Blood Simple?!

[quantum_mechani]

Rathar said:
Howdy!

After extensive reading and searching I have noticed a tendency for folks to speak of blood as being an easy path to shoot up in. You speak of late games with hordes of soul-contracts and I look at the 80 blood cost and wonder how in the world..?

I've tried races that have blood as one of their "strong" magic paths as well as those who only get it on a random but I am missing something methinks..

It just seems to take so long to get anywhere with it. You can only search one area per turn, it creates a fair bit of unrest which hurts income, and while hunting, your mages aren't researching. Plus, even with dowsing rods, the return is pretty minimal until you have a high (3+) Blood mage which I find difficult to get to with a random pick.

Anyway, I would love some hints on how to use and play blood effectively!

Thanks!

Perhaps you are not paying enough attention to the population? Below 5000 or so the returns are much less. You can search a lot more than one area per turn, three blood mages per hunting province is normal (taxes 0%), more if you have patrolers to help out. You don't need a blood 3 mage to go hunting, blood one mages with sanguine rods are quite efficient.