[Xietor]

Blessing only has a range of 10 also, and it would not make high level priests less useful. They still have smite and fanaticism. Smite is the key priest spell in any event. If you think about it, a priest would bless his troops before battle any way, not during the fight.

if you want your blessed troops to start as far to front as possible, and have priests out of arrow range, then you explain to me how you can guarantee that your troops will get blessed with level 1 or 2 priests?

I also think if your god is in the province, the troops should be blessed automatically as well. I mean how much more blessed can you get then being in the presence of your god?