Help Jules design his pretender god!

[Sandman]

A resource poor world makes it very unlikely for Ulm to succeed, especially with two unholy nations about. Even with maxed-out scales and a fortified city, it's only possible to make about three soldiers a turn.

Desert Tombs and Broken Empire can reanimate undead, in addition to their national troops, and Ermor can summon two free shadow vestals every turn and enslave enemy sacred troops.

Not exactly fair, is it?

My humble request is to either increase the world richness or allow me to pick another nation, although I'll still play as default Ulm if you absolutely insist.

[quantum_mechani]

I would not mind boosting the richness to normal, however, I actually consider it an Ulm advantage with low richness. Though resources are scarce, gold is scarcer, and Ulm has some of the best resource to gold efficient troops.

EDIT: I would also recommend the 40-admin castle in place of the fortified city. Since base Ulm has nothing capital only, a second fort built early on would greatly increase recuorce output, not to mention a gold bonus and better fortifing your position.

[Sandman]

Resources are scarcer than gold in the test games I've played. You get twice as much gold as resources - when basic Ulmish units cost twice as much resources as gold. I find myself relying on mercenaries, and trying to scrape together low-resource indy soldiers; so my armies start to resemble that of an AI Ulm.

Building an extra fortress will not help much, since resources are so hard to come by. You'd only get about two soldiers worth from even a half-decently placed secondary fortress.

The only saving grace for Ulm is its effective province defence, since it requires no resources.

I can't really see traditional tactics being employed in such an poor environment; more than likely, it'll be hordes of undead versus the PD of the other nations, trench warfare, almost.

[quantum_mechani]

I'm fine with setting normal richness.

Though I do think the castle is still a better option in either case. Even if you get off to a slightly slower start, you could reasonably have a second fort by around turn 7. You could then bring in 80 admin worth of gold and resources, almost twice a single fortified city. And the advantage only multiplies as the game goes on and you build more forts.

[Sandman]

Ulm pretender sent (I think).