Thoughts about Pythium...?

[Fearun]

I guess im quite new in this forum, but I have played DOM 1 and DOM 2 (great games )for some time. But my opinions about tactics and strategy etc. havent much refined. So I would be glad to hear some "fresh" thoughts about Pythium in general and some more advanced strategies.

I prefer have a rainbow mage as a pretender when playing Pythium. She is a Great Enchantress
and she has 2 in every path except astral(3), death(3)[or nature, depends on the opponents and map] and blood(0). Dominion is order 3, prod. 0, growth 3, misfortune 3, magic 0. Fort is 30-admin. and costs 60 points. Oh and dominion str. is 5.
Strategy: (Main line)At the start i grab the nearby provinces with mercs. and basic legionnaires with standards.(I guess everyone does this. )I buy some theurgs and arch theurgs for research and put my pretender to search sites from provinces(or with acashic record). I continue to build temples and build forts to expand my army. I have high because of order and growth. After turn twenty I forge rings of sorcery and wizardry, starshine skullcap and staff of elemental mastery. Before that i have made owl quills with my starting gem income to boost my research. I also create forge of ancients so my basic mages can forge many useful things. The next magic paths would be alteration and conjuration. I gain ivy king with treelords staff if i research conj. If i get it, I would make a combo between Vine ogres and hydras.(i have high income) and with alteration my arch theurgs can cast will of fates and fog warriors and some other spells with some boosting. That is basis of my strategy and I know that i havent written all here and this still can improve. But i ask you, am i on a right trail? Thanks for reading and caring.

[Saxon]

Hydra’s (at least in Dom I) are wonderful creatures. That poison cloud will really hurt an enemy army. I used to have two hydra’s with some cheap, low morale units, all in the same group. I put them as far forward as I could. They would advance and attack. The cheap units would die quickly (often due to poison), causing a rout. The hydras would flee, leaving a long cloud of poison. The enemy army would chase them, through the poison, taking lots of damage.

Recover hydra’s from neighboring province, mix with a few new cheap troops and repeat. Sure, they are exposed to arrow fire and you rarely win a real battle, but for wearing out big enemy concentrations or slowing invasions, they are nasty. However, DO NOT mix with your real armies, you will do at least as much damage to yourself. Consider them your special forces.

[Endoperez]

That is what you would like to do, but what if you never find any earth sites? Or any astral sites besides your starting one? Those things do affect your strategy. Think about things you will do if things don't go as you want them to go. Oh, and Acashic Record is quite an expensive spell: don't use it just because you can. Astral gems have better uses. (I do the same thing myself all the time in Dom1, and am finding out why I shouldn't in my current game...) Conjuration also gives you Angelic Hosts, Harbringers and Coatls, all are very nice summons. And depending on the gem income you get, you might be able to summon various elemental courts. With some items, you can go for Air you have your own mages, Fire you can get with Archangel from the Host, Water has cheap bonus items so you might be able to get them too and Earth might be possible with your pretender and some of the more expensive items (elemental staff and ring os wizardry).
What level of Earth does Firbolg Fortress need? If it is three, you might go for that. The free forts help, and that must be the most common castle-giving site in the game. Atleast it was in Dom1...

Okay, there were some thoughts. Not sure about its quality, but that is the advice I can give for you.

[Fearun]

I use hydras with my wholly poison resistant army that contais lamia queen with 2 summer swords, crown of command and 2 endless wineskins. The other commander is a ivy king with treelords staff. So its easy to summon vine ogres much and cheap and have them too. I also prefer abominiations as support troops(also poison res.) Its easy summon them with Pythium (arch theurgs)

[Endoperez]

I don't believe having two wine skins in the same commander helps more than just one... Try having another commander holding the other.

Abominations as support troops? Well, that game is going quite well... Enjoy! Just hope no one casts nothing nasty... Always keep some astral gems for Dispel!


EDIT: same thing for summer swords, and most other items... the effect equipment has on the commander stacks, but the effects the magic of the item has don't stack very often. That is, you get defence boost from multiple swords but otherways one is enough. Different items having the same kind of an effect stack, atleast in the cases I can think of.

[ December 29, 2003, 09:58: Message edited by: Endoperez ]

[Fearun]

You definetely right about acashic record its too costy. I found that true in the current game im playing. (I rule the half of the map ) I found the forging of lowcost-magicbonus-artifacts effective. So should i keep same magic levels on my pretender?

[Fearun]

So that doesnt increase your supply with 100 if you have for ex. 2 summer swords...? Right?

Wow, If you mean that, I have learned something useful. So I get more commanders!

[Endoperez]

Depends. Do you want to keep the magics? Do you want to try somehting new? Would any bless effects boost your mages enough to consider that? Extra reinvigoration from Earth 4 might be, but you wouldn't be able to use that for anything else... And some people would warn you about Magic Duel: one lucky Shaman can kill your pretender... Luckily, you have more astral mages than most other nations, so that shouldn't be that big danger.

If you want a site-searcher, remember that one Arch Theurg has air-2 water-1 astral-3, so you shouldn't take those magics if you are not going higher than what any AT can do... Instead, buy one AT to go with your pretender. Or behind him, as you see what provinces you have already searched. With this, you could drop out astral, maybe air and/or water too, and go for better scales.
Oh, you had a Great Enchantress... Well, if you don't need astral gems that much you might want to try a druid. Bog beasts might be good to go with your hydras and vinemen, although you would have to be lucky to get good mages...
Or maybe you would like to try Serpent cult, for greatest success you should have some kind of a bless effect though.

Generally, do anything you like. Maybe you can pick one of these things and go with it. Maybe you would like to try other race for a change. Or maybe you should try going for a harder game. Damn, I started it againg...

EDIT: I think you got it now. Two summer swords and one commander = supply one sword would give you.
two swords and two commanders, both holding one = supplies of both swords
also edited some grammar

[ December 29, 2003, 10:14: Message edited by: Endoperez ]

[Fearun]

Thanks for your tips those really freshened my thinking. Maybe the serpent cult and the other things you mentioned are worth of trying. When get I learned about Pythium enough I´ll move to Pangaea. Because I like Nature magic at the moment.

[SurvivalistMerc]

Pythium is absolutely amazing, and they seem to have a much easier time getting an early start that some of the other nations like ulm.

I set one of the AIs to ulm, so I will see how well I do against them.