sauromantia

[Baalz]

Hydras most certainly have a niche role. 250 gold is a lot if you plan on losing them while raiding PD, but 500 gold might be a cheap price to pay for major confrontations if it, say completely blunts 2000 gold worth of elephants, or holds a large uber sacred force for an extra couple critical turn (not unreasonable if combined with skellispam) while the poison damage mounts up. The gold cost is particularly relative when you consider that its not uncommon to be resource constrained as a nasty army is threatening your capital and you need to recruit troops fast.

Of course, as I mentioned I don't generally use them too much with Sauromatia, but I can certainly imagine situations where I would.

[K]

Hydras can be brutal if combined with spammed undead. The Poison Cloud aura doesn't hurt the undead, and they hold off attackers long enough that they get poisoned for several turns and soon die.

Marble Warriors are also ideal with Hydra support.

[BigDaddy]

I read the baalz part on the first page... Baalz, Baalz, Baalz... What were you thinking. I couldn't even finish reading your guide. They use hydras and should take heat scales at least a little unless they are absolutely maxing out gold (which, of course, can be quite useful).

Not that I've ever had a problem with hydras passing out, but, on the other hand, I always take the easily justifiable 40 points!

Unless you're 2player vs. Abysia (or similar matchup) I wouldn't take cold. Hydras should come in behind other stuff... the stuff will die, of course, but will keep teh hyrdas alive longer. Just a little Hydra guide... You can even have them retreat then (via commander retreat).

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by BigDaddy

I read the baalz part on the first page... Baalz, Baalz, Baalz... What were you thinking. I couldn't even finish reading your guide. They use hydras and should take heat scales at least a little unless they are absolutely maxing out gold (which, of course, can be quite useful).

Not that I've ever had a problem with hydras passing out, but, on the other hand, I always take the easily justifiable 40 points!

Unless you're 2player vs. Abysia (or similar matchup) I wouldn't take cold.

...

Hydrae are awful. At 250 gold nonsacred, every one is worse than buying another witch king in terms of upkeep, and give you a lot less value for that gold. I would never buy a hydra unless I was planning on getting it killed in a turn or two.

Androphag archers and cavalry are the worthwhile troop choices for building an army.

[BigDaddy]

You can use crossbreeds in large enough numbers to "cast" poison cloud on large armies, especially useful for merely defending unimportant provinces.

Squirrellord: As much as I respect that opinion, dragging a players large army through a poison cloud as the chase down retreating crossbreeds is very cheap, often even if you lose the hydras. =BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOSE THE HYDRAS!=

The small ones are more useful and harder to target.

I was always disappointed by them too, but I found something specific they worked against... Abysia?

[Trumanator]

Hydras are good against Eles and SCs, possibly some sacreds. You build them as a counter, not as a general unit.

[Belac]

I am fighting a war against Sauro in one game (Mooseknight), and nothing made me happier than when my opponent ran out of money for more hydras. A couple hydras plus high PD plus a few skelspammers was enough to require me to commit whole armies of mine (admittedly, I am agartha and using national units), and combined with any other Sauro force was enough to defeat me as the hydras+skelspam held my forces up while the PD archers slaughtered me.

It stopped working once I was able to get enough elementals+umbrals, but for early research and secondary fronts (send a few hydras on a raid, drop some PD in their province and attack the next--it takes disproportionate force to defeat them, and either you face them+PD or just the PD, which weakens your force for when you do catch up. That's not terribly gold-cheap, but it's cheap on everything else and seriously draws enemy resources away from the battlefront) it was awful.

[BigDaddy]

Some people get really upset when certain type of units, especially expensive ones, die. But, if you get 10knights to die from running through the poison of 2-3 little hydras, you probably did just fine.

[Squirrelloid]

Hydrae, like elephants, are actually pretty easy to counter, assuming you're playing a nation that isn't totally crippled. (So Belac's EA Agartha has plenty of excuse to hate the hydrae).

Agree with Trumanator - you build them to counter specific units (and then preferably get them killed as soon as they're no longer useful).