[Aleph]

Well, I got to the point where I could summon multiple Vampire counts in a round, but it didn't please me much. Maybe I just got spoiled with Mictlan, but I felt the need to retain a strong gold economy with Ulm to keep cranking out the troops while I was pretty comfortable switching over almost entirely to blood with Mictlan (also aided by the almost universally sacred nature of Mictlan's worthy troop and hero choices). Also, between crappier searching and lower paths I feel both like I just don't have that many things to do with the gems I do have and that what power I do have is bottlenecked by my pretender. They just feel off (probably in part because I really enjoy advancing through the tech/magic tree).

The Utterdark strat above would seem to work waaaaay better for Mictlan using Tlahuelpuchi (who may not be immortal, but as assassins can be much more dangerous). If that's where LA Ulm wants to go, I'm going elsewhere.