Bad Monkeys; Or how to jump-start the blood game?

[Velusion]

Sombre said:
I totally agree that blood is powerful in the late game and for blood nations that's fine. But if you're looking for the win, you really don't want to be wasting resources trying to get into blood with a bloodless nation. It would take a lot just to get to the point that a nation with blood access starts the game at, let alone the kind of economy Lanka, Mictlan etc have set up. You'd also have to waste time researching the blood tech tree instead of freeing researchers up or going for the more traditional spells for your nation. If you're already in the late game before you even start going for blood, it's never going to arrive in time to help you out. If you start going for it in the early or mid game, you're going to weaken yourself in the short term which will prevent you building up and improving your late game. Plus if you end up hard pressed in the mid game it's all been a waste of time, since you won't see the late game to reap the rewards.

Most non-blood nations that I've seen win larger MP games have branched into blood at some point, so I think your blanket assumption is incorrect. I'm not saying you have to have blood to win large games but that it helps.

Personally, if you are playing in a large MP game and are a land based non-blood nation with easy access to indy blood mages, I'd think you would be foolish to not start a blood economy - wars permitting.