well, who am i to even compare with cheddar? :S
anyways, from what i can tell the mixed (hip-hop + usually some tox too) build is to allow u to get to heroic. yeah, it's more food intensive, but your army will live longer. an eggy player has to go spear-axe, atln has to go cheiro-kata-turma, and u will survive longer vs norse because u can micro cav onto tax and hops can defend ur tox a bit.
before, heroic was SO important that this wasn't recommended cuz u needed tcs. now though, you can grab an extra tc if u run out of pop space. that's why (i think) this is more viable now than before.
prodromos are more of a shock unit. i don't use them often unless i'm vs a HEAVY cav user (think odin jarls/rc). hoplites generally get the job done and can stand up better to other troops as well.
hypaspist though is a whole diff story. a must against the huskarl and eggy rax users.
pelt a must vs eggy. never use against norse. soso vs atln. good vs hades.
good matchups for zeus i dunno. none really, or none moreso than any others. i wouldn't say zeus has an implicit advantage over any civ. even going hop-tox against norse, norse have an equal strength in that they can raid like heck and the hop-tox army is fairly immobile. not that zeus can't beat norse, just that hop-tox doesn't guarantee victory by any stretch of the imagination.
bad matchups... anyone except hades, on water! set used to be a really bad matchup, moreso than for other civs. probably not that way now though. i find isis *can* be manageable at my level vs equally skilled players. i like to fh and get hyp-pelt-hero-myth. a good rc spammer is still strong vs zeus as well. i wouldn't say there's anyone i cringe at playing right now, as long as the player is equal skill. i only cringe when i see medit.
i agree that the nemean lion would be nice, and aphro in general. i've done this to death in past posts though. no point in dredging this up. es won't change it, i think they messed the minor gods up from day 1 contributing to why greeks are not as strong as other cultures. it's my opinion and don't give a crap what anyone thinks.
here are a list of strats for zeus that i keep in my arsenal. it's nice that zeus has good flexibility:
hermes-dionysus
-spirited charge cav raid. the gist of this one is to skip hand axe, go a bit heavy on food during classical adv. u *may* need 2 on favour during adv, but don't know now that the fav cost was seriously reduced. lay down 3 stables upon advancing. the first one u train spirited charge. the other 2 pump hips. once spirited charge is done start training medium upgrade. then work on armory ups. the key is not to fight head on (so don't try it vs someone who may rush or whatever) and to upgrade ur units so they can raid better without dying. proceed to heroic when possible and continue to raid getting dionysus ups as well. this is a raid, raid, raid strat and is situation-dependent but can be good.
hermes-apollo
-centaur-counter-econ strat. i posted a big write-up on this awhile back. hermes-apollo-hephaestus. focus on getting winged msgr, sylvan lore, sun ray, oracle, temple of healing. the key is to hurt the opp's econ real bad with a pack of 2-5 cents. use wingedmsgr-oracle pegasi to find enemy econ. use sylvan lore-sunray cents to get in get out kill a few. use temple of healing to heal back to full health.
athena-dionysus
-infantry boom. basically, get econ upgrades in archaic and do a normal boom. use infantry to hold off raids. build up a solid hop-tox army. get unit and armory upgrades. make sarissa and aegis shield a priority. in heroic add hyps and bacchanalia for hps on ur infantry. in mythic add myrms and heph techs. try and hold ur tcs and side of the map until u have everything in place to launch an attack. this is my favourite way to play. not really much of a strat here, but it's fun.
athena-apollo
-anti-eggy strat basically. focus on fhing and going hyp-pelt. add aegis shield and sunray asap. believe it or not there is an offensive use of uwp that can be good vs eggy. have ur scout find a gold mine that isn't totally defended. transport ur army there *after* u have a fight where u win. that will put a big hurt on and can win u the game.
those are the general ways i play zeus. of course u can add in fast mythic for team games. as for specific builds, the one ched gave is, naturally, really good. i don't really have a specific one anymore. can go anywhere from:
7 f
3 w
3 g
x f
to
5 f
4 w
2 g
2 f
1 g
x f
the first is faster adv more food. the second is normal adv more wood.
just depends what u want to do.
fh