Pythium (MA) strategy

[Torin]

Never forget the non-mage communicants that have auto communion slave. If an arch theurg has the crystal matrix that auto casts communion mater, then you don´t loose a turn and the first thing you do could be a really powerful spell like master enslave.
PD is probably the best I´ve seen with tower shields and javelins. MA Ulm is ok too.
Magic 3 is really good to race to the cool spells. expand quickly and build additional forts to feed the communions as they are more important than armies.
Maybe it would be a good idea to pick mother of the rivers with added nature to forge clams. to feed astral pearls and summon angels as raiders.
all in all if you survive the early game surely you are a gifted nation.

[ano]

MA Pythium, like MA Man obviously needs two things from a bless. First is regeneration for old archtheurgs (those diseased ones may be sent to battle and have a very long life healing using the bless regeneration or just being given Shroud of the Battle Saint and left home), second is reinvigoration for sacred battlemages and communicants. Second is not necessary but very good. So, I think that a very good pretender for them would be a dormant combat pretender with N4E4, probably the Earth Mother. This build as well as in the case with MA Man aims several targets at once: decent combat pretender, good bless suiting the needs and access to earth and nature.
I don't like the idea of forging clams with pretender without a forge bonus. It is just not worth the price, especially comparing to the benefits you can get otherwise.

[sector24]

I think Sloth is ok with MA Pythium because your focus is on communions, not heavy infantry. At some point your national troops are all chaff, so hire as many as you can in the early game but focus on building castles to recruit more mages. Sloth 3 might be too much, but you could probably do well with 1 or 2. Depends on your playstyle.

[Aezeal]

hmm if possible could someone answer all my other questions too... so I can have a complete view of what each of you think is the best way to play pythium?

I can see the benefit of a E4N4 pretender as in ano's advice.. both for diversity and the minor bless

But to cast angelic host you need about S5 to cast it decently (+ the easy accessable skullcap and coin)
wouldn't it be best to have that (and the 2F) on my pretender?
How else should I cast it.

I think the research of pythium is decent.. do I need magic scales to increase it or should I leave that neutral?

My other most pressing questions:
1. which troops to use for early expansion?
2. which commander to start recruiting first 10-20 turns? the arch-theurg or the theurg? an archtheurg means no troops that turn...

[ano]

You will have many ArchTheurgs with S4. Add a skullcap and get S5 for Angelic Host. As for Heavenly Choir, it requires S7F2. If you are lucky enough (as Jazzepi counted in a neighbor thread about MA Man, the probability is about 1,25%) to get an ArchTheurg with S4F1, then use ring of wizardry, skullcap and crystal coin (you will probably have access to all by that time). If not, add some unique astral booster like dimensional rod. You may also aim to cast Wish instead of Heavenly Choir using a S5 ArchTheurg.

[ano]

As for magic scales, I know rather little amount of situations when neutral or drain scales should be taken. I think that it is almost always better to sacrifice something else and take at least magic 1. Pythium has not bad research overall..
As for the questions.
1. I can't tell you what the exact steps in the early game you should follow, because I didn't experiment with Pythium much, but your troops are very good against indies. Recruit alae legionnaires, put them to the bottom on "fire closest" and add two or three replaceable arrow catcher units for each fight. This is a very good army for early expansion, especially with prophet, certainly.
2. Well, the answer depends on what you're trying to reach. Early research is important if you are aiming for something early. For example this may be Const for items or Alt for boosters on SC. It is true for any race and any game. So if you don't need early rapid research, then you don't need ArchTheurgs in early turns. And (it may sound blasphemous) may be you don't need mages at early turns at all, depending on situation. Having no mages at 2-3 turns and a fast expansion with second castle may appear a better benefit then early research. I suggest you to try a build I've proposed for Man here http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...&sb=5&o=&vc=1. However, this build definitely needs research as you need reinvigoration on your Earth mother if you want to use her as a good fighter. If you don't rely on her as soon as she awakes, you may search sites for some turns. Everything depends on situation, as I already mentioned.

[Shovah32]

Being a fan of the cyclops, I would suggest him for your pretender.
Dormant, E6N4 and dom5.
Order 3, Misfortune 2, Magic 1 and either Growth 2 or Prod 1 Growth 1(or Dom6 Growth 1).

Research personal regeneration before he gets out and he should kick several kinds of ***. Some minor items, particularly boots of the behemoth, will help him. Getting summon earthpower is also reccomended.

With a crystal matrix, if you can get one, he can also help your communions. With spells like bladewind, creeping doom, panic and living earth all getting boosted by high levels. The high level buffs, like mass regeneration, relief, army of gold/lead and gaias blessing are also avaliable to him. And summon earthpower/invunerability give your communions alot more staying power(with your bless, thats 7 reinvigoration. Add relief to that and they can keep going for a long time).

[BDOC]

What are these ANGELS??? harbinger angels? how do you kill them?