[B0rsuk]

If decisive battle is imminent, I guess it's the best idea to use Pythium gladiators.
Ironically, in long run it may be easier to amass heavy armor units, which is kinda strange.
With heavies, you tend to have more gold left. For this gold, you can build extra forts, for example. So you can recruit even more heavies.
How about history ? Were heavily armored soldiers paid more ? Probably not. First of all, as far as I know, early medieval armored soldiers were simply nobles, because no one else could afford a sword, armor, horse....