Questions and Comments About the Improved MA Ulm

Stryke11 · #1 April 12th, 2008, 01:05 AM

Haha, just read that thread your referenced. I'm sad the general consensus is that even with the improvements the nation is still underpowered.

I did like that Edi had basically the same suggestion as I did in regards to upping the random magic %. He's like a mod here so maybe his opinion will carry weight for the next patch.

One thing I'm still not sure of is if the new guardians are worthless against regular troops and just exceptional against sacreds, or if they are good all around to recruit?

Edi · #2 April 12th, 2008, 04:26 AM

The new guardian still has an assload of protection so he's fairly durable. I also had the great misfortune in one SP game of running into an AI Ulm that had been massing guardians. I was running a bless based Eriu and encountering him on turn ten or thereabouts with hard research on and the impossible AI getting a 60% resource bonus on top of the 25% Ulm already gets, it wasn't pretty. My army was wiped out in a single battle against a foe they outnumbered two or three to one. And that was his secondary army...

Endoperez · #3 April 12th, 2008, 06:50 AM

What about changing the starting army of MA Ulm? Currently, they start with 16 shieldless infantry, while most other nations start with mixed infantry/archer force. 9 pikeneers/9 arbalests would help them quite a bit IMO.

Sombre · #4 April 12th, 2008, 06:52 AM

I really think black priests are rubbish for MA Ulm. The only thing they have going for them is that they are holy 2, as pointed out. But they are also cap only and you will almost always want to build something else to rush your research, since Ulm needs its key spells in a hurry. Namely the priest-smith, who is alos cap only and for the most part is simply better than the black priest.

Black priests are great for LA Ulm though.

Endoperez · #5 April 12th, 2008, 06:56 AM

Access to H2 is good enough, IMO. You won't recruit more than few, but those few for the early game armies not lead by your prophet help keep your units from suiciding. Retreating heavy infantry almost always dies before they get anywhere...

Dedas · #6 April 12th, 2008, 07:04 AM

The inquisition bonus is quite nice when sieging castles in enemy dominion.

Oh, and iron darts and iron blizzard is awesome against magic beings. Quite good on normal units as well.
What makes them good is the high precision, good range and "boostability". Iron blizzard is 30+ effects.

Sombre · #7 April 12th, 2008, 07:14 AM

Sure, but priest smith is your guy for those spells, not black priest, iirc.

The inquisition bonus on the very few black priests you might actually build is a very minor consideration. I guess they would be a unit you'd build every turn if someone was domkilling you, to preach in your cap. That's another very minor niche.

Edi · #8 April 12th, 2008, 07:25 AM

The Black Priests are supposed to be marginal in MA. The Iron Inquisition has not yet risen and it is only emerging from the Black Order.

So you build a few of those when necessary and build priest-smiths the rest of the time in your capital and master smiths elsewhere. MA Black Priests are designed to be niche instead of common as dirt. Otherwise it screws up the thematics of the nation.