Ah ha, a MA Pythium question...

[Folket]

I find that Hydras are a powerful unit. If expanding with national units they probably are your best option since most your troops are so resource heavy. On the other hand they cost lots of gold and will delay construction of more castles. Still I would probably recruit 5-15 early on to get a good amount of provinces. In an early war hydra only armies is unstoppable by most armies.

The hatchlings on the other hand are to weak. They die on droves and still cost you 75 gold a piece.

In general hydra armies are easy to use. Put them on the front and use no other melee units.

[Aezeal]

When trying MA pythium starts I found expansion with neutral production scales and no awake pretender not so nice.. the start army looses troops pretty fast. And a 2nd army is not created that fast. A hydra army as 2nd is to expensive really I used 3 once and that was to vulnerable.

Personally I think hydra's are not ideal, for early expansion the troops are too.. I think an awake pretender might be best.. I can figure even going for more sloth to pay for it and try getting a 2nd or 3th castle soon.

MA pythium might be a great nation (so I've heard) but early game isn't that easy for me atm

[Agema]

I passed on Hydras. I thought 240gold and 16 upkeep apiece was a little expensive. Basic units like hastati and alae legionaries are decent enough for expansion. They're well-enough armoured and shielded that they're virtually arrow-proof and don't take much damage in melee. Quite good enough to trounce most indies.

[Aezeal]

well all those legionaires need a lot in production scale if you want to expand with them.
And after the first dozen turns that production scale is less used.

What pretender set-up and early expansion strat did you use then?

I tried a keeping the 4 earth and 4 nature that was recommended somewhere since the idea behind it so prevent disease HP losses or something and the reinvig sounded usefull. For this and to have a SC after a few turns I was busy with a dormant cyclops... but then noticed my early expansion wasn't all that.

If you get prod scales with that then you can't have an awake pretender AND you need quite some other negative scales if you want a reasonable dominion (I'm thinking MP here and I usually figure 6 dominion minimum for MP)

So I'm interested in your strat.. in anyones strat even...

[Aezeal]

Obviously I can't test a whole game anymore before my next MP game.. but is that natue 4 that important? I keep wondering how much advantage it will give me.

[Karlem]

Try an awake Cyclops with earth 9 Dom 5, O3 S2 Heat 1 Mis1 Mag1.

I think that angels are sacred, isn't it? this way you have a late game bless for thugs/Scs an early SC for indies and expansion and a wondefrul bless for mages. Use original army plus some turn 0 recruits and Pretender to expand. Third expansion army is just 3 hydras and early fort to overcome sloth 3 and then just forts. If you need troops fast use hydras.

Don't use this on aquarium pls

[Xietor]

Hydras are good at 2 things-killing elephants and discouraging a rush. In my present mp game, i bought 5 hydras early since i had a sleeping pretender. They are good for expansion, and give me peace of mind from aggressive neighbors before my pretender awakes.

4n is crucial, as it prevents your 380 gold mages from dying of old age.

It is my 1st mp game playing pythium, but my Mother of Serpents, sleeping with nature, earth, death, and air worked well. Went early for mother oak, then later goh.

The Mother of Serpents with these paths and decebt gear is a beast, and killed a gor tartarian fairly easily that ported in next to my capital. And at the time, she was my only unit that could fight tartarians. And i think she could have killed 3-4 of them alone.