by kaneAAA
I'm keen on Hydra. After a few games with them I would say:* always keep in mind that you are one of the weakest starters. You want
ideally only 1 shared border on your territory (with the galactic
centre, if you wanna ally then just as long as you are confident of
defence you can have another/others) so if people are exploring near
you, aim to counter-explore in order to lock down your borders. Think
ahead for this!
* being on the wrong side of probability early on can be ABSOLUTELY
CRIPPLING for Hydra (bitter experiences there ). Don't go for hex 1s
straight away, as hydra you wanna minimize your chances of even
uncovering an ancient hex until you have enough resources for a dread.
The odds of doing this are minimized (while ensuring decent resources)
by concentrating on the hex 2s from the opening, (about 1/4 chance).
When you got the dread, move to the Hex 1s.
* Bathe in the shadows........in larger player games, you can rely on the
quiet factor ....Hydra plays the long game...the meat-heads (Orion,
mechanae even eridani) will normally concentrate on each other, as well
as the noisiest races of draco/planta mega-explorers. Therefore, you're
generally no target at all. Research solidly (aim for 2 researches per
round at least), keep as low a military as needs be.....as you get to
the middle stages, your ship blueprints will start overtaking the other
races...then you can build......and dominate...
* Seeing that ship building early on is kept low with Hydra.....where do
you use your minerals? ORBITALS!!!! Invest in them early if given the
chance, if not then accumulating them is no problem....it just means
later on your unbeatable mega fleet will explode out of nothing....the
meatheads by this point will prob. be chasing various other interests
and are unlikely to be able to react in time to stop you moving into
the galactic centre....surprise from the shadows mwahahahah!!!!
* minerals are soooo valuable, and are the hardest resources for Hydra to
accumulate....Advanced Mining must be yours, you're made to get
it....artefact key conversion to minerals too...explore with a mind to
have decent minerals.
Ok, that's a start. Over to you......strategies/responses/thoughts!!!!!!!