Ah ha, a MA Pythium question...

[Ironhawk]

Bandar you can also use the Hydras as a "scorched earth" sort of attack. Buy like 5-8 of the small ones. Arrange them in a line on the battlefield with orders to Hold & Attack. Then have all the leadership flee the battle so that the hydras rout. The trick being that they still spew poison clouds as they rout so the enemy will walk right through it as they chase them.

Its a tricky tactic - you need to position the line and the timing of the rout just right based on the speed of the enemy army you are attacking.

[Wish]

they are great in the late game. play pyth with order and growth to make sure you get loads of cash, then give them to a mage with a serpent ring on, and enough gear to cast fog warriors. fog warrior hydras eat through everything.

also my second expansion army usually consists of 10 hydras and that hydra tamer guy you can recruit. put the hydras in groups of 5 up front and the commander in the back scripted to holdx5 and stay behind troops.

I've had this army eat up a knights of the chalice province (with heavy losses, but still.)

it cuts through lesser indes like a hot knife through butter.

[Yrkoon]

How about having a hydra tamer on holdx5 at the rear of the battlefield and hydras in front set to guard commander ? The hydra will retreat until they reach the tamer, leaving a trail of poison clouds in their wake. Enemy troops trying to catch them up will take damage without even reaching them for a few turns, them the hydras can shred whatever is left of the army.

Maybe not a great tactic against archers though. Unless they use up all their arrows, they won't follow the hydras.

[Wish]

that might work too, never tried it.

[Ironhawk]

Its basically the same as my suggestion above. The problem I see with it is that immediate retreat will cause thier poison clouds to dissipate before all by the fastest cavalry could reach them. You need to Hold for a little while to let the enemy catch up to you.

[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.