[Tolkien]

Well I favor patrolling when you're expanding anyway: the only problem is, having enough spare troops to actually patrol the provinces. Honestly, you don't even need to use two provinces if you are patrolling: if you are, setting one to 0% taxes and patrolling should suffice. Patrolling though is the #1 killer of population when it comes to blood hunting, and 0% taxes on a few mid-sized provinces don't hurt that much: they give 40-75 gold on 100 gold. Blood is basically based on turning gold into slaves. Since the amount of gold in the game and army sizes have increased from Dom2, the conversion rate doesn't hurt your income as much as it use to, and it means blood is actually better.

Personally, I like Second Tiers. They're more cost-effective (and recruit everywhere) researchers then the Iron Priests all in all: though the sacred part on the Priests does decrease total upkeep. Second Tiers are what you'll be using for most of your blood hunting needs until your Counts are in numbers, they're good for getting research up, and stealthy communions are %#*(ing awesome.