[Corinthian]

You're right Baalz, there is much more to LA Pythium than I imagined. Though I would design my pretender quite different from you. I have never seen the appeal of a Forge Lord.

After experimenting in CBM 1.6 a bit, I found two pretender builds that I like.

The scale build sphinx: There is few nations that benefits as much from a scale build than LA Pythium. Not only because they require huge amounts of gold for their hydras. But also because the pythian capitol starts with the Great City fortress. And in Dominions, all money multipliers multiply each other!

Let me break down the math for you: A capitol starts with 30k pop. That translates roughly into a 300 gold income. 300 (base) * 1.21 (order) * 1.09 (prod) * 1.09 (growth) * 1.30 (Great City) = 560 gold/turn from the capitol alone! Remember that you can always over-tax this amount and that your income will grow over time thanks to the growth scales.

Depending on whether or not you want some magic on your pretender (starts with E1S3) you could choose between asleep or imprisoned. Another option is to choose magic 3 scales. Your cheap but weak researchers will benefit from more this than other nations would.



The other pretender build I like is the Imprisoned Mother of Rivers with a W9 bless. This build also allows for decent scales. Although the fact that you miss out on her "flood of water gems" special ability is a waste.
The water 9 bless is pretty much the only bless that is not overpriced on a hydra. Improving their abysmal speed? Check! Strike two different squares in one round? Check! Improve their defense in melee and thus improve their offence? Check!
This bless also work well enough to warrant buying Serpent Catapracts and maybe also Sirruses.
Serpent Catapracts might not seem like a good unit but remember that you get four and some, for the cost of one hydra. Also, they have a second shape with 28hp and prot 17 witch makes them very survivable in the big battles. Thats 40 hp on a cavalry unit!


The only thing i cant figure out is what to do in mid game. Even if your researchers are cost efficient, they are also very slow and even if you build one in every castle you will be behind in research in the early game. This in combination with pythiums rather lackluster battle mages and lack of recruitable thug chassis, make for a miserable mid game.