[Xietor]

Reasoning is a bit flawed on the bless nations. The last megagame is not a great indicator for these reasons:

1. Player skill is not equal

2. Just because the bless nations did not do well over the long haul does not mean they did not kill off their 1st victim rather quickly. Lanka had killed 2-3 nations before he ran into me, and the only reason i stopped him was i was number 4 on his list, and not number 1 or 2.

By the time K attacked me i had several banelords in constr 6 and in some cases 8 gear. EA Mictlan was tearing through
2 nations until both ma ryleh and I lent a hand. 4 against 1 and their triple blessed jags finally were vanquished.

3. LA Ermor and LA Ryleh-the free spawn nations killed off some of the more potent bless nations. And they will not be in this game to eat Niefel giants, vanheims etc(tough prenerf).

So yes, once a nation that has good scales gets its research kicking, it can fight off a good bless nation. It is making it to that point that is hard if you are unlucky and start next to a triple blessed jaguar nation.

That said, we will not nerf in any way the bless nations. I think taking away divine bless would lead to more micromanagement-something a long game certainly needs no more of.

So we will just use the hard research, and maybe a down the road patch for next year's game will have a game option to adjust the research levels by each of the 9 paths, and not just all or nothing.