Blood Slave/magic Questions

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Are you sure that your sacrificers still have slaves on them when you submit the turn?

C'mon, yes, I checked my sacrificers every turn to be absolutely sure... it's not my first test with dominions you know

Your pretender only has a single strength 10 check with Mictlan, so no, even with your numbers he's still weaker.

No, I've made 3 tests with a dom10 pretender (a Manticore IIRC, on a large map and one opponent with dom1, so he could not influence my own dominion). Started 3 new games, then did nothing for 20 turns (no sacrifice, no move, no recruitment). I had no "festival" events. After 20 turns I had 4, 8 and 9 candles.

Then I tried the opposite : the dom10 pretender goes far away (so he could not influence the capital) and I sacrifice only 1 slave/t with the first Mictlan Priest. After 20 turns the dominion = 6 candles. Then I tried the same situation with another pretender, this time with a dominion of 6. After 20 turns (and 20 slaves killed -- I could have made 4 Fiends instead) the dominion was only 3. Tried again, the dominion was 5. Tried again, it was 4. No doubt, with dom6 the pretender was more useful than the sacrifices!

I can't understand why the manual says (p. 22) that "The Blood Sacrifice will spread dominion in the same manner as a temple but more powerfully".
The power of a blood sacrifice seems very weak, unless you sacrifice tons of slaves...

Cheers