Mictlan versus strong independents?
 

Hm, having played mostly with R'lyeh / T'ien Chi / Ashikaga / Ermor / Abysia / Jotunheim / C'tis, I'm not finding any of my usual tools -- bowmen or mindbLasters, really survivable heavy infantry, assassins, death magic... and the dependence on blood sacrifice for dominion maintenance seems to mandate fast expansion to get the blood machine going. What does one do -- try to amass huge hordes of the cheapest infantry, throw slaves in front of them, and hope that they get lucky sometime? Hire all the mercenary bands one can afford?

Re: Mictlan versus strong independents?
 

Have a fire 9 Moloch as your pretender and use sacred troops.

Re: Mictlan versus strong independents?
 

A heavy infantry merc unit can indeed help quite a bit. I don't know if I can give much advice outside of that other than to mention that I only play Mictlan with high dominion Bless Effect pretenders - which can make Mictlan's wimpy sacred units a LOT less wimpy. In combination with slaves as cannon fodder they're quite effective against independants.

~Aldin

Re: Mictlan versus strong independents?
 

Note that you have national demons available from turn 1. Combine a few of the most formidable of those with a bunch of blessed eagle warriors (even if you don't have great bless effects, because blessed eagle warriors can fly), on hold & attack rearmost. Works rather well against most independents and AI's.

PvK

Re: Mictlan versus strong independents?
 

Use slaves or the cheapest warriors as a first line, to attract arrows and take the first hits. Try to get heavy infantry mercenaries, and supplement them with your best warriors; don't forget to use javelins. Hopefully bless effects will make your sacred units a little better, so use them. Use overwhelming numbers. Make a sun priest your prophet, and smite away. Oh, and be prepared for heavy losses.

Strangely, you can afford to wait a little before building your blood machine : your national site gives you 3 blood slaves/turn, which is enough to keep your dominion alive. You are right, however, to start thinking about it from turn 1, because you will need it.