Mictlan Help

[ToResonanceComesDeath]

Hmm, all of this has been of great help. It's put me a few steps closer to dominating my friends.

I think the f9e3d3b4 Smoking Mirror pretender appeals to me the most at the moment. So my first order of business should be researching construction and raising armies of Jaguar/Eagle warriors?

and if it's not too much trouble, I'd just like to check and make sure that my understanding of Blood Sacrifice isn't flawed. A blood mage can only sacrifice slaves equal to his blood magic level? are any additional slaves given to him wasted?

Sorry for all the newbie questions and thanks for being so patient, guys.

[Oversway]

A blood mage can only sacrifice slaves equal to his blood magic level?

Priests only, up to their holy level + 1 I believe (plus another two with jade knife magic item). Other slaves are not wasted, they will still be in the commanders gem box the next turn.

[Vicious Love]

Saber Cherry said:

Because they have a smaller tax base, Order is more essential. Similarly, when a country's tax base shrinks, tax rates have to increase to maintain the same level of government.

That's precisely why I'd recommend focusing on fire site searching. Direr need, same bang for one's buck. Order may be more valuable, but it's also less effective.

[Oversway]

Order has the nice side effect of reducing misfortune.

Go for ice devils before arch devils -- they are better commanders and cost less blood and research to get. I'd ignore fallen angels, get arch devils once the ice ones are all taken up.

The other big thing to do is forge soul contracts!!! One devil a turn may not sound like much, but devils are very strong troops and it is not too difficult to get 30 or more contracts going. Use dwarven hammers to reduce the forge cost.

[Graeme Dice]

Vicious Love said:
That's precisely why I'd recommend focusing on fire site searching. Direr need, same bang for one's buck. Order may be more valuable, but it's also less effective.

Order 3 produces 1.5 times as much gold as turmoil 3, which ends up being far more than a 50% boost in your net income after paying upkeep. You will not be blood hunting in your high income provinces anyways. I fail to see how searching for fire sites can make up for this lost income. The searching itself cannot be done effectively until you research thaumaturgy 2, which will set your expansion and research plan back by at least two turns. The lost income for not taking order will also likely put your expansion back by at least two turns (if not closer to 5). In the unmodded game, you take order 3 unless you are playing a theme that disallows it, or undead ermor. Any other choice produces less effect for more pretender points.