Early Game Maximizing income vs long term growth.

[ano]

SsSam said:
I just ran a quick test. I took out 25 provinces of indies in 25 turns with a 5 hydra army with no loses. While Pythium's regular infantry is good, there's no way they could do that.

Certainly, they need more micro than hydras, but if you don't use micro then this discussion has no sense)
Properly placed and scripted, 40 Alae legionnaires will take off 10 not _extremely tough_ indy provinces in 10 turns with almost no losses.
And even your starting army with units recruited on turn 0 can capture indies with minimal losses. Still MUCH cheaper than 1250 gold. Pythium and Ermor both have perfect infantry, really.