Best Ulm troops early/mid? ArmorPierce v ArmorNeg

[PvK]

No, fatigue only comes when units do close combat attacks, or cast spells. Marching doesn't cause fatigue. Still, the heavy plate does cause fatigue that can make the chainmail Ulmish infantry better in some situations than the plate infantry. Also because you get more of them.

They're all tough, so when you need more numbers, like at the beginning, I tend to go for the fastest builds: Maul/Axe Chainmail troops, with some shield/mail troops to block arrows.

PvK

[Boron]

PvK said:
No, fatigue only comes when units do close combat attacks, or cast spells. Marching doesn't cause fatigue. Still, the heavy plate does cause fatigue that can make the chainmail Ulmish infantry better in some situations than the plate infantry. Also because you get more of them.

They're all tough, so when you need more numbers, like at the beginning, I tend to go for the fastest builds: Maul/Axe Chainmail troops, with some shield/mail troops to block arrows.

PvK

whats base encumberance then ?
there is base encumberance , lowest value
melee encumberance , midvalue .
and spell casting encumberance , highest value .

so do you get the base encumberance then by missile weapons like bows ?

[PvK]

No. Base encumbrance is the encumbrance of the unit when it is nude. Encumbrance values of equipment are added to this to get effective encumbrance.

PvK

[Arralen]

.. and twice the equipment encumbrance is added to get the effective spellcasting encumbrance.

So wearing heavy armor is a no-no for a spellcaster, usually.

[deccan]

PvK said:
No, fatigue only comes when units do close combat attacks, or cast spells. Marching doesn't cause fatigue.

Except Clockwork Horrors anyway. I just found out the hard way those things get 15 fatigue per turn even if they just stand there doing nothing.

[PvK]

I didn't think to add, "... for units that don't run on wind-up springs ..."

PvK

[Arryn]

PvK said:
I didn't think to add, "... for units that don't run on wind-up springs ..."

heh. That's *magical*, not wound-up, springs.

[CUnknown]

I like the arbelists a lot, especially for beginning expansion. They do immense damage...the problem being that they can hurt your own troops, so I usually set them to 'fire archers'.

[Arryn]

The key thing with missile troops is to put them on your wings (flanks) firing towards the enemy (the AI almost always places its troops along the centerline). That way, your missileers won't be directly shooting over (or into the backs of) your own troops. The "firing archers" command is nice for making sure your volleys try to avoid your own troops, but it also has the drawback that it won't cut down the number of enemy troops charging your own, nor hurting them so they'll fail morale faster. I find that very frequently the enemy unit charging me will break morale and rout just as it's reaching my front line, due to the massive storm of arrows coming from both of my rear flanks. It's quite nice when they do that and your own swordsmen don't have to risk their skins, the archers (and mages) having done all the dirty work. It's especially important as Caelum, since the winged folk aren't even remotely (except for iceclads) as tough as Ulms are.