[Scott Hebert]

Originally posted by PvK:
3 random elemental plus 2 blood for 200g wouldn't overshadown Mictlan?

Without much deep thought, it seems like it would, to me.

Mictlan has no random picks on any of its mages, and the mages it does have are expensive. Compare their most powerful: 2 Fire, 3 Blood, 4 Holy, for 390 gold. No versatility, and nearly twice the cost you proposed.

Yes, they are. OTOH, That's 3 Blood (the minimum needed to increase your Blood magic, a plus), 4 Holy (over 0 Holy, a plus), and Sacred (meaning less upkeep). Further, Mictlan's 'lack of versatility' has a plus side, that of knowing you get exactly what you pay for. If you want to summon, say, Devils, their Sun Priest is a one-stop answer. You could buy any number of 'Blood Mystics' before you get one capable of summoning Devils. Similar arguments can be made for Crossbreeding, Frost Fiends, and Horrors. As a final note, without a cheap Blood mage, bloodhunting would be very costly for such a nation.

So, to me, if you added a 'Blood Mystic' to a non-Blood nation, that nation would not overshadow Mictlan in Blood magic, per se.

Moreover, Mictlan national troops are something many players have a hard time using effectively. Norfleet suggests playing Mictlan without taking any national troops at all. Ashikaga has Samurai, which from what I've seen in these threads are (naturally) quite good troops.

These are also true, and should certainly be evaluated as part of 'the picture', but the samurai in Ashikaga have a disturbing weakness to missile fire. 10-12 Prot and no Shield vs. Missile fire is not very good, IMO. Luckily, their morale is high enough not to rout from such fire, but they DO take high casualties where other troops might take less.

In any event, that is my take on the situation. Maybe wrong, but time will tell, I guess.

Scott