Tried something cool, found some cool magic sites!

[Taqwus]

Some of the unholy sites let unholy priests enter to summon ghouls, mummies, possibly others (there are undead-summoning sites for shadows, CW undead, banes as well, but I think these might belong to death magic). The ghoul sites are of somewhat limited use to most nations as they're not likely to get any unholy priest other than a Mound Fiend, which can reanimate ghouls without a site at a similar rate IIRC.

I don't remember any holy site giving discounts or summons, just gems / unrest reduction / perhaps a local Purgatory (?), but I can't claim to have seen them all.

[Tuidjy]

There is an extrelemy powerful site called the 'Devil's Gate'. It lets
a blood mage summon a devil per turn. It is blood 3, so most people would
never find it, except that it also generates 15 unrest. I remember my
girlfriend trading for slaves and blood boosters in a game, just so that
she can empover a mage and find the site.

As for searching, I am partial to single path search spells, combined with
taking a turn away from expansion to search very promising provinces. Even
when I have an income of 100+ astral gems, I seldom use acashic record,
except when I know there is a major site in the province, or when hopping
for an underwater castle.

Two paths I always search for are astral and death, which are my favorite
paths at the moment. That is, unless you ask Saint Cohen, who is always
fighting the Last war he lost, and still calls me Air (Ab)user.

[Edi]

There three most powerful blood sites after Summoning Circle are Mount Chaining (40% Blood bonus), The Demon Gate (summons one Fiend of Darkness per turn) and Devil's Lair (one devil per turn for blood mages). All are very rare, aside from Brigand lair, there are no common blood sites.

Banes can be recruited for free from Bowl of the Lost, which is a relatively common death site for its power.

Other good free recruitment sites are Skull Temple (banefire archers and longdead horsemen), Mausoleum of the Great Sarlah (Bone Fiends), Tower of the Seven Tombs (Mummies) and a couple of others. Some of the best sites where you can buy mages are the four Academies of High Magics, The Grey Tower of Nexus, High Temple of the Magii, the metal orders, Black Tower, Ebony Tower, Twin Spire Tower, Mirror Wall Palace and Citadel of the Loremasters.

Edi

[Kel]

Having a blood mage enter to summon a devil isn't as good as it looks. I won't go into a complete analysis but keep in mind that devils are only 7 blood a piece, can be had cheaper with a long term investment and a decent blood hunter will make more than that per turn.

That isn't to say it's not useful, especially if you aren't a blood nation and stumble on one, but if you play a blood nation, there are a ton of sites that would be more useful (give me the 40% construction/conjuration/loremaster/10,000 things, etc sites any day).

- Kel