[JimMorrison]

Was wondering if anyone else thought there was a better way for Vanheim than "OMG huge bless!".

I tried multiple times to get a good start with Van with a heavy bless, and at highest difficulty the AI was able to expand faster than I was, due to unavoidable attrition of the Sacreds.

So (this is with CBM, mind you) I decided to try the "ultra cheap, disposable Awake SC" route, and took the Asynja for 25 points, just giving her 4 Air. This afforded excellent scales, which you desperately need considering how voracious Vanheim is for gold.

Anyway, the Asynja comes with starting gear and can comfortably conquer most indies from turn 2, saving heavy cav and barbs and whatnot for when you get her buffs researched.

Sure, she brings little to the table other than what she is, but she is a rather capable chassis for defending your homeland, and she buys you incredible expansion, while still allowing very nice scales. The idea is to leverage your cash into any indy mages you find, building mages like crazy (you do not need castles for research, only Labs - castles are mostly just for troops), and manually site searching any new paths until you get the income to upgrade to remotes, and begin wholesale bootstrapping.