# War Hydras



## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

As a Dark Elf player myself, I know the proper damage that a War Hydra can do. With T5, 4+ armor and Regeneration, it's one of the tougher monsters to kill out there, with 7A, a breath weapon, 6 Beastmaster attacks and Thunderstomp, it's a unit blender. And at 175 points, you can rely on it not being that big of a deal to lose, as long as it makes a splash. So, how do some of you deal with these five-headed monstrosities? Ideally, you'd want to use something that doesn't get a good portion of a unit eaten, or that distracts a big combat block from the Cold One Knight or Black-Guard units that might be coming your way.

Personally, I'm afraid of Dwarven flaming Cannons, and high-strength units with the flaming banner. When I played my High Elf friend, since I was a big part of the metagame with my scary Hydras, he'd put the flaming banner on a high-strength unit. White Lions and Swordmasters come to mind. The trick is to get them into contact with the Hydra. Bolt Throwers can do decently if they get through the regen, but they're a lesser threat. Any ideas from the rest of Heresy?


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## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

You're right on many accounts.
4+/4+ save.
Terror causing,
breath weapon
dump trucks of attacks

It's a real monster.
When you consider it's one of the best values out there, it becomes a 'no brainer' in many lists.

As a beastman player, If i KNEW I was running against it, I would try this

A doombull/ gorebull solo with the dragon helm and asf sword. Can't be thunderstomped, 2+ ward vs your fire, not bad. Plus good all around.

My main unit: Beast lord w/ blackened plate and flaming banner on Bestigors. 2+ ward vs fire on BL, 4+ on the unit, str 6 flaming attacks on the hydra means you shouldn't last more than one-2 rounds top, with minimal effect to me.

In magic phase? Ruby ring of ruin + Lore of beasts for "amber spear' with the hag-tree fetish (allows re-rolls on to wounds) Hit you with the ruby ring for flaming, take off regen, then huck the spear.

Maybe even toss some chariots your way just to hold you up.

Even causing a wound before you get your flaming attack helps a lot. S4 flaming is far less devastating than s5. Hell, I'd be overjoyed with s3, but that's asking a lot.

Do impact hits from doombull/mino or chariot get resolved before in combat shooting? Seems like it would...but don't know


How do you run your hydras? Are they there to support main blocks? Flankers? I'm dying to know as I'm getting m DE army off the ground.

I just got the 'rusted heroes' hydra in, 
http://images.frpgames.com/products/product_72547.jpg
I'm pretty excited to use the guy 
(I cannot stand the GW hydra)


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## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

As an empire Player i would just cannon ball it, sure you get regen, but you are bound to fail at least one hit from 3 cannons. (Providing they dont misfire!)


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

1. Impact hits go before anything else. Breath weapon goes at initiative.

2. There's lots of ways to run Hydras. I usually stack mine on a flank after deployment, and have them hunt targets of opportunity like shooting units, or squishy blocks of infantry without high strength. If I face an enemy deathstar, they're flanking elements for my Cold One Knight bus, and combined, they can basically fuck everything. Not much lives to all those S5/S6 attacks. And, if I keep the CoK's just a bit back, they focus more on the Hydras than the CoK's, who cost more than both Hydras.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Panic... its my main weapon against hydras. Although it has lost some of its effectiveness from 7th.

I used to enjoy firing flaming skulls through the handlers and watching as they eitehr died and caused monster reactions, or just caused a panic check after taking a wound... sadly that can't be done anymore. What I can do is to use braingobbler from my ogres to cause panic checks or just target units close by the hydras (small flanking units are a nice target). Since hydras are often used as flankers they are rarely close by the general/BSB, and Ld8 is really not that good.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

Tim/Steve said:


> Panic... its my main weapon against hydras. Although it has lost some of its effectiveness from 7th.
> 
> I used to enjoy firing flaming skulls through the handlers and watching as they eitehr died and caused monster reactions, or just caused a panic check after taking a wound... sadly that can't be done anymore. What I can do is to use braingobbler from my ogres to cause panic checks or just target units close by the hydras (small flanking units are a nice target). Since hydras are often used as flankers they are rarely close by the general/BSB, and Ld8 is really not that good.


Hmm, it's a possible counter. How about if they're being used as support elements for a CoK bus? That unit almost always has the Dreadlord in there.


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## Infekted (Jun 13, 2011)

Damn repeater crossbow throwers on top of an Anvil of Vaul made a right mess of my hydras in one game.
It wouldn't normally be a problem, except we rolled two of the damn things for the game and my opponent got to place to the first bit and won first deployment... Was pretty bad luck.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

Yeah, that's more luck than anything else. You can't rely on getting an Anvil of Vaul every game.


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## Majere613 (Oct 14, 2008)

Every time I've killed my mate's War Hydra with my WoC, it's been a maxxed out Fireball that's done it. 3D6 S4 Flaming Attacks usually does the trick in a cast or two. I usually also take a unit of Chaos Knights led by an Exalted Champion with a Chaos Runesword and add the Banner of Eternal Flame, which is death for most big regenerating nasties.

The emergency option is to tank it with a big block of sword n' board Warriors with the MoT for a 5+ Parry, and then cast Flaming Sword of Rhuin on them to give the +1 to Wound and Flaming Attacks. Not ideal (casualties are expensive) but soon results in dead gribblies.

TBH, I find 90% of scary things in 8th can be seen off by judicious application of the Lore of Fire. Fireball is just so versatile


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## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

Majere613 said:


> Every time I've killed my mate's War Hydra with my WoC, it's been a maxxed out Fireball that's done it. 3D6 S4 Flaming Attacks usually does the trick in a cast or two. I usually also take a unit of Chaos Knights led by an Exalted Champion with a Chaos Runesword and add the Banner of Eternal Flame, which is death for most big regenerating nasties.


I thought that magic weapons don't benefit from Flaming banners?
Or is the Runesword some sort of flaming attack.

Also, flickering fire of tzeentch. Easy spell that most people take anyways.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

In my current WE army I think I've got hydras covered (although all the DE armies seem to have disappeared lately... use to be that I played more DE then any other army, but havent seen them in a while).

I've got the banner of eternal flame on one of my glade guard units to counter regen in general (and once the hydra walks to within 20" I can move my unit to get into short range and have 10 shots hitting on 3+ wounding on 5+ with only a 5+AS to stop them)... that should easily cause a wound. Then I have 2 more units of archers to pepper the hydra a little more once its regen is down for the turn. Either stand and shoot against its charge or flee and shooting by the other 2 units should take it out in the next turn...

Then again that is just one of the ways I have of dealing with with the hydra, my treeman would smack the puny hydra around quite easily (might take a few turns) and my spellweaver's amber spear could 1 shot it (S10 D6 wounds with only a regen save getting in the way...


Overall I think I'm ok against hydras... but rxbs might be another issue, though they would often have a lot of -ves to hit (long range, skirmisher, multiple shot and maybe movement and cover)...


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## Infekted (Jun 13, 2011)

Thing about Hydras, is that they are so cheap, that even if you take one out in the first turn, and the other one out in the second. It's still points well spent on forcing your opponent to focus all their magic/shooting on them instead of the rest of the DE army. Which is much more squishy.
And if you ignore them... World of hurt.
Even as a DE player, I think they are too cheap for what they can do. 275 sounds much more reasonable.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Yep, hydras are well worth their points... they aren't massively hard to counter, but they are so cheap that almost any counter is disproportionate in points cost. Meanwhile ignoring them lets them run amok through your army. 7 S5 hatred attacks, 2D6 S5 breath hits, D6 S5 thunderstomps plus the handlers attacks mean they can make a huge dent in most infantry blocks....against 'men' thats an average of 17 wounds in 1 phase if the hydra can use its breath at full strength.

This is why I like to take them down early with magic/shooting, and if I do get into combat like it to be with T6 monsters (wouldn't say no to a T8 sphinx)... very few infantry units will be able to take on a hydra and not suffer huge amounts of damage (HEs with their ASF is just about my only thought).


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## Majere613 (Oct 14, 2008)

blackspine said:


> I thought that magic weapons don't benefit from Flaming banners?
> Or is the Runesword some sort of flaming attack.
> 
> Also, flickering fire of tzeentch. Easy spell that most people take anyways.


Sorry for minor thread archeology here 
AFAIK, the Banner simply gives every model in the unit carrying it the Flaming Attacks rule, with no distinction made that I can find between magic weapons and normal ones. (If it didn't work on magic weapons, it'd be a bit useless for a unit of Chaos Knights unless they went with lances)

I've never had much luck with Flickering Fire, even in my Skull of Katam army that has 5 or so sorcerers casting it on 3+. I always seem to get duff S, or 2 hits that fail to wound.

To add something new BTW- a Chaos Lord with the Hellfire Sword is the fer-de-lance of regenerating beastie slayers. Not only is it Flaming, but each wounding hit inflicts D3+1 wounds. Add Potion of Strength for extra effect


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