You don't even need to have 3 Earth, but 2 earth will work if you need to.

You forgot the most basic reason to have Water for a Blood Nation: Blood.

Earth + Blood = Demon Knights, Father Illearth (The first is not generally used by your Pretender, but for the sake of argument, Father Illearth is Nice but he's only 1 Summon)

Water + Blood = Frost Fiends, Ice Devil (Again, the first isn't that important, the second gives you 7 SC's)

At best your mages are going to be able to summon Fallen Angels (with items). So you have to look to your pretender as being able to fill in the gaps of your national units/mages. I'd take at least 3 Death so you can make Skull Staff/Skullface if you need and of course summoning Vampire Counts early in the game (Might drop 1 Blood as you can forge your way up to whatever you need there).

Soul Contracts vs ID's, unless I was planning on a very long game for alot of return investment I tend to stay far away from Soul Contracts. That is mostly useful for base Ulm for Blood (because it's easy to empower then equip a few smiths to make what you need to make).

[ April 02, 2004, 16:34: Message edited by: Zen ]