Make every loss strengthen something
Build the King of Blood sacrifice engine by placing expendable Imps beside a Cemetery, deploying Demon Altar early, and sacrificing fodder beside the plots you want to upgrade. Once your replacement troops can hold the enemy but cannot kill its carries, invest in Bombers or another damage source instead of feeding more Imps into the same loop.
Choose a job for each card
| Card | Role and placement |
|---|---|
| Imps | Expendable troops for the engine. Place them beside Cemetery for replacements, or beside Mangler when you need to maintain its supply of sacrifices. |
| Cemetery | Generates Skeletons when adjacent units die. Skeletons spawn from the Cemetery plot, so its position matters alongside the fodder touching it. |
| Demon Altar | Summons Demons whose damage grows permanently through allied deaths. Deploy it early in a corner while your opening troops handle the fighting. |
| Sacrifice | Destroys the target plot to upgrade adjacent plots. Choose the disposable target according to which important neighbours will receive those upgrades. |
| Oblation | A Tome thrown into the pit to add troop units. Its effect grows as cards enter the pit, giving the army more bodies to work with. |
| Bombers | Provide area damage while their deaths also feed Demon Altar. Put them in the middle; an adjacent Cauldron can add poison to their attacks. |
| Mangler | Summons meat trolls and gains damage and HP through its yearly adjacent sacrifice. Keep Imps touching it, with a Beacon beside it when available. |
| Pagoda | The Blood base summons invincible Ghosts. Permanent troop destruction increases its Ghost capacity, but the Pagoda itself still needs protection. |
Opening placement and upgrade order
- Deploy Demon Altar early, preferably in a corner. Its permanent growth benefits from having more battles ahead of it, while the corner keeps it out of the way of your central troop and support placements. Let your opening troops do the immediate fighting while the Altar develops.
- Place Imps beside a Cemetery so their battle deaths produce replacements. Keep that connection intact when adding other cards, rather than treating Cemetery as support that can sit anywhere. Remember that the resulting Skeletons emerge from the Cemetery plot.
- Choose a Sacrifice target beside the important plots you want to level. A disposable troop beside the Pagoda can turn its removal into a base upgrade, while a troop plot destroyed beside Cemetery leaves a Skeleton plot in its place. Check the neighbours before committing the card.
- Upgrade the card carrying your current fights. With a Bomber opening, improve the Bombers while their blasts clear waves, then move investment toward Demon Altar when those blasts fall behind. With a Mangler opening, upgrade the Mangler while keeping adjacent Imp fodder available.
- Expand by adding more working troop–Cemetery connections instead of scattering support across disconnected plots. Before upgrading Imps for survival, remember that their level-ups increase damage without adding HP. Use the upgrade preview to check whether the next card improves the part of your army that needs help.
Battle deaths and sacrifices pay off differently
Cemetery turns adjacent casualties into Skeletons, while Demon Altar gains permanent strength from allied deaths. Pagoda has a different condition: its Ghost capacity grows through troops lost permanently, including sacrifices, destruction cards and Mangler feeding. Ordinary battle deaths do not add to that capacity.
Destroying a troop plot beside Cemetery also leaves a Skeleton plot where that troop stood. Plan around that replacement before assuming the action will leave an empty space for another building. A useful sacrifice should improve the surviving board as well as remove expendable troops.
Use Oblation for bodies and Carnage for damage
Oblation replaced Vampirism in the Blood card pool, and it is a pit Tome rather than a life-drain enchantment. Throwing it into the pit adds units to your troops, with its effect increasing as cards are thrown away. Build around those extra bodies instead of expecting the healing described in an old Vampirism build.
Consider throwing genuinely spare cards into the pit before spending Oblation, so its growing effect serves the army you are actually keeping. Preserve cards needed to establish your damage carry or repair a missing adjacency. More fodder is useful only when the rest of the board can turn it into progress.
Carnage gives affected troops a death explosion dealing a tenth of their HP. Consider that damage payoff when casualties are plentiful but enemy carries survive. Hover a troop’s Enchantment icon to read its effect before deciding where to invest further enchantments.
When to change your damage plan or enemy
If Skeletons and Imps keep replacing losses but the enemy carry remains alive, add or upgrade Bombers rather than investing exclusively in disposable troops. When Bomber blasts stop clearing waves, give the developing Demon Altars the upgrades they need to take over. Keeping the loop running is useful, but clearing the enemy is the test that matters.
Enemy Steel Coat stacks are a reason to reconsider relying on Bomber explosions alone: each stack cancels a hit, and a Bomber gets its hit through its run-in. Keep another damage plan developing behind the blasts. Do not mistake repeated blocked explosions for a shortage of Imp fodder.
A Mangler without adjacent fodder stops gaining from its sacrifice, and upgrading it does not increase how often it eats. If replacement Imps stop arriving, shift attention toward Imps beside Cemeteries and a stronger Pagoda. The early Mangler still needs the rest of your army to carry fights while its growth accumulates.
When choosing early opponents for a meat-troll army, avoid the Kings of Stone, Spells and Time where possible because their area damage punishes crowds. Choose wars with useful loot in mind as well as the immediate matchup. Cards gained from rival kings can supply the support your current Blood army lacks.