Primer: MA Ulm (Forge Less, Forge Smarter!) Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

A lot of people like talking about MA Ulm. It's a common joke among old timers that discussing how terrible MA Ulm was (and how to fix it) was the only thing keeping the old Dominions 3 community together. So, how does MA Ulm fare now?

Surprisingly, I think MA Ulm is actually a fairly viable nation. Again, not necessarily a supreme powerhouse, but it's definitely not a weak nation anymore.

However, to get the most mileage out of MA Ulm people need to drop some pre-conceived notions about the nation. In particular, people need to stop thinking of it as a primarily "forging" nation. Yes, you will forge a lot of items - and forge more efficiently than others - but the old idea that you should put these cheap items on your human (and very frail) commanders is probably a big reason why Ulm didn't do too well in Dominions 3.

Instead, forging should be a supplement to what are now the strongpoints of MA Ulm - an extremely competent regular army (which can, true to its description, vie for the title of "Best MA human army"), and potentially powerful mass evocations thanks to your plentiful Smiths and Priest-Smiths (as long as you have some critical research completed). These features combined can let you win some wars in the early and midgame, and hopefully propel you over the top to the finish line.

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The Ulmish Army of MA Dominions 3 used to be a cautionary tale of poorly implemented mechanics. In theory, it should have been an elite, well-armored army that can plow through equivalent numbers of the enemy. In reality, the armor was so damn heavy that Ulmish troops tended to pass out from exhaustion before the battle was over, at which point the enemy simply stabbed the tired Ulmish troop at their leisure.

Fortunately, important stat changes have been implemented, and the Ulmish Army no longer succumbs to these fits of mass self-annihilation. It now really is an army of well-armored dudes that can plough rather effectively through equal or even numerically superior opposition.

The core of the army are its various flavors of infantry, each of which generally has an 18 Protection version (the one you should recruit often, as they're cheaper and sufficient against most enemies), and a 21 protection version (more expensive, for specialist roles or for later in the game when you have overflowing resources). These units are great for Ulm because they cost very little gold (10), and the normally high resource requirements can be made good by various resource bonuses that Ulm gets - such as the 10 resources conferred by each Smith.

What this means is that, unlike other nations, Ulm can actually mass well-armored infantry (especially with Production Scales), and it can do so without breaking the gold budget due to maintenance fees. Better yet, you can actually shift your resource bonuses to where it's actually needed (e.g. forts closer to the frontline) by simply moving your Smiths. This is no small advantage, especially considering how logistics have become more difficult.

Of the various types of available infantry, I would say that the most effective are the pikemen and the morningstar infantry with shield. The former boasts protection good enough to shrug off most arrow fire (and even some crossbow fire, which is rare anyway in MA) while having an almost guaranteed repel attempt due to its Length 6 weapon. The morningstar/shield soldier, on the other hand, is almost immune to all kinds of shooting (even if they get through the shield, the huge protection will mostly bounce it off), and has a higher defense so it can actually parry off some attacks. In general, I don't think you can go very wrong with picking either one; especially given the fact that Ulmish national commanders are pretty damn good and all give a nice +1 morale bonus.

The axemen/maul troopers meanwhile are specialists, for use against enemies that require high damage (e.g. giants, monsters, etc). The same can be said for Black Knights, who serve as flankers. Don't use them unless you have the enemies that require them.

On the other hand, Guardians are a specialist unit that you may end up recruiting fairly regularly. They're capital-only and expensive, but that's less of an issue for you because unlike most capital-only troops they are NOT sacred - meaning that you can recruit as many of them as your gold and resources allow. And yes, as I just mentioned earlier, you can shift resources to your capital thanks to Smiths, for the times when you really, really need more Guardians.

However, the real reason to be excited by these guys (aside from stats) is the fact that they have special abilities against sacreds - their weapons do unpreventable stun damage to all sacred enemies in the square they're attacking - which makes them a fairly good counter against bless rushes. Just remember that you still need to mass them; or mix them up with regular troops so that they aren't overwhelmed by larger swarms of blessed troops.

Speaking of swarms... if you need one consider recruiting large numbers of war dogs. Their damage output isn't great, but they serve the role of expendable chaff troops fairly well - drawing lightning/magical firepower away from your troops. Alternatively, mass Ogres - all of your mages can cast the summon Ogre spell and you have the Earth income to do it.

Finally, Ulm also has a unique crossbowman in the form of the Arbalest, but unfortunately it only fires once every 3 turns making it a weak option in many cases. Another generally poor option is the sapper - in battle he's just a crossbowman, and the extra strength he lends in sieges is better off gotten by getting more troops or using specialized sieging items due to his high cost. That said, Ulm can still recruit independent archers if they really need ranged firepower, and thanks to the armor level of their troops friendly fire is much less of an issue.

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Now, let's talk about Ulm's mages, and get the "easy" stuff out of the way first. I've already discussed how they give bonus resources which help you recruit troops. What I haven't mentioned is the fact that their mages are drain-immune, meaning you can happily take Drain 2 (see my LA Man guide why Drain 3 is a bad idea) and have 80 "free" design points. And much like LA Man, you'll simply shift these points to a positive scale - albeit in Ulm's case I think Productivity (for more resources, more gold, and thus more troops) is the top pick.

Then we get to the automatic2 points in Earth that all your Smiths (Master and Priest). This makes them very decent Earth mages, as you can cast Summon Earthpower to give them another point of Earth (now up to 3 points) plus reinvigoration to help them cast more spells. Earth 3 actually opens up a lot of options - letting you cast a whole bunch of spells like Blade Wind (especially if you use gems) even without forging any magic-boosting items. But what people forget is the fact that Ulmish mages get one other point of magic - Fire - and this actually makes a pretty huge difference.

See, there's an entire line of "Magma" spells, which requires both Earth and Fire. The most powerful battlefield version is Magma Eruption, which can be had at evocation 6, that hits a fairly big area of the battlefield with a ton of damage. Better yet, the damage doesn't have elemental tags which can be resisted away and the only guys who can reasonably resist this attack are well-armored troops... the very kind of troops you have!

Moreover, consider this: how many MA Nations can actually field Protection 18 troops in reasonable numbers? The answer is "Not many", as most nations are still fielding Prot 10-16 guys. Even those with a Protection 18 option will find it hard to mass them, because unlike Ulm they don't get a resource bonus. Really, the only time people get a lot of high-protection guys will be when they start casting Army of Gold or a similar spell - very high-end stuff that will take a while to research - giving Ulm a pretty big window to conquer a lot of stuff with their heavy armor troops / Magma Blast combo.

But that's not all, because Ulm also has a national spell that comes at Evocation 6 - namely Iron Blizzard. It turns a Priest Smith into a one-man crossbowman platoon, as he can fire _30_ armor-piercing shots per casting of the spell, which does double damage to magical creatures! Even without archers, Ulm can have really remarkable ranged damage output once these guys come out - which is why an argument can be made that you should be recruiting Priest-Smiths only from your capital (which is something you'll definitely do anyway later in the game when you have your second or third fort).

That said, the Master Priest is still your go-to caster - mainly casting Earthpower then spamming Magma Blast - but also because they're your only chance of getting some extra magic paths (they get a 20% chance of getting an extra point of Fire, Earth, Air, or Astral). Now, do realize that these are very low path scores and thus a lot of your magical diversity (and site-searching) will come from your Pretender-but they do open up options for that thing I said you shouldn't do much of, which is supplemental forging.

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Now, rather than explain what "supplemental forging" is, let me instead show a concrete example.

Let's say you're in Year 2. You are now earning 150 research/turn. You aren't at war yet, and you have the following:

1) An Air 1 site, producing 1 Air gem per turn, found by your Pretender.

2) A Master Smith with an Air Random (you got lucky recruiting your Smiths).

3) A Master Smith with an Earth Random, thus now having E3 (you got REALLY lucky).

At this point, I would tell you to spend one turn researching Construction. You pay you 150 research, and immediately get Construction 2 in one turn.

Then, your E3 mage forges a Dwarven Hammer.

Finally, you equip the Dwarven Hammer to your Air-Random Smith. Who proceeds to forge Owl Quills for the rest of the game - for the low, low price of one Air Gem apiece.

Yes, you heard that right. One air gem for 6 research a turn for the rest of the game.

And that's what I mean when I say "supplemental forging". You should not simply pick up Construction just because "Ulm is a forging nation". Instead, you should pick up Construction when you can actually start _mass producing_ things that you will always really need; and preferrably you pick up these construction levels only when you have all the elements in place.

The above example, for instance, would not work if you didn't have an Air 1 site (though you might get the gems via trade) or a Master with an Air Random. If you had simply picked up Con 2 blindly without these elements in place, then you could be "wasting" the research; or at least make your investment wait a long time before bearing fruit.

In short, Ulm should not rush for Construction and make items willy-nilly. Instead, the Ulmish player should recognize that he should pick up Construction when he can start making specific items in large numbers (which he can start doing even with minimal gem income thanks to forging efficiency) that can be used immediately and effectively.

In the case of Owl Quills, they're effective immediately so you should jump on producing them as soon as you can. In the case of combat items however, like say Fire Brands, you need to step back and realize that combat items are supposed to go to a strong fighting unit; and that your recruitable commanders (even the Black Knight) are simply too fragile. You need to wait until you have strong summons (e.g. Bane Lords) to be coming online regularly before you start mass-producing combat items.

(Exception: Items that cast ranged offensive spells don't require a strong summon to carry them. Just have a scout carry them and shoot from the back).

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Finally, to wrap it all up - just some quick notes on the available Pretenders. Ulm actually gets a pretty good selection of them - including the Tiwaz of War (which I praised in the LA Man guide) and other similarly useful Titan-type Pretenders (3 paths, giant-sized, starting Dominion of 3).

That said, for MA Ulm I want to feature the Allfather. He's a little pricier than other Pretenders, but consider the following:

1) Like all other Titans, he gets three paths - Air, Astral, and Death specifically - with Death being of particular note due to all the useful summons they have that can use Ulmish items later on.

2) He only needs to pay 30 points for new paths. While not a true "rainbow", adding another path or two is cheaper with him (especially Earth - so you can forge Dwarven Hammers early if you need to even without an E3 Smith, or Blood - as some bloodhunting can be very useful for Ulm thanks to the Bloodstone booster).

3) He is, like the Tiwaz, a great general AND he has sailing.

4) For gravy, he also gets two giant wolves in every battle, and his glamour is an added layer of battlefield protection.

So, again, while strategy ultimately rests with the player and the overall situation, do keep the All-Father in mind when building your Pretender.

Credits: Thanks to help from Shatner, Frank Trollman, Flypaper, and Vulpes Inculta for some suggestions for this guide.

Edited by: Zinegata

Here's a quote from another thread about a fun strategy I had tried as MA Ulm:

Telos wrote: Why did I go with N9E6A4? Well, I had been trying E9A9 with EA Agartha to see how well precision and reinvigoration boosts on battle evocations could work. I got frustrated with Agarthans' low base precision and high encumbrance. Ulm can cast the same battle-spells with sacred (cap-only or cheaply shrouded mages), plus has national spells that are significantly cheaper/better than blade wind.

It also had occurred to me that indy priests with forged bows would make another good potential use for an A-bless, and who better than Ulm to forge a bunch of 1-gem bows for a bunch of indy priests? It's too bad the designers switched scepter of authority to casting combustion rather than flame-bolt -- that would have been another great 1-gem candidate to enjoy precision boosts. I did still forge a lot of 1-gem scepters while waiting for additional smiths with A- and S-paths, but lighting a single opponent on fire usually isn't nearly so useful as sending out 13 high-precision arrows at once from a single bow of war, or sending out a high-precision soul slay from an ethereal crossbow.

I opted for N9 because that allows a lot more thug opportunities than A9's air shield does, while still fulfilling roughly the same basic purpose as air shield. Spending on N9 cut back how much E and A were affordable, yielding the awkward compromise N9E6A4. I thugged out some indy knight commanders, and some shamblers for water expansion, who all appreciated the N9 blessing. But I think it would also be worth experimenting with straight E9A9. That cuts back a tiny bit on thuggability, but really would make the most of your mages and item-wielding indy priests.

I was quite happy with precision-boosted mages and precision-boosted priests with 1-gem bows. It makes for a very fun artillery game, though later in the game the logistics of commanding multiple screenfuls of priests+mages in each front-line province gets a little annoying.

Marcintrx is definitly right that MA-Ulm is really dependent on getting 20% random picks, especially the 1/4 of those that have A and the 1/4 that have S. Indy lizard shamans or crystal sorceresses do good S-searching, but you really need smiths with S-picks to churn out cheap shrouds and/or ethereal crossbows. Similary A-randoms for quills and bows of war. Once you have multiple forts churning out smiths, you eventually get enough smith-diversity (plus a bunch of "mere" researchers/battlemages), but in early game you're really luck-dependent. Unfortunately, Ulm's forts are really expensive. Fortunately this blessing is so strong for priests and mages that many turns you'll spend all your money on priests, mages and infrastructure because you already have all the survivable black-steel meatshields you need.

I don't think this strategy is any stronger than the more conventional one Zinegata proposed, but it is a fun way to mix things up if you get bored with more conventional strategies.

Ergh, going for a big bless is very counter-intuitive with Ulm, because you're not recruiting mainly sacred casters. Indie priests meanwhile are very weak.

EA Ulm however, is a different story.

Ach! I have been writing a MA Ulm guide that I was planning to publish in the next week. I think I will push it back to the new year but still go through with it since there are several aspects I disagree with Zinegata about...

Thanks Zing. I always love your guides and look forward to reading them. Im curious to find out which nation you will tackle next. From what I have read it sounds like you think LA Ulm is substantially more powerful than its MA counterpart. I could be wrong with this but I also get the impression you like the later ages more . You have done 2 late age nations (Ulm, Man) one middle age nation (Ulm) and no early game nations yet.

I think it would be interesting to see you go over an EA strong nation. Or to have you list out some of the ones that you think are really powerful in each era. *smiles* perhaps we will even get a Zingeta tier list in the future.

Re: the Allfather. He also flies, auto-casts mirror image at the start of battle (glamor), and is stealthy (glamor again). It's a really good chassis. To bad he can't wear boots.

One subtle but consequential problem for MA Ulm is that their bless is very nearly worthless since it applies to almost nothing of theirs. When you're playing as Ulm and you conquer a throne or two that offer nice benefits to your bless... well, you can at least be glad Mictlan and Marignon didn't get that throne. The one exception to this is if you decide to start handing out Shrouds of the Battle Saint like candy. 1 astral pearl for a zero-encumbrance piece of armor which offers other benefits is pretty nice.

Edited by: baumgarm

I_Am_King_Midas wrote: I think it would be interesting to see you go over an EA strong nation. Or to have you list out some of the ones that you think are really powerful in each era. *smiles* perhaps we will even get a Zingeta tier list in the future.

EA Ulm guide is in the works. So far it's looking "okay" in terms of strength.

EA Ulm is a really terrible nation power-wise. The troops are mediocre with a glaring weakness (MR), and their magic diversity is terrible. Really little positive to say about EA Ulm.

DegenerateArt wrote: EA Ulm is a really terrible nation power-wise. The troops are mediocre with a glaring weakness (MR), and their magic diversity is terrible. Really little positive to say about EA Ulm.

Not really; particularly compared to Marveni and some other nations.

The thing to realize about EA Ulm is that it has a surprisingly good out-of-fort recruitment suite. It's not gonna be on the same level as LA Ulm's mass-production mage madness, but it does let Ulm convert its gold and resources into fighting armies (and useful research) at a pretty fast clip that makes them viable in early and mid game; not to mention the low paths also come in pretty diverse combinations that allow for the forging of a lot of nice items / casting spells.

That said, like MA Ulm it has the problem of very poor late-game power, especially given the fact that EA has so many more powerful mages (albeit cap-only and slow to recruit at least makes them less common until later in the game).

So Zing, Im guessing you think that LA >MA>EA for Ulm? Do you consider Ulm to be the strongest in the late age out of all the nations and then average in the other two? Who would you put at the top for the other two?

I_Am_King_Midas wrote: So Zing, Im guessing you think that LA >MA>EA for Ulm? Do you consider Ulm to be the strongest in the late age out of all the nations and then average in the other two? Who would you put at the top for the other two?

You can't really compare the three as they belong to different eras. Tier-wise however, I would put LA Ulm in the top tier of LA nations (powerful from early/mid game, and tools to power to late game), while both MA and EA Ulm are in the middle-to-top tier of MA and EA respectively (both are good early/mid game nations that have lategame issues).

Edited by: Zinegata

EA Ulm might be ok against Marverni but that's not saying anything. They're both bottom of the barrel, the worst (land) nations of the era hands down. While ability to recruit troops in mountains and forests is a plus, it doesn't make up for the mediocrity of those troops, and Shamans require both lab and temple to get from there. Your assessment is way, way off.

MA Ulm on the other hand is a great nation.

DegenerateArt wrote: EA Ulm might be ok against Marverni but that's not saying anything. They're both bottom of the barrel, the worst (land) nations of the era hands down. While ability to recruit troops in mountains and forests is a plus, it doesn't make up for the mediocrity of those troops, and Shamans require both lab and temple to get from there. Your assessment is way, way off.

I would wait for him to post a detailled guide before saying his assessment is wrong.

DegenerateArt wrote: EA Ulm might be ok against Marverni but that's not saying anything. They're both bottom of the barrel, the worst (land) nations of the era hands down. While ability to recruit troops in mountains and forests is a plus, it doesn't make up for the mediocrity of those troops, and Shamans require both lab and temple to get from there. Your assessment is way, way off.

MA Ulm on the other hand is a great nation.

In the context of EA the troops aren't really terrible and given the Ulmish bonus resources from their early era smiths they can be massed fairly easily even if they take losses from time to time. It's not about the invidual stats really (which is why I don't really hold the low MR against Ulm); the more important question is whether you can convert your gold to troops quickly and efficiently enough. As far as I've tested EA Ulm, due its resource bonus and decent non-fort recruits, can.

Ulm has troops with actual armor that can generally resist shortbow fire (which is pretty much all you'll face in EA), not to mention decent archers with armor than can become infantry in a pinch.

And they can mass of dual-wielders, which coupled with easy access to Strength of Giants, makes Ulm fairly capable of doing mass knee-capping of what would normally be troublesome enemies. And after Strength of Giants you only have a short hop to Flaming Arrows, something which you should be able to get fairly reliably (since both your Smiths and Shamans can get F2) to spice up your shortbowmen. All things considered, they stack up reasonably well against pretty much all human-sized regular enemies and many of the big ones. Their only real problem are enemies fielding equivalent numbers of sacred troops... but that really shouldn't happen given the resource bonus and the cap-only nature of many sacreds.

Marveni's army by contrast is incredibly single-dimensional. Basically everyone is a guy with a weapon and a shield, and has no real archers (Ulm has archers, shield infantry, and dual-wielders). And without the resource bonus, they will be pumping out unarmored dudes fairly regularly to be slaughtered by archery. The only things they really have over Ulm are cavalry (that don't even get a lance) and berserkers (which are ok, but Ulm basically catches up really quickly with Strength of Giants and maybe Legions of Steel).

Edited by: Zinegata

Marverni do get shielded slingers which are pretty dang effective in EA at winning archer battles.

Sombledon wrote: Marverni do get shielded slingers which are pretty dang effective in EA at winning archer battles.

Ah, true, those are effective against unarmored archers.

DegenerateArt wrote: EA Ulm might be ok against Marverni but that's not saying anything. They're both bottom of the barrel, the worst (land) nations of the era hands down. While ability to recruit troops in mountains and forests is a plus, it doesn't make up for the mediocrity of those troops, and Shamans require both lab and temple to get from there. Your assessment is way, way off.

MA Ulm on the other hand is a great nation.

I'd take either of those two in a head-to-head v. Yomi.

Someone wrote: And after Strength of Giants you only have a short hop to Flaming Arrows, something which you should be able to get fairly reliably (since both your Smiths and Shamans can get F2)

A 3% chance of F2 is "reliable" to you?

KateMicucci wrote:
A 3% chance of F2 is "reliable" to you?

You need about 30 to get a F2 on average, which is more than the number you should have by that time. It need a bit of luck, but a lot less than what one may believe.

Shaman have the same odds at being F1D1, who can build fire booster for the same effect by the way.

Edited by: Ohlmann

The number of mages you should have by what time? By ench-4 / conj-3?

F1D1 guys are twice as common as F2 shamans. But that needs const-6 on top of everything else. By that time other nations shouldn't have much issues countering flame arrows somehow.

Edited by: DegenerateArt

DegenerateArt wrote: The number of mages you should have by what time? By ench-4 / conj-3?

F1D1 guys are twice as common as F2 shamans. But that needs const-6 on top of everything else. By that time other nations shouldn't have much issues countering flame arrows somehow.

How are they twice as common? They're both 100% F/D and then 50% F/D. The really common ones are Earth 2, not F+D or F2.

Also, the thing about F2s is that they can be had on both your Shamans and your Smiths. Whatever you recruit you have the shot of getting the needed F2. And you should have close to 20 mages by the end of year 1 at the minimum (early second recruitment site for Shamans), and the last 10 can be had in 3-5 turns so long as you've put up a second fort in addition to the Shaman recruitment site.

Getting to 30 mages by early Year 2 isn't terribly hard with EA Ulm. And by this time you will assuredly have E2s and most likely have E3; which is your first target anyway to cast Strength of Giants for your dual-wielders. After that comes the hop to Flaming Arrows (albeit probably after getting Conj3, which assuredly gives you E3 through Summon Earthpower), but if you're well over 30 mages and don't have an F2 yet all's not lost - go to Construction 3 for Legions of Steel instead then (and by the time you get that you'll likely have the needed F2).

EA Ulm has a really diverse magic mix that makes good use of a lot of low-level research in multiple schools. To an extent this makes them one of the best beginner's nations for this reason.

Edited by: Zinegata

Zinegata wrote:

DegenerateArt wrote: The number of mages you should have by what time? By ench-4 / conj-3?

F1D1 guys are twice as common as F2 shamans. But that needs const-6 on top of everything else. By that time other nations shouldn't have much issues countering flame arrows somehow.

How are they twice as common? They're both 100% F/D and then 50% F/D. The really common ones are Earth 2, not F+D or F2..

There are 4 total combinations that get 2 magic picks. F2, D2, F1D1, and F1D1 can be achieved by way of two different random picks but F2 and D2 can only be achieved by one way. If you say the F/D 100% random is outcome variables A and B, and F/D 50% random is variables C anc D then 4 possible outcomes are

A and C (F2)
A and D (F1/D1i
B and C (D1/F1)
B and D (D2)

So F1/D1 outcome is twice as common as F2.

Edited by: DivertedTraffic

DivertedTraffic wrote:

Zinegata wrote:

DegenerateArt wrote: The number of mages you should have by what time? By ench-4 / conj-3?

F1D1 guys are twice as common as F2 shamans. But that needs const-6 on top of everything else. By that time other nations shouldn't have much issues countering flame arrows somehow.

How are they twice as common? They're both 100% F/D and then 50% F/D. The really common ones are Earth 2, not F+D or F2..

There are 4 total combinations that get 2 magic picks. F2, D2, F1D1, and F1D1 can be achieved by way of two different random picks but F2 and D2 can only be achieved by one way. If you say the F/D 100% random is outcome variables A and B, and F/D 50% random is variables C anc D then 4 possible outcomes are

A and C (F2)
A and D (F1/D1i
B and C (D1/F1)
B and D (D2)

So F1/D1 outcome is twice as common as F2.

Ah, gotcha, In which case the F2s should be as common as F1D1s (unless you're recruiting fewer Smiths than Shamans), since the Smiths also get the same shot of getting an F2 as the Shaman.

Also, I forgot to mention: If you still don't have an F2 after getting Legions of Steel, there's still Construction 4 for Frost Brands and Vine Shields, and then Alteration for protection-boosting of blessed Shamans who will serve as your mini-thugs.

Edited by: Zinegata

This tome also added to the library of the Council.

I think I should probably add my two cents in:

First: I'm pretty sure the hammer and battleaxe infantry are simply completely useless. I did some testing with Ulmish soldiers fighting Jotun giants, and lines of battleaxe infantry did worse than lines of pikeneers even then. The pike infantry is not only better in a generic conflict, I haven't been able to find a specific scenario where the two handed weapons have the upper hand. Even scenarios where pure theory craft say they might be useful (just as fighting Jotun Hirdmen) I haven't found them to be actually effective in tests.

Second: I think Arbalests are great. Yes, they fire only every third turn, but they do so much more damage than other ranged weapons that they end up being highly effective overall. Remember: it's not like your infantry can't hold a line long enough for the arbalesters to reload. Also, while you will inevitably use indie archers with shortbows, the arbalesters are much tougher and draw fire targeted at archers quite effectively. The big concern with arbalests is that they hit hard enough to cause friendly fire casualties. That's why you always want to direct them to fire at archers or something, while your indie shortbowmen get to fire closest.

Third: Iron Blizzard is horribly overrated in this writeup. It's only range 25, which means it really isn't a substitute for crossbowmen. It's nice, it wounds or kills a number of enemies, and it's a nice supplement to Magma Eruption, but that's it. It does damage to a modest area of enemies in medium range - it isn't really any different from Magma Eruption in most cases. The guide also glosses over the fact that Priest Smiths lose the troop leadership and forge bonus of the master smith, as well as the fact that their lack of random means that they even produce less average research. Priest Smiths are not a substitute for Master Smiths. They are a supplement to Master Smiths whose purpose is to slightly expand your evocation options when you get evocation 6. Nothing more.

Fourth: this guide mentions Owl Quills, as it should. But I don't think it really takes in how centrally important it is to get 6 research per turn per turn for one air gem. It's so important that it is worth doing even if you don't have an air income. It is literally worth alchemizing earth gems into astral pearls to alchemize astral pearls into air gems to make Owl Quills. That's still only 4 earth gems per quill, and each quill is still 6 research per turn for the rest of the game. Even over 15 turns, that is getting you 37 gold per gem worth of research, and if you do have an Air income you're doing 4 times better than that. Getting yourself an Air Smith is so massively important that making more than one or two Priest Smiths before you have one is self destructive. You might want a Priest Smith to build temples and search for magic sites, but you're not going to want to start building them on any kind of scale. Construction 2 is actually worth researching early, because the the Owl Quill economy is worth jumping into even before you get an Air income.

And a final note: Scorpion Beasts. In the latest patch they became a 2 gem creature. They are basically pretty similar to Ulmish troops: low MR and high toughness. So you can't really expect to accomplish much with them that your army couldn't accomplish on their own. But at 44 hit points, they are very good lightning rods for spells. Having a few scorpion beasts in skirmish positions off on their own makes things like Thunder Strike much less disruptive to your army. A Thunderstrike goes off and one scorpion beast gets wounded and not killed instead of developing a gaping hole in your pike line. And all for 2 fire gems and 11 research points.

The bottom line on MA Ulm is that you can slap the computer around at will. Time will tell whether human strategists will be able to outmaneuver MA Ulm as easily as they did in Dominions 3 or if the rules changes have made Ulm pike formations tough enough to make them a powerful faction in multiplayer.

-Frank