Power of Themes

[Zen]

You will rue the day you dissed Return of the Raptors!

[The_Tauren13]

I like desert tombs a lot. Maybe the hefty price tag makes it a little weaker, but it's just so much fun!!! Good thing undead snakes don't shed their skin, though, or my capitol would start to smell.

[PvK]

I like both Ulm and T'ien Ch'i, though I wouldn't necessarily argue they have some sort of net advantage over the others. They both have some good strengths. Depends on whom they have to fight, at what research levels, under what game settings, on what map, etc.

PvK

[deccan]

If Ulm could just get 1 random on their smiths, they would be great...

[PvK]

Which is essentially what Iron Faith Ulm has.

PvK

[Cainehill]

Except that Iron Faith loses the research-immunity to Drain, and has otherwise reduced magic compared to the smiths (1E1? vice 2E1F). This is hardly "great", especially given that Iron Faith has an enforced drain scale, pretty much crippling magic research for them.

True, they get better priests than base Ulm, and a decent (but resource heavy and capitol only) sacred troop, but it still seems like a crippled Ulm to me. As though base Ulm needed to be crippled.

[Sandman]

One of my gripes about Tien Chi is that the Imperial troops are too expensive. For 13 gold (30% more than regular human troops), you get +2 morale and +1 def, or +1 morale and +2 precision. For a nation which is supposed to have superior soldiers, this is unimpressive. Vanheim hirdmen have +1 attack, +1 defence and +1 morale for only 12 gold, for example. Machaka hoplites, which also cost 12, are better still.

[PvK]

I enjoy playing both regular Ulm and if Ulm. Gaining a random pick and priests is a major advantage, and Black Templars are a minor advantage if you'd be using Black Knights (halved upkeep at the very least). So having the major disadvantage to research just makes them different to my mind, not crippled. With random picks allowing forging of more research items, I think Ulm can eventually catch up on research, and Ulm doesn't particularly need research in the early game. With IF though I think it is more tempting to take a many-path pretender, so power boost items can be forged for all those level-1 magic abilities.

As for imperial T'ien Ch'i, I tend to agree I'd like to see the troops be cheaper. What kind of obedient massed minions demand premium salaries? Off with their heads! However their archers are better than most in at least three ways: type of bow, access to speed-2 archers, and shortswords rather than daggers.

PvK