A Poisoner's Guide to LA Pythium

[MaxWilson]

Raiel said:
If I'm not mistaken, all non-unique Air boosters are either A4, F4W4, or S6. Those are all pretty expensive for arrow fend. So it seems like a pretender, nature summon or indy are your only options. What am I missing? (I love the idea of protecting my hydras' hides from the pesky, pinpricks of piddling archers, but...)

I don't know about boosters, but Arrow Fend is A3, 100 fatigue. It seems logical to throw together a 3-man Communion and burn an extra Air Gem. 2 slaves, 1 master with A1, boosts the master to A2 whereupon you can cast Arrow Fend. A staff of storms would be better (one A1 mage can cast Summon Storm Power to boost himself to A2 without a communion, plus Storms also impair missile fire automatically) but requires A4 to forge, which you've sort of ruled out already. However, it WOULD let you boost all of your Air mages. Combine the two approaches and you can have A3 without burning any gems, which means Thunderstrike is castable.

-Max

[Lingchih]

Thanks much Ironhawk. I had considered PM'ing you about writing a guide such as this, since I am playing LA Pythium in two MP games right now, but did not want to impose on your time. This totally eclipses the little scatter-shot guide that I had written.

I differ with you on pretender choice... I still think an awake PoD gives you better early expansion... two, then three indy annihilation forces with your second group of hydras, but agree on all other points.

I had not realized the milite were so good, instead spending my valuable resources on elites. I will correct that in the future.

I also don't take the misfortune 3. I have been burned by it in another game, and won't use it again in MP. The chance of early tragedy is small, but if it happens, you are screwed. I take misfortune 2 instead.

[Aezeal]

Well.. I'm wondering..

As you all know (or not) I've developed a praticular hate for triple blessed jaguar warriors (fire/water/astral all 9) I wonder how hydra's stand up to them.. (I think pretty bad) then I wonder how triple blesses (well against mictlan you don't even really need the air bless) hydra's do against them

I would think the triple blessed hydra's would end up being SC killers/SC (at least thugs) themselves and might keep up being viable till late game when your research allows you more buffs.

The different heads protect from some damage-kill spells I'd think (gift from heaven) so main problem would be real one-shot kill spells

[Ylvali]

I tested some blessings. Most sucessful so far is, surprisingly, Air 6 astral 10. Protects agains arrows and cavalry charges as well as giving them MR 18, Which would be great in late game. Also a very useful pretender.

I tried fire thinking it would work well with all those heads, but it seems to even out because they lose their heads faster. F9 S9 could work but is hard to afford.

Water meakes them quick but also tired, and they still lose heads quickly which kind of ruins the extra attacks(like with fire)

Earth 9 didn´t do much for them but earth 4 could be worth it.

S9, D9 makes them fantastic SC killers. All those AN attacks with raised affliction chance. Would also make a great late game pretender. Hard to afford though.

I think my final choice would be: A5S9E4, A6S10 or S9D9

Edit: I´d like to add that fairy queens are great hydra buffers. They can:

Cast wind guide and later on fog warriors out of the box. Fog warriors is awesome with regeneration.
Heal your hydras afflictions, which could actually be worthwhile sometimes.
Easily be deployed through both flight and cloud trapeze.
Refill your ranks with wine ogres (or fairys if you don´have a lab there, those can fly to the rear and annoy archers so your hydras dont get shot at)

[Aezeal]

why do they loose their heads faster? I don't get that part.

I don't see the astral part as that useful except for the MR.. their heads would protect them from cavalry anyway..

on a rainbow mage would A4E4F9W9 be nice?

[Wrana]

You lose heads faster because you don't have protective (Air) bless. And if I understand author correctly he recommends sooner multiple-4 blesses than 9s.
On the other note - and what to do with large undead armies which are bane of LA? Except "banish-banish-banish"?

[Aezeal]

the hih bless of water and fire seem the effective part for the hydra.

I tried getting A4 E4 together with that but... you need to go VERY negative in dominion scales... since I don't like death or magic negative I don't go there..
A 4 is only 20 % air shield so not that nice either

I'm trying just W9F9 now (I think that would kill undead fast too )

[Ironhawk]

Ylvali said:
I tested some blessings. Most sucessful so far is, surprisingly, Air 6 astral 10. Protects agains arrows and cavalry charges as well as giving them MR 18, Which would be great in late game. Also a very useful pretender.

The testing which I did before writing the guide revealed the same kinds of results. Hydra's are so strong that they really dont benefit from any of the traditionally strong blesses like W/F. I am surprised tho that you would even consider Astral bless tho - the heads of the Hydra are basically the same effect as Twist Fate so its a lot of points wasted IMO.

The bless that I ended up using in my game was A4/W4/E4 and I found it surprisingly powerful and nicely cheap! Particular when the Hydras were accompained by a good pois-res army and, later in the game, buffed somewhat.

[Aezeal]

I think F/W might indeed be too much.. but just F9 makes it stronger late age, magic weapon, better against SC and just general high defense troops.

A 4 seems.. well weakish.. of course it's nearly free but why settle for 20% airshield when arrows are your main point of weakness
(and in my test game.. they are tehy really are.. not to mention the fact that the mages tend to die on stray arrows as well.)
I think that .. if you decide to really focus on hydra a good bless can be worth it.. and I think it's either A7-8-9
with F9 or W9 (W9 stronger against masses of chaff and F 9 stronger against stronger opponents --> I think W9 is less needed.. even 4 hydra's close together do indeed kill a lot of what is in front of them.. I think a lot of attacks will be wasted) and if possible (but that is hard the E4)

The mages will benefit from this too.

I wanted to buff my hyrda's (body ethereal) ASAP but it's hard doing it right.. the mage always buffs himself first and then one hydra and after that the hydra's are gone... so you need more mages, which makes the investment a lil annnoying on your research..

I'm gonna try 1 mage, 2 hydra armies trying to get them both ethreal and see fi they remain killers..

in my test SP game I was hit hard by my mighty neighbour after I decided to war him .. tien chi with it's horsearchers is pretty annoying w/o air bless...

I'll try again soon

[Ironhawk]

A4 wasnt entirely for the bless, that was just a bonus side effect. The intent of A4 was access to air boosters for Arrow Fend, Staves of Storms, and eventual summoning of air queens.

Its your call to try a F9 bless, but IMO you will find the results very disappointing in the late game. The correct way to counter SCs is to build your own or use mages. If you try a W9 bless you will need an earth bless to balance out your fatigue.

You have to keep in mind what you are losing when you tries these high blesses tho. How will you fund your Hydras with the bad scales you need to take for a high bless - they cost a fortune! Plus, how will you build your regular armies without Production? Where will your earth magic come from to build Hammers?