[Aleph]

1. Granted about the 50% more expensive Lankan bloodhunters - it is a fact. My point is that you're not getting 50% more usable bloodslaves for magical uses since a significant portion of them will go to dominion upkeep / expansion, which is an ongoing cost (10-15% sound like a good conservative estimate?) for Mictlan while temples are a one time cost for Lanka. So, while gross bloodslave production in Mictlan should be roughly 50% higher, net bloodslaves gained is somewhat less than that (assuming 10% sacrificial use, Mictlan would be left roughly with 35% more bloodslaves).

Furthermore, with Skull Mentors (and an inherent Death income, and mages to search for death sites, which even a heroed-up Mictlan lacks prior to Blood 6) Lanka can do more research with fewer mages much earlier than Mictlan, leaving more of your mage pool free to blood hunt. The percentage bonus this gives is entirely up to the user, and should even out after the Mictlan death enabled pretender wakes up or your empower your first Tlahuelpuchi to make Skull Staves and Skull Mentors, but it's a much longer road to Blood 6 then Construction 4 than it is Construction 4, adding Skull Mentors, and then reaching Blood 6.

I should point out that Lanka has no non-sacred random path mages - an oversight above.

Finally, not having your mages worry about aging means both no gold replacement costs and/or no blood expenditures on boots of youth/reinvigoration. Replacing a single Moon Priest will pay for the initial cost difference between the nations' bloodhunters 5 times over and have enough left over to pay the difference in upkeep for those 5 Lankan hunters for 2 months. Later, Boots of Youth are a more cost efficient solution - but at the cost of 10 blood and a wasted mage turn. Crippling? By no means. But still a Lankan edge to narrow the early-mid game gap.

It's the Tlahuelpuchi, though, I think reifies Mictlan's mid-late economic bloodhunting advantage. Once you can summon them in bulk, and no longer need them to run your Skull Mentor machine, they become exceptionally efficient bloodhunters. My thanks to the guy who praised the bloodhunting skills of Vampire Counts in LA Ulm in my Marignon / Abyssia post (Frank Tollman? I forget) for making me realize that about Tlahuelpuchi.

2. Nope, you're right... my bad, I thought Lanka could blood sacrifice. I never did it, but I thought it was listed. I am blatantly wrong on that one.

3. I like Lanka's low end summons, particularly the Rakshasa Warriors (available at level 4, the same time Mictlan gets its Jaguar Fiends). They, like the higher resource cost sacreds of the Lankan nation, benefit very well from an E9/N9 bless approach, and allow you to shift your resource limited troops away from brawlers and into longbowmen, who are just brutal in general and the more so in a nation with this much air magic flying around. Granted, you'll have to carry some wine bags/etc to feed large mixed armies, but you have the paths to pull that off no problem.

Even given my lack of experience in the game, I would confidently state that Lanka's high end summons are notably more powerful tactically than Mictlan's, which tend to have one or more strategic advantages. Lanka's national summons are the only true non-pretender SCs I've seen besides Gift of Reasoned Vastnesses and Niefel/Yomi capital only commanders, and certainly 50 blood for such a creature is too light. Onaqui are nowhere near as dangerous in combat, although their freespawns once more underline the excellent strategic advantages Mictlan's national summons.

In the end, though, I think you've helped me reach a conclusion I am more comfortable with. Mictlan remain the kings of the mid-late pure blood economy with regards to bulk output and the big picture. Lanka, however, may still be too close to Mictlan's blood potency given their non-blood synergies (better recruitable troops in the form of bulk longbowmen and superheavy sacred infantry, better non-blood capital only summons, additional 40 points at creation for Heat 2 preference instead of Heat 1... yeah I know it's not an unmitigated advantage, but it's an advantage nonetheless) and easier startup (the superheavy E9/N9 blessed infantry slices through indeps like butter, while you need FWS9 to replicate that with Jaguars).