Dud nations

[HoneyBadger]

I have no problem with limiting Ulm's access to spells and increasing greatly their access to magic items, other appropriate spells, and holy magic. Maybe throw in the ability that any spell they have researched and could actually cast, they get a very hefty MR bonus against, in addition to being able to cast it.

[Teraswaerto]

Ulm's limitations on magic comes from their lack of mages being able to cast the spells. There is no reason to give them a different research tree.

[Xietor]

they are not limited if they take an alchemist pretender like the manual suggests. If they do that, it is only a matter of time until the alchemist finds the gems with which to cast most magical spells.

especially global spells, limited mages does not hinder a pretender from having strong astral or death magic, and casting global spells that are highly magical. As they arose from the cinders of ermor(that is their description), I cannot imagine they are fond of death magic or the undead.

of course, not having bane lord thugs, no real access to gift of reason, they would need a commander, like endoperez warlord, with some mr or special construction items to enhance mr, to have a prayer as an effective thug.

I can just see a warlord with a fire brand fighting ermor and getting smited 3 times a turn by its priests with an 8 or 9 mr. Yeah the lead shield sucks, i know all about it. But of course id give him that over nothing.

[DrPraetorious]

If you give Ulm lots of religious stuff they become just like Marignon. Their primary difference is that they lack the crazy religious crap, at least in the middle era.

-- edit: I said Ermor instead of Ulm. Sorry, was typing fast. --

How's about this for spells? It's from Vision of Escaflowne (an anime):

Construct Prognostication Engine, The Mage Smiths of Ulm have little patience for numerology or for squiting at specks in the celestial firmament. They construct prognostication engines, great steal contraptions driven by clockwork and magic, to perform such tasks for them.

Const 3, EEE, 15 gems, gives an immobile, drain-immune, inanimate astral-2 mage with a +2 research bonus, immunity to drain dominion and the ability to avert bad events.

Also - I hesitate to suggest this because I'm not sure if it's moddable, but how about a national spell that triggers a resource increasing event? This would prevent Ulm from going on a rampage early but would boost your production enough to let you stay competitive with summoned armies in the mid game, I would think.

[Xietor]

great ideas, dr.

But Ulm needs a melee thug. That is a thematic. Endoperez warlord is good, except he either needs better mr, or unique construction items to boost his absurdly low mr. that do not require astral magic.

(Ermor MA has level 3 priests btw. I did not make that race heh. so i cannot answer why they have high level priests. But Ermor is fine as is, i just used them as an example of a race with level 3 priests).

I also think all pikemen, not just Ulms, should get a significant attack bonus against mounted units. Can you imagine charging into a wall of set pikes? Yes the 1st wall of pike would take big losses from the charge bonus, but charging into set pikes would also take a big toll on the 1st wave of calvary units.

maybe a 1st strike ability, with a high attack by the pike when facing a calvary unit?

I also think the warlord should have his leadership increased to 80. If the nobleman's morale is to be left at 8, he should have leadership zero. Not many of the ulm warriors of steel would follow a coward.

[Teraswaerto]

Should Abysia be prevented from casting water spells, LA Ermor from nature, etc.?

The concept of pretenders does not dictate that the pretender must stick to such things that are thematic to the nation. It is a being of power that uses a nation to get what it wants, why should it care about it's servants not liking like magic? Giving Ulm more thematic pretender choices would be good, but I see no reason to take away the possibility to cast unthematic spells.

[B0rsuk]

Teraswaerto:

Why should Ulm rely on unthematic pretenders to get the job done ? Why not just improve existing pretenders ?

-----

Balancing Ulm sounds very hard. If you improve their national units too much, you'll end up with another Vanheim. No matter what you do to national units, all of them are available from the start.

It sounds like Ulm's best hope is to attack early before enemies accumulate mages and research. This is directly in conflict with the idea of fighting only in your own dominion !

Some thematic improvements:
- assassins with unusually high MR and perhaps even 20-ish elemental resistance. They can even be supernatural or something. Someone already came up with this idea before.

- Perhaps give them 20 percent discount when bidding for mercenaries ?

- Standard bearers/Horn blowers with enchanted standards/horns. Increases MR of nearby units !

- Allow them to alchemize (captured) magic items into gems.

- make their PD scary

- change Black Plate so that it provides MR bonus

- do something !

[HoneyBadger]

That's a good point, Teraswaerto. If a nation is restricted for no good reason other than theme, then it also restricts the different ways it can be played, and in the end makes it a less viable nation. Just because you're a Niefel Jarl doesn't mean you can't empower levels of fire magic and start casting fireballs. It may not be a good idea, 99% of the time, but it's possible, it's there.