[Baalz]

I agree with Velusion, if I find indie blood mages I pretty much *ALWAYS* get a little blood slave flow going, and even without I sometimes try and do it the hard way (blood hunting with scouts to get enough to empower). Playing with just a little blood is much different than playing a blood nation, but with 3, blood-2 hunters in a province (or blood-1 with a sanguine rod) you'll average 16 blood slaves per month. If you can manage to squeak out two of these, you'll pile up almost a hundred slaves every three turns, but even with just 3 blood hunters you'll still pull in a couple hundred blood slaves a year for a small impact to your gold income. Just do whatever you're gonna do without blood, then when you're ready you've got more than enough slaves to empower a mage a couple times and still cast/forge something useful.

Here's a couple real nice things that you can get with just a little blood on the side.

Take a nation with a forge bonus like MA Ulm or LA Caelum and crank out half priced blood stones. After whatever empowering you need you can forge 2 blood stones per turn with the income from one province of blood hunters. Not bad for a side strategy.

Forge boots of youth for your painfully old, yet indispensable mages.

How about black hearts for some really wicked assassin possibilities.

You'll have the income to summon a couple Ice/Arch Devils a year if you've got the research to spare for blood. Nothing to base a whole strategy around, but as a side bonus it's hard to beat.