[Managarm]

Max,

Very good analysis, nice to see how things work statistically

Personally I'm not very fond of a S9 Bless for the cheap front line units, but as you said, since Flagellants die with a single blow, Twist Fate can be really useful here. OTOH the Twist Fate thing can save the mage's bacon from a lucky arrow hit, which is excellent.

Overall, I think that Marignon benefits more from a F9 bless instead of a high blood bless because Knights Of The Chalice are really difficult to amass.

In fact, with a proper Pretender selection and design you can reach high blesses without wasting tons of points.
In my Marignon test game, I used the following Pretender with pretty good results:
Imprisoned Baphomet (starting with F2S2)/F9S3/Dominion 8/Order 3/Production 3/Neutral Scales for Heat and Luck/Growth 2/Drain 2