Blooood...

[GrudgeBringer]

I usually play Arco as most of you know and am trying to understand a blood nation.

I have picked one and got a little help from chrispederson and a build but my trouble is a couple of easy questions and if there is answers in a blog please let me know.

1. Does Bowl of blood work like any other gem finder? I swear I can't EVER find....)(I'm not sure what I will find)and blood sites.

2. when I blood hunt, is there a way I know a certain mage will do better than another? I have a jade knife and have found 1 province that gave me 3 Slaves and the next turn none.

Last question (let me be lazy please) I NEVER can get it to search monthly for gems unless I do it about 100 times so I quit doing it that way. Got to thinking it might be my old keyboard so I got a nes one and now (sigh), I can't remember if its Shift/Alt or Shift/Control (neither one seems to work on blood bowl). now The way I get it is i hit whatever gem finder I want and then hit Shift/Alt and it picks the province. Van i really be this dumb

Thanks

[13lackGu4rd]

1. yes bowl of blood works like any other site searching spell. the thing is that blood sites are very rare, so it's pretty normal you're not finding many sites. but the ones you do find have a large potential to be game breaking(20-60% discount on blood magic mainly), others include free slaves each turn(same as normal gem sites) a few sites that generate other gem types, and even some bad ones like unrest increasing sites(with or without additional effects).

2. generally the higher the blood level the better the blood hunter. sanguine rod counts as +1 blood level IIRC. nonetheless, there's still a random factor, as well as unrest and time. the longer you hunt a specific province the less returns you get over time(it's good to switch from time to time) and the higher the unrest you have in a province the less chance you get slaves(and when you do you generally get less).

3. shift+m is what you're looking for. unfortunately it's only monthly cast, you have no control over which provinces are searched, in some cases like Voice of Tiamat the province selection is bugged, in others it is generally ok, but it's always good to keep an eye on it to make sure it's not searching provinces with 4 sites already or provinces that have been searched already(usually the province your mage is in, or your capital that can't have additional sites).

[llamabeast]

Monthly cast is Shift+M!

[thejeff]

2) Jade Knife helps with blood sacrifice, not hunting. Sanguine dowsing Rod is what you want. Higher the blood level the better the hunter, but there are diminishing returns. If you've got cheap B1 mages it's usually best to use them with a Rod than use a more expensive mage.
The general rule of thumb is 3 B1+Rod hunters per province.
Unrest figures in, so lowering taxes or patrolling helps. If population is under 5000 you also get less, so it's best to hunt in provinces far enough above 5000 that they'll last awhile (dependent on scales/unrest/patrolling) but low enough that you're not losing too much income.
As far as I know, returns only drop over time as the population drops.

[Kheldron]

A commander with no blood lvl has a 10% chance of success
a lvl1 50%
a lvl2 90%
a lvl3 and more 100%

[GrudgeBringer]

That is EXACTLY what I needed to know...thanks guys!!

[chrispedersen]

Grudge,

there are three checks involved in blood hunting. Keldron mentioned one.

Population / 50 as a % is another. so 5000 people you will always pass this check.

finally, the last check is:

If you succeed at a check you have an unrest/4%chance of losing it due to unrest.

So, keep your unrest low, use as high a blood hunter as you can, in a population of 5000.

As someone else responded - blood sites are much lower in frequency than other sites. personally, I never bother casting
bowl of blood.

Off the top of my head almost all the common blood sites do not give you blood - they give you gems. Additionally one of the more common blood sites just incites unrests and gives you villains.

But if you review the blood sites on edi's database, you will find it instructive.

OH. One other thing: Your blood income is tied to magic site frequency as well. Ie., you earn less LA than you do Ea.

[thejeff]

The reason for site searching Blood is not to get slaves, it's for the chance of the discount sites. They're rare, but game changing.

The bonus for higher blood levels drops off so it's usually better to hunt with more B2s than fewer B3+s. YMMV

[chrispedersen]

Agree jeff.

Its one of the things I hate about sites - having a site in your area - can decide the game. Its one of the reasons I like sombre's mod.

[militarist]

"Monthly cast is Shift+M!"
And in what menu I should press it? I tried it several times, and don't understand.