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After years of civil war, the Iron Kingdom crumbled. During the Night of Treason, a great Malediction was placed upon the kingdom. The forests became dark and hostile. Wolves and creatures even worse stalked the land. Slowly the kingdom recovered, but it was not what it once was. The knightly order was all but destroyed, and the Master Smiths had disappeared. The secrets of blacksteel were forgotten. An order of Black Priests emerged in Ulm in the last days before the civil war. They formed an Iron Cult, consolidated their position, and forbade the use of magic. Magic outside religion was announced to be sacrilegious and the few surviving Master Smiths were put to the flames. Although magery is forbidden, there are some fortune tellers and members of the Order of the Illuminated Ones who secretly ply their trade in the arcane. – Nation Description
Race | Military | Magic Access | Priests | Buildings |
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Ulmite +2 HP vs humans -1 MR vs humans +1 Strength vs humans | Gold efficient infantry Efficient crossbows High prot, hard hitting elites | 2 (rare 3) 2 1 (Rare 2) 1 1 1 1 Summonable 3, 3* *Cannot summon natively | Recruitable H2 All priests inquisitors | Standard Forts(Citadel) Forts produce +25% resources Foreign 1, 22 |
The Ruined Keep | The Black Forest | The Black Temple |
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Enables recruitment of Ghoul Commander, Ghoul Guardian Produces 2 per turn | Enables recruitment of Wolfherd, Fortune Teller Produces 11 per turn | Enables recruitment of Hochmeister, Black Templar |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Ranger Captain 45 8 1 | Forest Survival Stealthy (40) | Stealthy commander, can be used to lead stealthy groups of rangers and packs of wolves. Also useable as a scout, although much cheaper indie Scouts are relatively easy to find in the Late Ages. | |
Commander of Ulm 70 24 1 | Standard 80 leadership commander. | ||
Black Acolyte 45 1 1 | 1010% Sacred Inquisitor | National indie priest. | |
Illuminated One 75 1 2 + Foreign Recruit | 17 Stealthy (65) Spy | These are your communion slaves, researchers, and spies. Being stealthy allows you to materialize a surprise communion, reinforce your existing communions safely, and stealth away from a bad situation whenever you'd like. Keep in mind that these have a low upfront cost, but not being sacred means they are less efficient researchers than many other nations' research monkeys. ( ). Watch your upkeep. The ability to recruit these in any lab does mean that you can accumulate many of these quickly, and without the upfront cost of a fort. | |
Member of the Second Tier 150 1 2 + Foreign Recruit | 21010%11 Stealthy (75) Spy | Your blood hunters and one of your communion masters. Being stealthy and recruitable outside of fort are great traits for hunters. On the other hand, the great tragedy of LA Ulm is that these are very inefficient hunters. 150 and a high upkeep makes for relatively poor B access, particularly in LA where most of your blood nation competition will have sacred hunters or guaranteed access to B2 or above. | |
Black Priest 160 1 2 | 121100%9 Sacred Inquisitor Forge Bonus (1) | A strict upgrade from the Middle Age, the Black Priests have done very well for themselves during the malediction. They're now recruit everywhere, so you can now recruit as many Iron Blizzard casters as you'd like to, and are virtually guaranteed access to S/E and A. Their roles will depend on their randoms and they will be important mages for you throughout the game. | |
Wolfherd 50 2 1 Capital Only | Animal Awe (2) Stealthy (40) Mountain Survival Forest Survival Inspirational (-1) Beastmaster (+3) Summon Allies (Wolf×2) | Can use Summon Allies to spawn two wolves per turn. These wolves are free patrollers for your blood hunts and having huge packs of patrolling wolves is an iconic image of LA Ulm. Make sure you recruit enough Wolfherds that you can spawn your patrol packs, but don't count on wolves doing much for you in a fight, other than helping your army HP rout. | |
Ghoul Commander 100 42 1 Capital Only | Resist Poison (25) Undead Need not Eat Castle Defence Bonus (2) Darkvision (50) | 80 undead leadership for leading Ghoul Guardians. | |
Hochmeister 115 73 1 Capital Only | 1 Sacred Inquisitor Combat Caster | Priest heavy cavalry commander. Similar to MA Ulm's Black Lords, this can act as a light thug with a Greatsword of Sharpness and Burning Pearl. Unfortunately it also competes for capital recruitment points. | |
Fortune Teller 95 1 2 Capital Only | 11100%9 Fortune Teller (15%) | Provides access to communicable Nature and Death. The Blood random also makes them more cost-effective blood hunters. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Villain 10 5 4 | Stealthy (40) Mountain Survival Forest Survival undisciplined | ||
Pikeneer 10 20 9 | |||
Halberdier 10 22 9 | Castle Defence Bonus (1) | ||
Infantry of Ulm 10 23 9 | These are the only infantry you have that bring a shield into combat. This makes them the best to unit to hold the line for your crossbows. | ||
Ranger of Ulm 12 8 14 | Stealthy (40) Forest Survival | Excellent, easily massable crossbows. At 12gp they're a little more expensive than other crossbows. However, they have the added bonus of better than average precision (12), as well as having a stronger melee attack than most ranged units with their Axes that swing for 19 Dmg. Consider using stealthy groups of rangers to take provinces as part of an initial strike. | |
Zweihander 14 36 18 | With a protection value of 21 and a base attack of 22, these units are heavy hitters. Not having a shield means that they will suffer against crossbows, but their high protection should ensure that they survive to reach the front lines. Zweihanders absolutely love to be buffed with Body Ethereal and Luck, you can point buff them with your Illuminated Ones as part of an early strategy. | ||
Ghoul Guardian 20 42 47 Capital Only | Resist Poison (25) Undead Need Not Eat Castle Defence Bonus (2) Darkvision (50) | Becoming undead gave the Guardian's slightly better stats, but now they suffer from all the weaknesses that come with being undead. They continue to use the Black Halberd, which have the Bane of Heresy Effect. Bane of Heresy applies 15 AoE 1 armor piercing fatigue damage to Gods and Sacreds on hit. | |
Black Templar 65 73 46 Capital Only | Sacred | Your only sacred unit, and an expensive one at that. Can be used for expansion. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Ulrich Patrifagus - Ghoul Baron | Resist Poison 25 Dark Vision 100% Halt Heretic +7 Castle Defense +5 Summon Allies: Ghoul x5 Undead Need Not Eat | ||
Member of the Third Tier | 232 Stealthy +90 Spy | ||
Member of the Third Tier | 322 Stealthy +90 Spy | ||
Member of the Third Tier | 232 Stealthy +90 Spy |
At a glance
Astral (2, rare 3), Earth (2), Blood (1, rare 2), Death (1), Fire (1), Air (1), Nature (1)
Summonable 3, 3, but cannot summon natively
Heroes give 2, 2, 2.
LA Ulm has a widespread of path access but at very low levels. Luckily, you have easy access to cheap communion slaves, so in battle, this isn't a problem; your wide path access allows you to cast any non-water spell you'd like. However, this will require forging Communion Matrices for your Black Priests. (An important use for their Astral random.)
Outside of battle, LA Ulm will struggle to move up magical paths to cast big rituals. Your vampire summons will give you 3 and 3, though you'll likely already have this on your pretender in order to cast Sanguine Heritage in the first place. Your vampires can be used to site search for better income. Since LA Ulm cannot reliably recruit blood over 1, there is a strong argument to lean into the vampire theme and summon Vampire Lords. With blood thorns and brazen vessels, you can get them up to 5, which gives access to many important spells. Once you have Blood 9 researched, you can empower a select few one further to cast Forces of Darkness.
Your heroes will give you limited access to extremely useful blood cross paths, especially fire and air. Use blood/fire to summon Arch Demons, which will break you into higher fire magic as well as give you some excellent commanders. Blood/air will allow you to summon storm demons (which are excellent).
LA Ulm's most common cross path is 2 1, which comes out of the box on every Member of the Second Tier. This allows Ulm to summon lots of horrors, and with an astral booster and blood-booster any of your Members can cast Call Lesser Horror.
When designing a pretender, be sure to consider how you can build them to cast Sanguine Heritage. While your summons aren't absolutely necessary for your success, without at least 2 (ideally, you'll want 3) and 3 you'll be locking them away from your reach for some time. In doing so you'll also lock yourself out of further access to blood and death.
Note that unless specified otherwise, all vampires have Regeneration 10%, Resist Fire -5, Resist Cold 15, Resist Poison 25, Darkvision 100%, Stealthy +40, Invulnerability 25, and Immortal (1 Month), and dominion spawn Thralls
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Ludolf von Achenbach - Vampire Count | 22 Kills Population 10 | ||
Burkhard Nachtzehrer - Blood Marshal | 2 Does not have fire vulnerability Pillager (20) | ||
Erzsebet - Blood Countess | 3 Blood Searcher +2 | ||
Mircalla - Vampire Countess | 21 Seducer | ||
Artur Von Dirksen - Vampire Count | 22 | ||
Lothar Blumenreuter - Vivisectionist | 22 Adept Researcher (8) Causes Unrest (+1 Per Month) | ||
Orlak - Vampire Count | 31 Fear +8 | ||
Hellenbrecht - Blood Graf | 213 Fear +6 |
Nations | |
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Early Ages | Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos |
Middle Ages | Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys |
Late Ages | Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia |