Hey, everyone. I just got my full Version of the game yesterday (YAY!). My monitor blew out an hour later (BOO!). And no, that Last comment is serious... I think I live in a Misfortune Dominion or something... anyway, that notwithstanding, I plan to start a BF Ulm game, and thought to maybe use it to show a Newbie's way of 'getting a handle' on Blood Magic. I'm not playing Mictlan primarily because I don't want to die if I mishandle it.
Before I start, however, I had one major question regarding Pretender design, and may run two concurrent games to assess the difference. The current idea is to go with the following:
Vampire Queen
(3 Water OR 3 Earth), 3 Death, 4 Blood
Order 3, Productivity 0, Death 1, Misfortune 1, Magic 3.
Dominion 5 (maybe 6, can't remember)...
Fort type: Fortress
Now, obviously, the big question is whether or not to take Water or Earth magic. The way I see it, they both have their advantages, which I will try to list below.
Water Pro: Able to cast Quickness (and Breath of Winter) for early expansion.
Earth Pro: Able to cast Stoneskin for early expansion.
Advantage: All things being equal, I think Quickness is more useful here, so Water.
Water Pro: Able to cast Sea King's Court.
Earth Pro: Able to cast Troll King's Court.
Advantage: AFAICT, Sea Trolls are about the same as normal Trolls, the spells cost the same in the relevant type of gem, the Sea Trolls can enter the water, and the Sea King generates Water gems. So the advantage here is again with Water. However, this is mitigated somewhat (see below).
Water Pro: Allows Forging of Clams.
Earth Pro: Allows Forging of Bloodstones.
Advantage: While I don't want to go into a large debate over whether Clams are 'broken', I think that, for this build, Bloodstones will be superior to Clams. Bloodstones beget more Bloodstones a lot easier than Clams beget more Clams, if you're using Blood Magic anyway. So advantage here is with Earth. (The mitigating factor that I mentioned above is that, with Blood Stone production, I can probably crank out more Troll King's Courts than Sea King's Courts.)
Now, to this point, it's all pretty even. When you consider other Construction possibilities coupled with BF Ulm natural strengths, however, I think that the balance shifts to Earth. Here's why.
With Earth 3, my VQ could Forge Earth Boots, Dwarven Hammers, and Blood Stones. With Earth Boots and a Blood Stone (BTW, do 2 Blood Stones stack?), she has the 5 Earth required to cast Forge of the Ancients. Once Forge of the Ancients is up, Soul Contracts can be made for 30 Blood Slaves each (assuming a Dwarven Hammer as well). BF Ulm also has a commander (the Blood Count) who flies and can command a large number of Devils.
With Water 3, OTOH, my VQ can naturally enter water, and can summon Ice Devils naturally. Now, having just gotten the full game, I don't really know what Ice Devils are capable of, but I hear a lot of people speak highly of them. I don't know if they're worth passing up Forged Soul Contracts, however.
I would like to see discussion on which path people here think is stronger, and/or which they would like to see written up in an AAR. Also, if you would like to see concurrent AARs, I am willing to do that as well.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Bayushi Tasogare
"Got Blood?" -- BF Ulm AAR (Newbie)
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