Dud nation mods

[Endoperez]

In the "Dud nations" discussion, MA Ulm was mentioned a couple of times. I'm not good with balance issues, but I guess the nation could use a few changes. I found out my old DomII Ulm Upgrade, rewrote it and here you have it.

Change list:
Black Steel Full Plate (prot 22, enc 5) instead of Full Plate of Ulm (prot 20, enc 5) on all black plate units, commanders and heroes. Black Steel Helmet (prot 22, def 0) instead of Full Helmet (prot 20, def -1) on all black plate units. I originally thought that this would make their armors immune to Armor of Achilles, Acid Storm etc, but it seems that armors are only magical when a magic item is actually equipped.

Commanders of Ulm (those with hammers), Black Lords and Lord Guardians all have #standard, and can all summon few militia (nr 18). Black Lords and Lord Guardians summon 5, Commanders 3 militia.

Commanders of Ulm with morningstars have been replaced by Nobleman of Ulm, armed with arbalest and prec 12, and Warlord, a commander equal to Lord Guardian in combat stats. Warlord has #standard but can't conscript militia.

Finally, Lord Guardian is a bit cheaper.


I might do a quickie mod that gives Agarthans some more suitable weapons. Say, Tridents instead of Spears. Or glaive/buckler combination to everyone, not just Olm Spawn.

[Xietor]

is it possible you could give the warlord a mr of 12 or 13? It would be nice if ulm had a unit with a decent mr that could act as a thug without dying to a single smite.

It gets some heroes that have good mr, but heroes do not always answer the call, and ulm should have at least 1 commander that can enter battle with some confidence against the nations with level 3 priests or astral mages without at least the certainty of death.

[HoneyBadger]

This sounds like a really good mod, Endoperez-I'm going to use it.

[Xietor]

The noble makes a good prophet, since he has 12 hp and his morale jumps to 30 as a prophet. Most of the other Ulm commanders have a very high spell casting encumbrance.

I played a bit with the mod. I gave the warlord a sword of sharpness and a tower shield, to help him wear missile attacks, but his movement dropped from 7 to 5.

Is there anyway to increase his movement a bit? I know armor is heavy, but he is a warlord. maybe to 9?

[Endoperez]

Xietor - Warlords are just like all other Ulmish guys, just more so. I could consider giving them mag res 10 (like Lord Guardians), but not more. I'd rather fix the problem by adding a Cold Iron Helmet item, E1, decent helm that casts Iron Will on the wielder. Unfortunately, Item Modding isn't that advanced yet.

As for Warlord, he starts with base AP of 12. It gets automatically lowered due to the heavy armor. Just compare his APs to those of base Ulmish infantries - 7 with two-handed weapon, 5 with shield. To increase his movement, you could give him some ligher armor, or make him mounted, or give him some item that gives the Running (boots of the messenger) or Quickness abilities. However, this would make him faster than his bodyguards, which could be hazardous.

Noble's poor morale isn't a problem in their use. They can only lead 40 units, and don't have standard, and have poor attacks stats, so I thought the other Ulmish commanders would be more efficient except when you really wanted an archer (Attack Rear is nice, though). Any way, I find it thematic that prophets often come from the ranks of nobles.

HoneyBadger - Thanks.