So what is Pythium's weakness?

Being sacred isn't all that overwhelming of a cost difference.

With your ability to Heal and your Mystics versitility you can make much more in the way of SC's. (Golems, etc) And equip them properly. Arco is no slouch at all when it comes to dealing with Pythium.

Use Astrologers to Pre-Doom his large armies then use your own Wrathful Skies/Returning Mystics to cripple his forces.

Your higher end Astral Mage (Astrologers) cost much less so you will have more than he will, allowing you to duel him more successfully.

Don't forget that Elephants if used in high enough squads won't rout, which will destroy ranks of infantry and cavalry (until his mages get at them).

The pretender will be your key factor and how you use him.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Zen:
Don't forget that Elephants if used in high enough squads won't rout

They won't Last long vs Pythium however. Soul Slay (count on a Pythium human player to get it quick if a war with Arco or Caelum is likely) targets big creatures first, and with their pitiful MR elephants rarely survive it. Unless Pythium prefers to enslave them.

BTW I remember a funny Arco/Pythium battle in Doms 1 where a few pachyderms changed sides several times in the same battle.

[Daynarr]

BTW I remember a funny Arco/Pythium battle in Doms 1 where a few pachyderms changed sides several times in the same battle.

That must have been confusing experience:
- "He is your enemy!"
- "No, he is!"
- "He is lying, he is the enemy!"
- "Kill him, he is the enemy!"
- ...

[ywl]

[quote]Originally posted by Huzurdaddi:
[quote]
But overall, it'll be a contest of economic resource.
Seems that people think that Pythium has inflexable battle ground magic. I don't know if I agree. They have strong astral, decent air, and decent water. They also have a random pick. Don't forget that due to them being excellently setup for communion those little randoms can easily become level 3 or 4 in combat and then they become real power.

Normally that would not be too much of a problem. However with their reduced maintainance costs they can really pump these guys out.

It's not Pythiums having inflexible battle magic. It's Arco having very flexible battle magic. His Arch-Theurg is 380 a piece. Being sacred reduce maintainence cost by half - 190/15. It's still more expensive to maintain than your mytics and astrologer, not to mention twice amount of initial cost.

Theurg is 150 a piece and cheap but they don't have the random pick. A large number of Theurgs with "Quickness", firing off "Starfire" and "Orb Lightning" is formidable. But it's not uncounterable for Arco.

[Taqwus]

Huzurdaddi --

Check the Philosophers. They're *very* cheap, being pure researchers (heck, they don't even get a single point of magic) -- 50 gold gets you 5 RP plus magic scale. On a GP/RP basis, the cheapest mainline Pythium researcher is 150 gp Theurg with 6 RP (25gp/RP). In magic +3 the GP/RP costs for a Philosopher drop to 6.25; heck, even in Drain 3 that's 50 AU/2RP which is as good as the Theurg in magic-0 on a pure gold basis.

The one limitation on Philosophers is that they're capital-only. The resulting opportunity cost is what'll hurt.

[Darryl]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
Huzurdaddi --

Check the Philosophers. They're *very* cheap, being pure researchers

Umm..excuse my ignorance, but what is a Philosopher? I'm playing Arco right now and I don't have any in my capital. I played Pythium, and don't remember them there either although I'm pretty sure you meant Arco, right?

[Taqwus]

Philosopher's a Golden Era-specific unit, from the Akademia magic site. That same site also allows you to recruit stealth+0 Sceptics for tearing down dominion (including yours!).