I suck with Pythium ... please help!

[Huzurdaddi]

I need help!

As I have stated before my inital strategy with pythium is based upon Principes backed up with lots of Theurg Acolytes casting Body Etherial. Works dandy for expanding. However I have three problems:

1) I can't figure out how to summon anything worth while. It's fustrating. I commonly have a good number of gems by turn 30 ( like 600 or so of various types sitting in the bank ) but nothing at all to spend them on. Maybe that's the curse of taking a rainbow mage?

2) I can't get blood worth crap and I *really* dig blood. But with the nerf to blood hunting it seems that blood is not for pythium.

3) I can't really figure out what is decent battle magic. I know that I have access to basically any air, water or astral battle magic but I can't find anything that really, really kicks ***. I've tried mass soul slay, mass enslave mind, mass stellar cascades but none of them *really* kick ***. Orb lighting would kick ***, but it's range seems to limit me from using it a lot ( I guess I should put my army right at the front or something ). And falling frost really does not seem to get the job done that well. I was even somewhat unimpressed with thurges casting Nifel Flames ( oh how I wanted that to work out! ). Wrathful skies seems to be the only spell that *really* kicks *** but it kicks my *** too! I guess I could try Shimmering Fields. There has to be *something* that I am missing. Oh I like nether darts, but sadly you don't get many casters with the ability to cast that. How should I use communion! I know it's massivly powerful but what to use?