Re: Paths of Blood
 

Infernal tempest is a rather cute spell as well, in fact i prefer it over crusade spell.

Re: Paths of Blood
 

Infernal Tempest is great as well. I'm rather partial to the crusade though. I had large contigents of the Demon Knights running all over my enemies as my last game as Lanka. In Dom2 I had Pazuzu(?) (The demon lord of the plague wind) leading a decent core of the Storm Demons as Abysia and they were very handy, but the knights have been more effective for me overall. Admittedly, that's like comparing really awesome to very awesome. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Paths of Blood
 

I dont play blood that often. I never play vanheim for blood and when i play lanka/mictlan i take a bless(earth and nature/fire, astral, water and minor blood respectively) so i tend not to have a mage on hand to summon demon lords/storm demons(or in lanka's case, my slaves are better spent http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) but the few times i have used them they have been nice.

Re: Paths of Blood
 

Mictlan can blood hunt with its 2B Tlahuelpuchis, 25B to summon. They've got most of the advantages of Vampire Counts too (flight, stealth).

Re: Paths of Blood
 

An F9B4D4 bless is great for Mictlan. And B4 is all you need to make a Vessel + Armour of Souls + Blood Thorn.

Throw in a Ring of Sorcery and you're set to summon the Demon Lords. It's nice to empower a Moon Priest in Earth to make blood stones, and he can pop out a crystal coin and star cap, so you only need to empower in astral once to make the ring.

The Demon Lords are more interesting than the Ice and Arch Devils, but since they lack slots they are not great as solo SCs (unlike the Ice/Arch Devils, which make pretty good SCs).

Re: Paths of Blood
 

Arent demon lords B9?

Re: Paths of Blood
 

Blood 9 research, need a B8 caster to summon.

Re: Paths of Blood
 

Haven't been here in quite a while.

LA Ulm mixes decent blood magic, freespawn thralls, freespawn wolves, and incredibly potent spies to shut down enemy economies. They aren't anywhere near the blood nation that Mictlan is, insofar as they just aren't a heavy magic nation period, but the Counts are pretty decent all rounders who, as a previous poster noted, aren't so expensive that they shouldn't hunt. They also give you a credible bootstrap into death magic, since they (unlike Tlahuelpuchi) start out being able to forge skull staves.

One small magical edge that LA Ulm has over Mictlan is access to Earth magic, albeit at low levels. With some selective empowering of capital only priests (really easy with blood) you can kick off a nice Blood Stone economy.

Also, I forget who taught me this, but Vampire Counts casting Summon Lamashtas are incredible defensive troops in your own domain. You're immortal... who cares if they turn on you?

Re: Paths of Blood
 

Agree with Baalz and Velusion, I'll almost always try to get a small blood income going...even if its only a few slaves/turn. Make a few rods and have 1 or 2 sites going for a 5-20 slave income every turn. If its not part of the main strategy it adds up pretty quick.

Then it allows you to forge some really great items, blood stone being the primary. If you get a head start to const 8 you can nab some of the great artifacts as well.

I usually have blood spells as low priority, but bowl, toads and occasionally crossbreeding for chaff work well. If you've got the extra research, getting up to blood 6(?) gets you infernal disease (good assassin spell) and 5 gates (28 slaves for 5 demons in one cast). None of which are huge cost and potentially useful.

For moderate loss in income (and a bit more micro) you can get some pretty nifty benefits late mid-late game.

Re: Paths of Blood
 

I absolutely love counts. Throw lifelong protection on them and have them spam raise skeletons(swapping to summon lammashta's when you want to do damage/are near your capitol) and you can get an endless horde of chaff to wear down the enemy.