I don't. I build Hydras as my main force. The only other troops I hired were Comitats and Milites.
I'm still playing that game and am thinking of branching out with indy archers (yay, tribals in LA) and Flaming Arrows from F2 Heliodromes, with fever fetishes on scouts.
I hate taking production scales. Just my personal preference
. It always seems a waste later on in the game.
I don't like map-move 1 units either, that's why I stick with Comitats. I prefer them to Palatines because of the javelins. I can't recruit a lot, but that's good, because I need the cash for new forts with labs, and hydras. Hydras are mapmove-1 so it's good to have something faster.
Epoptes don't cause unrest. They are heretics, so they lower your dominion (or your enemy dominion).
Edit: Is there a quickfix for the "U 1856 Hydra Wrong secondshape" bug? I searched but couldn't find one. If you're going to do a Pythium MP game with a Hydra strategy, you should really use a patch for this.