Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Ulm, Forges of Ulm

The Forges of Ulm is the height of the kingdom of steel-worshipers. Their arms and armor are unequalled, but magic is discouraged and only used by the Master Smiths.

Units
Ulm features the heaviest units in the game. Generally speaking however, armor is good, but expensive and easily countered by magic (Ulm has lower magic defense then other nations).

Ulm Heavy Infantry has great armor and more hit points than average HI, but also some weaknesses like high encumbrance, average morale and low magic resistance.

Pikeneers are a good choice when you don't know what you'll fight. Not weak against anything. Once you know what troops you'll fight, produce counters.

The Black Plate cavalry and Black Plate infantry get a base armor rating of 20, giving them the highest base armor of any normal troops of the age. To make them, you need extremely high resources as with most of your troops, so make sure to take all of the lands surrounding your castle as soon as possible.

A mix of Pikeneers and Heavy Infantrymen are nearly unstoppable by normal infantry, and are armored enough to ignore most missile fire. Put these troops as far forward as possible, potentially with some flanking Knights on the sides. The Pikeneers excel at repelling (they have max weapon length), and the HI can usually even penetrate enemy knights. Technically, some weapons are better than others against particular opponent types. Also, depending of your playing style, you will want either to have a weapon which makes more damages but gives less defence, or the reverse. It is somehow a personal issue here. To keep it simple, you could also mix them all.


 * Flail: two weak attacks and a defense penalty. Meant to dispatch hordes of light infantry.
 * Morning star: bonus against shield. If your opponent has shielded infantry use this one.
 * Hammer or Maul : the maul makes more damage but you get a def penalty and no shield, the hammer makes slightly less damage but you can keep a tower shield.
 * Pike: will ask a moral check from the opponent, use against low moral troops (Ctis infantry, barbarians, etc). They slow the enemy attack, so use them if you plan to have a front line holding while your crossbows fire.

Ulm's Crossbowmen use Arbalests, which are slow and less accurate but shoot further and for more damage than crossbows. Arbalests are so strong they are capable of killing their own troops if you don’t pay attention however. So you'll probably buy long- or shortbowmen in some independent provinces instead.

Local defense: Ulm has militia (crossbowmen and HI) that is actually worth buying to 10 or so if you have the money.

Commanders

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

Heroes
Barthulf, the best leadership of Ulm, "was dubbed a Black Knight at the age of thirteen. He appeared as a mystery knight at the great tourney of Black Keep and emerged victorious. After this deed he became known throughout the realm and soon men from near and far came to challenge him. Barthulf has never lost a challenge and is the pride of the Black Keep".

Hildegard "was the only child of the late Hochmeister of the Black Order. Her father taught her how to fight and wanted her to join the order, but she was a strong-willed young woman who didn't like the strict hierarchical organization of the order. She decided to become a freelance warrior, and as such she has become known and respected. During her more adventurous years Hildegard befriended a black unicorn that has followed her since". She is one of the fastest commander of the game, and her defense is so high that she is nearly intouchable in close combat.

Raterik, almost as fast as Hildegard but wearing a full plate armor, "is a strange and secretive knight. As a youth he befriended a black unicorn, and the magical steed has given the peasant boy the opportunity to join the Black Order. Several of the older members of the order complained about the peasant but so far he has not failed in his tasks. Raterik has proven himself a resourceful and able commander". He has recuperation, a very useful ability for a knight.

Magic
Ulm has a weak and narrow magic.

Use Master Smiths and Priest Smiths for research, since they have the ability to tolerate the drain: they get a +2 research bonus minimum (so even in a +3 drain, they have 5 research points each – in a neutral or positive magic dominion they get the same bonus as all other mages). Keep in mind that all other mages, including your pretender, do not benefit from this drain immunity, however (this could be a good reason to take a weak dominion: build a lab in a border province, where your drain dominion is weaker, and regroup your other mages there). Priest Smiths are more expensive, but are sacred and their upkeep is halved; actually, a Priest Smith is cheaper than a Master Smith after 13 turns. Also, it is useful to get mages for searching sites if you don't have a mage pretender.

Both Master Smiths and Priest Smiths get a 25% gems discount on forging magic items, so if possible consider equipping them with many items to increase their skills (for exemple, with a Dwarven Hammer, a Master Smith can forge for half price). Try to use them over the pretender, so you save those gems.

They are decent support mages and generally are unable to penetrate the armor of their own troops, so friendly fire is negligible until Magma Bolts/Iron Darts, and even then is not very great. They have more armor than other mages, and have a good amount of command skill. With "Summon Earthpower" they have several nice level 3 spells available, like "Legions of Steel" (Ulm start spell), or "Blade Wind" which decimates light troops (or unprotected etheral units like seasonal spirits) but does not penetrate Ulm's super thick armors.

On the battlefield smiths are affected by drain scale while casting spells however (greater fatigue). Forge Earth boots (construction-4) as soon as possible, to be able to cast more Blade Winds in a battle, or to Summon Fall Bears, Contact Troll/Troll King's Court or Crusher Construction.

The priests are weak too, and Ulm has no sacred troops. Choose your prophet carefully, as he is probably your only priest able to cast Sermon of Courage. Black priests are "inquisitors" and can counter enemy dominion. If you play defensively, consider a Black priest prophet.

Special Strategy
Simple: play like a tank commander. Build heavy troops and hit people with them. Early conquest, that is. As the game lasts and new spells are researched, Ulm's edge at grabbing territory becomes less and less sharp. So go for them as soon as possible. That's one of Ulm's adavantages – steel vs. magic, you have to learn the second while the first comes built in your troops. Steel doesn't work too well versus summoned troops, though, many of them being ethereal. But on the whole it remains the best thing to invest in.

On the other hand, spells that negate armor (electrical shocks and acid attacks, plus some earth spells) or pierce armor (most fire attacks) are the worst of your enemies. You badly need to get lucky with independents to do well, since you really need some more mages to protect your soldiers with different "wards".

Dominion design
Ulm only needs to stabilise dominion inside its own territory and can use inquisitors to help, so it can get away with a dominion level of 3-5.

Heavy units take a lot of resources, so productivity +3 is a must. Fortunately, your capital is a fortified city with a high administration (it drains 50% of resources from all neighbours). High Order brings you more gold, and is advisable to help put up as many forts as quickly as possible, as well as funding massive amounts of your cheap mages and troops.

Finally, a magic drain has little effect, since your Smiths studies are unaffected. Since you have ineffective magic, make everyone else ineffective too and put drain to maximum (and possibly put dominion to maximum too if you have a chance, to affect a larger area). And the drain will increase the magic resistance of your troops – something important since your troops have the worst MR of all nations. Every drain level gives +1/2 MR point (but +10% fatigue when mages cast battle spells).

A Rainbow pretender works well for Ulm, as it allows you to get into all the magic paths you need. Without a mage, you'll be unable to cast even your "national" spells, like Sloth of Bears (needs Nature-2) or Contact Iron Angel (needs Earth-5 and Astral-2). And site searching will bring more gems. The alchimist is a special rainbow mage who gets a x2 bonus when he makes gold out of gems (this bonus is added in to the Alchemist Stone bonus).