LA Pythium

[Digress]

hydras for fast early game, possibly elephant counter (I'm not sure if they're size6)

They literally eat elephants for breakfast. Every head hits (with poison) - and if the elephants gang up on the hydra and actually hit the worst they will do is knock a lesser head off. Then there is the fear ....

[Randvek]

I've been using hydras with a strong fire bless in MP, and what you can take with only 4 hydras is truly disgusting.

[Sombre]

I'm not convinced Hydras even need a bless (they don't seem to get much from any of them). Then again Pythium is well suited to bad scales because it can control its own dominion using heretics. You could take drain and install all your researchers in a heretic heavy province, where it won't affect them.