[Aleph]

Or, "thieves in the temple."

So I started a game with LA Mictlan, Imprisoned Oracle Turmoil/Sloth/Luck/Growth 3 Heat 1 S9W9. Turn 4, I die because merchants show up in my temple, decreasing faith and increasing profits.

I'd like some ideas on how to play Mictlan (and blood nations in general, but I thought I'd start there since it's so emblematic). Specifically:

1. LA vs. EA. I like the pretenders and mages available to LA a bit more, but the loss of blood income in the early game would seem to be of critical importance for dominion expansion.

2. When does one start blood hunting and sacrificing? I thought it could wait a while until I had a physical infrastructure to drive it, but apparently not.

3. Where does one blood hunt? Best to spread out or use one's cities with extensive patrols and tax cuts? I assume the latter but am willing to admit I don't have a clue.

4. EA Pretender. I like S9W9 with an Oracle for exceptionally durable troops and ready to go Wish for blood slaves when the pretender finally awakens, but it's not available in EA without sacrificing good scales (luck is fun with Crossbreeding and if I'm going to be lowering taxes would be a good source of income, growth because it helps address the income problems over the long term, will easily counteract patrolling losses, and large provinces = better blood hunts). I'm thinking any of N9/B9, S9/N9, B9/S9, or B9/W9. All of these have something I don't like as well as W9/S9, and in general I don't grok the usefulness of either Death Curse or Berserk (I don't doubt they are useful; I just don't get it).