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		| Zen said: 
 
	Oh really?  Well actually it's a huge factor if you want to go single bless.  While double bless is a rusher's dream, you can't play that with every nation since they don't have usable sacreds.Quote: 
	
		| Corwin said: Not really.
 
 Considering that most plaayers who take level 9 bless and double lvl 9 bless will choose dormant or imprisoned pretender, and considering that role of single SC in the mid-late game is much less in Dom3 than it was in Dom2, and finally considering that defence attribute in Dom3 in general got a very large nerf from Illwinter (esp. so for SCs), +1 def per water level for your pretender is certainly not a major factor when evaluating water bless.
 
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 Also the W9 Blue Dragon or Father of Winters is nearly as effective as the Cyclops after 2 Research (depending on your nation initial gem income) and can be crucial for some nations to hammer through HCav provinces quickly turn >5.
 
 Maybe this is not something that you consider, but I consider initial expansion and Awakened Pretenders for early expansion for non sacred-heavy nations at least as important as double blessings with heavy sacred nations.
 
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 I'll have to agree with this point entirely.  If I'm not going a bless strat, an Awakened Pretender is almost always my decision just forthe quick jump boost in expansion ability.  A dragon is still very adept at fending off indie 6 and the dom 9/10 cyclops/medusa build are both very effective.  I do like to goof off a bit occasionally with VQ or GK chassis still though for the old time SC sake.