Can I get some cheese with that...

[Yossar]

I've never really seen anyone successfully execute those strategies besides Norfleet so I don't know if they really are broken or if he's just good. I do know, though, that in the late game, anyone who doesn't have any clams or a castle in every province will be at a significant disadvantage to someone who does.

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:
To paraphrase. I wouldn't mind clams if the damn pearls showed up in the lab, or the blood slaves did, or if castle spamming did not remove or reduce my ability to create a few production centers to manage instead of every single province.

All you have to do is press F7, pool slaves, and pool astral pearls. Not much micromanagment unless you are doing a lot of blood sacrificing and then have to put the slaves back on the priests.