MA Ulm : \
 

Here you find the latest version of the "Black Steel of Ulm" mod for Dom3 :

Did some more balance testing and bugfixing - here's the latest version:

Black Steel of Ulm D3 v2.2


Scroll down to my latest post for the readme.txt.

(sry, forgot to activate html for this post, and everything else doesn't work out that well, with "code" tag broken and all)

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

After a brief experiment, I think I can say at least that this mod *isn't unbalancing*. To put it another way - I didn't think that Ulm's military was particularly too weak, but I don't think this mod makes them too strong, so, fine.

Would you mind if it were packaged into a larger mod?

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

I have it loaded and have looked at it. At 1st blush it looks fantastic. Black Duke of Ulm looks like a great commander, and I like everything about it just from loading it up and reviewing the units.

Good job! raising the mr was necessary imho to make Ulm a viable race. It was no fun watching your black knights and black lords be crushed by smites, especially in a dominion with a magic scale.

Looks very very cool.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

The very 1st black duke of Ulm i recruit has old age(:

Take away his conscript ability, his standard, and do not make him borderline old age.

I really think Ulm needs a good thug. Maybe incorporate Endoperez' warlord with some mr and added movement.

Doubt i would ever use a 200 gold melee commander who was old. I would just stick with the vanilla black lord(now a count). The extra command is nice, but with a couple of
stars, the black lord can lead all the men he needs.

Why waste your time getting an old melee hero into the hall of fame when he is going to get afflictions? you wouldn't.

It is still a good mod, but i am disappointed that the unit i thought would make a good thug, will not. But i actually do not think any melee units should be near old age, so i have issues with the game's version of ermor as well.

I think 5 units a turn conscript is a bit much. These are not chaff units like militia. Making the guy old that does the summoning does not make up for a race getting 5 free high resource units a turn. If you bought 2 of the dukes early on and had them conscript the whole game, you would have quite an army there.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Thanks for the kind words and all ;-)
Some remarks and ..

.. questions:
- what kind of pretender / settings did you use?
- did you have any trouble keeping your dominion up; how many monks did you use for preaching?
- did you get any hero during the test?
- did you ever use a captain for recruiting milita?
- did you use the sergeants as squad leaders (thugs with bodyguards)?

Black Duke
Actually, this is a new unit (#newmonster) without any age set.
Obviously the game itself decides that a human unit with those stats (and name ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) must be quite old.
I think I'll set the startage to ~37, though.

Conscripting 5 milita per turn might be a bit much - I think I'll change that down to 3 or 4 (the duke costs 13,3 gold upkeep per turn, so it's still pretty cheap).

Warlord
Just play on, and be surprised http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Unless you play with misfortune-2 or more, that is...

Incorporating in a big mod
I would not be that fond of this, because
a) Black Steel of Ulm isn't finished
b) I'm working on /planning a 'complete mod' anyway, where Black Steel will be a part of.
That said - there's little I could do to stop you from borrowing everything you wish, anyway, therefore go forth and do what you like - would be nice to see my name mentioned in the readme/credits somewhere, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Let us know when you modify the Duke's age, so i can update the mod.

Thanks!

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

v2.1 attached at the top !!

Mostly bugfixes only ...

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Well,

I am starting a new game, and I like the duke not being old a good bit, and i think the reduction to 3 troops per turn keeps the dukes from being overpowered.

I got a beefed up hero, was that you or worthy heroes? The Smiths at 160 is a 20 gold raise, but you did double the chance for extra magic.

All in all it is looking like an excellent upgrade to Ulm, and it is not one that overpowers them. The MR boost was an absolute must,the magical weapons on the knights is both thematic, and necessary to give some offensive punch.

They still could not kill a Van, but what can? At least they'd hurt it if they hit it.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Well, as for myself, it seems a bit on the overpowered side. The magic is still strictly limited, but you're spawning troops so quickly, I'm not exactly sure how you'd ever run out of money with them. It's not like the militia are bad.

And I'm guessing the Duke's knight-summon is a domsummon kind of thing? I took a spin on this with a Dominion-10 Air-4 Virtue, and so I was getting about half a knight a turn/Duke. That's going to add up pretty quickly.

Are the spawns really necessary? I honestly am not entirely sure why you'd need to recruit melee units at all with this mod. Commanders to Summon up other troops and research, get a very-high Dominion pretender to spread the Drain far and wide, and make the most of your Stealthy Preachers, and recruit mainly Sappers for your missile troops.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

The "fix" reduced the number of summons from 5 to 3. How are 3 additional slow units a turn over powering Ulm?

I can see where if you had 10 dukes summoning 3 a turn, that could change the balance some. The issue is they are high resource troops. if purchased, they would eat up a good bit of resources to make. But the Dukes are capital only.

Maybe some sort of limit per turn needs to be in place to avoid abuse if you get someone buying a ton of dukes and they all sit around summoning. Just a suggestion, maybe a duke should summon only 2 per turn. I am not sure it is overpowered as it is. Not when you consider Ulm's magical limitations. And Ulm's infantry is very slow. And they have crappy defense, most of mine get afflictions early and often.

Taking away conscription, or limiting it even more, would not take away at all from the mod. The new commanders are cool, and the addition of a magical sword on the knights, the raising of the mr, and the armor changes makes Ulm more competitive. it gives them a fighting chance. I certainly would not bet on them against several other MA races, even with the boost.

Sure they'd own argatha, micitan, and a handful of other races, but not the upper tier races, Ermor, Pythium, Arcos.,
Vanaheim, Maragon, and i still would take my favorite race over them, Pangaea, even though they are magically limited as well.

Ulm still has glaring weaknesses of level 1 priests, limited mages, and resource hog troops. So it is not suddenly a super power race.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

After much thought, I have this thought, if the author deems the present conscription having the potential to unbalance, then the Ulm capital could have a site that the Duke of Ulm could enter to conscript troops.

That way troops could only be summoned at the capital and only by one Duke at a time. As the beer commercials say, "brilliant."

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

My continuing thoughts on an excellent mod:

On the Ulm pd, why were the arbalests removed? The crossbows do fire more often, but they are not as armored and lack the morale of the arbalest. Also, and more of a concern, Ulm does not get crossbowmen.

2nd, with the lower morale militia in the pd, the commander with the standard standing at the rear is too far away too boost morale. Is there any way to get him to "stay behind troops?"

Ulm did gets pikes as its unit after 20, were the improved pikes considered too overpowered for the pd?

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

As i continue to play this mod, i do not think Ulm is overpowered. Those summoned guys run at the 1st scratch, and I think the pd has been weakened.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Well, I dunno. I've always wanted regular crossbows as opposed to Arbalestiers for Ulm (1/3 rounds hurts).

And the militia? I've yet to see them break. Not exactly sure what I'm doing 'right', but maybe it's the Dominion 10 and Temples everywhere (i.e., I'm getting a constant +1 morale from friendly dominion).

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

I am talking the pd in enemy dominion. The crossbows fire more often, but have lower morale and armor. Ulm also got 11 morale pikemen after 20.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Ulm does not get crossbows as a unit, and i prefer the arbalest in the pd.

I would not mind playing anyone against using the ulm mod, but i likely would require them to agree not to use more than 1 duke summoning at a time.

That is the only unbalanced abuse issue i can see. if someone took strong scales and had several dukes summoning at the same time.

Duke's training grounds, part of ulm's keep, where a duke can enter to train new troops. Ulm has a ridiculous resource cost for its troops, so allowing them a few troops per turn is not unbalancing.

Look how many vans you can get a turn at their resource cost, and see how many black knights you can get at their resource cost. and the van is a far superior unit.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Try to build more castles than usual when playing Ulm. Remember that they get 25% more resources from every castle and that almost all their troops only cost 10 gold each. That gives you a lot of gold to build those castles with. Try order 3 and production 3. Build your second castle on turn 3. It really, really helps.
Vanilla Ulm has potential, you just have to play it "Ulm style". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Good luck mate.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

That is very good advice!

Yeah, i build castles, but i do not like building castles that take away from my main castles resources, so i cant build another one on turn 3 heh. Those black knights are hard to mass produce at 75 resources a pop though.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Er, just recruit Dukes. There's your Black Knights right there.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

If you have a mountain province adjacent to your capitol and your capitol has more than 2 adjacent other provinces, build a castle there. The peg-fortresses Ulm has are great with their 700 defense and admin 20, and they do not drain the capitol's provinces, only the province their built on. Read it up in the manual. There is "hidden" 50% resource pool in every province that is used for admin first. Building a castle on a province unlocks all the resources in that province of course.

A small walkthrough:
Let's say that the mountain province you have adjacent to your capitol is a mountain with 65 visible resources (if you capture it this number will of course go down at first due to the unrest). This figure (65) isn't too far fetched and is pretty standard for a mountain region.
After you've captured it you start building your castle here, paying the 1000 gold that you will have on turn 3 if you did everything right; if you have difficulties with this use an Alchemist pretender, or use one so you also can build troops in your capitol on that turn. The castle will take 4 turns to complete, so use your scout pretender to build it the first turn, recruiting a commander or scout to continue it on the next. Attack another province adjacent to your capitol (with good resources) with your unoccupied army.

This is what the new castle will get in resources:
65 base
*2 - for fortress built
30% bonus - your dominion
25% bonus - Ulm production bonus
= 201,5 resources
+ 20% from adjacent provinces without a castle.
Say 4 provinces with 45 resources each after your dominion Remember now that it draws from the hidden pool so this won't affect your capitol.
Total = 237,5 resources

Not too bad is it.
Your capitol will still have way over 200 resources as it begins with 130 (if you play production 3) and draws 50% from adjacent provinces.

Another good thing with this is that your new fortress is only one move away eliminating the dangerous travel later for your troops, who almost everyone has mapmove 1.

You could of course build a citadel (admin 40) if you only have standard provinces around you, but this would lead to draining problems later when trying to maximize outcome.

The strategy is to build a long chain of castles as fast as possible. Your capitol will form the center.

After you've built around 4-5 castles in the first year and a half and labs here and there, start mass producing troops and smiths.

You will find that this castle chain is not something your enemies wants to siege as you can ship reinforcements between your castles fast and safely. In your capitol you should build lord guardians for defense of the chain. In the other try to build one troop of each type useful for the campaign you are planning. The smiths should of course forge like earth boots with their earlier forged dwarven hammers (a final 50% forge bonus) and later good equipment for you commanders. Also build some siege engineers and siege troops (they have crossbows) with any spare resources. They will come in handy, I promise.

Good luck.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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.

arf
 

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.

Re: arf
 

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.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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...

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Yes "real" mountains are very helpful http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif 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.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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).

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

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?

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Well, I think heavy blow from a war hammer will break bones and stuff with blunt force alone. It is pretty same thing with heavy two-handed sword too, it can break bones without piercing chain mail itself.

Of course if you wield chain mail you also wield something under it, so those little metal rings don't get forced to your skin so easily.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

As someone who knits maille for fun, I feel I have to speak up in a discussion about it.
Maille is highly effective against slashing weapons, moderately effective against broad/slow thrusting weapons like spears or daggers, lightly effective against blunt weapons, and ineffective (*and possibly harmful) against ranged piercing weapons.
To understand why, one should examine how maille protects a user. It would usually consist of about 40** pounds of a coif and hauberk, and various other assorted pieces. It consists of one ring, connected to four other rings, this allows it to be both flexible, and to distribute shock through overlapping rings. Mass, gained by the weight of the armor itself, also assists in the absorbing some impact.

So to answer your question, would a warhammer or mace simply ram through the armor? No, probably not. Would it fragment some rings, probably yes. Would the armor prevent a broken bone? Probably not.

You see, maille was worn over several multiple layers of cloth or untreated leather, to create a buffer zone between the maille and the user's skin. This would catch most fragmenting rings that move inward, and most fragmenting rings would actually fly off and away from the armor. Medieval physicians (even in Roman times) could actually mend and set bones with some skill. What the maille would do is prevent infection from significant skin loss/cut, and the medieval physicians did little against that.

* - I recall reading some information from a historical document about how an arrow shot from a longbow when through a shield, through plate armor on the leg, maille armor underneath that, the leg itself, the other side of maille and plate armor, the saddle, and the horse itself. In cases similar to this one, one can assume that there will be some minor mail fragmentation, but it's likely that it will go deep inside a wound.

** - A maille shirt can weigh as little as 20 pounds, depending on how long it is (how far down it reaches). It must be noted that most professional/wealthy soldiers actually wore two layers of maille.

Edit:
Oh, and in terms of Dominions, it wouldn't be totally unrealistic to make warhammers/mauls and similar weapons do AP damage (since most of the damage is impact/shock/bonebreaking ) . So a maul for example, could instead of doing 9 damage, would do 3 ap damage.
Just a thought.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

First of all, love this mod. I love Ulm, and a more competitive Ulm is a happy Ulm. I also like the name changes, as calling "everyone" a captain of Ulm is boring. Sharpshooter...nice concept...wish they could command more than ten, though. Excellent work! I will never play vanilla MA Ulm again.

Few things tho:

I don't know if you took out the militia summoning, but it ain't working with the captains. If you took it out, you might want to take out the "summon allies" option. The Duke's spawn Knights as intended.

A few spelling mistakes. I have seen Sergeant used as a correct spelling when used as a rank, and have known people with the name Sargeant, but never Sergant.

Also, in the description of the Black Duke, you put "Ulms" where I think it should be "Ulm's".

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

<h2> Version 2.2 is available !</h2>

<font face="Courier New">
Most significant CHANGES in v2.02 vs. the base game :
Amount of changes is given in [ ]


- most units get -1 encumbrance, e.g. Inf has (2) instead of (3)


- All Black Plate Inf is gold 12 [+2], ATT/DEF 11 [+1], MOR 11 [+1]
Black Plate Pikeneer end up with MOR 12 [+1]


- General MR is 11 [+2], which works out to 12.5 with the inevitable drain 3 ..
Knight Commanders start at 12.


- Modded equipment:
"Full Plate of Ulm" *modded*: prot 21[+0], def -2[+3], enc 5[+0]

"Full Chain of Ulm" *new* : prot 17[+0], def -3[+0], enc 2[-1], ress cost 17 [+0]
vs. "full chain mail"

"Black Steel Pot" *new* : prot 18[+1], def 0[+0], enc 0[+0], ress cost 3 [+0]
vs. "half helmet"

"Sword of Sharpness" (1h, #74) : 0 => 10 ress


- The troops use either
"Full Chain of Ulm", "Black Steel Pot"
and have strat move 2[+1],
or
"Full Plate of Ulm", "Black Steel Helmet"
and have strat move 1.


- ulmish Crossbowmen prec 11 [+1]


- Black Dukes and Counts use "Sword of Sharpness" again,
Knights use "Broad Sword"s for melee now.
This is to reduce the inevitable MM .. all the thugs would have to get cheap swords or
Stingers early on otherwise for negigible cost.


- "The Forges of Ulm": reduced gem production (5->2) to pay for intrinsic Swords of Sharpness
and Black Steel Armors


- Master Smith
HP 12 [+2], STR 13 [+2], Enc 5 [+2]... they're SMITHES, after all: strong and heavily
build ..
+1 random F/A/E/S @ 20% instead of 10%
Cost 160 gold [+15]
Them being on the edge of high age is a design decision of the devs that I agree with for
thematic reasons: In general, the smithes are masters of their trade, but should not be
the 1st choice for battlefield spellcasters and thugs. With a starting age range from
42-48 and a threshold of 48, there should be enough individuals suitable for the task
after a while.
Random pathes boosted to have each one available (statistically) earlier.


- Monks instead of Priests now. Fits the spies better, and is needed to spread dominion.


- Unit descriptions redone, to give some hints about advantageous usage or special abilities.


- Heavy inf. with mauls removed, medium inf. turned into "Milita of Ulm", as mauls are only a
slightly inferior and cheaper version of battle axes. They still come with standard "Full
Chain Mail" (as before) but with reduced stats and cost (8 gold : upkeep 0.533g per
turn). They're not up for recruitment, but Captains and Dukes can "conscript" them
(summon ally).


- PD changed:
Basic PD now consists of "Milita of Ulm" and standard crossbowmen (might be mercs,
invalid veterans or even women, actually; not worth making a new unit though).
On higher levels, regular line inf with shields is added to the province defense.
Pikes are removed, because they had higher mor indeed, but were useless otherwise
(low dam, no shield)


MONSTER and EQUIPMENT NUMBERS USED

armor 200, 201
monster 2000, 2001,2002


QUESTIONS &amp; ANSWERS

>>> Isn't the smith just too good for a magic-less nation? <<<

Actually, Ulm is not anti-magic or without any magic. Those are simply humans who have a deep
distrust against _spellcasters_. Humans get corrupted by direct contact with otherworldly
powers. They tend to use more and more power and fail to control it in the end. Items and
machines do not. If a whole nation daily trains in negating (not denying) any spell cast, that
should have some influence on the avarage magic resistance, btw. Furthermore, all the boosts
that I did for Dom2 got taken over by the devs for Dom3 ... I only upped the percentage for
the random path from 10% to 20% to make the pathes (statistically) available earlier in the
game ;-)


>>> Why does the chain mail get the same malus to def as the full plate ? <<<
>>> Imo you are more immobile , the stronger your armor is. So with a chain- <<<
>>> mail you should be more agile then with a full plate imo. <<<

A common misconception, maybe stemming from all those RPG rules which where authored by -to
put it midly- some folks which didn't have a clue about either A) statistics (roll your
dice...) and B) medieval/ancient combat. Hollywood filmmakers aren't that much better
_naturally_.

Actually, I tried to model the differences, while keeping it somewhat consistant with the rest
of DOM2, between two fundamentally different armor techniques.

First the heavy, ankle-long double-layered chain mail with underlying padding. In the real
word (TM) known in principle since roman times, it was the late 1000s when it became "fashion"
(don't quote me on the date, I'm notoriously bad with those. But I know where to look it up ;)
Earlier, it was simply too expensive and/or the material too bad to actually manufacture mail
that long. This kind of armor was used 'til 1200, when first serious improvements where made:
full "pot" helments, later the first "platen", which developed into the breastplate (early
cuirass).

Second the full-body "gothic" armor, similar to those made by Lorenz Helmschmied, Augsburg
(not Ulm ;) ), around 1480 for "Erzherzog Maximilian I." (later Emporer). Those armors are
sometimes depicted "gothic", while they where in fact pre-gothic I think. For a visual check
the mod icon! Those are definitly not much heavier than a full chain mail. But a chain mail
does not have "articulated joints", so movement is much more hindered in such an unshaped
armor. With "gothic" plate, you can you actually jump, sprint, and it's said someone from the
SCA tried cartwheels with it successfully.

While the chain mail is made to absorb a blow and keep the edge from cutting, the plate armor
is made to foremost _deflect_ a blow from a weapon - or a missile.


>>> It doesn't matter much though because defense is very low for ulm units anyways . <<<
>>> Their main protection is just protection. <<<

That is only partly true - even within the constraints of Dominions. If you check it out - the
Black Plate Inf with Tower Shield ends up with a Def of 11, which isn't that bad IMHO. And I'm
really thinking about upping the Def of the plate armor even more.

From my personal experience of being "on the receiving end" of such an armor, I can tell you
that it's amazingly difficult to get an _effective_ hit in, especially if your adversary
additionally carries a big shield.

Only -but big drawback- of the "hard case armor" is the prevention of air circulation. You
may do everything you want in it - but only for some hours at best. After that, you'll have to
get rid of some parts or you'll be boiled alive ... . Wearing a full armor on a long march is
next to impossible.

That's why I gave the mail armor troops strat move 2 and the plate armor troops strat move 1 -
they simply need more time to get battle ready and have more difficulties hauling their armor
in general.


>>> The auto-summoning of knights is overpowered. <<<
>>> <<<

No, it's not. And even only becuse if I can't go "lower" than
domsummon20 ;-)
Really, it's only 0,5 knights per turn in Dom10 - for each Duke, which are capitol-only, and those knights die easily to anything AP/AN.
"Summon a number of monsters each month spent inside friendly dominion.
The amount summoned is a dominionstrength sided open ended die roll.
domsummon20 - A twentieth as effective as #domsummon."</font>

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

Cool that you further work on your Ulmmod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Those 2 changes i find a bit counterproductive though:
I am well known for my extremely unthematic gaming in most games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.
But with vanilla ulm i find usually smithes with magma eruption quite sufficient. So i think while thematically your huge reduction of gem income from the starting site is fine gameplaywise it limits the players very much.
Because this way your force them to use those commanders as SC/Thug counters. But an ulm player might also have invested those gems differently, e.g. for euqipment for his SC god, or for forging boots of earth etc. to get some smiths capable of casting petrification/weapons of sharpness etc. or maybe with a mechanical men horde.

So you limit players too much there imho, especially since getting magical diversity for ulm is still tough enough.

And the other change, the 5 encumberance for the master smith, are imho at least wrong justified.
If a smith works his whole life hard as smith then he should not be easily encumbered. If he works 10+ hours/day forging equipment for his ulm warrior fellows then campaigning and using battlemagic should be like vacation for him, so with your reasoning you would imho have to decrease his encumberance http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

If it wouldn't be too much bother, could you make a version that doesn't up the magic resistance of the units? (KO has said that the mr won't be raised, so playing with it raised would feel like "cheating", IMHO), and perhaps up the gem income back to it's normal level?

I'll probably re-do my "blacksteels vs Priciple" test with this mod when I've got time.

Re: [Mod] MA Ulm : \"Black Steel of Ulm\"
 

I tested your mod once, before V 2.2,and I think it's quite legitimate to boost them furthermore.
Magma eruption is a nice spell, but many(many) factions have X 3 elemental mages, which will be far more efficient during battle. So they do need a powerful army to hold their part at the beginning/middle of the game (I've been converted to impossible difficulty level on the forums).
Finding independant mages WILL be long and difficult, so big thugs are a big plus(necessity?) to them(you can always have a rainbow pretender, to compensate, but you'll have some pbm with research).
Do you think your mod is compatible with CBM ? (I love the reworked pretenders)