Starting setup for LA Ulm

[Aleph]

1. Zweihanders over the heavy infantry with tower shields? I'd think the latter has much more survivability in most cases - are the Zweihanders there as super meatshields or to actually do damage?

2. Uses of pikemen? I've seen people talking about them as a counter to giants.

3. Uses of villains besides archer screen for rangers? They are definitely your cheapest unit, but are they worth using?

4. Is my pretender design fairly normal for LA Ulm? I can't really justify the expense of a Vampire Queen given the number of vamps I'll be hoping to throwing around, and I want a mobile pretender just so I can bloodhunt somewhere besides my capital. E4 is for forge (minimizing your need to empower your S2B1 mages in order to get sorc/wiz rings, as well as opening up Thistle Mace production for N enabled Fortune Tellers) and getting someone to kick off boot production for your capital-only priests (since their pitiful E skill is as good a battlemage as you get, I'm looking to boot->earthpower my way into some legions of steel and bladewinds).

5. Finally and here's an issue I've been pondering for a while - is there any consensus at all on what a good blood/gold conversion rate is? For some reason, I've been thinking about MA Abysia's Demonbreds vs. Vampire Counts - which is a better deal for their cost, and which one is actually cheaper? Obviously, Vampire Counts cost more if you're playing Order, as lost revenues from bloodhunting are greater, but I'm still not sure about the basic conversion.