[Tolkien]

Kiss: Well, the difference between Magic-1 and Drain-2 is 120 Design Points. Black Forest units are all low on magic resistance (with Villans and Black Templars at 10, normal, and Ghoul Guardians at 14), so Drain-2 is mainly for the extra points and magic resistance. For research, the goal here is quantity over quality: just get more forts up churning out Second Tier Members. Ulm doesn’t need magic immediately, so I think the extra magic resistance and points are more important as a whole (since I‘m advocating quantity of researchers over quality). Though maybe Magic-1 is worth it, since I‘m trying to maximize LA Ulm‘s diversity. As for misfortune: I’m hesitant about picking it. Fortune Tellers do help minimize the problem, but 5% means it’ll take a bunch to negate the misfortune (I have to ask though, are the percentages additive, or does the game simply run checks against each one?), and you’re going to be alternating between wolf herds (and all that lovely, stealthy chaff) and fortunetellers at your capital. As for the growth: it probably could be dropped down to Growth-2 or Growth-1, for the points, but I personally like to keep a growing/stable population, so I don’t have to worry about moving to new provinces. Of course, I like expanding slowly, so this probably doesn’t have any meaning in MP.

And I know, the guide is generic and skimpy. I’m working on it. My time is kinda tight, though. : (
I will say this though: I don’t use knights much: they’re too expensive and getting a bless strategy with Ulm compromises the scales and dominion (and pretender) way too much. That being said, they’re more of a niche unit that you can use from time to time. The charge bonus makes them a good unit to counter elephants with rangers. Other then that: Hochimeisters can be thugged out, and a few knights are useful in keeping your enemies off balance.

Licker: I’ve always been hesitant of taking Sloth-3, since the -45% resources. But, I suppose since I’m suggesting you put up forts up as rapidly as possible: it would probably fit in with the whole build. And Luck-3/Turmoil-3: I haven’t tried it yet. I’m not completely sure about trusting my income completely to luck, especially since LA Ulm in my build would need to throw up forts rather quickly: and I just don‘t like trusting my fate to the dice. I’ll test it out though.


The build I’m trying for is to maximize on Ulm’s diverse amounts of magic paths. Ulm already can easily go into astral, blood, death, and earth. By starting gem income in all paths and forging a few boosters, you can easily expand to the other paths with remote site searching spells: and with more gems, more spell options and summons. And more battle spell combinations. You can thus keep your opponents off-balance: they’ll never know what spells you’re going to script next round. Plus, greater diversity means more summons. You’ll have a shot at pretty much all of the Elemental Royalty (the Queens will probably the hardest to get), compared to nations that don’t have a natural access to a certain path.


And I’m really grateful for the advice and comments.