EA Ulm - Flying Conans of Doom

[pyg]

Thanks! EA Ulm is the one nation from my SP adventures that I dearly love but do terribly with against the AIs. It might be helpful to point out that the Steel Warriors are map move 1 which with the cap only recruitment and relatively light weight, most advice I've read so far says their effective use is limited to early game. The big earth bless still sounds like a good idea though for the shamans. Also you mention using a lot of skellispam but you only have a small chance (~3%) at getting a D2 shaman. Am I missing something or are boosters part of the plan?

[KissBlade]

Forgot they can get d2, I didn't see you mention buffering your raiders with some s spectres so I just assumed that's all they had. My mistake.

[Dedas]

One thing I think you missed to cover is the extremely low magic resistance on EA Ulm troops. Yes, it is 8. One small solution to that problem could be to take an astral bless for your steel warriors so at least you have one unit that can stand up in the magic heavy early age. Combine that with earth for nice effect.

Also, one shouldn't look down on the axe throwers as they will give immense pain to anything when they are massed. It doesn't matter that they can't hit as you got masses of them, and you could easily throw wind guide (balancing the -4 to precision) with your warrior smiths.

Another thing not to look down at is the broad sword/axe type warrior. Why? Because you have only length 1 weapons on all your other units (except iron and steel warrior). Short sword and axes will not have the upper hand against the very common short sword of early age, broad sword is length 2 however and will. All of them including iron (maul) and (great sword) steel warrior will have problem with the even more common spear. Only the shield maiden with her high defence and morale will have it easier when facing masses of spears, but with only a short sword, one attack and lower strength than the warriors she won't punch through heavy armour such as Abysias. In that case I would definitely go with the double wielding high strength and cheap axe throwing maniacs. Anything with no shield (no high parry) and medium to low defence (but maybe high protection) should get an axe to the head.

Another thing to take notice to is the very high HP (for humans) that EA Ulm has on their units. For maidens 12, for warriors 13. That don't totally makes up for few shields, short weapons and medium to low protection but it comes close. I say recruit in numbers. 10 gold for 13 HP is pretty good when you meet EA spear wielding (3 damage) 10 strength humans or short bow archers, it means you survive with only 8 body protection (good prot 15 helmet though).

[Wrana]

Thank you very much for another excellent guide!!!

Originally Posted by Dedas

Another thing not to look down at is the broad sword/axe type warrior. Why? Because you have only length 1 weapons on all your other units (except iron and steel warrior). Short sword and axes will not have the upper hand against the very common short sword of early age, broad sword is length 2 however and will. All of them including iron (maul) and (great sword) steel warrior will have problem with the even more common spear. Only the shield maiden with her high defence and morale will have it easier when facing masses of spears, but with only a short sword, one attack and lower strength than the warriors she won't punch through heavy armour such as Abysias. In that case I would definitely go with the double wielding high strength and cheap axe throwing maniacs. Anything with no shield (no high parry) and medium to low defence (but maybe high protection) should get an axe to the head.

You may not spotted it, but most short-sword or spear-carrying troops in EA do have shields. And spears repel your broadsword-carrying guys just as good as they do shortsword-wielding gals - better, actually, as both kinds of elite Maidens have bonuses to defense while your "mainacs" actually have penalties for their axes... (this is also why I am a loud proponent of an idea to arm them mainly with hatchets? by the way - -1 to both attack and defense with double weapons just can't be overcome with any ambidexterity...)
As for low MR I'm currently thinking about actually taking Drain with this nations - but possibly it won't work due to lack of high-end mages who can overcome Drain penalty... On the other hand, you have access to all 3 research boosters and may forge them with discount. Plus, it's more thematic...
To pyg:
When I tried them some time ago I always had 2 Death-2 Shamans on average by the end of year 2 - mid-year 3 iirc both in SP tests and in MP. Please don't forget that EA Ulm has cheap castles and all other Shamans you get are far from being useless (from each hundred you gain about 2 D2, 2 N2, 2 E3, 2 F2 - very useful all except N2 which you already have from Antlered ones - and all others can at least research or thug out)...
To Maraxus on tramplers:
Warrior maidens with their high-precision bows! In sufficient numbers they can make tramplers run even without buffs - and if numbers aren't sufficient they just fade back into woods...
As for research, I'd say that with this nation the main theme would be a Construction. With Alteration and Enchantment as secondary obiections (Probably Ench 3-4 first for Strength of Giants). On the other hand, if you have Magic scale, you will probably need to study Thaumathurgy quite soon - you have no problem with research but need more gems to forge with.
And on Pretender design - Forge Lord would be very thematic, but we are severely pressed to put additional paths on him. So I think that Rainbow or even Immobile would be better here. Actually, some time ago I've toyed with an idea of a Drain scale offset with an Awakened Sage... What would Your Baalziness say?

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by Wrana

(from each hundred you gain about 2 D2, 2 N2, 2 E3, 2 F2 - very useful all except N2 which you already have from Antlered ones - and all others can at least research or thug out)...

As for research, I'd say that with this nation the main theme would be a Construction. With Alteration and Enchantment as secondary obiections (Probably Ench 3-4 first for Strength of Giants). On the other hand, if you have Magic scale, you will probably need to study Thaumathurgy quite soon - you have no problem with research but need more gems to forge with.
And on Pretender design - Forge Lord would be very thematic, but we are severely pressed to put additional paths on him. So I think that Rainbow or even Immobile would be better here. Actually, some time ago I've toyed with an idea of a Drain scale offset with an Awakened Sage... What would Your Baalziness say?

No way, the N2 shamans rock so much. It's kind of like trying to pick my favorite child, my favorite one is whatever one I'm looking at now. Put a cheap rune smasher and thistle mace on him (and a void eye if you can find one), a couple of these all over the place and even high MR thugs are suddenly very shy - charm works almost better as a deterrent than a unit grabber. In the early part of the game he's dropping wooden warriors using no gems or boosters (as in with every small army in every fight), later dropping mass protection using just two gems and no booster! This is the guy that makes me comfortable figuring most of my infantry has barkskin for most fights through the whole game. These guys can also cast strength of gia, so with just a thistle mace you're dropping mass regeneration, serpents blessing, relief, add in one of those blood stones and you're dropping gai's blessing and summoning cave drakes with dragon master. True, he can't do anything the antlered shaman doesn't have covered, but that doesn't mean he's not a serious workhorse.

As to where to focus your research, it really depends. There's a couple reasonable ways to go which you can to a certain extent play by ear depending on how a particular game is going. That said, *very* roughly here's how I look at your priorities.

Priority 1: Alteration gives you a *lot* of bang for the buck without spending many gems - which are very tight initially. I already highlighted wooden warriors, but realize you can also pass out a few earth gems and drop a bunch of destructions which works...um...well with dual weapon warriors. You're also looking at wind guide for all those archers and iron skin for your mages and swarm for aggressive enemy pretenders.

Priority 2: Site searching spells. Doesn't take too much research and your alteration buffed super-infantry should carry you nicely in the mean time

Priority 3: Evocation (along with conj-3 for summon * power). you've got awesome evocations.

Priority 4: Construction. It's all the way down here because 1) you have other stuff which is more *immediately* useful and 2) you have had time to stockpile some gems to make the most use out of it.

I see what you're saying re: drain, I don't think I could stomach it on a nation I'm so heavily relying on mages for. You have to always be aware that sometimes trying to be efficient means you don't win the race so it's always a balancing act between finding a good value and making sure you're not bringing a knife to a gunfight because your gun is on layaway. Who cares if I spent 4 times as much as you did for my gun, I'm the only one with a gun in this fight.

As to the forge lord, I certainly agree that he's expensive and there are other ways you can play it. However, how much is it worth to be able to forge air boosters for barely double digit gems (single digit if you can snag the forge lord hammer)? How much is it worth to be able to pass out several elemental staffs to your combat mages and some rings of sorcery to your relatively small death mages? It's very expensive, no doubt, but it can also really mean you're fighting at a whole other level if you can pull it off. There's a really, *really* big difference between fielding several A5 mages (2 boosters + crystal shield) and one guy you've squeezed up to A3.

[Maraxus]

But I like axes!!!
That is Forrest Warriors in combination with archers (The better armor is useful on friendly fire), or the cheap 10 gold axe warriors, that are stealthy and fast like the maidens...

A quiz. What is that: "13 - 11 - 9 - ouch - arg - owww"?
Correct, it's a Niefel Giant's defence dropping before the ugly 19 damage attacks finally cut him somewhat more efficient then the 16 damage attacks by the Steel Maidens. And that is after they have thrown their Axes ... Which are not sooo good sadly. 12 range and 6 effective precission is very close to a 90° cone in front of them and the usual situations for them will likely mean that you can't affort an air2 guy for them (don't forget that only 1/32 of your warrior smiths have that and you will want to recruit some Shamans, too. And the 1/32 A2 guys are also needed for Auspecs and some forging).

But the point about Axe warriors is still, that they are so cheap and can inflict so much damage against big or defence-weak troops, they are the perfect calculated casualties. Abysia? Niefelheim? Agartha? These guys are the best choise.
...
And as far as I see it, they are also the best choise against tramplers, althought in this case, I'd say they are the best of many bad choises.
Do you have a better idea?

1 Arcos Chariot against what:
1.8 Steel Warriors
3.2 Steel Maidens
4.5 Axe Warriors
0.24 Shamans (minus whatever the equipment might be worth)

Okay, the best might be some shamans /antlered shamans casting Earth Meld plus whatever troop you choose - but still what might that be?

[Tifone]

@qm - btw, why did the basic woman archer go down to mapmovement1 if I can ask?

[quantum_mechani]

Originally Posted by Tifone

@qm - btw, why did the basic woman archer go down to mapmovement1 if I can ask?

Just an attempt to counteract some of her ridiculous uberness base game (for a thematic explanation, from the description they are supposed to be defending their home villages).

[Baalz]

Oh, actually QM it didn't occur to me to re-evaluate the ulmish males, I made my call based on looking at them before. Looking at them now I actually would say the 10 gold Ulmish male is probably a better value for general use than the 14 gold steel maiden. Their combat values are probably roughly comparable (swapping damage for a lower attack), and they're both stealthy with map move 2 but she's 40% more costly. I also concede that the axe throwers will have their use, particularly with strength of giants.

@Pyg - yes, you'll be forging lots of boosters for all your mages and supplementing with gems. Combat mages are a central theme here so make sure to invest in them.

[Maraxus]

Well, it really depends ... Ermor will go through the Axe warriors like a hot knife through butter.
There, a few Shield Maidens to suck the Javelins and a Steel Maiden for each Principe is the way to go, I think. (Okay, your Steel Warriors with Earth + half Nature Bless are even better but for your non-capitol castles it should be the maidens.)