LA Pythium questions

[Aezeal]

sector.. similar tips for MA are appreciated too

[sector24]

LA and MA is like night and day. I haven't played them in about 6 months, but try something like this:

Awake PoD 4E5D
Order 3, Sloth 3, Growth 1, Misfortune 2, Magic 3

Personally I like the value of the Velites. I hate that the capital only Emerald Guard have map move 1, and yes the other infantry are better but even with sloth 3 you can crank out 20 Velites a turn; instant meatshield. I'll recruit Alae Legionnaires if there's no pressing need for troops, but I usually stay away from the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii because I don't like to waste the extra gold on them.

Arch Theurgs are exceptional mages. You can easily get S4 mages to forge rings of sorcery/wizardry (with Starshine Skullcap), mind hunt, etc. The rare but not impossible to get S4F1 Arch Theurg can wear a Starshine Skullcap, Ring of Sorcery, and Ring of Wizardry to cast Heavenly Choir. No need to create an angel factory pretender, which is nice. You can also get an A4 Arch Theurg rarely, but with the ease of Rings of Wizardry, you don't have to wait for one to show up.

MA Pythium has great communions because your communion masters can cast mistform and mirror image on all the slaves with a single spell. It's not too difficult to get Solar Brilliance and Master Enslave, which are always key spells.

So basically your have 10g 10r units that crush indys, great magic paths and a good shot at air queens, powerful communions, and the PoD (arguably the most powerful SC in the game) has 2 paths that your nation doesn't normally get. The only thing you're missing is nature and blood, but MA Pythium has more than enough strengths to make up for that. Oh, and I forgot to mention you get an insane 5 astral pearls per turn from the capital.

[Ironhawk]

I dont agree about the Heliodromus, sector. Unless you get access to another fire mage from a site, this guy is your best bet at wielding any kind of battlefield magic. They can fairly reliably get 2F and thats all you really need. Keep the rest in the backfield as researchers or kill them off casting close range fire spells if you like.

[sector24]

I prefer the Nether Bolting Renatus to the Heliodromus, but I do admit that sometimes I don't have enough of them. There's also a slim time period in which you don't have Nether Bolt, but that depends on if you get into an early war and have to lower your research to go slay pagan unbelievers.

[Ironhawk]

Yeah I concur, the Renatus is a more suitable long term choice. But assuming diff or very diff research there will be a good stretch where fire evocation will be more accessible than Nether Darts.

[Lingchih]

I thought this post was about LA Pythium. We all know how nice MA Pythium is... the question here is how to get the most out of the ludicrous LA Pythium, which turns all Pythium strategies onto their heads.

I have been playing them in MP for a few weeks now, and have learned quite a bit about them, although they are still a bit of an enigma. They are powerful though, for all their strangeness.

I usually recruit a Serpent Priest every turn. They are your backbone mages. They can lead armies, and they can lead Hydras (100 poison immune). The comitatenses are your front line troops. You need to be able to recruit a lot of them. They are not that expensive, but are resource intensive, so plan your scales accordingly. They are the toughest, fastest heavy infantry in the late game. I will build one early expansion force with just them and my Prophet.

The second early expansion force is a Serpent Priest leading some sacred Hydras... about 5-7 is usually good (that's a lot of money, I know. Raise those taxes and patrol early to get the money). This force can take almost any indies... just take care not to let the Priest get hit by a stray arrow. I do not mix my Hydras and regular troops... way too easy to accidentally poison the regular troops. The Hydras with a blessing do just fine by themselves.

My third early expansion force is my awake pretender. As mentioned above, the Prince of Death works very nicely for this. You may want to get construction 2 and equip him a bit before sending him out... they are a bit frail unequipped. I generally go with just D4-5 on him... E4 also in nice, but your sacred Hydras don't need it, and I like to use the extra points in my scales. And be sure to take Dom 9, so that he has Awe. Very important that he has Awe, to go along with his Fear. He can also lead Hydras in a pinch (since he is poison immune). A PoD with a Hydra backing army is a terrible thing to face.

All the heretic mages allow you to branch into almost any path. Just make sure you spread them out. They do not Dominion kill very quickly, but get too many in one place and you have trouble. You are still mainly a nature/death race (strange combo), but you have good access to Astral, Water & Fire, with some Earth and Air, and even a chance at blood thrown in. None of your heretic mages will be death dealers, but you can quickly build a group that is the equivalent of a rainbow mage for site searching.

As for late game... well, you are kind of out-classed here by many other nations. But if you empower/boost your mages intelligently, you can get access to most of the late game stuff. You still have Theurgs, though they a bit weak, but can be boosted to eventually make rings of Wizardy/Sorcery. And you have great nature mages in the Serpent Priests, who can easily be boosted to cast the mid-late game globals.

I know this is kind a scatter-shoot post. I apologize that is is not more organized. Just my play style on LA Pythium.

[Coldshard]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help!