hello @Bodobull

i've done alot of research on this subject ! interveiwed ober few hundred people

there were some who got blades from

1. i just encountered 2 players who got blades from settlements

2. some got them from attacking beacons

3. attacking hamlets 

4. many got blades from attacking defending a player

anyways what i noticed was any ofensive defensive action can yield a blade,so do settlments but the chance is just too low

what i can give u as an advise is simple 

do the actions that have a chance of giving u blades more,the more u do these the higher chance of getting blades

do ur daily raids 

when a castle is spied,reinforce to defend

plarium runs everything that depends on chance on an algorithm. its that simple, so all u need to do is do the required activity as much as u can do

i have got well over 10 Ulric blades

some while defending a castle/hamlet 

some while doing my raids

i wish u a happy gaming

Yeah you can get them in pretty much any battle where you kill or lose units, although the sweet spot seems to be where about 300-500k base unit power is killed in the battle (ie unit offense or defense before any multipliers are added, so about 250 dragons or 600 griffins).  Ulrich's blade relics are in the Royal rarity class, in numerical terms a 3 out of 5 on the raritys scale.  Larger battles tend to drop higher rarity relics, so if the battles are too big you're more likely to get the Imperial and Divine relics instead of Royal ones, and if they're too small you're more likely to get Common or Noble relics, although any battle seems to have at least some small chance of dropping any relic.  

I think it is completely random - I got mine for losing 100 archers in a pvp-sparring battle with a friend for a mareth quest .... just waiting for the second one now  😎

There was a forum competition years ago to win a Blade, it was quite popular. Maybe it could be done again?

That proved 100% that an Ulric blade has a higher drop rate in fortress attacks. 

@Bodobull   Anyways a Ulric blade is no longer useful. The biggest factor now in winning the game now seems to be having the biggest offence at the lowest food consumption rate.  So focus on champions and Stoneheart units. 

Its no longer 2016. The time of the Pathfinder has passed. 

its funny u asked that..

@limad ,hello

its funny u asked that...

thistime i conducted a contest,i asked if its possible to do a contest with relics...

it was not possible

@orcale

fortress attack

what i believe is that some players just get lucky in some actions they are testing and get a ulric blade,then action is considered a factor in geting a ulric blade !

i could be wrong but still thats what i think ! it just does not convince me that an algorithm written to give players a relic would become complicated by developers with extra comands etc.

i interviewed so many players ! yes they all said they got some pvp but not all that much

many players got ulric blades while raiding a fief with few units while using thieves,but because thieves were involved i didnt put thieves as a factor,thats just what i believe !

what i know though is simple !

norm for a holy bond based on so many studies done by players is 7k undead hunt but still so many get them under/over that number ! but we can always advise players to do the autohunts as more as they can everyday

attacks,defends give players relic blades based on  chance !

so id just advise players to do more of these actions ! 

do ur raids everyday,if u get some pvp,even small on action even better,defend leaguemates if u can,if not raids will be enough too though if done 

i got one ulric blade almost every week...

There's definitely a lot of luck involved, but certain size battles do have a higher chance of dropping certain types of relics.  You can test this yourself if you want, just need to find a friend and trade pvp during a tournament or something (I've done hundreds of battles this way so have a pretty good feel for the different relic drops).   Battles where 1mil+ power of units dies drop exponentially more of the high rarity artifats than tiny battles.   Like I said, test it yourself if you want.  I haven't noticed the location of the battle (hamlet, castle, fortress etc) affecting what relics drop though.  

thats kinda what i said...

but beyond some point i just cant advise players to involve more troops as a big troop loss can be tracked to what i said

pvp increases the chance. 

not denying it

but so do the repitition of the actions that give the drop