Rebalance Mod game now running on a 24h timer.

[Ironhawk]

If you all will be kind enough to PM me with the province # of your respective capitals I will do my best to come and end your feud. PERMANENTLY!!! Heheheh.

As for me, one interesting thing I have noted about Ulm is that I am buying only one type of infantry. I want to diversify into the other infantries, but I cant because thier high resource costs mean low troop numbers. And with numbers that low I must ensure that all men in the squad have the same speed or they will "run" ahead and be killed and shatter the squad morale.

Additionally, I think the change to increase the cost of the Black Knight back up to its original 60gp was a mistake. While that makes them a *really* great deal, the truth is that the knights are Ulm's only truly potent weapon given its lack of any useful magic. They need to be a good deal for ulm to have any chance at all in a regular game.

[The_Tauren13]

OK, sorry I got angry with you earlier. It was just the combined anger from this bug and from something going on in another of my games.
To be honest, I took those 2 provinces because they were easier than anything else, and with hardly any money I couldnt put together much to go after real strong indies. When I saw I was adjacent to your cap, I decided "Aw what the heck, Ill start a war and get killed quickly to end the pain." Didnt realize just how good those sacred dudes are.

[Graeme Dice]

The_Tauren13 said:
Does anyone know if this god damned bug has been reported?

Many times.

[Graeme Dice]

The_Tauren13 said:
Didnt realize just how good those sacred dudes are.

Eagle warriors are even better in many cases, as they can cause huge amounts of havoc with a fire-9 blessing.

[Saber Cherry]

Ironhawk said:
As for me, one interesting thing I have noted about Ulm is that I am buying only one type of infantry. I want to diversify into the other infantries, but I cant because thier high resource costs mean low troop numbers. And with numbers that low I must ensure that all men in the squad have the same speed or they will "run" ahead and be killed and shatter the squad morale.

Yeah, this is an interesting problem for me with Jotuns and Vaetti as well. They are excellent to mix together, giving 2 Vaetti and 1 Jotun per square. But Jotuns run way ahead unless you start them on the far right of the tactical map.

You might consider buying a cheap militia screen to stall the opponents, so that if the speed different is low, the slower ones have a chance to catch up by the time the enemy eats through the militia to hit your faster units. Other than that, and starting them at the far right, I'm not sure what can be done, but I'll look at the infantry lineup and their speeds...

Additionally, I think the change to increase the cost of the Black Knight back up to its original 60gp was a mistake. While that makes them a *really* great deal, the truth is that the knights are Ulm's only truly potent weapon given its lack of any useful magic. They need to be a good deal for ulm to have any chance at all in a regular game.

I should note that you're expanding faster than anyone at this point But obviously, that may change when you start encountering nations and magic. I've been giving some thought to additional changes to Ulm units, like ingraining elemental and/or magic resistances into the armor, such that Full Plate + Full Helmet units become substantially different (better) than Chain + Helmet units, and more expensive.

Tien Chi and Mictlan: It's unfortunate to hear that you're both encountering problems. That negative scales bug is especially annoying... I'd thought it had been fixed.

Thanks for the suggestions on Tien Chi; Communion as a national spell (and MotW communicants) is probably a good idea, as flight is sort of... bleh. I'll look at Fire Demon stats and weapons precision as well; I've never used them, only the default TC summons. I was underwhelmed with the pig-men, though; very expensive for such a terrible unit.

[The Panther]

As for the TC Celestial Servents, the latest Zen mod has them mostly fixed: Those pig guys are now 2 earth gems, which is just about perfect for their worth (they are sacred which is why I think the 2 gem cost is correct). I truly doubt that nobody other than a rank beginner would spend 4 earth gems on them in the unmodded game version.

Also, the Celestial Soldiers can now be cast by any old CM under the Zen mod with the new A1S1 path requirements.

Heck, a bless effect for TC now becomes a very strong option because of the national summons!

All I can say is, GO ZEN!

Of course, S&A and BK are both still weaker themes in a very weak race. Zen mods alone cannot change this simple fact.

[quantum_mechani]

The Panther said:


Of course, S&A and BK are both still weaker themes in a very weak race. Zen mods alone cannot change this simple fact.

His nation mod might

(hopefully it can be merged with SC's mods)

[Huzurdaddi]

The Panther said:
Heck, a bless effect for TC now becomes a very strong option because of the national summons!

Well I don't know about very strong. The celestial soldiers with a N9 blessing are quite good. However note that your national mages are sacred as well and you really don't want them going beserk.

Still N9 celestial soldiers in are quite nice.

[Ironhawk]

Saber Cherry said:
Yeah, this is an interesting problem for me with Jotuns and Vaetti as well. They are excellent to mix together, giving 2 Vaetti and 1 Jotun per square. But Jotuns run way ahead unless you start them on the far right of the tactical map.

It is a fault of the game, really. A squad should attempt to stay together, even if it means moving as slow as the slowest unit (except if routing or some kind of special case). In the particular case of Ulm, my suggestion would be to just make all the "heavy" versions of each infantry have the same speed, speed 5 i believe. And all the light versions of the infantry have speed 7. That way you can mix and match to really get full use out of Ulm's only real assest, its armies.

Please note that I am not suggesting this to be done all across the board for all nations. I just think its valuable and viable in the case of Ulm since thier troops are all ***-slow anyway that I don't think anyone is going to complain about a loss of 2 movement points.

I should note that you're expanding faster than anyone at this point

I am. But my expansion is almost entirely due to a very strong pretender and effective use of mercenaries. From my test games (without pretender or mercs) I found that Ulm expanded at a rate of about 1 prov/turn vs indy 9 on turns 3 thru 9 whereupon you can just barely squeak out a second force for an average of 1.5/2 provs/turn after that. Which, to me, didnt seem radically different from any of the other strong military nations (man, abysia, etc..)

[Arralen]

speed starting Ulm
Try my Ulm mod - it's floating around on the forum (search for "Black Steel of Ulm"

To make all troops have the same battlefield speed an easy and not so easy task at once:
Battlefield speed depends on ("base chassis AP"-encumbrance), so as you as you change equipment speed changes most likely as well. Therefore it's the base speed of a unit that has to be adjusted. This can easily done via #ap <action points>. But you'll have to fiddle around with the value to get the desired result. Maybe sometimes you won't be able to really hit the mark and end up 1..2 movement points off. Which isn't that bad in my experience as long as the troops needn't march across the whole field before meeting the enemy.

Noted this down for the next version of "Black Steel of Ulm".

EDIT: Just skimmed through the unit roster with my mod active. See and behold: All inf has either 6,8, or 10 movement points. So there's the possibility to mix sensibly them already present. Try it out.

May I ask you a favour, Cherry? Could you keep Ulm out of your Rebalance Mod? Ulms Inf should be very special anyway. Furthermore, our mods wouldn't be incompatible then. I really hate it if we both put a lot of work (you considerably more than me ) into it and one makes the other invalid ...

edited: EDIT