I suck with Pythium ... please help!

[Arryn]

godofdun said:
I haven't heard much discussion about the hydras/hatchlings, is there a way to make them useful? With their poison cloud and no real easy way to give ur troops poison resistence they seem to be more harm than help.

Mass Flight (Enchant-7 Air-4), send them into the enemy rear to wreak havoc. Or put them in your front center with missile troops along your flanks (well out of the path of any rout) and charge them into the enemy front supported by your missileers.

Then there's Serpent's Blessing (Enchant-7 Nature-4) which protects your whole army versus (natural) poison. (I haven't cast this spell myself, so I'm not sure, but it should protect against the hydra poison.)

[godofdun]

Arryn said:
quote]Mass Flight (Enchant-7 Air-4), send them into the enemy rear to wreak havoc. Or put them in your front center with missile troops along your flanks (well out of the path of any rout) and charge them into the enemy front supported by your missileers.

Then there's Serpent's Blessing (Enchant-7 Nature-4) which protects your whole army versus (natural) poison. (I haven't cast this spell myself, so I'm not sure, but it should protect against the hydra poison.)

Hmmm, yeah, thatd work, just seems very cost prohibitive compared to the mass principe idea, you can get 16 of those guys for the same price (350), even though itl take more turns. Would the hatchlings be better since they are better priced, even though they don't have lesser fear?

[Arryn]

Check out this thread: On using poison cloud units...

and this one: On Pythium and Hydras

This forum's SEARCH function is quite handy ...

[godofdun]

haha, yes, the n00b alert has been launched! hit the deck! Thx though

[archaeolept]

I always go principe, though some prefer the hastati for the gold savings. hatchlings are quite close to useless; the full grown, except in serpent cult, rarely of use. good against miasma c'tis.

the gladiators are, in theory, a good troop for scratch Last minute defense, say of an isolated mage communion. or as the lead troops in a battle you expect to take very heavy losses in. In practice, I almost never buy any. I once bought some (in a very early game) on the theory that they were cheap patrollers, until they caught a scout... ;p

[godofdun]

archaeolept said:
I once bought some (in a very early game) on the theory that they were cheap patrollers, until they caught a scout... ;p

yeah, i can see how they would be wonderful for patrolling, especially if you wen't for blood with your pretender or something.

[Cainehill]

archaeolept said:
I always go principe, though some prefer the hastati for the gold savings. hatchlings are quite close to useless; the full grown, except in serpent cult, rarely of use. good against miasma c'tis.

the gladiators are, in theory, a good troop for scratch Last minute defense, say of an isolated mage communion. or as the lead troops in a battle you expect to take very heavy losses in. In practice, I almost never buy any. I once bought some (in a very early game) on the theory that they were cheap patrollers, until they caught a scout... ;p

Heh. Not sure - think it was another game, against Quantum Mechanic, but one of my flying harpy scouts stumbled on his capital. There went about 30 of my allies gladiators, against a scout. Almost makes empowering a scout for Air Trapeze worthwhile - trapeze the scout in, there go the gladiators, then bring in the real army on foot.

About hydras : I find the full grown ones very useful, with the right troop placement, choice of leaders, battle magic. The hatchlings? Even better - they make the _best_ shish kebabs!

[Boron]

Hm in theory the hydras are nice .
You could e.g. lead them by a banelord , bane etc. and mix in some undead fodder to prevent routing .
The problem is just that the undead fodder gets killed to easy so it is very costintensive .
You could combine the Hydras with behemoths this should prevent routing and the behemoths should be alive at least sometime .

For Broken Empire ermor they would be much more useful though since they could generate their reanimatefodder undeads in the quantities needed without too high costs

Living statues could work rather well too

Strategic move of 1 and higher upkeep then an Archtheurg limit their usefulness though .

As archaeolept said Principes / Hastatati are just normally more useful .
The "routpreventing" normally takes just too much effort/resources to really consider hydras i think.

[Thufir]

I'm playing Pythium right now in an MP game, and it's been great to have this thread resurface, with new comments. In the game, I'm doing reasonably well, but I've made more than my share of tactical mistakes, leading to the following questions.

Cainehill said:
About hydras : I find the full grown ones very useful, with the right troop placement, choice of leaders, battle magic. The hatchlings? Even better - they make the _best_ shish kebabs!

1) I believe that hydras are effective (played well), but like others I'm having some difficulty in using them cost-effectively. Am I correct in thinking that the main reason why you want hatchlings is simply to make the group bigger at something less than the cost of the full hydras?

If so there must be some more or less optimal ratio between hydras and hatchlings - I'd guess around 1::4. Does that sound reasonable?

2) I've found it very easy to use Principe cost effectively - as such I'm probably over using them. This thread has given me plenty of ideas about using hydras/hatchlings, but what about Emerald Guards? Does anyone out there particularly like them? At the least they seem like good body guards for your Arch Theurgs, but while I haven't tried it yet, it seems like they might be worth paying for in larger numbers as a line behind the Principe, or perhaps mixed in with Principe.

3) On Serpent Cataphracts, they seem like really good troops, but it's always a tough choice when you know you can get so many more Principe. So far I have put together a few times Groups of 5-7 Cataphracts, and they have been effective, but I wonder if I'm underutilizing them. Also, perhaps because my Groups were too small they didn't survive as long as I might have hoped (although in at least one case they took out a goodly number of devils before routing).

Anyone have any pointers on the minimal size of a Cataphract squad? Has anyone out there found it useful to mix other units in with the Cataphracts? Has anyone out there found the Serpent Lord worth paying for?

4) Currently I'm fighting Abysia, and I've found it particularly difficult to kill devils. I guess I'm doing ok, as the number of devils that are showing up is reducing, but still any pointers on countering devils would be appreciated! And especially pointers on eliminating a raid army of devils plus demonbred would be most appreciated!

[archaeolept]

group of theurgs (say 6+)really preferably w/ spell foci, and communicants(8), fronted by principe w/ some mixed in as theurg guards

quickness, communion master, banish demon X3
(have one scripted to cast the occasional fanaticism too, and one scripted to luck, twist of fate, charge body, astral shield, to buff the commies). more theurgs and communicants are always good.

just make sure to have enough principe or hastati as well to engage the devils.

summon up some false horrors too - no need to communion whichever theurg you assign to that task.