Hydras Rule Neptunes Drool

[contributor]

In ST there is always a sort of competition going on between the clans and their various advocates. TA seems to be lacking that, but here we go...

A few scared Neptunes hiding behind the awesome firewall projected by my Hydra on one of the Siege of Roavin levels. I think they got like 4 and 2 kills, not all of which were entirely necessary. Everything else was taken care of by Vonreuter


The next level of Siege of Roavin where your squad is split protecting two doors. Scipio was fighting with Vonreuter while Azason was with the Captain. You can see the difference in the kills. The best part is that Vonreuter only fired 4 times.

[Deleted]

After a week, ive decided I cant stand them. I have not once been able to bring one to bear against a bad guy outside four squares or without another marine in the way. I always lose my hydra gunner because of this. Traitors and pirates come out of ambush hides and xenos always close the distance, and have zero trouble running through a completely torched room. Meanwhile my hydra cant backup because hes against another templar whos out of AP or against another Xeno. Screw it ill take a berzerker for rear guard.

[contributor]

Dayan I'm not actually the most advanced TA player. I'm currently playing on Hard. It maybe that at higher difficulties their plasma just doesn't cut it. I like to upgrade them pretty quickly to their most powerful weapon. I find it's pretty effective. For me the trick is firing before the xenos get close, using the "special" button. Then they have to walk through all 5 or 7 squares of fire. I think Hydras are the best guy to have at the end of your train when you're doing those long hallway crawls. They can "plug" the tunnel and then turn and run for a few turns before turning around to rekindle the inferno behind them.

[Deleted]

so their special is they set up somewhere and any baddy that walks in range is toasted?

[Cory Trese]

Special is very powerful, especially if they have someone who can tap them to fire.

I usually put a Solider behind the Hydra facing the same direction as the Hydra.

Even with 0AP he can still lay down devistating overwatch.

The worst impact of the Hydra special is the ammo consumption.

[johndramey]

Wooooo go contributor! I love me some Hydras! I almost always carry one in my squads and I'm sure that he would have the most kills if plasma kills tracked properly.

And dayan, don't sweat the Hydra, they are a bit tricky to use. As Cory and Lurker pointed out, you really gotta use them as rear-guards or preventative fire. Their special allows them to blast their plasma down anywhere within weapon range regardless of enemy presence, so you can fart out a great big splash of burning plasma and watch xenos go crispy critters as they trudge through the flames.

Cory also makes a really good point that I think most people miss, the Hydra can fire with 0 AP as long as someone is around to stop the xenos turn with an interrupt turn. That means that you can move him his full AP and still blast away, even during the xenos' turns.

If you want some more info or tips I made a thread on the Hydra trooper a while back. Otherwise, let's all just talk about how awesome they are here!

[slayernz]

contributor ... oh come on, everyone knows that the mere fact that Neptunes drool is because the Hydra specialists have long-since lost the ability to produce significant liquid secretions like saliva. They spend so much time with their incinerator units that many have been seen with not insignificant burn marks on their inner thighs.

Now put one good Neptune specialist against one of those inferior pyro guys and you'll see the kill rate differences. I can almost guarantee that a Hydra won't get even remotely close to the the 40+ kill per mission capability of the Neptune.

What's worse - your Hydra has the choice of using either a lower-grade weapon so that he can "accidentally" set the area he is standing in on fire, or use a high-grade version that burns him and his squad no matter how good their armor is. You'd call that a "Liability" in any squad. Look at Drake when he couldn't control his flamer. He almost set the squad's APC on fire and caused poor Vasquez to be awfully sad for a minute or so.

Worse still is the fact that with Hydra units, you're pretty much deciding you won't advance your line.
"Private, move your squad down the corridor to the engine console. We have to disable those drives before we get into core space!"
"Well sir, our Hydra has set that corridor on fire. We have to wait until it goes out, but one or two Xeno's try and come down the corridor so ole Pyro has to fire again"
"Crap - can you go around using the secondary corridor - it adds another 200m to your objective, but it is possible"
"Err ..."
"What was that private?"
"Umm ... well Pyro was laying cover fire, and set the secondary corridor on fire too. It's very warm here sir. It's okay though, we don't mind waiting".


So at the end of the day you either have:
Neptune - solid, kills Any hostile that moves within 4 squares, yet can move forward the very next turn

Hydra - unstable, sets fire to anything including himself and team mates, with suppressing fire prevents comfortable forward movement, and has an unhealthy attraction to his incinerator unit.

[fallen]

I love that the original insult belongs on a 2nd grade playground LOL

[Cyrus]

A Hydra that can't stop himself from firing prematurely in front of the squad or at the first contact should learn to use his own fist.

[johndramey]

Aug 7, 2013 17:07:12 GMT -5 slayernz said:

contributor ... oh come on, everyone knows that the mere fact that Neptunes drool is because the Hydra specialists have long-since lost the ability to produce significant liquid secretions like saliva. They spend so much time with their incinerator units that many have been seen with not insignificant burn marks on their inner thighs.

Now put one good Neptune specialist against one of those inferior pyro guys and you'll see the kill rate differences. I can almost guarantee that a Hydra won't get even remotely close to the the 40+ kill per mission capability of the Neptune.

What's worse - your Hydra has the choice of using either a lower-grade weapon so that he can "accidentally" set the area he is standing in on fire, or use a high-grade version that burns him and his squad no matter how good their armor is. You'd call that a "Liability" in any squad. Look at Drake when he couldn't control his flamer. He almost set the squad's APC on fire and caused poor Vasquez to be awfully sad for a minute or so.

Worse still is the fact that with Hydra units, you're pretty much deciding you won't advance your line.
"Private, move your squad down the corridor to the engine console. We have to disable those drives before we get into core space!"
"Well sir, our Hydra has set that corridor on fire. We have to wait until it goes out, but one or two Xeno's try and come down the corridor so ole Pyro has to fire again"
"Crap - can you go around using the secondary corridor - it adds another 200m to your objective, but it is possible"
"Err ..."
"What was that private?"
"Umm ... well Pyro was laying cover fire, and set the secondary corridor on fire too. It's very warm here sir. It's okay though, we don't mind waiting".


So at the end of the day you either have:
Neptune - solid, kills Any hostile that moves within 4 squares, yet can move forward the very next turn

Hydra - unstable, sets fire to anything including himself and team mates, with suppressing fire prevents comfortable forward movement, and has an unhealthy attraction to his incinerator unit.

Looks like someone's jealous! Don't listen to this bullet-sympathizer, flames are where it's at! The Hydra's true potential lies in his ability to deny lanes of attack to the enemy. Who needs to waste precious lead when an enemy physically can't make it to your position? Not only that, Hydras don't need no wussy firing supports. They aren't anchored into position after firing (everyone know this is due to the Neptune soldiers' lack of muscle tone, they spend all day lovingly oiling their jam-prone blunderbusses) and, as such, can.. you know.. move after firing!

Plus, what would you rather have, a bullet ridden soggy mess or a fine layer of atomized xeno? One is a bother, might make you slip, and causes the maintenance crews to hate you. The other is easily cleaned up, doesn't pose any kind of hazard, and smells better!

And another thing, accuracy. Who needs it? Not Hydras, that's for sure. Neptunes have a nasty habit of putting holes into everything behind, around, under, and above their targets. Hydras? Easy as watering the lawn. Well, if your lawn were a 2 meter killing machine running down a tight corridor trying to chew off your face. And I guess your hose has to be shooting super heated plasma hot enough to burn the flesh off of an unarmored human in microseconds, but you get the point!

For my money you can't get better than a Hydra!

In conclusion; Hydras do indeed rule, and Neptunes do definitely DROOL!

[contributor]

Failure to know how to use a unit does not constitute a weakness on the part of the unit.

As for Neptunes, they have there own disadvantages trying to lead a charge.

Vonreuter: Cap'n why aren't we moving forward? I can't see what's going on up there.

Cap: Scip just blew away an alien.

Vonreuter: That's great, but we've all still got full AP.

Cap: Yeah but once his tripod is set up he's just got to stand behind it till the next turn.

Vonreuter: So we're all just going to stand here and wait till he gets unfroze?

Cap: Pretty much, lets just hope the uglies don't stack up too badly in front of him.

Vonreuter turns and covers the tunnel they just came through with a massive ball of plasma flame, while the shrieks of yet-unseen aliens are heard down the hall: "Won't have to worry about anything from that direction for awhile" He then pulls out a cigarette which, with a little lean forward and a good draw, lights up without a match. He then sits down stretching his legs across the hall, half singing something in French under his breath.

[slayernz]

With a decent melee weapon, your neptune will always be able to advance at least a square or two before vaporizing anything in front of him.
With your hydra, even though you can move after firing, you can't move forward into the flame. Well you can, but it tends to hurt

Hydras therefore are a perfect weapon for retreating knights ... wait what? Knights who actually retreat from combat?!?

[johndramey]

That's the catch slayernz, who says you gotta retreat? Only a fool blasts his Hydra to the front, you should be using it as a way to do area denial to the enemy. Blast it down side corridors, cover your movement, use it to set up killzones during defensive missions. With the Hydra all of your other troopers can focus on doing what needs to be done, the Hydra is simply a force multiplier designed to let you efficiently use the rest of your team.

If anything the Neptune is more of a retreaters weapon system. You gotta deploy that tripod and get the system all set up for it to fire effectively. With the Hydra you can use every single one of your AP moving and rotating to face the most likely direction the enemy will come from and then special for free!

[slayernz]

I do admit that the special for Hydras is a very nice thing ... almost makes the hydra as good as the neptune ...
The biggest issue I have with the Hydra apart from the fact that fire sucks to walk through, and if Xeno's are 3 or less squares from you, you're going to have HOT feet. The biggest issue is that I've seen Xeno' waltz through the fire, come up, and bite my squad at Melee range. The Neptune, on the other hand, stops things dead. With a reasonably trained neptune, you can fire and fire and fire until there is only pulp on the floor. I've never been bitten from a Xeno that has made it through my Neptune's firing arc

[johndramey]

Nah man, I totally understand that. I've always maintained that Hydras take a lot of forethought to use properly. Neptunes are definitely much more straight-forward. A Neptune trooper can hold his own in pretty much any situation, you'll never really need to worry about him. The Hydra, on the other hand, requires support. In your example (a xeno in close proximity to the Hydra) you pretty much need to have a trooper with your Hydra in order to take care of that xeno. If your Hydra is alone and not very high level he will probably be ripped to shreds. Neptunes, on the other hand, can operate independently of support without too much worry.

There is no right or wrong answer, everything is in good fun. Don't want anyone to feel like I'm taking any of this super serious or anything, just playing around and explaining about the Hydra. In the end it all comes down to personal preference. I love the Hydra. I try to use other specialized troops (the Berserker, in particular, seems right up my alley) but I always find myself thinking "Man, I sure wish I had my Hydra right now" while playing. Are you (the general you, not you-you slayer ) wrong for using a Neptune? Not at all. In fact, you get to watch your kills soar while us Hydra users are stuck with a troop that has been on dozens of missions and has 5 kills to his name.