Dealing with Hydras

[Saxon]

Skelly spam is quite effective, but numbers are needed. As one poster stated, don't be skimpy on your mages.

In MA, just tons of undead will eventually wear them down, but it is an long, ugly battle. If you don't have enough missle units, they will use up their ammo and then charge into battle. It keeps your mages safe another turn, but is not ideal...

Thanks for the other ideas, I seem to have a hydra infestation and your tips will help!

[Natpy]

Rage spaming. Its may be very effectiv

[MaxWilson]

Umbrals + Iron Warriors is probably worth a shot, if you've got the research and the gems. Use them as blockers while your mages spam them with (Terror/Blade Wind/Skelly spam/whatever you have researched). Shooting from the hip, I'd say 10 umbrals with Iron Warriors up should be able to whip 40 hydras, perhaps even without any mage backup. Of course I could be radically underestimating--I'll simulate this battle later.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

I tried the Iron Warrior + Umbral counter at home. It worked just dandy, up to a point. I used 1 Attendant of the Dead and had him hold for five rounds, then attack large monsters. 13 umbrals were his guards. 4 Ktonian necromancers cast Summon Earthpower, Iron Warriors x4, and all of the umbrals got nicely covered. The hydras could hardly scratch the umbrals, although the Attendant died pretty quick (doesn't matter, he was just a mechanism for holding umbrals in place long enough to be buffed). And then... all the umbrals ran away, and my necromancers died.

Turns out hydras have Fear +0. Ah, well. Scratch one possible counter.

-Max

Edit: by the way, when I replayed the battle after modding umbral morale up to 99, they wiped the floor with the hydras. 40 dead hydras, no dead umbrals, although most of the umbrals had picked up a couple of afflictions. It's the fear, and nothing else, which saved the hydras.

[Randvek]

That's a bit of a poor test. What spell casters were backing up the Hydras?

[MaxWilson]

None. The problem statement was 20-40 hydras, so I kept it simple.

-Max