Vanheim - help wanted.

[Endoperez]

Are you sure they will survive the one turn? I tested with recruiting aquatic units with #secondshape on land, and they all died before I saw them (i.e. on the turn I got them).

BTW, that didn't work, so we can't change independents/magic site units into Oceania units.

[Alneyan]

I'm sure I deserve a good beating. I got mixed up with Poke in the Eye, where Aquatic units left stranded on the shore get one turn of leeway, and vice versa. It doesn't work that way for units you actually recruit.

Thetis' Blessing does work, but nothing else seems to: the bloody devils don't appear to be generated along with their commander, even if said commander already has devils (at least my Deep Seer couldn't get that to work).

On a related note, is it actually possible to get an horror attack because of Soul Contracts? The aforementioned command (and a scout) have been carrying a Contract for at least one hundred turns, and they are still alive and kicking with Research orders. First death, after 150 turns of Contract-carrying, so I guess it does work - slowly.

[shovah]

just dont take forbidden light if you dont like horror attacks

[Endoperez]

Well, I haven't actually used Contracts much myself, so I don't know how often those attacks happen usually. I quess it is somewhat affected by Magic scale, but it seems it still is negligible. Pity, it was such a good argument. ;D

[Ironhawk]

Borg said:

Thàt needs a little explanation , I'm afraid (coming from someone who hasn't played Blood before

Hehhehe, no problem. I think everythings been pretty much explained so I'll just recap. Soul Contract is just an item like any other and is not automatically assigned to the creating mage (as the description may imply) so it will just appear in your magic item list. Once you put that Contract into the hands of an (un)willing commander, 1 devil will be automatically summoned every turn. In this way a single strong blood mage (your pretender in this case) can supply a legion of cheap bloodless commanders with Contracts resulting in an ever-increasing rate of Devil summoning.

And as was previously stated: Scouts are the preferred holder of Contracts because they are so hard for your enemies to find/kill while Hiding. Horror attacks will definitely still occur on them but in my experience not nearly fast enough to make up for the benefit of having a horde of devil summoners.

[Borg]

I've played (started up) about four games now with Vanheim (up to turn 15 or so) and I must say their Blood Magic ability has got me confused.

I really don't see the "synergy" with their Air Magic ability.
After reading through all the Blood Spells in the manual, I noticed very little usefull Battlefield Spells.
On top of that, almost ALL Blood spells have incredible fatigue-numbers.
Lvl-1 blood spells nearly all give 100 fatigue and are very limited in what they can do (single figure or 1 area at best)
Since your mages are only B1 (B2 at best but very expensive) I don't see how Blood Magic can be very effective for them.
Should I just ignore Blood Magic at the start of the game and start using it no sooner than mid to late game.
It seems very unproductive to put research points in it in the early game.

It seems to me that giving the E3? Dwarf more spell casting options is a much better early game strategy. Simply send a priest along to help Bless the sacred troops, get some air shield and then shoot some lightning bolts at the enemy.

Really looking for some helpful suggestions here, more specifically on your research strategy (which paths, up to which level, to get which spells ... etc)

[Turin]

yeah don´t bother with blood until later.

good early game research levels are evocation 4 for bladewind/lightning bolt/thunder strike, and conjuration 3 for call of the winds/summon earth power.
That´s enough to easily win early game skirmishes and call of the winds lets you siege castles for a very cheap gem investment.

Later go for wrathful skies and cloudtrapeze.

[Truper]

Vanheim isn't exactly a blood nation. The Vans remember how to sate nature with blood, but it isn't one of Vanheim's primary abilities. In other words, Vans are awfully expensive if you're going to use them as blood 1 mages

On the other hand, the occasional sacrifice to help spread dominion can be justified under some circumstances, and blood is the easiest path to "ramp up". In midgame, you can begin making an investment in blood, forge a few dousing rods, forge a few boosters, and you're on your way. Blood is hard to use on the battlefield, but Storm Demons are useful, and seem rather thematic as well. Enough blood can also alow you to diversify your magic. For instance, a Fallen Angel is a good fire mage, as well as a good blood mage, and can make a nice thug in a pinch.

[Borg]

I understand you can make a blood sacrifice to increase your dominion.
Is this dominion increase guaranteed or is it a gamble (percentage) just like praying ?

[shovah]

i think every sacrificed slave cause a temple check