A Poisoner's Guide to LA Pythium

[Endoperez]

I think the weapons with two attacks are labeled as "lesser heads", and once the hydra goes down one size that becomes "lesser head". Note the loss of plural. So they have 5 weapons, 4 of which consist of two heads. Confused yet?

[Aezeal]

if you give the hydra's a fire 9 bless, will all 9 attacks be stronger and better vs armour, and be magical?

If that is so I'm really gonn see what a triple blessed hydra army can do (I'm thinking air/fire/water, with fire and water certainly at 9, air could be lower)

I'm reasonably certain it's been tried so I'd like to hear what happens... later you could buff them a bit too "(it seems to me every buff would work well with them).. since they already have regen it seems they would be very strong.

tell me plz

[Endoperez]

Aezeal said:
if you give the hydra's a fire 9 bless, will all 9 attacks be stronger and better vs armour, and be magical?

Fire 9 certainly works better with Flagellants and such, whose weapons have multiple attacks, and units who have multiple weapons, so combining the two should be pretty devastating.

[Ironhawk]

Aezeal said:
if you give the hydra's a fire 9 bless, will all 9 attacks be stronger and better vs armour, and be magical?

If that is so I'm really gonn see what a triple blessed hydra army can do (I'm thinking air/fire/water, with fire and water certainly at 9, air could be lower)

No thats not how the Fire bless attack works. Its an extra attack that is, I believe, 9AP fire damage rather than a bonus applied to each attack the unit currently has. So since the Hydra already has 9 attacks, adding another one isnt really that much of a boost.

About triple blessing the Hydras: as I point out in the guide, its not particularly efficient to do so. The Hydras are already so strong that you can get almost the same amount of mileage out of them with a light bless as you can with a strong one. I know its not intuitive but think about it for a sec...

edit..
I bungled like every bless effect here so ignore this post. Read on for a discussion thereof...
edit

[quantum_mechani]

Ironhawk said:

No thats not how the Fire bless attack works. Its an extra attack that is, I believe, 9AP fire damage rather than a bonus applied to each attack the unit currently has. So since the Hydra already has 9 attacks, adding another one isnt really that much of a boost.

It's applied to each attack. That's why jagaur warriors are so deadly.

[Endoperez]

I think you're wrong there Ironhawk, on both Fire and Water blesses.

Flagellants, Warriors of the Five Elements, Vanir etc etc are all blessed, and I've always heard mentions of how multiple attacks make Fire 9 that much more powerful, and half-joking comments about the deadly flaming hooves. It's 6 points of AP fire damage in addition to each attack's normal damage AFAIK. It's like #specialeffect mod command.

In one action, one unit may target one square. All 9 attacks of a hydra would be directed at units in this square. Quickness gives another action, and thus another square to target. So W9 would give you double the killing power than the hydras would otherwise have.

[Ironhawk]

Whoa you cant be serious about the fire bless! I could have sworn I remember extensive threads on the subject and then like KO or JK weighing in and saying that it was a bonus attack, like hooves. Has my memory just completely gone? Am I senile now?

Yeah are definitely right about the water bless tho - not sure how I fumbled that one. Regardless, I do stand beside my recommendation not to use high blesses. Whether or not I remember them right, I ran tests with high blesses and I was unimpressed with the added performance given thier cost.

[sector24]

Fantastic guide, Ironhawk. There are some very interesting strategies in there I didn't consider leveraging. Almost makes me want to play LA Pythium again...almost.

[MaxWilson]

Ironhawk,

I remember that thread about F9 bless too. I remember being surprised that hooves apparently *don't* get the flaming bonus because they're not the primary weapon. (This has huge implications for jaguar warriors--it may be the case that a F6 bless is almost as good as F9, and a lot cheaper.) After this thread I'm not sure what to think, so as soon as I get home I'm going to mod myself a sacred unit with St 0 and send it against another unit with Prot 6 and 100% Fire Vulnerability. If fire bless effects primary and secondary attacks, the damage should roughly double when I add a secondary weapon (because the non-fire damage will be almost 0).

I'll report back when I have evidence.

-Max

[Raiel]

Love the guide, Ironhawk! Just one question...

'Next you should research Arrow Fend and find a mage who can cast it in order to protect said Hydras. If you havent found one from a site, research Const 4 and build a booster for one of your air Theurgs. '

If I'm not mistaken, all non-unique Air boosters are either A4, F4W4, or S6. Those are all pretty expensive for arrow fend. So it seems like a pretender, nature summon or indy are your only options. What am I missing? (I love the idea of protecting my hydras' hides from the pesky, pinpricks of piddling archers, but...)

Also, I think natpy and Endo are correct... there are nine forms for the hydra, so the combined HP total should be 88 (40 + (8x6)). This only underscores your original assertation of toughness, though.