So I'm looking for a worthy LA Blood nation now that I've played Mictlan for a solid week; I'm pretty much hooked on the blood now. I've definitely got my eye on Lanka as an impressive EA blood nation (tipped off by a handy post) but I wanted to get a slightly better sense of the top two contenders for best non-Mictlan LA blood nations available.
Their blood economy bases are roughly comparable - Abyssia with a 90 gold B1 sacred Sanguine Acolyte or 180 gold sacred B2 Sanguine Anathemant vs. the 80 gold non-sacred B1 Diabolist or the 190 gold sacred B2.275 Goetic Master. The acolyte is a better blood buy than the diabolist, the Goetic Master better (on average) than Sanguine Anathemant. With SDRs the acolyte is probably the most efficient means of searching, but Goetic Masters are also quite dangerous on their own, unlike acolytes.
For general magic, Marignon has a lot more flexibility with regards to type, and no capital-only mages is a great edge over Abyssia's severely limited non-capital picks; also, they get better mileage out of blood magic, both with nationals and in that their more potent blood mages can use battlefield blood magic without annihilating their blood slaves with their heat aura. On the other hand, Abyssia's ubiquitous immunity to fire gives them an undead-like ability to throw down massive hurt without their own troops suffering, and without adding an vulnerability to specific counters. Their Warlocks also can teleport with the addition of a starshine skullcap, which makes their capital only-ness a little less annoying (although it's still painful to march your fire mages slowly upwards).
For troops, Abyssia's heavy infantry are rock hard across the board (especially after playing Mictlan). Marignon can still manage pretty durable troops with Man at Arms, rely on striking first with Pikemen, can easily field much larger numbers of their non-capital sacred troops, their crossbows are definitely better than throwing axes.
For special characters, Marignon is clearly dominant, with inquisitorial bonuses for smacking enemy dominion, scouts, spies, non-capital only assassins, and many sailors.
Anyone have any thing I missed, or advice? I'm playing both with 3 Turmoil/Productivity/Growth/Luck, dominion 5-7. Marignon, Baphomet with fire 9 and astral 5 (and probably 2 earth or nature, I can't remember), Abyssia Glyph S/F/E/N 4.
The original post was here.
Handy post
LA Marignon vs. LA Abyssia
Threaded Mode