Questions and Comments About the Improved MA Ulm

[Stryke11]

Just had a chance to work with these guys.

I'll be honest, I wish the devs decided to borrow the idea from the Black Steel of Ulm mod to give the Smiths a 20% chance of random picks instead of 10%. I mean, they have not much else going for them, and even with the 20% I rarely got a random.

What happened to the Smith sprite? He looks more suited to EA now than MA...I liked the powerful looking armored guy.

Also, what is the point of the new units? The Priest-Smith and the Black Priest are both ok, but don't they compete? I mean, they are practically the same. Why does the priest even have magic if they hate magic, wouldn't he technically be a priest-smith then? If he had to have magic it would have been nice for it to be something that wasn't earth (astral, astral, astral...). I like the Priest-Smith because he's drain resistant, and can build temples and labs. But I can't find any use at all for the Black Priest...am I missing something?

I think the new Guardian Commander's anti-sacred ability looks really cool, but haven't had a chance (and probably won't likely be able to, as I'm playing against AI) to see it in action. Unless it's way overpowered, though, I don't see why ALL guardians can't have it. That would be really cool, a crack anti-sacred squad. As it is now, cool or not, I can't imagine a Guardian Lord taking down Van's or anything, that is, being in a situation where he can use his power before getting destroyed.

Anyone know what specifically the special ability "Bane of Heretics" or whatnot that the haldberds have does?

I haven't summoned an Iron Angel yet but am really looking forward to it. Nor have I seen the effect of the new battlefield holy/earth combo spells.

All in all, I rate this as a good improvement to MA Ulm, but I still think some of the things addressed in the Black Steel mod (Black Duke's as freespawn generating thugs, and the 20% chance of random) were better. But then again, I may have missed something, so I wanted to share my observations with all of you and see what everyone else thought.