MA Ulm in CBM 1.9x

[Knai]

Originally Posted by shatner

The fact that Bandar Log can't be bothered to field anything with a shield larger than a buckler annoys me to no end but that nation works despite the weakness. That weakness is even part of what makes Bandar Log feel like Bandar Log (as well as being truer to it's Hindu mythological roots). If you insist that Ulm have some pathological fixation of self-defeating ranged weaponry, so be it. The onus is then on you to submit a way to make the crunch work within, and despite, the fluff.

1) Small Reinvig on all troops, with more on Black Plate troops. Say 2 and 3, and maybe even 4 on all sacred units.
2) Increase Arbalest range to 50. Increase precision of all Arbalest units. This gives it another niche, as it is able to pepper troops from a distance that exceeds even long bows.
3) Increased mage power, as discussed earlier.
4) New national spells. Blade wind is glorious, but only kicks in at high levels, and Iron Darts doesn't really supplement that much. I'm not sure about the specifics here, but an enchantment spell that gives a whirling blade equivalent to poison cloud could work, particularly if the damage was kept low. 6 non AP damage will barely harm Ulmish troops at all, but those who get close to them while unarmored will get cut down.
5) Everyone wielding a black halberd gets actual awe, not a cheap imitation.

[Amorphous]

While I am not the most avid player of CBM and disagree with a number of changes I have the utmost respect for the work put in and the intention to balance things while keeping as much as possible of original theme and feel for each nation. The changes suggested in this thread have very little in common with that.

You essentially propose a nation with wide access to recruitable, powerful, low-encumbrance troops with magic weapons, reliable access to at least 2 levels of every magical path except water and blood and on top of that some extra national spells.

Can you truly not see a balance problem here?
Not to mention the idiosyncrasy of giving a supposedly magic-hating nation one of the broadest magic-bases in the MA.


I am sure that those with more experience of CBM can provide better advice, but I will offer some of my own.

Adding N and D to the MA Ulm magic base is not advisable. If you feel the need for more magic - which should not be necessary with the latest CBM changes - you should limit it to the paths already present. For reference, human nations having access to "only" four paths is not uncommon in the MA - look at Ermor, Machaka, Man, Marignon or Pythium.

Adding magic weapons to ordinary troops is something of which you should be wary. Ulm already has very well armoured troops with good attack and damage as well as good morale and low encumbrance. Ulm already has a magic weapon wielder in the guardian and it is a quite good one. Against ordinary troops, the other troops in the Ulm roster is better, but against sacred troops (of which there are a lot more than the two examples brought up), for popping mistform and for ignoring etherealness, it is a top-notch unit.



A few other things:
The calculation of troop costs are off. Upkeep is 1/15th of purchase price, so waiting 3 turns would add 2 to the price. Of course, this would only be true for 1/3 of the troops that wait. Average price increase for waiting troops would be 4/3gp. Also, you have to ask yourself why you are not building more castles. With production 3 and the Ulm production bonus, you should not have to wait 3 turns to have a decent number of your "lightly" armoured troops as long as you build an adequate number of castles.

Arbalests with their high damage, long range and decent precision are a good addition to MA Ulm. If you want ordinary arrows there are plenty of independent variants available in the MA, but arbalests are much better against heavily armoured troops than the also commonly available independent crossbows (or ulm's own sappers). While ulmish troops do decent damage, they do not do that much against some of the heavier infantry available to some nations. Especially since quite a few nations can easily add things like protection to the mix. Sure, in a vacuum ulmish heavy infantry will eventually win, but heavy infantry is often used merely as a delaying tactic. Ask yourself if you really want to try to whittle down arcoscephalian hoplite hp one at a time, while a communion of mystics sit in safety behind them. As Ulm you have tower shields and probably a lower encumbrance as well as better protection than the opposing heavy infantry. Arbalests will hurt them considerably more than you.