EA Ulm advice wanted

[Covenant]

Let's assume that we don't even use the blesses for anything. What then is the purpose of our Pretender? Do we go with a SC to take out starting Indies, or with some kind of researcher/mage to compliment our magic summons?

[Kalin]

If you want blesses, I think the best for Ulm would be S9A4, more Air if you can afford it. This gives +3 MR, Twist fate and some arrow defense. If you go with a Dormant Oracle, you could easily go S9A6 and still have plenty left over for scales. Astral/Air bless covers your sacred's greatest weakness, no shield, and terrible MR (all of EA Ulm's units have 8), having twist fate also allow them to live longer, which is always a plus.

If you don't want blesses, the best path is to go for scales and/or an SC. My choice would be an awake D4 Prince of Death with 9 dominion. For scales, I'd go with a 2 Drain (to help your low MR troops), 3 production (to make lots of troops), 1 cold (your preference), the rest into order/growth (depends on how you like to play).

[Sombre]

I hadn't noticed that about the Ulmish warriors. Seems like they're in drastic need of a rebalance (with more #ambi bonus).

Personally I wouldn't consider playing EA Ulm without strong positive scales - you need to be able to crank out hordes to make up for dodgy sacreds and lack of magic firepower.

[Teraswaerto]

Something to keep in mind about units with 2 attacks: -> 2 chances to score a hit. Someone could do math on whether or not that is worse than 1 attack with a little more attack rating.

That said, another problem they have is the lack of shields. Anyone can round up some some kind of missile force, so shields will often be the better choice.

[Edi]

The thing about the Ulmish warriors is that they have an attack of 10 for warrior and axe warrior and 11 for forest and mountain warrior. Axe and forest warriors have 2 axes and a throwing axe while warriors and mountain warriors have axe and broad sword.

Penalties, 2 axes:
-1 attack on axe, axe+axe = ambidex penalty of 2, making for a total penalty of 3. Subtract ambidex rating of 1 and final penalty is 2, for 2 attacks at 8. This means that the second attack can be treated as if it were attack 10 against the target's normal defense.

Penalties axe + broadsword
lengths 1+2=3, axe -1 and broadsword 0 and ambidex reduces penalty by 1, Final result is attack ratings axe 7, broadsword 8 for a unit with base attack 10. Meaning attack 7 + attack 10 against normal defense of target. Not exactly something that fills you with confidence.

Then take a look at Steel Maiden: Attack 12, 2x shortsword and ambidex 1. Length 1+1=2, reduced to 1 by ambidex, gives you two attacks at base 11. The steel maiden is more heavily armored than the basic warrior and has only 2 points less body prot than the forest and mountain warriors, much better attack and defense, has a strat move of 2 plus stealth, whereas neither forest nor mountain warrior is stealthy and both have strat move of 1.

Shield maidens swap one short sword for a shield, giving them one attack at 12 and a def of 15, 11 without shield. Shield maidens, steel maidens and warrior maidens (the armored archer) all cost 13 resources to the warrior/axe warrior's 10 or forest/mountain warrior's 16.

Can ANYONE please tell me why anyone could possibly want to buy anything but shield, steel and warrior maidens as EA Ulm unless they really intend to use the axe warriors for shock effect with the throwing axes and then to soak up damage from the enemy while the women do the actual fighting and killing. Mixing half steel and half shield maidens will give some punch and improve overall squad survivability and lessen the morale effects of a rain of arrows.

E.g. Ermorian units eat Ulmish warriors for breakfast, but the maidens are a different story.

Edi

[Potatoman]

One thing to keep in mind is that successive attacks in a round reduce the victim's defense value by 2 for each attack, so the second Axe Warrior attack will effectively 2 points higher. The extra defense penalties stack very nicely if your warriors outnumber high defense enemies, allowing them to hit their foes easily.

[Edi]

Why bother with the axe warriors when the steel maidens can do the same thing for melee more effectively? And last longer because they substantially higher defense and better protection to boot. You might want them for the throwing axes, but then they will be reaching melee later because they pause to throw the axes first, and you can't make EA Ulm work solely with axe/forest warriors because their low defense gets them killed too quickly.

The difference of defense between steel maiden and the warriors is between 2 and 5 and shield maiden and warriors is between 5 and 8. You do the math.

Edi