Blood Nation Woes

[K]

Some things to add:

-Blood items: Blood Stones are one of the best non-artifact items in the game, so having some earth on a god and Empowering him in Blood is a good route to building a huge Earth income (which you can turn into something good like Living Statues).

Sanguine rods are required for blood hunting. Period.

Soul Contracts are designed for astral casters. Let the Horrors attack you as you sit and research in your capital and free spawn Devils, as you'll be gone on turn 1 of battle with Returning before the Horror can even attack you.

Protection Contracts are cheap, and in battle they send imps off to do one of the most important battle functions, which is to divert enemy fire. Put them guys you don't mind dying(like scouts), and send them with your armies. Don't underestimate the power of five Protection Contracts in a single battle, especially one heavy in archers or evokers.

-One thing to remember in a blood economy is that the troops and leaders you get are free of upkeep, fill new roles in your armies, and generally are quite good if you invest properly in them. Blessed summonables can easy be super troops, so turning 5-6 provinces into blood provinces to produce summonable Blessed in a sure route to victory. Blessed troops are usually produced in small amounts from a temple/castle combo because they are crazy good with a proper Bless, so by using blood you can not invest in temples and castles and summon up a bunch in a hurry.

Tha being said, use Blood Leaders to fill new roles in your army. For example, if you only have Death on your god, then summoning some Vampires can get you into death casting. Use Archdevils for Fire, Ice Devils for Water, and Demon Princes for everything.

-A note on vampires. Most people try to use them as regular leaders, which is a mistake. Don't give them equipment, but do give them gems, and throw them into defensive battles in your dominion. It doesn't matter if they live or die, because they are immortal and if they kill any troops before they die then you are golden. They also really want Growing Fury and Mass Protection/Armies of "..." cast on them, so a mimimum investment in Nature and Earth Magic and a Sabbath can be a killer tactic. The fact that they fly means that every turn that they are killed and return to your capital they can be immediately be sent back out.

-Don't be afraid to Empower Leaders in Blood to get that killer app you need. Blood slaves come in much greater amounts than gems (3 or 2 to 1, in my book), so Empowering is much less of a big deal.

-Experiment with Hell Power. Thats all I'll say on that subject.

-Sabbaths are exactly like Communions, so experiment with Commununions in general.

-A note on Lanka. The national summons you get are in many cases better than your capital troops, so its worth it to summon Rakshase Warriors for most fights and the red girls for battles that you have Mass protection or other armor spells for.

Mandaha's are not Supercombatants, and anyone that tells you this is not your friend. They cast Darkness at the beginning of every battle, and that means that your demons will not be affected by it and your enemies probably will, meaning that every Mandaha is "one free winning battle per turn" if you play your cards right. Fly them out when your armies look like they are going to get crushed, and don't put them in situations where they die needlessly (like the front line).

--A note on Globals. Given the amount of blood slaves you can produce with a mimimum of effort, you can toss down an Astral Corruption so big nobody will ever be able to drop it. The Utterdark also has no effect on demons in batle and no economic effect on armies of summonables.

Just think about that.