We Need Serpent Cult

[FrankTrollman]

So obviously, Pythium: Serpent Cult should be the late era Pythium. Parts of that are already in the game even. The Serpent Priest, Serpent Acolyte, Serpent Cataphracts, Serpent Lords, and Sacred Hydras are all already in place. But that's not a complete force. So obviously it needs some more things. Here are my thoughts:

• First of all, the Sacred Swamp already makes 5 gems/turn. That's pushing it for a late era nation, so they clearly don't need any more.
• The Serpent Priests have WNNHH with 1.1 Randoms of WNDS, that's pretty weak even for the late age, and extremely weak for a magic focused tribe - so they should have a capitol only Serpent High Priest who is capitol only - an Arch Theurge if you will.
• All available sacred troops are capitol only, which for a bless-focused nation is crap. They need some sacred troops that are available anywhere - though clearly they don't have to be hydras, because that would be insane.
• The normal Pythium units are generally pretty low tech compared to the late age, and need to be redone.

So where does that put us? It puts us needing approximately 8-12 build-anywhere units, 3 build-anywhere commanders, a capitol-only commander, and of course: an extra magic site that produces that capitol-only magician commander.

The easiest part of that is the production of extra fantastic units. The build-anywhere sacred troop, for example, can be a human serpent-dancer with a snake staff (picture attached for what it's worth). The hard part is that Serpent Cult Pythium should correspond pretty closely to the Thematic Armies of the Eastern Roman Empire. That means an update of Pythium's normal units to use more chain mail and more cavalry. That's convenient, because the Serpent Cult has raised lizards as sacred in the eyes of the god - so using more cavalry seems pretty understandable.

Obvious units:

Pronoiars: It's like a knight, so it rides around on a lizard. The Pronoiars are paid in land and thus become a minor lord when they join the army. Clearly, they can be raised anywhere, and while the lizard that is left over when they die is sacred, they aren't.

Serpentis Sagitarii: It's a horse-archer, but it rides around on a serpent. These guys ride the old-school Serpents that the Sauromatians rode because they are light troops and don't have barding.

Alae Serpentis: It's like an Alae Legionaire but to mimic the Alae Cavalry of Byzantium while staying in theme it rides a serpent. Also it comes with Full Chain Mail instead of a Lorica Segmentata.

Archers: That's their actual name, this being Latin inspired. The Archers of Serpent Cult Pythium have chain armor and use composite bows.

Heavy Infantry: I can't find what these guys were actually called, but the legionaires of Byzantium were outfitted with Chain Mail, Tower Shields, Helmets, and either swords or spears.

That's like 7 units that are build-anywhere. But to feel like a full faction, it should have at least 8. Any other ideas of additional Byzantine-inspired field troops?

-Frank