Ulm beefed up ...

[Endoperez]

I have also been considering a mod improving Ulm. Maybe we all should think what they need.

Arralen added:
-Full(?) random to Master Smiths
-Even better protection for all units
-Faster armies

other ideas:
-Magic resistance
-Administration/supply bonus (but Ulm already has +50 res. points in its forts!)

my ideas:
-Making their general commanders better:
*slightly cheaper one with ldr 25 but very good battle stats, equipment and/or lower encumberance,
*Black Knight commanders made better at battle
*commander with general bonus(es) like supply bonus, Skeptic ability of lowering dominion (without stealth! ), maybe Standard, maybe high prec., strength and good ranged weapon...
*commander able to levy troops (think Wolfherd): maybe Light Infantry with prot 7, att 10, def 12 with spear + shield) (not moddable IIRC)
* one commander with ldr 75

*(Iron Faith) Black Acolyte replaced with Black Paladin, who is Black Templar commander. It should be Holy 2 with Inquisitor-ability.

For Iron Faith:
-Black Priest should have E1F1?
[edit]
-Black Priests made immune to drain like Master Smiths.
both two would be too much IMO
[/edit]

-Both Black Templars and Black Paladins should have increased magic resistance

-For Black Forest: change their starting scout to Vampire Count so that they have natural way of summoning them, given enough time to empower/make boosters.




I have tried making Black Paladin, but trying to use screen captures from DomII is quite hard. I can take the screen capture, remove black(0,0,0) background and add shadow, but I can't resize the picture correctly...

[Huzurdaddi]

These are great changes, if I could make one change it would be to make a greater seperation between the Medium Infantry and the Heavy Infantry. As it currently stands I think I would build the strategic move-2 ( the MI ) over the strategic move-1 ( the HI ) every time. They cost less resources and that movement is really useful.

[Tuidjy]

CUnknown said:
They're a perfectly legit nation, it's just that their strengths are in the early game, not the late game. In 1v1's or on very small maps, they're one of the best nations out there.

Riiight. I challenge you to play me, using Ulm on ANY existing map, including
clash of titans (etremely small, with preset capitals), with ANY settings,
including very retarded research and no magic sites to speak of.

[Zen]

I had some changes slated in the Conceptual Balance series for Ulm that were similiar but not these particular changes. They included:

MI = Strat Move 2
Black Knights = Improved to be the best non-sacred Cavalry in the game (+Hp, +MR, -Gold/Resource)
Master Smith = +Elemental
Arts = RoF 2/Round
Guardian = +Castle Bonus

This might go well with changing certain units (mostly support like the Arts, Pikemen, etc) to Black Steel Chainmail.

Iron Faith

Black Priest +Elemental, +Holy
Black Acolyte +Earth, +Holy
Black Templar +HP, +MR

Black Forest

Ghoul Guardian -Gold Cost
Fortune Teller +Sorcery (Paired)
Zweihander +Str, +Mor

[Tuidjy]

Ulm needs all the help that it can get. I like both the original poster's
suggestions and Zen's modifications. The troops must definitely be better
than run of the mill humans. It makes perfect sense that the strong
arbalesters can load their weapons faster. Reducing the encumberance values
could be justified the same way. As for magic resistance, in Dominions, it
is correlated with an iron will. Who but Ulm would have it?

Beefing magic on smiths is harder to justify, but is necessary for balance
purposes. Elemental makes more sense, but sorcery would be nice indeed.

[Taqwus]

Sorcery would be nice, but less thematic than fire/earth-- and it's easier to open up other magical paths or grow significantly in magical power with sorcery than with elemental magics. Spectres, Acashic Record, Lamia Queens, Skull Mentors forged at 50% off via dwarven hammers, early probing via Dark Knowledge and Astral Probing... perhaps *too* nice for a magic-averse nation.

Hm. Even smiths + hammers + water magic might be problematic for the efficient and athematic clam hoarding.

Supply / siege / conventional combat might make more sense. They won't necessarily need a magical boost if their military machine makes up for it, or if drain scale had more impact on casting fatigue (perhaps even affecting ritual cost?) and so forth.

[CUnknown]

Tuidjy, sure I accept. I was going to offer the same challenge.

Let's play Clash of the Titans, rich world, normal research, normal magic sites, indies strength 5.

You can play any faction but Caelum, Arcosephale, Atlantis, or Ryleh. I am fairly sure I'll win 2 out of 3 games under these conditions, unless you are some sort of god player.

[Arralen]

Version 0.9:

-- Changes:
--
-- Master Smith has Fire-1, Earth-2, Elemental-1 now
-- Base Encumbrance is 3, MR is 16
-- Cost 175 gold
--
-- All Standard Inf is STR+1 (fits it's HP 12)
--
-- General MR is 11, which works out to 12.5
-- with the inevitable drain 3 ..
-- Knight Commanders are at 12.
--
-- The troops wear either "Full Chain of Ulm",
-- helmet and have strat move 2, or
-- "Full Plate of Ulm", Black Steel Helmet
-- and have strat move 1.
--
-- "Full Plate of Ulm": prot 17, def -2, enc 4
-- "Full Chain of Ulm": prot 15, def -3, enc 3
--
-- Crossbowmen prec 11
--
-- Black Knight gcost 50 rcost 60
-- Black Lord gcost 120 rcost 60
--
-- Unit descriptions redone, to give some hints
-- about advantageous usage.

And everyone a happy new year !!

[Endoperez]

Interesting... Could you also add either the original stats or the chance to the readme?

I'll test your mod better today, but it already seems very interesting.

And happy new year for you too!

[Boron]

Nice finetuning .
A happy new year as well

Arralen said:
Version 0.9:
-- "Full Plate of Ulm": prot 17, def -2, enc 4
-- "Full Chain of Ulm": prot 15, def -3, enc 3

Why does the chain mail get a higher malus to def than the full plate ?
Imo you are more immobile , the stronger your armor is .
So with a chainmail you should be more agile then with a full plate imo .

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


Btw do you plan in future to improve the 2 ulm themes as well ? And tien chi ? And maybe a few themes like return of raptors , pan new age ? Would be cool .

If you plan to do this you should keep the approach you did with ulm , mainly strengthening the combat abilities of their units , but not overpowering their mages too much