That's right - HE'S BACK!

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/ulfrichelloladies_zpsb86a4527.jpg

Things have been crazy lately and still are but I'm finally back to playing and modding some Skyrim! Not sure if any of the old Fangirl regulars are still out there, and I might be playing to an empty house at this point, but nevertheless...

As you can see I've put Ulfric in the Heroic Stormcloak set from Immersive Armors, altho on the current playthrough I only have him wearing that in the opening scenes in the wagon and at Helgen. After that his default outfit is the Stormlord armor set, but I hated the boots that came with that so I'm using the steel plate model for them instead... fortunately I already had retextures for steel plate that made it much darker and it matches up pretty well. Also I've altered his appearance somewhat, mostly to get rid of the vanilla eyebrows that I never liked and finally decided to change. I think I may have tweaked his nose and complexion a bit as well. Turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Some more pics from the previous playthrough:

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/ulfric050514a_zps55e5b821.jpg

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/ulfric050514b_zpse0596548.jpg

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/ulfric050514c_zpsccff3b75.jpg

That playthrough, unfortunately, had to be aborted when I ran into mod issues... I had started using Civil War Overhaul and the CW questline bugged out on me after Message to Whiterun, altho I think that was because I may have borked something in the mod when I was poking around in the CK to see what it did in order to try and make my entire set of Ulfric/Windhelm/Stormcloak type mods compatible with it. It might have been fixable but I was having so many little niggling issues with other minor mods that needed fixing that at some point I just chucked that game and started over. In the interim I updated to the latest version of CWO and I have to say that so far it's working without a hitch!

We have taken Whiterun, then I got sent to Falkreath where the first quest was the Ft Neugrad one but there was nothing about sneaking in and freeing prisoners, it was just "meet the brothers" and when I got there they all just started attacking the fort and we took it and that was that. Then when I went back to Galmar, he sent me to take the hold capital so there was a nice long battle in Falkreath itself and after that I went back to Windhelm to report to Ulfric and got sent to the Reach.

First mission there was the one where you bribe the steward, and I was happy to see Ralof turn up again as he had been absent (as far as I know) during the entire Falkreath campaign... in fact, shortly before that I found him hanging out in the Sleeping Giant in Riverwood and wondered if the mod just "retired" him from action completely after Whiterun, when the real changes to the questline kick in. But he did turn up in the Reach so that was great.

Then came the real fun, after Compelling Tribute I went back to Galmar and was told we were taking Markarth and I should get over there, and the objective popped up on the screen: "Get your orders from Ulfric Stormcloak." YES!!!! I knew the mod had a chance built in for your faction leader to show up at one of the major hold battles prior to the final one and I was wondering if/when that would happen. Sure enough I got over to Markarth -

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/markarthsiege_zps371c0e63.jpg

- and there was Ulfric, and he gave a speech which I suppose was part of the cut CW content that the mod restores.

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/ulfricmarkarthspeech_zps35219c06.jpg

(There you see him in the Stormlord armor.)

The mod adds a couple of additional Shouts to the Ulfric that shows up at these things, but I took them out because I feel that Unrelenting Force and Disarm are quite enough, he doesn't really need to be any more of a powerhouse than he already is (in my game, at least).

Oh, and did I mention that the mod adds a random chance that http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/markarthsiegedragons_zps52093956.jpg?

Ulfric fights until you get through to the main entrance to the city, then he disappears and Galmar takes over - I guess maybe there was no content allowing for a scene with Ulfric and one of the other Jarls surrendering, and it would be weird to have him fight all the way to the throne room and then just stand around and do and say nothing, so... whatever. But you do finally get to see what happens to Ondelamar after the SCs take the city. It's not pretty.

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/lync1964/onyourkneeself_zpsd66ee006.jpg

I'd actually cast Fury on the sly on the two other Thalmor while I was sneaking around the place for Compelling Tribute, and he and Igmund and Faleen and the guards had killed both of them... so he was the only one left to take care of once Igmund surrendered. I couldn't resist FusRoDahing him across the throneroom once before Galmar got to him.

I have to say that as long as it doesn't bug out on me, and maybe even if it does, I'm giving CWO a big thumbs up for now... even the smallest changes it makes go a long way towards fixing a lot of irritating stuff with the vanilla CW, for instance the fact that you could join one side and wear your CW faction armor into an enemy hold and no one would bat an eye. Now that I'm a Stormcloak, ALL Imperial soldiers and officials are hostile on sight, that includes those prisoner patrols that spawn all over the place, and even Imperial patrols spawned by other mods. Guards in enemy holds are also hostile (so yeah there's one little problem with Whiterun guards continuing to spawn in Riverwood even after Battle for Whiterun, which got my friends Gerdur and Faendal killed the first time I sauntered blithely into town and those guards immediately went on the attack... but I'm working on a console fix for that if it happens again, and keeping my fingers crossed that it works).

Just that - members of what should be an enemy faction actually treating you like an enemy - would be enough to make this mod worthwhile IMO. To do Compelling Tribute, I had to put on a set of Imperial armor in order to walk freely around in Markarth, and that's the way it should be. It's an espionage mission, you should have to wear a disguise to carry it out, not march in there in the enemy's uniform and get away with it. I did Missing In Action (rescuing Thorald Grey-Mane) after joining the SCs and got to treat it like a commando raid or something, sneaking through Hjaalmarch and into Haafingar and all the way to the location knowing that if I ran into any guards or legionnaires I was gonna have a fight on my hands. It made a HUGE difference.

Anyway I've now played the Markarth battle through about half a dozen times, after completing it successfully and making a save at that point for when I get tired of reliving how much fun it is. I've been recording some of it so maybe when I have time I'll get Ulfric's speech and some highlights of the battle up on Youtube or something if anyone's interested.