Iron Faith Ulm

[ywl]

My experience ain't much - but I'll weigh in my two cents just for the fun of it . Some random points:

1) The additional 1 fire for the Master smith is quite critical because it gives you access to "Magma Bolt", "Magma Eruption" and forging "Elemental Armor". All are very useful.

2) Rainbow mage works only when you play with non-aggressive players. You need the help of the pretender for early expansion in most games - even for Ulm. If you need to add variety to the standard Ulm theme, it's better to pick a durable pretender with Blood, Death or Nature on it.

3) I don't think that IF is very weak. The Mastersmith is nice but the additional magic variety from the Black Priest could be a big boost. And they're cheap and could be built anywhere. If you could get Earth Boot, and have some lucky pick (not very hard because the Priests are cheap), you won't lose that many spells. As SurvivalistMerc said, you can always get "Blade Wind" with Earth Boot and "Summon Earth Power", not hard with the large Earth Gem income for Ulm.

4) I don't think IF should pick drain 3.
Drain 1 is too much . The nation points is attractive but the research will be too slow.

5) Black Templars are fun for SP but seem to be expensive to be practical. I'll be happy to be proved wrong on this...

[aldin]

Zen,

The 2E2? was mostly a grins and giggles comment. I only boost mages when I need to for certain functions (1D to 2D for Skulls is an IF MUST).

ywl,

May as well do drain 3. You HAVE to do drain 1 to access IF. Since your mages are gonna be stuck at 1 research regardless, take the 3 and the points.

~Aldin

[PDF]

Ywl, some thoughts about yours
1/ I agree, the random pick makes the difference between standard, rigid Ulm and a much more versatile Ulm IF
2/ I disagree on this one : as I've said I'm playing Ulm currently in MP with a RB, and did expand at the same rate than others- except one nasty Abysian SC (and played by Pocus !)
The standard Ulmish troops, with some Guardians for morale, some extra-ulmish archers, a merc band and a couple mages are enough.
3/ Maybe, I think that my first tries were disappointments because I played IF as if it was standard Ulm - big mistake undoubtly ! However I can't find any incentive for playing IF...
4/ Yes, I even think that Magic 0+ is a good idea with IF
5/ Ok too, you can't build a MP game around a dozen of Templars avoiding casualties ...

[Pocus]

actually its not a SC, its a rainbow mage* which has a bad temper.


* : try the ghost king. He is awesome.

[aldin]

Originally posted by PDF:
4/ Yes, I even think that Magic 0+ is a good idea with IF

I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing something. Doesn't IF require a scale of at least -1?

~Aldin

[ywl]

Originally posted by PDF:
Ywl, some thoughts about yours

2/ I disagree on this one : as I've said I'm playing Ulm currently in MP with a RB, and did expand at the same rate than others- except one nasty Abysian SC (and played by Pocus !)
The standard Ulmish troops, with some Guardians for morale, some extra-ulmish archers, a merc band and a couple mages are enough.

I have the suspicion that you're not play with very aggressive players . Well, I don't know unless I can see your game. Let's use a benchmark - has anybody got 15 province by turn 11 to 12?

Mercenary of course could be big help to Ulm's expansion but you don't always get the good ones.

[ywl]

Originally posted by aldin:
Zen,

ywl,

May as well do drain 3. You HAVE to do drain 1 to access IF. Since your mages are gonna be stuck at 1 research regardless, take the 3 and the points.

~Aldin

3 research points at Drain 1 and 1 research point at drain 3 is a big difference... For Ulm, you can easily have 10+ Black Priests, which will be 30+ points versus 10+ points - though, if you're lucky, you could find fire or death gems to forge research item early enough. But to me, that's not a very safe bet.