Mod: MA Ulm : \

[Sombre]

I think you just might be my favourite poster Dedas. You're inspiring me to go on a heavy resource Ulm, Ulm Reborn and Abysia rampage.

[Sombre]

I think you just might be my favourite poster Dedas. You're inspiring me to go on a heavy resource Ulm, Ulm Reborn and Abysia rampage.

[Xietor]

Very informative post! So if you were playing on a map with only "border mountains" would you still build a castle line next to your castle(ie no peg castles?).

Well, at least i know your strategy in our new game, and i know why you had the host put in "real" mountains on the map lol.

Ded, try the black steel ulm mode and see if you think it is balanced. it does improve ulm a good bit.

I played the newest version for a few hours last night, and I think free knights the black duke summons are too much. And there has to be a way to limit the free troops to 1 duke at a time.

It is unbalancing to have more than 1 duke summoning.

[Amhazair]

Sombre said:
I think you just might be my favourite poster Dedas. You're inspiring me to go on a heavy resource Ulm, Ulm Reborn and Abysia rampage.

Keep in mind though that there's a big difference between Abysia and Ulm. True, they both have slow, heavily armoured, resource heavy troops, but that's where the similarity ends. The strategy Dedas posted for Ulm works so great because Ulm has cheap troops and cheap mages, and thus has tons of free money lying around to build new castles. Abysia on the other hand has expensive troops, expensive mages, and will loose part of its income to blood hunting...

[Dedas]

Yes "real" mountains are very helpful if you want to build that strong chain of Castles (Peg-Castles, 700 defense 20 admin) without any draining from adjacent provinces; provinces where you in the future might want to build additional fortresses.
Forests are also good but not nearly as good as mountains because you only get to build Forest Fortresses (300 defense, 15 admin) and they cost the same amount of gold (1000).

The main strategy is that you want to cram in as may fortresses as possible, as resource effective as possible, within a small area so that they can help each other in with defense. You also want them to have maximum defense for Ulm, thus Peg-Castles.

If you later want more gold you should build a fortress on a high population farmland (they tend to have high pop), so that you get the 25% income bonus. But this is a much later worry, so don't spend those 1200 gold on that Fortified City in the beginning. Mainly because it won't give you much resources if it hasn't mountains and forests around it (that you have to clear out of course, taking time and resources in form of losses).

Building a Fortified City or Citadel (the latter is the standard type, meaning it gets built on border mountains) makes those provinces around them quite useless for further fortress building. Because if you do build additional fortresses there you cut of the (main) resource income to the Fortified City or Citadel. You still have some of the money though, but in the beginning it isn't worth it.

Another thing, as you get the 25% resource bonus in every Ulmish castle it is wise to try to have as MANY castles as possible instead of focusing on a small amount of high admin ones. With some races you should do the opposite but not with Ulm.

To summarize: Mountains, and to some extent forests, are the thing you want to look for when playing Ulm; or any resource heavy nation for that matter.

[Sombre]

Oh I know Abysia is very different, I just want to try a resource focused strategy with them. I normally see high resource cost due to equipment as a handicap rather than a plus, but with the right strat that could change.

[Xietor]

I finally got around to testing this Dedas, and the problem with building a castle next to your capital is that your capital cannot draw any resources from a province that contains a castle.

So while you do increase the production of the province with the peg castle, you still reduce the resources of your capital by the amount of resources that province(the one with the peg castle) was producing before you built the peg castle.

[Dedas]

Yes I stated that above. This is no problem though as one more castle (another commander slot) is much better than the few resources you lose in your capitol. And remember: you do not lose resources per se, as they now are inside your new castle on top of that extra 50% that your capitol couldn't draw.
This does not mean that you should surround your capitol with fortresses. Just build one or two to begin the chain.
Also, this is the only good way to get competitive in research (yes you need to... especially with Ulm) as you can crank out hordes of the cheap and useful smiths eventually.

This IS a good strategy. Just look on the graphs in our recent MP game. Note my research and note that I've been at war with Pangaea and their war minotaurs from the start (not a weak nation).

[Xietor]

I see. You are limiting this strategy to Ulm. I was thinking of races that had a unique capital only troops that need every resource they can get at their main capital.

Ulm does not really have any great capital only troops, so i stand corrected.

[Quitschi]

ALthough a chain mail is useful at protecting the wielder from cuts and stabs, wouldn't a heavy blow from a war hammer or a mace ram all those little rings right throught the underlayer into ones skin?