Question about Ulm/Armor

[littlemute]

Originally posted by PvK:

quote:

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Originally posted by Vynd:

quote:

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Originally posted by PvK:
Except... not.

Oops, sorry about that.

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No problem. It gave me an opportunity to ramble about Ulmish armor!

PvK

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Hmm... I'm not understanding why someone would focus on forging then as the armour is basically the same as what your troops start with, do you place it on the preists or master smiths? What's the use of forging to Ulm at all?

[Vynd]

Originally posted by littlemute:
Hmm... I'm not understanding why someone would focus on forging then as the armour is basically the same as what your troops start with, do you place it on the preists or master smiths? What's the use of forging to Ulm at all?

Ah, well this is what I was trying to get at in my original post. The armor you are forging is available to anyone with an Earth mage. And for most nations, it offers far more protection than their basic armor. So it makes more sense for them to forge it.

Ulm, on the other hand, already has nice armor. So instead of making Black Steel items, they can focus on forging weapons and miscellaneous items, and/or researching Construction to make more and better items available for forging.

[Cohen]

Yes save earth gems!
Your Smiths can forge great Elemental Armor ... well ... best suited for summoned commander instead of your national since they're pretty frail.

[PvK]

Yes. Though if you want to improve the Ulmish units, there are still plenty of things to forge to do that. Black Steel Full Plate generally isn't the best use of 7 earth gems just to get +1 protection, though.

PvK

[littlemute]

Originally posted by Cohen:
Yes save earth gems!
Your Smiths can forge great Elemental Armor ... well ... best suited for summoned commander instead of your national since they're pretty frail.

I'm not sure what summoned commanders are, but I still only have the demo so.

What Ulm seems to be missing, at least to me (NEWB), are fodder troops. The Ulm guys you can buy are good, but cost SO many resources. All the games I've played with ULM they have gold gold gold but not enough resources to really get a big army togther. So what I tried to do was build a fort on a land with barbarians so that I could draw the resources and make mass amounts of cheap barbarians. Then slapped the cheiftans, who are just complete fodder as well as the troops, with the black plate, helmet and a cheap 2 handed sword. Of course by this time it's turn 39... ^_^

[PvK]

Ulm gets fodder by conquering indies, generally. Yes, build a castle on the kind you like. Barbarians are pretty good offensively, but they are also pricey. I rather like the tribals, because you can draft a large number of them in one turn, and get them all mostly killed the next turn. Efficient that way.

PvK

[Cohen]

You'll learn all troops are fodder ^^

[HotNifeThruButr]

Ulm lacks fodder? Just because a unit is expensive doesn't mean that it can't be used as a meat shield. I find that their nigh-invincibility against physical attacks makes them better tanks than Tribals or even Lobo Guard. Keep them away from armor negate though, they'll hurt.

[PvK]

No, Ulm does not really lack fodder. Generally they conquer it (use indy stuff if necessary), but if they need to use national units for whatever purpose, the Maul + Chainmail infantry for 10 gold and 18 resources serves well, and is tougher than most heavy infantry anyway. However I consider them medium troops and as Ulm I prefer to have a lighter fodder eschelon as well, from independents and/or summons.

PvK

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Cohen:
You'll learn all troops are fodder ^^

Untrue. Not all troops ultimately degrade to fodder-class: Elite special-forces units often retain their jobs throughout the game: Vans, for instance, pretty much never go out of style.