[Aezeal]

I think F/W might indeed be too much.. but just F9 makes it stronger late age, magic weapon, better against SC and just general high defense troops.

A 4 seems.. well weakish.. of course it's nearly free but why settle for 20% airshield when arrows are your main point of weakness
(and in my test game.. they are tehy really are.. not to mention the fact that the mages tend to die on stray arrows as well.)
I think that .. if you decide to really focus on hydra a good bless can be worth it.. and I think it's either A7-8-9
with F9 or W9 (W9 stronger against masses of chaff and F 9 stronger against stronger opponents --> I think W9 is less needed.. even 4 hydra's close together do indeed kill a lot of what is in front of them.. I think a lot of attacks will be wasted) and if possible (but that is hard the E4)

The mages will benefit from this too.

I wanted to buff my hyrda's (body ethereal) ASAP but it's hard doing it right.. the mage always buffs himself first and then one hydra and after that the hydra's are gone... so you need more mages, which makes the investment a lil annnoying on your research..

I'm gonna try 1 mage, 2 hydra armies trying to get them both ethreal and see fi they remain killers..

in my test SP game I was hit hard by my mighty neighbour after I decided to war him .. tien chi with it's horsearchers is pretty annoying w/o air bless...

I'll try again soon