this strategy used to be lot stronger apparently, back when you got the MA Ulm longdead with the plate armor and greatswords. the dual wielding longdead you get now are more thematic, but you really miss the higher protection.
Yea I noticed the change while testing, it’s too bad you don’t get heavy plate inf anymore, however that brings up an interesting idea of trying to bootstrap yourself into Death as MA Ulm
If you are doing a lot of reanimation, you probably want amulets of the death to get 2 extra longdead per reanimation. It is construction 4 though, so not an early game option. Going heavily into construction could be a good option though, if you go all the way to construction 6 for lanterns, giving you a strong boost to your research.
The problem is getting to that late-mid game where you get big summons. What early magic can EA Ulm do reliably besides legion of steel, strength of giants, and earth elemental? The chances of getting 2 of same paths other than Earth on Smith or Shaman is only 1/32
My hope in this case would be to fill out the mid-game with some death summons, like mound fiends, and hidden in sand/underground to get out some reliable death casters. You really need a BIG gem economy as Ulm however to make anything long-term work, whether it’s crafting/thugs, death, or whatever else
Their best try is to point buff thugs with as efficient gear as you can manage (needs to change based on matchup). It's not great though, it's hard to scale into tons of "point buffed army thugs supported by chaff" and keep winning fights as the game goes on. But it's their best progression after basic army buff stuffs until breaking into non-national stuff. Burning pearl + giant strength boots is 4 gems once you have hammers for example. Warrior smiths with iron warriors + strength + enlarge would have 25 strength with their 2h great sword. You can also spend 2 more gems to hand them a magic weapon. When you put quickness on this, their attack would be over 20, with good defense. If you need to kill thug giants GSS or similar makes a good option. If you need help hacking through chaff, you might replace strength boots with chi shoes, skip the burning pearl, and put on horned helmet for 3 attacks per guy (6 with quickness). Even once enlarged, you still fit 2 to a square. Greatsword at 20 strength deals 35 slash, while the two aux attacks are each 20 (and magic weapons). As opposing magic gets better, it gets increasingly hard to keep up by just making more point buffed guys. But aside from putting a pile of skeletons or chaff in front of them and buffing the army too, what else do you have? At least 6-12 guys with a bunch of point buffs will do heavy damage in combat. Making 2 gem gear is the best thing you've got until very late game, so you might as well use it. You can further supplement this strategy by summoning banes or wights, forest/hill giants, and using the undead stuff (either casting reanimation for chaff or forging 3 gem amulets of dead and having 25 gold scouts spam single skeletons all fight). Using summons/reanimated stuff and putting gold into thugs holding gear also makes it much more feasible to deal with stuff like foul vapors or darkness, since if you know you'll face that kind of thing you can gear for it, use AoE PR to cover army thugs and mages, and not have horrible logistics just to cover your guys against basic mid-game trap plays.
Death is easy to counter. But it's a resource you can abuse, sure. But taking death scale for a human nation is very sketchy, unless you invest in it, but then again actual death using nations do it much better then ulm. Every natural n can utilize death. It's a part of the circle of life. And this game is about life and death. You could just in theory, use mid or late age ulm And not focus into death. And don't summon things or demons or undead. Don't even hire vampires or blood hunt. The game is also very much about role-playing. And you can essentially do anything. There's no right or wrong way to play. And undead early age ulm kind of just sounds like late age ulm.
this is actually amazing. great to see this type of dom 5 videos.
this strategy used to be lot stronger apparently, back when you got the MA Ulm longdead with the plate armor and greatswords. the dual wielding longdead you get now are more thematic, but you really miss the higher protection.
Yea I noticed the change while testing, it’s too bad you don’t get heavy plate inf anymore, however that brings up an interesting idea of trying to bootstrap yourself into Death as MA Ulm
If you are doing a lot of reanimation, you probably want amulets of the death to get 2 extra longdead per reanimation. It is construction 4 though, so not an early game option. Going heavily into construction could be a good option though, if you go all the way to construction 6 for lanterns, giving you a strong boost to your research.
The problem is getting to that late-mid game where you get big summons. What early magic can EA Ulm do reliably besides legion of steel, strength of giants, and earth elemental? The chances of getting 2 of same paths other than Earth on Smith or Shaman is only 1/32
My hope in this case would be to fill out the mid-game with some death summons, like mound fiends, and hidden in sand/underground to get out some reliable death casters. You really need a BIG gem economy as Ulm however to make anything long-term work, whether it’s crafting/thugs, death, or whatever else
Their best try is to point buff thugs with as efficient gear as you can manage (needs to change based on matchup). It's not great though, it's hard to scale into tons of "point buffed army thugs supported by chaff" and keep winning fights as the game goes on. But it's their best progression after basic army buff stuffs until breaking into non-national stuff.
Burning pearl + giant strength boots is 4 gems once you have hammers for example. Warrior smiths with iron warriors + strength + enlarge would have 25 strength with their 2h great sword. You can also spend 2 more gems to hand them a magic weapon. When you put quickness on this, their attack would be over 20, with good defense. If you need to kill thug giants GSS or similar makes a good option. If you need help hacking through chaff, you might replace strength boots with chi shoes, skip the burning pearl, and put on horned helmet for 3 attacks per guy (6 with quickness). Even once enlarged, you still fit 2 to a square. Greatsword at 20 strength deals 35 slash, while the two aux attacks are each 20 (and magic weapons).
As opposing magic gets better, it gets increasingly hard to keep up by just making more point buffed guys. But aside from putting a pile of skeletons or chaff in front of them and buffing the army too, what else do you have? At least 6-12 guys with a bunch of point buffs will do heavy damage in combat. Making 2 gem gear is the best thing you've got until very late game, so you might as well use it. You can further supplement this strategy by summoning banes or wights, forest/hill giants, and using the undead stuff (either casting reanimation for chaff or forging 3 gem amulets of dead and having 25 gold scouts spam single skeletons all fight).
Using summons/reanimated stuff and putting gold into thugs holding gear also makes it much more feasible to deal with stuff like foul vapors or darkness, since if you know you'll face that kind of thing you can gear for it, use AoE PR to cover army thugs and mages, and not have horrible logistics just to cover your guys against basic mid-game trap plays.
Death is easy to counter. But it's a resource you can abuse, sure. But taking death scale for a human nation is very sketchy, unless you invest in it, but then again actual death using nations do it much better then ulm.
Every natural n can utilize death. It's a part of the circle of life.
And this game is about life and death.
You could just in theory, use mid or late age ulm And not focus into death. And don't summon things or demons or undead. Don't even hire vampires or blood hunt. The game is also very much about role-playing. And you can essentially do anything. There's no right or wrong way to play. And undead early age ulm kind of just sounds like late age ulm.