I have never won a sp game...

[shovah]

my naga gives my white centaurs +6 berserk in my current sp game

[High_Priest_Naresh]

it is possible I have seen it and if I wasnt past it at the time I would of got a screen shot

[Morkilus]

I just won my first SP game, but it took a long time, from the comparisons I get to other big MP's... turn 90. I did spend plenty of time screwing around, and often forgot to set thing correctly just because I "had to see the next battle right away"... you know. Unfortunately the AI started to beat itself up towards the end, mainly by sending pathetic forces headlong into my 21+ PD. (I was playing Ulm). I had a terrible time assaulting Man's castle because of the mages who spammed me with dragonflies; but then it attacked into my beseiging forces and I could get my knights back around to knock out the mage. An army of flying amazons and their devil cohorts really helped me out in the end to clean up after the AI started a rampage; reminds me of the Eastern Front tactics in WW2: let them in, and cut them off. Every subsequent attack by the AI cost them due to those blacksteel-clad crossbowmen. I have a feeling such a tactic won't work in MP...

[Valandil]

Longest game I have ever played was 357 turns (Faerun). The AI is unable to counter many MP strategies. Even fairly weak SCs (banelords and suchlike) can cause severe problems for the computer. Or you could play Ermor.

[Frostmourne27]

I find that against the AI I will either utterly dominate or fail miserably. As Ulm I don't actually think it's really nesescary to use a large number of summons. If you can get conjuration 7 there are a large number of options available to you. Riches from beneath is excellent for ulm, particularily with a number of fortresses, earth blood deep well and enliven statues. One of my number one goals when playing ulm is to find a province that can recruit sages. Although master smiths are not bad researchers sages are undoubtebly better and help ulm's reletivly poor research get ahead (or at least to break even).

[isodea]

Just had my first SP win as Ulm. 1 on 1 vs. C'tis.

I had a province that could recruit wizards which helped big time. I built up five powerful armies, about 70 troops each, and started an all out war. The very next turn my pretender was killed by a horror! I don't even know why! Needless to say I was shocked. I had planned a good portion of my strategy around my pretender kicking some hiney, so that threw a considerable wrench in the proceedings. The next 6-7 turns was chaos but the strong design of my armies payed off as C'tis's forces were brought down one by one.
The AI pretender (scorpion king) routed two armies before he finally died in a satisfying puff of red blood
The best battle of the whole game was my "kinda SC" spy teleporting around and spawning undead with his skull talisman, horror helm, teleport shoes (forgot the name), cloak of shadows, and lucky blade. He routed an army of 30 something lower quality troops and a shaman.

All in all it was fun but didn't really feel like a great win. My attack was fairly haphazard and weak now that I think about it. Also the use of province defence is a huge advantage to the human player. The AI doesen't seem to understand it.

Any suggestions for a race to try next?

[Endoperez]

Sorry for writing a post this long!

What kind of armies did you build? Did you just recruit slow, lumbering Heavy Infantry of Ulm? Or did you accompany them with e.g. Archers? Archers, cheapest indies only costing 3 resources, can be produced in large quantities. They also probably won't hurt your Ulmish troops, unlike your own Arbalests!

Did you use Black Knights? How many? They can be very powerful troops, but they are also expensive. Using few of them can help your armies, using too many drains out your money.

How did you use your Master Smiths? Did you use Earth Power from Conjuration path? Did you make Earth Boots from Construction? What about Dwarven Hammers?
Did you use Evocations? Magma Bolts, Blade Wind or Magma Eruption?

Besides questions, here are few answers:
The horror that attacked was either due to a spell (Send Lesser Horror, Send Horror) or from combination of Horror Mark. Magical province, Misfortune or otherwise bad luck.

As Ulm, using your national units, there is a simple path that works very well: Production 3, Drain 3. A good castle is also a must. Master Smiths are immune to the research-lowering effect of Drain! For the other scales, you could go for lots and lots of money (Order, some Growth), or gamble for fortune (Luck, Growth for money, Order weakens Luck).
While Ulm benefits from rainbow pretender, too much is too much. On the other hand, some combinations are invaluable to Ulm. Also, some Rainbow pretender can be used offensively even early in the game. Quickness, Eagle Eyes and almost any early Evocation can be deadly, and Quickness/Mind Burn is also very good.
Cyclops with enough Earth for Forge of the Ancients can help Ulm immensely. It also works well with Enliven Statues, high in Thaumaturgy.

As you are learning the game, I'd suggest that you return to Ulm. But trying a different nation first, so that you can see the power of some other strategy, can have a huge impact on how you play without them. You might want to try archers/crossbows strategy: Man has Longbowmen and the mages can cast Wind Guide, Marignon has Crossbowmen and the mages can cast Flaming Arrows, Machaka has very cheap Archers and can also aquire Flaming Arrows. Machaka also has Death, so they could benefit more from Enchantment.
All three have cheap mages that can research very fast with some Magic. You don't need as many resources in these strategies, so don't take Production. You could even go for Sloth if you think you cna manage without heavy-armored frontline for the archers. Also, for pretender, take something different. If you had a cheap pretender, like Wyrm /Manticore with little/no magic, take something expensive. If you had a rainbow, go for single path mastery. Else, go for a rainbow. And you might try cheap Wyrm if you want to try having lots of good scales and a good fort.
Expensive single-path mages, for blessings as well:
Marignon, Man: Fire 9 Moloch. Machaka's spider would benefit too, but they already have lots of fire and I usually don't go for flaming spider fangs.
Machaka: Nature 9. Now the Spiders are really bad boys. And they Berserk, so they won't run away.
Cheap, single-path, for a weak blessing and possibly spesific spell or item:
Man: Air 6 - if you use Wardens, they are protected from missiles. Your Mages also benefit.
Man/Marignon: Earth 4/6 - Reinvigoration and sacred mages is a good combination.
Man/Machaka: Oracle with Astral 4-5 - blessing isn't great, but Astral has lots of interesting spells. In addition, if you can afford Earth as well, you get interesting items and boosters with Earth/Astral combination.
Machaka: Death 4-5 - blessing isn't very useful, but your mages already have some Death, and some spells can be cast more often (Raise Dead) in battle, others benefit from higher path (Undead Horsemen), and this really makes Enchantment useful for you.

Try using mages in fights. Machaka has EF casters, they can do Magma Bolts. The other mages also have their uses, but you might be overwhelmed with the many directions available to you. As Machaka also has well-armored Hoplites, it is quite similar to Ulm in many accounts, you probably feel most familiar with it. PD is very weak, though, so you have to find other ways of defending your empire.
Marignon starts with Holy Pyre, so you can use your mages or pretender in even the first battles. The troops have good weapons, but ony Man-at-arms have shields - and with you crossbows, this means they won't survive as well as your Ulmians. You can also go for for either Evocation or Thaumaturgy - Fire has pure damage, Astral goes through armor but is blocked by magic resistance. Don't forget Conjuration and Phoenix Power, nor Alteration! Phoenix Pyre can be fun, Incinerate is deadly, and you get Body Ethereal. PD is Crossbows, and very similar to Ulm, and also has priests in the case your enemy brings undead.
Man has Longbowmen, which are very good. The melee units aren't very good, but at least they have shields. You also have limited Stealth capability - Monks are stealth preachers, Mothers can sneak, Wardens and Lord Wardens are stealthy... If you happen to find a Druid province, or even a Brigand's Lair, add stealthy archers. This works better with offensive blessing, of course. Man also has weak PD. Nature is quite supportive path, but Air has some powerful Evocations. You can go for many directions: Vine Men/Ogres (Mothers+Thistle Mace+Vine Crown is expensive to set up, but pays back), Call of the Wild, supply items, Firbolgs, regeneration...

[isodea]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice Endoperez.
To answer your Q's...

I had drain 3, order 2, and 7 dominion since it said their priests are weak, which they are. My preists were preaching to a deaf audiance. The evil reptillians of C'tis dominated the dominion side of things. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Envy.gif[/img] Now that I think about it I also totally forgot to make a prophet! Definatly need to work on dominion heheh.

In each of my armies I had mainly archers and heavy inf. supported by 10-15 black knights, a wizard and a master smith. Black Knights are some bad dudes

Two of my armies had an elite group of knights that collected experiance on loads of indies. C'tis was mowed down by them Infact only those 2 armies survived with any considerable numbers left at the end. Would have been a lot easier if my pretender's death wasen't so ill-timed. He (master druid) commanded an army of vine ogres and crushers and supported a golem. The golem still went on to cause some damage but in the chaos of war I forgot to get him another wizard for support and he died. Some wasted potential there. I'll probably make more golems next time. They seemed powerful if used right.

I also tried to recruit every merc that had a big army. Often I didn't have the money to support them for long so I would send them on suicide missions just so C'tis coulden't use them. One of the mercs was a really cool priest that banished tons of C'tis undead. He was a big help and contributed to the win for sure.

At first I had master smiths research and look for magic sites. Then when I found the wizards I switched them to item making, lab building, and a few supported armies. I made a few dwarven hammers, tons of lanterns, armor/trinkets for my main commanders and spys. Didn't think about buffing their earth skill, should have done that.

I really can't remember all the spells I had. There are tons of them. I know I had a few buffs and some summoning spells that helped. Don't think I had much offense spells. My prentender had battle fortune which was nice but I only got to use it once before the horror took him.

[shovah]

if by golems you mean regular golems they are s1 commanders and therefor self supporting, dominion 7 is wasted for ulm since you priests can only bring it up to their low priest lvl so... im guessing the priestly mercenary was the inquisitorial one? did you pretender get horror marked by an iten you gave him or something? and just for the record unless the commander is a very valuable mage or such its not really worth giving them trinketsand such (unless its a bow of war/spell casting itme or some such)

[isodea]

Yes the golem was a commander, by support I mean someone to heal him and weaken the enemies, cast enchantments etc. so he is more effective.
I wasen't sure about dominion. I thought higher would make it spread faster or something.
Yes I had the inquisitor. He died before the end but was really helpful.

Don't have any idea what happened to my pretender! Don't know what sort of item would curse him but if it says it does so in the description I don't think I made any.

I gave my commanders skull talismans and horror helms mostly. Probably gave them some useless weapons since only a few of them actually fought directly.