Hydra

House Shyeel has brought the power of its formidable myrmidons to the Retribution, fighting machines enhanced by sophisticated arcanika systems. The Hydra stores energy in its arcane batteries to unleash a torrent of crushing blows or a singularly powerful blast.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Field Dependent
• Template:Focus Battery
• Template:Force Fields
• Template:Kinetic Capacitor

Weapons

Force Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			12
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Focus-Powered
Force Fist (x2)
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				5				15
Template:Open Fist Template:Chain Attack Grab & Smash

Theme Forces

• Template:Defenders of Ios
• Template:Forges of War. Hydras gains Shield Guard in this theme.
• Template:Legions of Dawn. (1) In this theme Hydras can ignore friendly Dawnguard models when determining LOS, and it can advance through friendly Dawnguard models if it has enough movement to move completely past them. (2) If someone 'Jack Marshals Hydra in this theme, it gains Flank [Dawnguard].
• Template:Shadows of the Retribution

Thoughts on Hydra

Hydra in a nutshell

It's a heavy warjack with a decent gun, and when fully fuelled is the longest on any Retribution jack, lagging only behind an aiming Arcantrik Force Generator, but when fully buffed, nothing can beat the Hydra for ranged threat in faction (out of theme, it can threaten up to a non-linear 33" (marshal'd to a Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir, Righteous Vengeance, walk and range/movement buffs from the AFG and Ravyn's Snipe and Locomotion), however unlikely it may be!). The focus investment to get the gun working at full-tilt can be a little off-putting, but Focus Battery completely offsets that, even when jack marshal'd if you're smart with your playstyle.

The Hydra's okay in melee, but quite weak in terms of both MAT (average) and P+S (on the low end for what is a somewhat expensive non-character heavy) and will often struggle vs other heavies, but Chain Attack Grab & Smash has great tactical applications such as knocking down enemies or throwing them out of scenario zones.

Combos & Synergies

• In Forges of War it gains Shield Guard, which enables you to trigger Kinetic Capacitator.
• Ravyn, as Snipe is a great tool to give this guy some annoying range, her feat also works wonders with the Hydra.
• Have him activate first. If the Hydra gets its two first punches in then whatever he knocked down becomes open season. Regrettably, to do this the Hydra either has to boost all three attacks, or his target was so low DEF that most other attackers would have hit it without needing it to be knocked down... but at least when knocked down one need not worry about the Target in Melee to hit penalty.
• Lord Ossyan has a great set of spells to help out our one-headed Hydra. Fortune for re-rolls on super long shots against hard to hit solos, and Shatter Storm for taking out piled up groups of troops (heh I made a rhyme).
• Scything Touch with Elara2 is exactly what you need to make his melee not only decent but useful.
• Due to not losing focus each round, it's a good jack to marshal - load it up with focus in the first turn then hold on to it unless you need to boost. The extra attack and +2 damage in melee doesn't hurt either.
• Under Thyron, the Hydra becomes extremely mobile, Sidestep/Assail helping deliver it further and reaching more targets. Assail is especially good on marshalled Hydras, as the can charge for free and thus receive the crush order for extra attacks and damage.
• Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper: Phantom Hunter has a number of good target jacks, but few, if any, are better than the Hydra, which allows a threat of assassination throughout nearly the entire game if there is a pair of Hydras on the board. The amount of board space two can cover can be very off-putting, with or without AFG's present. Against Warmachine, as well, the Hydras can pull their weight in combat without needing to worry about their chances of hitting (Kae can tag a heavy (or three!) with her gun to let them wade in without regrets).
• Goreshade4 wants his jacks to camp their focus as much as possible for his Field Marshal. The Hydra is designed around this concept already.
• Falcir - Full Throttle with three MAT 7 initials is quite potent.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Well the sad truth of it is that there are better options. It can get long-range shots off and is focus efficient, but it only gets one shot. In melee its P+S is lackluster, and even Grab and Smash isn't much of a pro given the difficulty in triggering it without spending its entire Focus stack.
• RAT 5 makes the Hydra sad... meaning boosting to hit isn't an option, it's mandatory.
• Kinetic Capacitor is rarely relevant as when a clever enemy starts damaging the Hydra, they mean to destroy it (or at least remove its cortex)... yes, add all the focus... then take it all off again.
• So, by itself, it is good at is sniping out solos. That's a lot of points to waste on a solo-hunter.

Tricks & Tips

• Because of its Focus Battery ability:
  • Figure out what you need to cast on turn 1, and anything leftover allocate to the Hydra - there's (almost never) no point camping focus on turn 1.
  • If you have an Arcanist Mechanik with nothing better to do, use Empower on the Hydra (even if the Hydra has already activated).
• With the Kinetic Capacitor, you don't gain the focus until after the attack. So if the damage cripples either your Cortex or your Generator, you can't benefit.

Other

Trivia

• The Hydra is a reference (like most ret jacks) to a mythological monster. In this case the "Hydra" is referring to the three headed dragon beast that Hercules fought in his quests given to him by his father Zeus. The Hydra was a special monster as if it were to have one of its heads cut off two more would replace it making it one of the most famous Monsters in history. This likely relates to the Hydra's abilities Kinetic Capacitor and Force Battery: damage the Hydra and it simply builds its ability to strike back.
• Released in Forces of Warmachine: Retribution of Scyrah (Novermber 2009)