Hydra

Hydra Retribution Shyeel Heavy Warjack

Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Legions of Dawn. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

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

Hydra
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Large SPD 6 STR 10 MAT 7 RAT 5 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 18 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 22 F. Field 10 WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA U UNIT SIZE N/A COST 14 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Warjack - All warjacks share the same set of special rules. Most notably being big and stompy. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.

Abilities

• Construct
• Field Dependent - While its Field Generator system is crippled, this model loses Kinetic Capacitor and can't attack with its Force Cannon.
• Focus Battery - During your Maintenance Phase, do not remove unspent focus from this model.
• Force Fields - This warjack has an extra damage track that takes damage first. Once per turn during its activation, this model can spend 1 focus point to remove 5 damage points from its force field damage track unless its Field Generator system is crippled.
• Kinetic Capacitor - When this model is hit by an enemy melee or ranged attack, after the attack is resolved this model gains 1 focus point.

Weapons

Force Cannon
		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			-			12
Damage Type: Magical Focus-Powered - For each focus point on this model when it declares an attack with this weapon, it gets +1 POW and RNG for the rest of the attack.
Force Fist (x2)
		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				5				15
Open Fist Chain Attack: Grab & Smash - If this model hits the same model with both its initial attacks with this weapon, after resolving the attacks it can immediately make a head-butt or throw power attack against that target.

Theme Forces

• Defenders of Ios
• Forges of War. Hydras gains Shield Guard in this theme.
• 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].
• 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)

Other Retribution models

Retribution Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Elara2 - Falcir1 - Garryth1 - Garryth2 - Goreshade4 - Helynna1 - Issyria1 - Kaelyssa1 - Ossyan1 - Rahn1 - Ravyn1 - Thyron1 - Vyros1 - Vyros2
Warcaster attachments	Fane Knight Guardian (Retribution) - Sylys Wyshnalyrr (Retribution) - Madelyn Corbeau (Mercenary)
Other Warjack Controllers	Elara1 (BGC) - Sentinel Scyir ('Jack Marshal) - Artificer ('Jack Marshal)
Light Warjacks	Aspis - Chimera - Gorgon - Griffon - Harpy - Siren Moros
Heavy Warjacks	Aeternae - Banshee - Daemon - Discordia - Hemera - Hydra - Hypnos - Imperatus - Manticore - Phoenix - Sphinx
Colossal	Hyperion - Helios
Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
Units	Cyelna & Nyss Hunters - D Destors - D Invictors - D Sentinels - Heavy Rifle Team - H Halberdiers - H Riflemen - HE Swordsmen - HE Wardens - HS Arcanists - HS Battle Mages - HV Electromancers - MH Infiltrators - MH Strike Force - Ryssovass Defenders - Spears of Scyrah - Stormfall Archers Special: Eiryss3 (CA) - Soulless Escort (WA)
Solos	Aelyth Vyr - Arcanist Mechanik - D Destor Thane - D Sentinel Scyir - Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (1) - Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (2) - Eiryss, Fortune Hunter of Ios (4) - Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber (1) - Fane Knight Guardian - Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen - Ghost Sniper - Hermit of Henge Hold - HE Warden Executioner - HS Artificer - HS Magister - Houseguard Thane - Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress Lys Healer - MH Assassin - Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios - Nayl - Priest of Nyssor - Scythe - Soulless Voidtracer
Battle Engines	Arcantrik Force Generator - Dawnguard Trident
Theme Forces
Defenders of Ios - Forges of War - Legions of Dawn - Shadows of the Retribution
Mercenaries
Refer to Category: Retribution of Scyrah Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.04

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification:  : Magical Damage      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

* The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling) All spells have "Damage Type: Magical" (refer errata). This is inherited by "immediate" secondary damage (such as Eruption of Spines). (Infernal Ruling) and might be inherited by "lingering" secondary damage (see below). If a spell leaves a template in play that does damage to models that walk around in it, then: if it is not described as a hazard it will do magical damage to models that walk around in it. (Example: Razor Wall) if it is a hazard then it will not do magical damage to models that walk around in it. Instead, it does whatever damage type is specified by the spell description. (Example: Breath of Corruption). (Infernal Ruling) If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it will still damage Incorporeal models. Incorporeal models are not affected by the rule "if an attack does multiple types of damage and a model is immune to at least one it is immune to the entire attack." The phrase "immune to non-magical damage" should be interpreted as "immune to damage that doesn't include Damage Type: Magical" (not interpreted as "has immunity to Corrosion and Electricity and Cold and etc.")

Rules Clarification : Focus-Powered - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Chain Attack Grab & Smash      (Edit) Grab & Smash allows you to make a Power Attack during the same activation that you charged. (Locked thread) You may want to refresh yourself on the Rules Clarifications on Throws and Head-Butts. Rules Clarification : Chain Attack      (Edit) Some Chain Attacks generate a Power Attack (such as Chain Attack: Throw. These Chains can be used after charging, even though Power Attacks normally can't be used after a charge. (Infernal Ruling) Buying extra attacks with fury or focus cannot trigger a Chain Attack - only initial attacks can trigger it. If you have 3 weapons but only 2 of them are associated with the Chain Attack, then you can make that 3rd initial attack at any point without it preventing the Chain Attack from triggering. Also, interrupting your initials to resolve the Chain Attack will not prevent you taking the 3rd initial. For example, the Cryx Nightmare has two Claws with a Chain Attack, plus some Tusks. When he makes his initial attacks he can go: [Claw] - [Tusks] - [Claw] - [Chain Attack] ... even though the two Claw attacks weren't sequential. [Claw] - [Claw] - [Chain Attack] - [Tusks] ... even though he did the Chain Attack before getting to his initial Tusk. [Tusks] - [Claw] - [Claw] - [Chain Attack] He cannot go ... [Claw] - [Claw] - [Tusks] - [Chain Attack] ... because you must resolve the Chain Attack as soon as it's triggered, or not at all.

Rules Clarification : Open Fist  (aka, Power Attack Throw)     (Edit) Throw ( Edit ) See also the Throw article for a recap of the core Throw rules. If a model is somehow thrown at itself (which can happen with Durst1's feat) it would not move, it would be knocked down, and it would take a standard power attack damage roll but it would not take an additional die for colliding with itself. (Infernal Ruling) Because you move the target model between the attack roll and the damage roll, you can get different buffs applied to the two rolls. For instance, if you throw the target in or out of a Flanking model's melee range. Incorporeal vs Slammed/Thrown models ( Edit ) Incorporeal models cannot be moved by someone trying to slam them. Slammed models can move through Incorporeal models. If they have enough movement to get past them, no dramas. If they land on them, you move the Incorporeal model out of the way as per the Rule of Least Disturbance. If the Incorporeal model cannot be moved (i.e. it's a flag) then you move the slammed model out of the way, also by the rule of Least Disturbance. For the purposes of Collateral Damage, only the model(s) you contacted before you applied the rule of Least Disturbance count as contacted. The same logic applies to Throws. Collateral Damage Collateral damage cannot be boosted and is not considered damage from an attack or model. Refer page 33 of the 2021.08 version of the rules pdf. As a result: It doesn't trigger stuff that relies on being hit by an enemy (such as Shock Field) or damaged by an enemy (such as Vengeance). It doesn't get bonus damage from stuff that adds to a model's damage roll (such as Signs & Portents or Prey). It doesn't matter if the attacker has crippled weapon systems or aspects. Throw - Power Attack When you make a Throw Power Attack, no other abilities of the Fist weapon (such as Chain Strike) are applied unless they specifically mention Throws. (Locked Thread) If you do a Power Attack Throw and you choose to throw the target directly away, no deviation is rolled to determine the final position of the model. (Locked thread) A model that cannot be targeted by melee attacks (such as Una2's feat) cannot have models thrown at them, either. (Infernal Ruling) Since throwing Model [A] at Model [B] involves making a melee attack roll vs Model [B] which is out of your melee range, it technically breaks a whole bunch of core rules. (Infernal Checking) Even though you make a "melee attack roll" vs Model [B] you don't actually make a melee attack vs it. Also, the damage it suffers is from Collateral damage, not from the original attack. So you can't trigger stuff like Snacking from damage you did to Model B.

Rules Clarification : Warjack      (Edit) The Cortex/Induction core rule means a warjack cannot have more than 3 focus at any time (maybe 4 if they're really special). Many abilities give out focus and don't state an upper limit (such as Convection and Empower). Despite not stating an upper limit, they are always "hard-limited" by the core rule. A warjack can have more than 3 focus during a turn, though. For instance, a knocked down warjack can Power Up and be Allocated 2 focus, then spend 1 to shake knockdown, then another model could Empower it back up to 3. Warjacks cannot spend focus outside of their activation. For instance, they can't boost free strikes or trigger Powerful Attack on Broadsides. (Infernal Ruling) Inert warjacks Abilities that say they cannot be used if the model is stationary (such as Shield Guard) cannot be used while a warjack is inert, either. Refer "Warcaster Destruction", page 59 of the core rulebook.

Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Force Fields      (Edit) You cannot spend focus to heal Force Fields mid-move, such as taking damage from a free strike. (Infernal Ruling) You cannot repair force fields, but you can spend focus to remove damage. (Infernal Ruling) Grievous Wounds prevents removing damage from force fields. (Locked Thread)

Rules Clarification : Focus Battery - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Kinetic Capacitor      (Edit) Because you don't gain the focus until after the attack, if the damage cripples your Cortex or your Generator, you can't benefit.

Rules Clarification : Field Dependent - None yet. (Edit)