EA Ulm advice wanted

[Covenant]

For an upcoming Multiplayer game I'll be taking control of EA Ulm, and wondering if anyone has any specific information about how to wield them properly and how to design a Pretender for them.

I've played as them before, but I always feel that in EA they're extremely bland. I've predominantly beaten the computer using them through sheer force of Blesses, but against possible W9?9 Helheim and Vanheim in this upcoming multiplayer game, I won't have as exploitive an advantage over a human player as I did over AI.

Which leads me to ask, what are EA Ulm's big advantages, big weaknesses, and how can I design an army and a Pretender to let me do my best?

[Meglobob]

Pray, pray very hard you do not start next to Kailasa.

There's been a recent 'fun' tactic of trample Ulm to death with massed elephants before turn 15, going on.

This as happened with Bander Log vs Ulm and Patala vs Ulm.

Ulm does'nt stand a chance against this tactic, because his largest unit is size 3 and elephants are size 6. Also 120 crossbows/archers all set to target large monsters does not work either...

Might be a good idea to take a awake, tough pretender, just to make sure your not rushed and crushed early on.

[Endoperez]

Meglobob said:
Pray, pray very hard you do not start next to Kailasa.

There's been a recent 'fun' tactic of trample Ulm to death with massed elephants before turn 15, going on.

Ulm does'nt stand a chance against this tactic, because his largest unit is size 3 and elephants are size 6. Also 120 crossbows/archers all set to target large monsters does not work either...

Thaumaturgy;

Sleep and Panic.
Bonds of Fire (morale-dependent, so it should REALLY slow those elephants down!).

Alteration:
Earth Grip/Earth Meld might work. False Fetters has a much better chance of working, but Air 2 is rare.

Perhaps Great Bears from Conjuration. They are size 4.

However, I still haven't been able to use tramplers to as good effect as (seemingly) everyone else, so I might undervalue elephants.

[Covenant]

You have to remember how pitiful Ulm's mages are. Unless I take a fire-casting Pretender I am likely not going to be able to reliably field any variety of fire magic whatsoever. Ulm gets only meager earth and nature spells by default! With no real mages, it's hard to pull off strategies like that.

Plus, although being trampled by Elephants would indeed be a lousy state of affairs, there's also the Van/Helheim bunch nearby. I need to have less dedicated strategies, and more effective ones overall.

IE, the information I'm seeking is more general. I see many terribly redundant troops, and many unnecessarily expensive ones (Mountain Warriors vs. Normal Warriors... no real benefit to upgrading), and a very odd Sacred that I'm just not sure what to do with.

[Meglobob]

Endoperez said:

Thaumaturgy;
Bonds of Fire (morale-dependent, so it should REALLY slow those elephants down!).

However, I still haven't been able to use tramplers to as good effect as (seemingly) everyone else, so I might undervalue elephants.

Saw MA Ulm use Bonds of Fire, he had 6-12 dwarven smiths (this was his final stand vs Bander Log in his capital fortress), while they did effect the elephants, they only seemed to slow them 1 or 2 rounds, so not really effective.

Others may be useful, not seen them used or tried them to stop a elephant stampede.

The tactic seems to be to amass 10-20+ elephants in one large mass, mix in some higher morale apes/other units. Very simple, more deadly than a multi-blessed nation to any nation with size 3 or smaller units.

Also its usually backed up with 20 - 40+ longbows just for added pain.

[Shovah32]

My bonds of fire(it was my capitol ) slowed them down and, i honestly believe that if i had a larger number of troops and better mage placement(maul barbarians and my flail men come to mind) i could have crushed the elephants as, even with only a few troops i inflicted a couple of casualties before going down.

[Velusion]

I just started a large game with EA Ulm and chose a Dragon awake pretender with a high Domain to try and avoid that. With the Awe + Fear and my breath weapon I hope to make people pause before rushing me. The breath will help alot with the Van/Hel (though probably not enough). I get to expand very fast which is a big plus as well.

[BigDisAwesome]

Meglobob said:
There's been a recent 'fun' tactic of trample Ulm to death with massed elephants before turn 15, going on.

I felt kinda bad for doing it Shovah, but I just had to.

[PvK]

Elephants can squash anything smaller than themselves almost no matter what it is... until they get hurt and panic and trample their own men.

Bunches of archers are one counter that can work...

[lch]

BigDisAwesome said:
I felt kinda bad for doing it Shovah, but I just had to.

You haven't been the only one that did it to him, and Patala/Kailasa pretty much has to do it in the early game. Or at least, it's the easiest strategy.