Re: Vanheim - help wanted.
Blood Hunting always reduces population, but with 8000+ pop it will take too long for it to be noticed in the game. Of course, patrolling will bring it down much too quickly, so you'll have to reduce taxes. It seems most people prefer three hunters and zero taxes. The really big difference comes around 5000 people. Below that, it is really hard to find slaves.
Of course, in long games Growth is invaluable, and Death+Misfortune can result in grim events. I usually don't sacrifice that much for a multitude of low blessings. I counted 6 level 4s. I would only have taken Water and Blood, and possibly Earth for mages, leaving the other paths to minimum levels required for boosters. As an example, a Nature 2 pretender can achieve Nature 5 through boosters: N2 -> Thistle Mace, N3S1 -> Moonvine Bracelet, N4 -> Treelord's Staff (+2 levels, but replaces Thistle Mace). And I would leave out Air and Earth if I weren't going for bless, as the national mages cover those two well.
Vanir and Valkyries have awesome defence, but aren't as good on the damage dealing end, so each of Water, Blood and Fire are good blessings. Fire doesn't actually deal more damage until Fire 9, but the flaming weapons make a huge difference. On the other hand, Blood 9 is nigh useless (a chance of cursing the one who killed the unit), but it helps a lot on lower levels. And Water 9 makes your blessed units untouchable by almost all enemy warriors, and gives both them and your mages quickness. As it stacks with the one available from e.g. Boots of Quickness, it is also very powerful.
Also, don't forget to script your Huskarl forces to Fire instead of Attack closest. Those Javelins do make a difference. Unfortunately the better Hirdmen don't carry Javelins. I'd love to be able to use Javelin forces boosted with Strength of Giants and, much later, Rush of Strength.
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