My Mictlan strategy: okay, but needs work

[Frostmourne27]

Isn't the dominion produced by preaching unable to spread to nearby provinces? If thats the case Mictlan might be better - sacrificing/temple checks can spread it to nearby provinces.

Spending 50 or even 100 blood slaves (if you have a *massive* frontier) a turn isn't a big deal for late-game Mictlan; you're probably making 20+ per province your hunting in, so you can easily have plenty more for those devils etc.

Am I missing something here? AFAIK Mictlan is no better than anyone elese at blood hunting. They have blood mages of course, but Abysia is just as good. Granted, ulm isn't as good, but I don't think mictlan has a bonus to blood hunting do they? Other thatn a bigger incentive that is.

[PvK]

Mictlan has blood priests for 80 gold who are sacred so they cost half-upkeep and so are I think the best blood-to-gold ratio unit to use for blood hunting. Not that gold is necessarily the limiting factor.

[Graeme Dice]

BigJMoney said:
...and that's what I'm hopefully going to prove wrong. I'm telling you, the numbers say that Mictlan is the best possible late game Dominion spreader, bar-none.

Abysia and Vanheim can both sacrifice slaves to spread dominion, and get normal temple checks, so with a sufficient blood slave supply, they would both be better than Mictlan at spreading dominion.

[Graeme Dice]

Frostmourne27 said:
They have blood mages of course, but Abysia is just as good. Granted, ulm isn't as good, but I don't think mictlan has a bonus to blood hunting do they? Other thatn a bigger incentive that is.

Abysian warlock apprentices are just as effective at getting blood slaves as a Mictlan priest with a dousing rod, but are 110 gold more expensive (IIRC), and are capital only. On a smaller map, Abysia can compete. On a larger map, it's hard to compete with Mictlan priests.

[Frostmourne27]

True, my question was more about Mictlan having an intrinsic bonus to blood hunting. AFAIK they don't, but it sounded kinda like they might.

[Boron]

Dominionkilling someone is extremely difficult also.
As Graeme says i would give Vanheim or Abysia the best chances if they manage to get enough of a blood income.

But normally it is easier to kill an enemy with force instead.

[BigJMoney]

shovah said:
Actally your wrong, any-one, with enough of an economy can outspread mictlan because of 1 little fact: They can have multiple priests working per province. (and cheaper)

Do not take this as an offense, because it's purely surprise. I'm very surprised you don't know one of the most basic aspects of the game. Priests do not spread dominion; they increase it within their current province only. Not just that, but they can only raise it to a point equal to their priest level (plus temple bonus). Thus, only stealthy priests ever have the power to take your dominion into enemy territories. Even then, 10 holy2 stealth priests would have less of a chance of spreading dominion than 1 Mictlan holy2 priest performing a blood sacrifice for a god with 10 Dominion. This is because 1 level 10 Temple check (sacrifice) is better than 10 level 2 preach checks that have to fight against enemy dominion. In fact, if the enemy dominion is 8 or higher, level 2 priests cannot even lower it.

However, Graeme brings up a valid point. Even though Mictlan has the best potential for utilizing blood sacrifices, the fact that two other nations can make blood sacrifices plus have the normal dominion spread makes it seem less appealing. I'll look into those other nations very soon, actually. What I'll be comparing between these nations is a three-part economy: Blood, Priests and Time.

This thread has turned interesting.

=$=

[BigJMoney]

Agrajag said:
Bear in mind that to "have 3 temples per province" you'll also need to blood hunt every* province, and set the taxes to minimal in every* province.

I'm not concerned here, because I've already proved to myself in my current game that this is not reality. I currently "have ~1.5 temples per province" and I only blood hunt in territories that do not make me gold. I also only hunt with 2 hunters in each of those territories. I am slightly positive in my bloodflow surplus. In the provinces I hunt, I have taxes set to 50 (which I could set to zero, I don't care) and usually do not need patrols. Don't forget this is why I took Order3, Luck3.

If this can be true for a dozen provinces, I believe it will also hold out for the end game if/when I have many more. At that point, I hope to "turn on the switch", and go for level 3 priests in every province. At that point, I will not use gold for anything ever again, hopefully.

Sorry to double post, but I had a few things to reply to. It's just easier for me to focus this way.

=$=

[Agrajag]

BigJMoney said:
At that point, I will not use gold for anything ever again, hopefully.

There is upkeep to take into consideration.

[Rathar]

I have a question regarding the f9 bless and jaguars and what I am doing wrong..

I wanted to check it out so I made a moloch pretender with f9, built a pile of jaguar warriors on the first turn and on the second turn sent them and my whole army at an independent (set at level 9 as thats the game I am practicing for is at) which only had medium infantry.

My jaguars got blessed, charged at the enemy, killed a few of em and were then annihilated to a man with no problem by the indy infantry.

What am I missing/doing wrong? Is it that I only had 8 or so of them and thus need a few turns of build before I have an effective pile or..? I mean, flaming weapons are cool and all but protection 4 is well, weak!

Or perhaps it is that for this game we are not using the CB mod? Yes yes we are dorks for not using it but thats the way its going to be.

Any advice would be handy!

Rathar

Oh and also.. Htf does one make a moloch an independent province killing machine? My experience is that he enters a battle, makes 2 imps, they charge and die and he retreats every time.