MA Ulm Pretender

[TheKDawg]

With the new changes, what is your pretender going to look like? Rainbow Master Enchantress with enough Earth to reinvig those sacred smiths?

Also if you were going to build an awake SC pretender for MA Ulm to defend against rushes (which my opponents like to do) what would you make?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

[Xietor]

In MP, Ulm still needs a size 6 awake pretender to stop elephant rush. None of the changes help with that.

Just a quick thought, Father of Winters, 4w4a4n. 3order, 2cold, 1 growth, 3 drain.

Forge him on turns 2-5 black plate, sword sharpness, shield,
and helmet, and he will be a formidable sc.

High priority research, ench 2 for personal regeneration, alt for quickness, mistform, mirror image.

While this pretender could not safely solo take provinces on turn 2, by turn 8-10 he could kill any dragon or wyrm sc's. And he would laugh at elephants, hydras, and mammoths.

This pretender would see Ulm into the midgame, where they seem to rarely reach in the mp games i have been in.

[vfb]

Have you tried an awake Prince of Death to counter an elephant rush? His high defense prevents him from getting trampled too badly and the fear is great against elephants too.

[Xietor]

Until they cast touch of madness on the elephants.

A bigger fear early is arcos. if they have 2-3 astrologers with their elephants solar rays can mess up undead pretty bad, caelum get lightning early, and ulm cannot make rings sr protection. Bandar log can also cast solar rays.

Father of Winters can cast resist lighting, has superior hps,
and would give Ulm access to 3 new paths. And he is extremely hard to kill once he gets decked out and buffs.

[Shovah32]

An awake Prince of Death with Dom9-10, D5(or more) and possibly some earth magic(E/D makes shadow brands, earth gives him ironskin/invunerability) really helps Ulm. Stops alot of early rushes, particularly elephants - and now with new and improved guardians to stop dangerous sacred rushes you should do well early on.

Get him ironskin and some basic equipment and he should be ready to go and beat on some enemies. Black Plate Infantry do far better against PD than against big, well scripted armies(the difference is bigger than it is for most other units) so if you can get your Prince of Death to target fairly large armies and leave your troops to mop up you can actually take out one or two enemies early on - I mean who will expect to be rushed by Ulm?

Later on, your pretender can help diversify your magic. Spectres and much later Tartarians can greatly broaden your available magic paths and demiliches can get you heavily into death. He can also summon banelords ect midgame for you to cheaply thug out.

[Xietor]

Several viable choices for pretender. And many experienced mp may have many different preferences.

One thing I think all would agree with though, is that Ulm must take an awake pretender that can fend off an elephant rush.

[Jazzepi]

Shovah32 said:
An awake Prince of Death with Dom9-10, D5(or more) and possibly some earth magic(E/D makes shadow brands, earth gives him ironskin/invunerability) really helps Ulm. Stops alot of early rushes, particularly elephants - and now with new and improved guardians to stop dangerous sacred rushes you should do well early on.

Get him ironskin and some basic equipment and he should be ready to go and beat on some enemies. Black Plate Infantry do far better against PD than against big, well scripted armies(the difference is bigger than it is for most other units) so if you can get your Prince of Death to target fairly large armies and leave your troops to mop up you can actually take out one or two enemies early on - I mean who will expect to be rushed by Ulm?

Later on, your pretender can help diversify your magic. Spectres and much later Tartarians can greatly broaden your available magic paths and demiliches can get you heavily into death. He can also summon banelords ect midgame for you to cheaply thug out.

PoD is amazing for Ulm. My build for him involves this.

2x Black Kite Shields
1x Steel Helm
1x Black Steel Full Plate
1x Boots of Behemoth (Note, PoD can take out any indies without these due to fear, but this actually gives him the ability to get kills instead of just routing the enemy when you start fighting actual armies)
2x Bracers of Protection

The above build is completely built out of earth magic items and is absolutely ridiculous What you really want though is a lucky amulet, and probably an amulet of antimagic for the misc slots. Or maybe something like a ring of elemental magic protection depending on who you are fighting.

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

I did a duel between Ulm and arcos. Used awake pod 6d 9 dominion. In a fight with arcos, in Ulm dominion, POD started with 99 hps and 21 mr. He has a level 2 priest and 1 mage cast earth shards, lots skellies, 10 guardians, and 50 crossbows.

Arcos has 15 elephants mixed with heart companions(about 20),
1 priestess(prophet), and 6 astrologers with evoc 2 research.

3 astrologers died to crossbow fire, but the other 3 using solar rays made short work of the pod. Since 2 of the elephant rush nations have strong astral mages, and the other has strong air, my personal preference remains the Father of Winters.

[vfb]

I had big plans to Dust to Dust a PoD built almost exactly like Jazzepi's (but not 2x Bracers of Protection ... are you sure they stack?). But my mages set on Dust to Dust went berserk and charged, oops . Then I got lucky and Smited the PoD to death.

[Cor2]

I have had great luck with dust to dust and maggots agianst PoD. Its almost too easy.