[solmyr]

Actually I find using a awaken father of winters (A4W2E2, basic requirement to unlock three paths) is quite efficient to clear the province around capital and subsequently build-up a heavy calvary forces to expand/counter rush or just build 2nd fortress to boost research. Their calvery forces are not that bad compared to their trash infantry.

Go back to the topic of blood magic. I forgot to consider the sacred attribute of fivefold angel. In that case, they made good blood hunters with dosing rods. However they still need to invest a lot blood slaves on starets (they usually get to b2 at maximum) to get to high b in order to leverage end-game blood magics.