Are heavy bless strategies the best ones ?

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
Drain? magic plays no role?

Magic plays a very large role if the game lasts to turn 40 or so. The drain scale, on the other hand, has almost no effect on the power of magic.

Death has no affect?

The death scale has precisely the effects I just listed. It reduces your population in your home province by 24% over 50 turns, and by a lesser amount in other provinces. Otherwise it has little effect on any nation other than those with mages that were made old arbitrarily (ie. the fire nations).

Im not sure if Victory Point games might also make a difference on some of it and since the devs love VP games I sure wouldnt write those off.

Victory points make games finish sooner, not later.