The Ulm of the Middle Ages is at the height of its industrial power. Following the fall of Ermor, their former regent, the Ulmic peoples have founded a new kingdom. At the heart of this kingdom is MA Ulm's signature Blacksteel, the Enigma of Steel long-sought by the Warrior Smiths of old, which is now used to provide Ulmic warriors with the heaviest armaments known to humankind.

Yet, tensions are stirring within the young kingdom. The Cult of the Iron Order is emerging to contest the power of the Master Smiths, proclaiming all magic outside their religion a heresy. During the transition from the Middle Ages to the Late Ages, these tensions plunge Ulm into civil war and a terrible Malediction is placed upon the land. The surviving remnants coalesce into the occult, gothic nation of LA Ulm.

Ulm is a nation of good troops, magic items, and not much else. Its armies are robust, and strong, and its chaff is pretty good too. What it sorely lacks, like its Early Age counterpart, is magical diversity. Still, it is a good nation to learn the basic mechanics of the game with.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Ulmite Men (compared to baseline human) +2 HP -1 MR +1 Strength	Gold-efficient infantry Crossbows & Arbalests Heavy Armor & Weapons	2 (rare 3) 1 (rare 2) 1 (rare) 1 (rare)	2 Cap-only 1 in Forts Inquisitors	Standard Forts (Castles) Starts with a Citadel (3 Commander Pts.) Can build Citadels with Masons Forts produce +25% resources

"Rare" is 5%, in this case; it's a much-more-generous rate than most "rare" paths, but it is by no means reliable. A 5% chances means that recruiting 20 mages gives a 65% chance of getting at least one mage with the desired random.

Commander blurb and highlights

Most Ulmish infantry is divided into the 19 prot half-Blacksteel infantry and the 23 prot full-Blacksteel infantry. Half Blacksteel infantry is easier to mass-produce while still being hard for most indies to kill, while full Blacksteel infantry is resource-intensive but nearly impossible to kill in melee without giant strength or big two-handed weapons.

Ulm's units are not without their weaknesses, however. They have low MR, making them vulnerable to MR-negates tactics like mind-blasters or mass Soul Slay. They also have incredibly low defense - this is not usually an issue due to their superheavy armor, but makes them surprisingly easy to repel. Elite infantry with length 3 spears (or cavalry with light lances) will repel nearly all attacks from Ulmish infantry outside of Pikeneers and Guardians.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	War Dog 7 7 2	Undisciplined Animal	Well armored chaff that can go 6 to a square. Not much of a line holder, unlike the normal Ulmish troops, but quick and able to intercept a lance charge. These have some niche value if you can line up mages to land buffs on them, but you will most likely use them exclusively to die to heavy cav lances in place of a unit you care about more during expansion.
	Pikeneer 10 26 9		High prot and a long weapon for lots of repel checks makes these your infantry which die mostly slowly in melee. Perhaps more importantly and unlike Ulm's other infantry types, they cannot be repelled by most enemies. However, they are vulnerable to armor-piercing ranged fire, and inflict significantly less damage than most of your other infantry options.
	Black Plate Pikeneer 10 37 9
	Infantry of Ulm 10 27 9		The source of your highest Damage attacks, use these to cut through giants and other extremely high-prot targets.
	Black Plate Infantry 10 38 9
	Infantry of Ulm 10 25 9		Mauls fill a similar role to Battleaxes but deal Bludgeoning damage, good for situations where your enemies are resistant to Slashing damage. However, opponents that are resistant to one type of physical damage are often resistant to all of them, and in general Slashing is a better damage type.
	Black Plate Infantry 10 36 9
	Infantry of Ulm 10 27 9		Flails have two attacks, making these units by far your best source of attack density. This makes these your best option for killing either large numbers of weak enemies (such as during expansion) or opponents which rely on high defence skill to survive (most notably elves). They do however have the worst defence of any Ulmish infantry, so they are the most prone to being repelled by length 3+ weapons. The half-helm Infantry make quick expanders, while the full-helm Black Plate troops can deal with hordes from enemy players.
	Black Plate Infantry 10 38 9
	Infantry of Ulm 10 30 9		Trades a two-handed weapon for a shield to be even harder to kill. You get to choose between higher-Dmg Hammers and higher-Att Morning Stars.
	Black Plate Infantry 10 41 9
	Infantry of Ulm 10 30 9
	Black Plate Infantry 10 41 9
	Crossbowman 10 28 9		These actually use a special form of a crossbow called an arbalest. While this means their shots are extremely dangerous, they fire only once every 3 rounds (unlike the once ever 2 rounds of a normal crossbow). This combined with the fact that the almost inevitable friendly fire from these units is actually capable killing your own troops (something your opponent's troops will often be unable to do unbuffed) makes them a very niche unit on ulm's roster. Their arbalests punch through most armour, and have superior range that out-classes most Bows.
	Guardian 20 44 31 Capital Only	Castle Defence Bonus (2)	The Black Halberd has an aoe 1 effect, so even if the guardian misses the attack will add fatigue to all sacreds in the target square. This is an incredibly powerful effect, which helps MA Ulm deal with sacred opponents at all stages of the game. Their Siege Defence is secondary to their main role: countering enemy Sacred units.
	Sapper 20 37 31	Siege Bonus (5)	These crossbow-armed units have a niche role in rapidly knocking down fort walls, but limited battlefield utility.
	Black Knight 45 68 46	Mounted	The Black Knights of Ulm are exceptional heavy cavalry units. A handful of them on guard commander lead by a Black Lord make an extremely powerful expansion party, capable of clearing most indies without attrition. They remain useful further into the game as in-battle flankers, PD raiders, and excellent targets for earth buffs.

Keeping with the nation's themes, MA Ulm's heroes totally lack magic but are very hardy for ordinary humans. They fulfil the same role as the fort-recruitable Black Lords, but are slightly better at the job in different ways.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Barthulf - Hero	Mounted	A Black Lord with 120Ld. Qualified to lead your big stacks.
	Raterik - Hero	Recuperation Mounted	Your best national thug chassis: better stats, 3 attacks + lance, and recuperation. You only get one however, and the very low hp heavily limits how dangerous a thug this unit is able to be.
	Hildegard - Heroine	Recuperation Mounted Female	Notable for having extremely low protection for an Ulmite. Has very high defense, but needs more gear to compete with the rest of Ulm's Black Lords.

Ulm is known for its lack of Magic Access, but don't let that stop you from trying to climb with as little investment as possible.

Earth is your only path that you can craft boosters for; Boots bring you to 3 (4 on 5% of your Masters), +1 in combat.

Fire is your only other guaranteed path. It's at 1, though 5% of your Masters will have 2. With a 1- or 3-gem Fire in a Jar, a 1 mage can cast Summon Phoenix Power to become 2.

Air & Astral are each found only on 10-or-20% randoms. Getting access to at least one of each is important for forging and magic diversity.

Ulm has several ways of increasing their magic capabilities:

1. Your 1 randoms can join communions of Independent 1 to try and boost their stuff to higher levels in combat.
2. Ulm can craft relatively cheap Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrix to bring any mage into a communion.
3. Earth Boots, Crystal Shield and Fire in a Jar can increase magic paths in combat.

Apart from that there's Empowerment, Pretender Design, and leaning heavily on what respectable levels of earth give you. At least Ulm had the wisdom to begrudgingly respect a good path.

Since Ulm has no 2 mages natively they need to find one early to safeguard against the armor-negating damage of Foul Vapors. A pretender with 2 can forge a Thistle Mace to make any 1 indie mage capable of casting Poison Ward

Combat

• Evocation 3 11: Iron Darts
  The signature spell of Ulmish Priests, firing a spread of 3 magic armor-piercing darts that deal double damage to magic beings. Massing Black Priests and Black Smiths allows you to shower the enemy in shrapnel that ignores 60% of protection.
• Evocation 6 11: Iron Blizzard
  Trades some range and damage for a truly astonishing 30 darts per cast. Can be casted by even a lowly Black Priest, but the high fatigue cost makes it more practical for Priest Smiths to spam. This is an powerful evocation spell which is particularly lethal to magic beings.

• Thaumaturgy 5 3: Tempering the Will
  Effectively a national version of the Antimagic spell against the usual MR-negates threats such as mind blasters or Charm. However, Thaumaturgy is of limited use to MA Ulm aside from this spell, making this an awkward research target. Alternatively, an astral-random Master Smith can Power of the Spheres up to 2 and burn pearls to cast Antimagic for a total of 3.

Ritual

• Conjuration 3 2 for 8: Sloth of Bears ( Great Bear×10+lv)
  Summons high strength blobs of hitpoints. Can work as evocation bait, as the bears have more HP than your troops and even lower MR, but otherwise unremarkable.
• Conjuration 8 52 for 25: Contact Iron Angel( Iron Angel×1)
  An antisacred commander summon. Although they seem very durable, their lack of magic paths severely limits their utility as thugs.

Ulm's narrow path focus makes their magic significantly more straightforward than most nations.

Ubiquitous 2 in Ulm's mage corps makes Earth Meld a very potent early combat spell, reducing the defence of affected enemies by 75% and making it much easier for your infantry's attacks to land. It also prevents enemies from attacking, which is particularly relevant for giants with their high-damage attacks. Maws of the Earth later in Alteration allows Ulm's mages to deal more direct damage and immobilize swathes of opponents at once, though at the cost of gems.

With Summon Earthpower, Ulm's Master Smiths and Priest Smiths become 3 and are able to cast the vast majority of earth buffs without spending additional gems. Very early in the game, Strength of Giants makes the Ulmish frontline grinder even more powerful than it already is while Legions of Steel provides a minor protection buff. Ulm has a major power spike when it researches Alteration 7 for Marble Warriors, which brings their full Blacksteel infantry up to an eye-watering 29 protection (31 with Legions of Steel) that even giants will struggle to deal damage through. Construction 7 for Weapons of Sharpness completes the suite of earth buffs that makes midgame MA Ulm an absolute monster in straight-up fights.

Master Smiths can eat a fire gem to cast Phoenix Power, become 2, and eat 2 more fire gems to cast Summon Fire Elemental. Large Fire Elementals buffed with Iron Warriors can kill hordes upon hordes of chaff (such as those fielded by MA Sceleria or MA Ermor). Earthquake and Fire Storm can serve a similar purpose, though the latter is very difficult to cast with Ulm's magic paths.

Ulm's narrow and shallow paths means that most rituals will require the help of a Pretender to cast. However, Ulm benefits greatly from being able to cast a few key rituals.

Riches from Beneath synergizes with Ulm's resource-intensive lineup, allowing Ulm to more quickly mass its infantry as well as providing a nice income boost. However, it does not stack on the resource bonuses provided by Ulm's Master Smiths, making it less effective than it may seem at first. Eternal Pyre is also a useful global to control, as it allows Ulm to produce huge quantities of Lightless Lanterns. Having a healthy treasury of fire gems also enables more gem-hungry moves such as summoning Flame Spirits for better depth in fire magic.

Earth Blood Deep Well is fantastic for Ulm as almost all of Ulm's more powerful combat magic (Maws of the Earth, Marble Warriors, Earthquake etc.) consumes earth gems. A strong earth income makes Ulm much more resilient against gem-baiting tactics and more tenacious on prolonged campaigns. However, given Ulm's voracious appetite for earth gems, it may be difficult to save up the 80 gems required to actually cast EBDW.

Unfortunately MA Ulm has little use for discounted Blacksteel equipment, as the Black Lord thug chassis already comes with a full complement of Blacksteel gear.

• Construction 0 2 for 8: Blacksteel Full Plate
• Construction 0 1 for 4: Blacksteel Helmet
• Construction 0 1 for 4: Blacksteel Kite Shield
• Construction 0 1 for 4: Blacksteel Plate
• Construction 0 1 for 4: Blacksteel Sword
• Construction 0 1 for 4: Blacksteel Tower Shield
• Construction 6 31 for 124: The Copper Arm

• Ulm can add very cheap high-damage thugs to its armies in the form of Black Lords equipped with a Greatsword of Sharpness and Burning Pearl.
• Master Smiths holding Dwarven Hammers can forge any 5-gem item for the low low price of 1 gem. Aside from making thug gear very affordable, this enables the exceptionally cheap mass-production of Lightless Lanterns at Construction 6, dramatically accelerating Ulm's research and allowing it to bring its midgame magic online much sooner than other nations.
• The Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrix allow Ulm to bring some diversity to its combat magic, though at significant cost (in mage turns if not necessarily in gems).

As a resource-dependent nation Ulm needs to clear several provinces in its cap circle to enjoy the full potential of its quality troops. Once the ball starts rolling Ulm has excellent expansion potential with comparatively few losses using its regular troops.

The quality of its troops carry Ulm in the early game before your opponents get magic online. The Guardians provide a strong answer to enemy sacreds.

In the midgame Ulm’s ability to ramp research fast and cheap lets Ulm stay ahead in the research race while the gem discount means that Ulm can do more with less - provided Ulm finds an answer to Foul Vapors and other effects that care little about Protection.

As late game approaches the inherent weaknesses of Ulm become more easy to exploit: abysmal magic resistance across the line, a lack of magic diversity and magic depth, and the challenges of playing a 10 hp human nation in the very late game. An Ulmish player will need to find ways to deal with these issues - or better yet, win the game before their opponents reach the late game themselves.

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

• Dominions 5: Not-Lola's Ulm Guide

Nations
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