Is black plate worth it?

[jaif]

Plus I think that a good themetic way to fix ulm is to give them catapullts and siege engines.

They have sappers, so they can handle sieges.

I've been thinking about this overnight. If you want to fix ulm without adding new rules and staying within the general framework of the game and the nation, then I think they need the following.

1) Sergeants. Same as commanders of ulm, but leader 10 with standards. Make good thugs for small units.

2) Better black steel available at construction-4 and construction-8. This black steel should have added benefits like encumbrance reduction, fire/cold/shock resistance, etc.

3) Ritual spells that upgrade black steel armor for a gem cost, stats consistant with #2. So at con-4 you get a single-target ritual, and con-5 you get a multi-target ritual (so you can upgrade 10 people's black plate at once).

With these changes, a) ULM can take advantage of their item construction better by making cheap thugs, b) those thugs can help their units (via standards), c) give them a different flavor by having a late-game army of small, high-prot units, and d) make black steel plate a thing for mid-to-late game as well.