4 and they pump out free mounted undead. With a sword of injustice one guy pumps out wights, free. A few toys and one has +30 fear.

Of course it doesn't hurt that I have both +50% forge hammers and the forge of the ancients running, which makes an ultra effecient toy factory.

Generally, as the smith/priests age they can handle larger squads. I make each commander have one squad with the full unit compliment, aside from guards. This is usually about the right size for progressive needs of the game. Also the AI, at least in Dom I, had a lot of problems dealing with armies of squads with different orders.

[Endoperez]

Smiths can do fine even without Earth Boots, but then they'd need Earth Power from Conjuration 3. As a friend of reinvigoration, I thunk Emelio already uses it...

However, if you want your Smiths to cast more fatiquing spells, remember that one extra level can halve the fatique.
Fatique from spell is:

1/ (casting mage's level - needed level),
so Earth 3 mage casting Blade Wind gets the whole fatique, level 4 only 1/2 and level 5 only 1/3 of the listed fatique.

[Emelio Lizardo]

Well, you're entirely correct. Earthboots are a fact of life until the smiths gain some levels, then their accuterments should also evolve. Earthblood stone is nice too, until the big rings are widely available. Then the rocks get put back with the research team/gem farm to be milked every few turns.

I find the priests from the iron faith are very valuable for their courage spells, and they smith just as well as the smiths. But the smiths can never get religion as the priests can gain level in magic, and they command more troops.

So in the beginning troop sizes are smaller than with the black commander but that's ok. The spell commanders evolve in time for mid and late game strategies. Which brings up an other issue, don't let your commanders get into melee. If your commanders are slugging critters you're doing something very wrong. I'd rather lose the whole squad than one commander.

I only melee assasins and bezerking, trampling, fast, super critters with god awful fear values. Just for fun I made a sprite into a bezerking trampling 4 point super assasin. Little bugger hasn't failed me yet.

It's only fair to note that at this point it is a struggle to keep the remaining AI alive so I can play with all the toys and summonings. I might have to retreat from some provinces so he can expand and not be wimped out by dominion. A MPG game could have a completely different strategy needs and timing, but I've never done on of those.

[shovah]

yea, i agree that regular commanders arent really combat material. wardens of man, jotuns andsuper-heavy knights qualify as do plenty of summons (a luckly fire shielded banelord alone is strong)

[Tom_Scudder]

Ulm's heroes (especially the unicorn-riding ones with the recuperation... hmm... recuperation...) are strong once they get decked out in eg elemental armor and the other fixings.