I suck with Pythium ... please help!

[Endoperez]

Emerald guards are good, but expensive. I personally prefer Principes (atleast with Broken Empire Ermor). Fast, have javelin, still good morale, att and defence, good prot for move-2 unit, considerably cheaper...

And as Ermor, even Broken Empire, lances are only a loss of a longdead.

Emerald Guards are excellent when they can be used: that is, when speed isn't needed but you need someone tough on the frontline. Most people in this forum seem to prefer not use frontline at all, but few SCs, and some summons might be more cost effective, but Emerald Guards are very good at what they do.

[BigDaddy]

Right, I use the emerald guard strategy i outlined to take hordes of provinces early. Drive to another good castle site and repeat once or twice. You'll easily have the most provinces. Often you can have 40 or more by turn 30. That kind of income is a huge boost to research, and you get tons gems with AR. Speed is not neccessary, because you are just taking one province and the next, etc.

[T77]

EGs are good against tough independents, like Knights. I find that Principes take heavy casualties against Knights. So early on I build EGs and then I switch to Principes once I've cleared out my area. Then I just use the existing EGs as garrisons.