Everything I am about to state is opinion only. Everyone plays differently.
>and except for the lack of decent spell power
That's the main problem with Ulm.
>First, I take a sage Pretender
I'm not a fan of mage pretenders.
As a new Ulm player try a Great Mother.
Start her with at least 3 in earth. At game start have her behind the main troops and have her cast Legions of Steel. It starts pre-researched. This will help early expansion a lot. Later have the Smiths make the GM a set of magic equipment. She gets pretty fierce when equiped well.
For serious abuse try her with air-3 earth-3+. Give her a cloak of shadows, pendent of luck, charcoal shield, main gauch of parrying, boots of the messenger, horror helmet, and amulet of resilience. On entering combat have her cast Invulnerability, Mist Form, and Elemental Fortitude. She can still be killed, but it isn't easy.
>I raise the defences as much as possible...to at least 31 in most cases, I've gone as high as 92 in one game.
Ulm has very good province defense (arguably the best), but don't blow all your expansion gold on it or human players will outpace you handily.
>You guys should have seen the ridiculousness of 3 or 4 Blade Winds every turn
Research conjuration-3 for Summon Earth Power. Then all your Smiths can cast Blade Wind. (and legions of steel, strength of giants, and magma eruption)
For a simple and effective earth summons try the Clockwork Horrors (construction-5).
Also try adding in a bunch of archers from an indy province. They can barely scratch your armored troops, but can really help versus light troops... such as Ermonian undead.
[ November 20, 2003, 16:26: Message edited by: apoger ]
Re: Ulm, Ulm and more Ulm !!!!
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