EA and MA Ulm forge bonus - trading aspect

[CUnknown]

I don't want to keep spamming that "Halt heretic" thread with other MA Ulm stuff, so I started this thread.

I am reminded about this one game (a Dom2 game actually) where Yellowcactus and I teamed up - it was a team game (2v2v2v2). I was MA Ulm and Yellowcactus was ... I guess EA Mictlan is the equivalent of Dom2 Mictlan.

Shame Yellowcactus doesn't play anymore. Anyway:

We totally dominated that game. It was actually the first multiplayer game I was ever on the winning side of, but we just crushed the oppostion (hey Tuidjy, I seem to remember that you may have been in that one..?).

The strategy was that Yellowcactus would take a triple-9 bless (this was in Dom2 where that was almost never done and considered just frickin' crazy), he would have a completely bottom of the barrel economy but unstoppable sacreds. I would be Ulm and take Order-3, Production-3, etc and pump cash and magic items into his hands, and he would pummel the enemy into submission.

It worked like a charm, when the game ended around turn 50 or so, we had all the artifacts (I went straight for them), all the Blood unique demons (equipped with artifacts), and we never faced any major opposition. We (Yellowcactus, rather) were on the offensive the whole game.

So, making a point about being "forge *****" -- MA Ulm is the best partner you can hope to have, and in team games, MA Ulm really shines. Maybe I didn't get the glory of conquest myself personally in that game, but I took much pride in his screenshots.

Edit:

I found the old thread, here it is:
Entwined Destiny

The players were:
- Aku and Boron: Pangaea + Abysia
- Alexti and Izaqyos: Vanheim + Jotunheim
- CUnknown and YellowCactus: Mictlan + Ulm
- Dragon11 and PashaDawg: Pythium + Ermor
- GriffinOfBuerrig and TheBirthdayParty: C'tis + Marignon
- Tuidjy and Yvelina : Caelum + Arcoscephale

[Shovah32]

Just thought I'd point out that being a "clam *****" can also work suprisingly well(MA Oceania+MA R'lyeh make a nice little team).

[ComTrav]

I'm tempted to argue that as far as forging goes EA Ulm has a slight edge over MA because they have much easier access to a bunch of different magic paths. (The EA smiths aren't immune to drain, though). After playing MA Ulm, building smiths in EA was a surprise--"wtf? How come a smith has 2W? E2F1 for life!"

[Tuidjy]

> (hey Tuidjy, I seem to remember that you may have been in that one..?).

I think this is the game during which I broke up with my girlfriend of the time,
yeah. In any case, we raked 10 stales in the first ten turns (50% stales)
I do not really remember much, apart from the fact that it marked the end of
our playing Dominions II... it certainly was for me, she may have hung around.

Thanks for reminding me of her. I think I'll join your next MA game, just
to 'observe' how you play Ulm :-)

[Saxon]

Pretty much any game can see you get a decent advantage if you are willing to make trades. If both sides are coming out ahead on the deal and you make tons of trades, you come out well ahead of the others. Everyone has an incentive to trade with you, as each individual trade is good for both sides. Dominions can�t be compared to Eve Online, but there certainly is room for the trading strategy. However, I would like to raise a point of terminology. Instead of �forge *****,� it might be wiser to use the more traditional name, which I believe is �capitalist whore.�

I can not comment if MA Ulm can become such a successful trader that it makes up for any other disadvantages, but it is a legitimate strategy. Some folks might not like it, but then again, not everyone likes what you have to do to make certain nations really powerful.