Blood of humans theme

[Pocus]

I made a full game with Abysia - Blood of Humans, and another one with the standard theme. Here is my opinion. Yours is very welcome.

First, a disclaimer : I know that themes are not supposed to be stronger, unless perhaps if you pay a lot of points (Desert Tombs for Ctis perhaps). They are supposed to play differently the race. BUT they are supposed to be as balanced in interest in power. So far, my conclusion is that the Blood of Human theme is weaker than standard Abysia : it needs a small boost.

So, about BoH theme (cost zero) versus standard Abysia :

You get 2 more humanbreds. The pro attached to humanbreds is that they cost 2 gold less than before (from 15 to 13). Also, you get 2 which are rather heavy on prot, namely 18 prot, and they move at 2 strategically.
The move 2 is rather interesting, because in standard Abysia, your only troops moving at 2 is the light Humanbreds which are prot 9 (and the salamander beast, but you wont have many!).
This is the main advantage of the theme, IMO. But I made some testbeds, letting Abysian armies face group of hypaspsysts (because their high morale ensure you have a fight to the end, and not from morale break, and because they are rather tough opponent for their cost). For the same price, an army of pure Abysian always perform better than an army of Humanbreds, even at 13 gp. This is why I think that Humanbreds should even cost less in BoH theme, to keep thing in pace. Perhaps something like 12 or even 11 (lets say 12 for the 2 heavy HB, and 11 for the light ones).

What other advantage, aside from reduced cost and heavier HB we get in Blood of Human?

We loose demonbred, but gain the Newt. The Newt is a fire 1 / priest 2 human priest for 90 gold. What can you do with him? Well, as a battle mage not much (blindness perhaps?). As a researcher, he is somehow equal to a warlock apprentice (newt : 3 RP for 90 gold, apprentice 5 RP for 150 gold, A. salamander, 4 RP for 200 gold). True, the Newt is blessed, so cost less in upkeep. True, he can be produced anywhere, and not the apprentice. But with the reduced gold income, seldomly you will be able to recruit at full speed in your capital, AND recruit mages elsewhere. The downside is that anathemant salamanders/dragons can only be produced in capital, so compete for slot usage with the apprentice or warlock.

Another downside, and I think the reduction is too drastic here too, is that you cant take a magical dominions in the BoH theme. I think the restriction is too hard. At least with a magical dominions, you could have tried to get the most of newts as researcher, but even this strategy is not allowed.

So in essence, the Newt is somehow better in research, but not by much, from standard Abysia.

What do we get next : we exchange the Lava Warrior and replace him with Guardian of Pyre. I think they are rather equal, some advantages of one being compensated by other advantages of the other. So here, no difference in interest (they are used differently on the other hand).

And thats all. BoH superiorities over standard Abysia are really minors, in my opinion. Humanbred costing less, but still inferior, fighting value wise, compared to pure blood Abysian, gold price being equal.
A light advantage in research, perhaps...

now the cons... they are more numerous !

first BoH cost you 40 design points. Yes, you can only take heat +2, versus heat +3. So it costs you 40 DP.

You loose the demonbred, which is rather interesting (priest, fire mage, blood mage, can fly, good HP, blessed).

You can only recruit anathemant (dragon or salamander) in your capital. Problematic, as you can also only recruit your blood mages here. You have a big bottleneck here.

You only have 4 fires gem a turn, compared to 5. Minor, but its something less anyway.

my conclusion : Not that weak, but several minor reductions and weaknesses, and no clear superiority in a domain compared to standard Abysia. They could benefit from a small boost.

my suggestions, choose some, not necessarly all :
- allow magical scale, so that Newt can be used as good researcher.
- add an astral gem to the 4 fires.
- reduce by 1 or 2 gold the humanbred cost
- give 40 additional DP, or let heat 3 possible.
- give a new unit, a level 1 blood human mage, recruitable everywhere.
- give 1-2 free slaves a turn (the human virgins are more available now)

thank you for your attention. Discussion welcome (but please test the 2 themes before!).