[Baalz]

Thanks Jeff, right on all counts.

As to your prophet, it's not really important to the overall strategy so make it whoever seems like the most fun, you could do worse than a jarl.

As to the research order, obviously it's a bit flexible but my thinking was: bloodhunt with no sanguine rods so you've got a few blood slaves ready by the time you hit constr-4. In the two turns it takes to forge a few items and move your skratti to wherever the fighting is you can pick up quicken self which is really all your skratti need at this point. In a very general sense if I need constr and alt for a build, I like to go with construction first because I can hit the research for alteration after I've passed out items and my guys are on the way, while they need to hang by the labs to have magic items passed out if you do that in the reverse order.