What is the best pretender for Ulm?

[alexti]

PvK said:
A Ghost King can be a rainbow and a strong combattant.

This one is a good candidate for the optimal MA Ulm pretender. Ulm can forge heavy armor and shield without any research and that's enough for GK to start taking indies. GK can take province, search it, take next, search etc... It's obviously preferrable to use him to conquer mountain/forest/swamp provinces leaving plains and farmlands to regular ulmish troops. That should quickly establish good income of various gems. Researching Alt-2 will quickly help GK. Then after researching some invocation for battlefield magic and construction for magic boosters Ulm can concentrate on conjuration. By that time GK should finish his expansion work and start forging and later summonning to open different magic paths. That needs to be planned from the beginning because Ulm really need to get some better access to magic. I think that it's critical to get some death on GK (for spectres and thugs) and enough nature to be able to summon Ivy Kings (with boosters). Choice of other paths can vary I think, but something like W2A2F2 (or more) is good for searching, forging and buffs. A bit of astral is also an option, though it will prevent one from using GK beyond the expansion phase because of magic duel.