Re: Weakest nation
My take on MA Ulm:
+Sufficient E access for most useful spells, such as Army of Lead if they ever get there. Also magma eruption.
+Iron angels (seriously, no-one said them before this? They still need either 0.33..% chance random or pretender for them). If they ever survive so far. Probably not. Anyway, wonderful SC chassis.
+useful combat mages, once you get some evo researched.
+good forge bonuses (through empowerment etc. just e2f1 isn't sufficient for most things. Cheap gear for magi are always good anyway, like reinvig girdles)
+Guardians (vs. most sacreds)
+Good national evo(s), iron blizzard is one of the best bf evos available considering the casting requirements and the usefulness of the spell. Too bad cap only mages can cast it.
+Can take drain3 for +1mr and 120p without penalty to master smith/priest smith research rates (though black priests and indies that you REALLY need still have it).
-Have to take prod3 to expand/produce troops at all. There goes your drain3 bonus. Too bad.
-bad troops because of enc. Good armor protwise though, but it doesn't do much when critical hits start on like third-fourth turn of combat.
-pretty much requirement for any awake SC build to be competitive, or blood magic bootstrapping if not playing latest CBM.
-terrible diversity. Seriously, 3.3% chance of either e2f1a1/e2f1s1/e2f2 with added 10% chance for +e1 is not much. One of the worst diversity in the game, if not the worst.
-Bad starting gem income, even if it's thematic. E is good only for so much.
-No useful priests to speak of. h1 out of cap without any bonuses? At least make them inquisitor like LA Ulm and they'd have some use.
MA Ulm is one of the worst nations in the game. They can be played well with a bid of luck and diplomacy skills, but as a nation they don't really shine much. Overall bad magic and bad troops (that look good on the paper, but don't really work due enc and the lack of diversity in a normal setting game) don't combine well. The lack-of-magic nation combined with the low MR resistance doesn't really balance out either. There are other "bad" nations as well though, but MA Ulm really could use for some look into it, especially now without blood stones in (de facto standard) CBM mod games. LA Ulm is a really good nation due national blood access, good astral access and ubiquitous black priests, and due vampires, lategame D access is not very hard.
Cheers. Someone could do this same for EA Agartha and MA(/LA?) Man. And possibly MA Machaka.
|