[Aleph]

What are your thoughts on setup for LA Ulm? I always want at least 1 Growth on a blood hunter nation so if I feel the need for patrolling it isn't permanently biting into my blood/cash supply, and Ulm across the board looks like it requires an lot of resources so some production wouldn't be out of line (at least, to make it worth using - Mictlan has a summonable B2 for 25 blood so I'd need to take advantage of Ulm's excellent infantry to make the switch meaningful). Sleeping Vampire Queen B5 D5 Turmoil 3 Luck 3 Productivity 2 Growth 1 works, as does a sleeping rainbow crone with same scales, F2 A1 W1 N2 E2 S3 B4 D5. Or would you advise skipping sleep and try to get the blood flowing before the first year is up (something I rarely do)?

And referencing Utterdark - is that your endgame strat in general as LA Ulm? Is that kind of strat necessary to make them viable - it would seem like you'd have to do something to compound the advantage of your Vampire Counts (who, while being pretty nice, I don't see the real advantage of just yet over Marignon's excellent balance of infantry/magic/missiles/specials).

Edit: I'm trying out a game a LA Ulm with the Crone above... man, their magic is absolutely wretched. I'm using a lot of Fortune Tellers for research, which goes nicely with Turmoil 3, and I'm smashing through indeps and Atavis with Zweilanders/Heavy Infantry/Rangers/Villians, but I feel like I'm going to plateau at some point on the pure force aspect of the game and I'll need more magic to compete. Since most of my battle magic is wretched I'm just spamming Black Bows of Botulf to try to get rid of enemy spellcasters, but I doubt that has much legs. I did find a site where I can summon enchantresses... is that pretty much my best hope? And what might I do prior to summoning Spectres or Heliophagi if I didn't find a good indep?