[Yrkoon]

I have tried several nations (bless and not bless) in different eras. Dual bless is always powerful but to really benefit from it you need to be able to recruit lots of sacreds, so non-capital only sacreds are best (EA Agartha, EA and MA Mictlan, EA and MA Bandar and so on). Capital only troops that cost not too much resources are OK, because you can produce then in decent numbers. Capital only troops that cost a lot of resources are not good : you end up with bad scales for the whole nation, and can only recruit a handful of sacreds from one single province.

I am currently in a game with MA Bandar Log and I have to say they are one of the best nations I played in SP because they have so many possibilities. They are a bless nation without strong recruitable priests which makes it a challenge at first, then with enough research they can summon troops.

And then the fun begins... Sooooo many different national summons: astral, nature, water, blood. Many of them are sacred commanders, strong mage priests able to bless the sacred troops. Others summons are shape changing seducers (and mage priests too). Some demon assassins in national blood summons, as well as national demons troops. And you can summon national amphibian troops too. All these summons diversify the magic of the nation, from initially astral and nature (a very little bit of earth and water), to very strong air, water, earth and blood. Even strong fire and death when you hit conjuration 8 and gain access to the Rudras (brutal 4 armed SCs, very powerful mage priest, sacred, flying, immunities to some elements ... and looking sooooo cool)

The sheer variety of the summons makes it really a great nation to play. You don't get bored with the nation at all even in a long game (which is something I have experienced with other nations; they suffer from the "more of the same thing" syndrome in long games). With Bandar Log, I just can't wait to see what next they can do. I still haven't seen all their national blood summons and from what I have seen so far, it's going to be good.

EA Mictlan is also very nice. The were-jaguars are awesome, and dirt cheap. And Mictlan has lots of blood summons. Bandar logs has fewer blood summons, but more summons overall - and they are distinctly different, so the nation has more "flavour".