Late Age Abysia

[Zenzei]

Is this nation generally considered to be weak or strong and why so?

To me they seem quite capable due to excellent mage commanders (sanguine acolyte & warlock in particular make me excited) and good access to powerful magic paths like blood/astral/death. National units aren't anything spectacular but an awake SC pretender should give them the extra punch needed to survive until blood summons take over that responsibility.

Also what are some general guidelines when playing this nation?
-bless/no bless
-what should be researched first and what is the grand end goal (if there is one)
-any special tricks
-any glaring weaknesses
-what are the more heavily armored troops good for
-anything else important you can think of

I'm about to play this nation in a large newbie game and while I have my general strategy planned out any extra insight is appreciated.

[Endoperez]

It was regarded very weak, but the latest patch might have changed things. It is weak, because 1) all of the good mages are old and 2) because it's so capital-limited. The newest patch gave them more commanders recruitable outside of the capital, the humanbred assassin and assassin-mages are all-new, Fire/Death mages are new in the patch as well.

Construction 6 will help you a lot. Lightless Lanterns will shoot your research through the roof, Skulls of Fire will give cheap +1 Fire to your combat mages, Boots of Youth will keep your mages from aging to death, Starshine Skullcaps will boost Astral, if you've got the paths and gems for it you can start forging Wraith Swords, Hell Swords and Standards of the Damned for Life Drain at melee or from distance... Rods of the Phoenix can also be nice if you can afford them, but they'll be expensive.

[Sir_Dr_D]

The death magic alone, and being able to creat Skulls of Fire, helps Abysia out a lot. Before Abysia wasn't able to create any fire boosters.

[KissBlade]

LA Aby used to suck cause Mictlan and Marignon did everything they did but better.

[Zenzei]

Construction 6 is definitely awesome for LA Abysia, lots of good stuff there. I'm wondering should I aim straight for it or would it be better idea to research con4 first for dousing rods and then some evocation & blood for battle magic & summons respectively before going back to construction?

In my testing, I haven't found old age to be too much of a problem. I usually lose 3 or 4 mages to diseases before hitting con6 and boots of youth.

[Kristoffer O]

Death magic reduces old age death, so the LA Anathemants have somewhat longer lifespans.