MA Ulm Pretender Strategies

[1337Dude]

Lately I've been playing with a rainbow Allfather (Air 3, Earth 7, Astral 1, Death 1, Nature 7, Dom 4, Fortune 3, Drain 3)) . I like him because he's versatile: wide range of spells, has sailing, strong regen+hard skin bless, and can forge most unique artifacts using boosters he can forge.

But was wondering what other pretenders people like to use. I figure Ulm benefits the most from scales and the least from bless-focused Pretenders (due to lack of Sacreds). I couldn't help but wonder if Quickess + Swiftness + Precision x2 + Far Caster bless would be effective on massed Master Smiths (Sacred w/ Shrouds). Probably would be more for fun than actually effective.

What Pretender strategies do people use with MA Ulm?

[ÆtherNomad]

Precision and Far Caster are obviously the best blesses for MA Ulm, to help casting Iron Blizzard. You're also right when you're saying that scales are the most important thing for this nation. High order is quite useless - Order 1 is more than enough, even with Production 3 -, but you absolutely need Production 3 and Growth 3. When it comes to temperature scales, it is highly preferable to either let them neutral or take Heat/Cold 1, no more. Luck is not very important, but doesn't hurt if you have spare points. Drain is the only negative scale you can afford, and thanks to Ulm's special researchers, it is probably far better to take at least Drain 2, if not 3, rather than to take magic - the benefits of magic 3 aren't worth 240 pretender creation points if Drain 3 doesn't slow down your research.

What I just described is the base of the nation. While the bless if completely optional, the scales I described are probably the most important thing for MA Ulm. Then, the only question is: what kind of chassis, magic and awakening can I get with these scales?

Personally, I like using rainbows a lot, site searching being their greatest boon here. I also like using them to forge good items, as MA Ulm lacks magic quite a bit. And when it comes to rainbows for that specific purpose, Ulm has four that are interesting: Master Alchemist, Great Enchantress, Eldest Dwarf and Frost Father. All can get pretty equivalent builds all the while getting excellent scales. How much magic you can get will then be dependant on how much time you're willing to wait. I personally find Dormant to be the beast deal, as it lets you both enough magic AND enough time to actually site seach efficiently, which is the case neither of Awake nor Imprisoned.

[meglobob1]

I think with MA Ulm your best going for a pretender to help you in the endgame.

Your going to have plenty of design points to spend, because you get to take drain 3 and its a benefit to you, so you want fantastic scales O3 P3 G3 possibly L0-3 (depending on your view of luck, remember luck gives you a greater chance of events and well the majority will be good with luck, you will get more bad events, well 0 elimintes RNG as much as possible).

Then you can lavish points on a pretender, you don't need a awake pretender either, MA Ulms military can take indies easy peasy.

I am a big fan of blood and blood gives you a powerful endgame, plus it means bloodstone access later on, so I would get blood 4, its a long term strategy, hunting / empowering smiths / hunting / empowering smiths but if you make it to turn 40-50+ it starts to pay off and take any oppourtunity in game to get blood slaves as it speeds you up.

After that go with whatever you fancy, I would avoid taking earth personally, as MA Ulm as earth magic coming out of his ears and ends up with more earth gems then they know what to do with, so empowering in earth isn't a hardship. I would look to diversify MA Ulms magic, its not a bad idea at all to look to take 2 in N, W, D paths MA Ulm has no natural access too so can potentially diversify into those magic paths later on.

My take is from a long MP game point of view, one that will last 70-80 turns in total.

[1337Dude]

Is Precision bless stacking a thing? I noticed the bless screen lets you stack blesses. Is that intentional?

[ÆtherNomad]

Yes, it is. If a bless doesn't stack, you simply can't get it several times.

[Aseth]

I like Dormant Odin with 4A 5S 5D (3order 3prod 1heat 2growth 3misf 3drain)
4A - Precision x3, Minor LR bless
5S - Farcaster + Minor MR bless ans Rings forging lategame
5D - Stygian Skin bless for protection against random arrows and Bane/Tartarian lategame
That way you can get very good item for 1S-gem that can be equiped on ALL of your combat mages with 1gem Grindle and 1gem Luck.
Plus he is good SC with teleport

[Darkrage_nl]

(3misf 3drain)

Never do that imho. It will cause the worst possible events to spawn.

[ÆtherNomad]

Also, 3 order is completely useless. You'll never have enough resources to spend all that recruitment points.

[Aseth]

Order+Misf is optional. I like maxing money for Ulm, and ability to buy maximum Guardians and Knights if i need them. If you dont need them - modify Order+Misf as you wish - basic troops dont need it and gold income is less than Growth. Prod Growth and Drain are must imho.

[kzickas]

I don't think you need production 3 on MA Ulm thanks to your smiths. I played a multiplayer game with prod 2 on them in dom 4 and never felt like I had too low production.

[Aseth]

Maybe prod2. But in dom5 - due to new bless - smith very good at combat casting, and maybe you want them to sit less in labs than in dom4.

[kzickas]

Master smiths still aren't sacred, so unless you intend to give them all shrouds the bless isn't going to matter.

[Aseth]

All shrouds. You losing a lot of Ulm potential if you dont use 1gem powerfull item crafting imho. And with new bless - Shrouds can be a damn good item for mages :)

[kzickas]

They're great for mages, but only 1 in 20 mages have astral 1. Even if you're willing to put aside a hammer for each one, and don't intend to forge any other astral items, you're still unlikely to keep up with your mage production.

[Aseth]

Yep.
But in dom5 you get not 1 mage per turn, but 1.5 mages with command points. And with good scales you have money to constantly produce 1.5 mages and full load of any of cheap troops in 3+ castles. So you can have 2-3 of astran mages usually pretty fast (or none if you unlucky :) ).
So if you go for mage bless route it`s more viable now, and S5 is good for lategame anyway.
And don`t forget that you can grab some cheap bless for Shrouds from all-lvl3-in-elem-or-sorc for you rainbow pretender as additional option.

[Mardagg]

Originally posted by ÆtherNomad:

Also, 3 order is completely useless. You'll never have enough resources to spend all that recruitment points.

Not true.
You get massive boost to resources in Ulmish forts + prod 3 + Priest smiths 10 resource each.
I easily get to 700+ resources and thats when recruitment points can matter. And that is only talking about the capital. With all other forts, I tend to miss recruitment points more than resources at some point , usually in midgame.

I would advise to take Astral with pretender for reasons stated by others in this thread.
Other magic paths are a matter of preference. I often take Death magic.

Taking far caster/ precision and shrouding master smiths is a viable stat...but in general I would go for that in LA ...since your priest smiths are not cap only there and can be massed in huuuge numbers, all capable of going evocation national spells without shroud.
MA Ulm is more about thugging imo and taking pretender to fill leaks in magic paths.