[RonD]

I kind of like the idea of banning blood hunting (given what you want to accomplish, anyway).

That said, I will withdraw my choice of Marignon, and switch to Atlantis.

Here's one more thing to ponder: I am currently playing in a 6-player small map game with 25% sites and a rich world. The low sites setting gives a huge advantage to the owner of a gem-producing global. With 5 remaining players in that game, at least its somewhat a matter of choice whether to put one up or not. With 17 players, it could be mostly a race to get the 3 or 4 really useful gem spells. Would it be worth banning those, also?

And, one last bit - I agree with Panther about needing a VP or province-based victory condition.