Lanka pretender design/strategy

[Gregstrom]

So I chose Lanka for an MP game because to my mind the only thing funnier than a nation of monkeys is a nation of demon monkeys... Now I have to think about strategy, and there's no guide on the forums (AFAIK) to kick me off.

I've looked at them a bit in SP and it strikes me that they have very nice sacreds, and lots available. So maybe some sort of Bless strategy is a good idea.

My rather fuzzy thoughts are:
Options for paths:
1: Get good blesses for the sacreds. Options I've considered here are E9 (might be a good one for survivability, especially for Kala-Mukha Warriors), F4W4 (the sacreds already have good Attack and Defence - adding even 2 should put them up with a lot of good summons), N6 or N8 (regen would stack with other blesses, but I'm not sure I want Berserk).

2: Go rainbow for the site searches in paths Lanka doesn't start with (Fire, Water, Earth, Astral). Going high enough in some of these could mesh with idea 1.

3: Go high in some of Lanka's national paths, to extract better value from summons they'd be using anyway. This doesn't give many good blesses though.

Secondly, Dominion. I have less ideas here.

A: It seems that a good Growth scale is beneficial for Blood nations, so G2 or G3 may be good.

B:I like Turmoil 3/Luck 3, and can see advantages in this for some Blood spells, but I suspect that Lanka will need all the income it can scrape together for their costly Sacreds. OTOH, Order 3/Misfortune 3 can be awkward with Lanka's poor PD not being much protection against the inevitable Barbarian invasions.

C: Productivity seems a better idea than Sloth, as Lanka's good units are demanding on Resources. Points have to come from somewhere though, and maybe Sloth is survivable...

Overall strategy I think has to involve lots of Blood, for the summons. I think, though, that one needs a good income at the same time for the Kala-Mukhas you can buy so many of.

Can anyone with experience of Lanka add anything to this, or resolve any of my dilemmas?