How to start the affiliation
Your first purchase outside of a core set, which both come with 3 Hydra characters already, should probably be Red Skull, Master of Hydra. He’s one of your three available leaders and also comes with a tonne of affiliated TTCs. Next up you’ll want to look at adding Baron Strucker (another leader) and Arnim Zola. Grabbing Viper and Sin is a bit too taste but I would personally highly encourage it. Agent Venom (splash) and Spider-Woman (affiliated) is another core pick up for the affiliation and Bob (affiliated) coming with Deadpool (splash) is also a very good character here. I would always have Hulk in the back of my mind in Hydra (we’ll see why later) and their newest member Abomination, who comes with the Wrecking Crew (splash) is also worth considering.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan
Army of Evil is… Not that great to be honest. It pretty much lost it’s niche with the rotation of Advanced R’n’D. I guess it is nice if you have a specialized character specific TTC, like Helios Laser Bombardment, in your 10 that you only want in your 5 (now 6 with the LD) if your opponent brought model X (probably Hulk in our scenario). But giving up having an active leadership for that sounds like a very steep price to pay. The power refund on TTCs isn’t nothing but it also won’t come up all that often during a game.
The game plan under Helmut Zemo is whatever you want it to be really. It doesn’t favour or enable any specific style of play.
Hydra High Council is a confusing but very cool leadership that in the wrong matchups will sadly be totally irrelevant. You can very much build your team around it and play an objective based “grab and out last them” game so type 2 but if you run into a bunch of models with immunities to especially Poison and Incinerate your leadership simply does nothing. I very much like playing Strucker leadership but it can’t be your only plan in a list.
World Domination is just clean pure upside. It doesn’t get the power train rolling quite as fast as other ramp teams as you can get a total maximum of 1 power added with it on round 1 and only by deploying a 65mm base character exactly behind a D shape home secure which means it is contesting it in the first power phase of the game. But it is still a potential of a lot of free extra power each round making it a great default and always useful leadership.
Red Skull 2 teams can be tuned anywhere form type 2 to full on type 4 violence. He himself is quite the damage piece but I really like a more scenario focused style of Hydra myself.
Who could be added in the future especially as additional leaders
I have to admit I’m absolutely no expert on Hydra in the comics. I think we already pretty much have the main cast here but new additions like Abomination can give surprise support here. Lately AMG seems to be aiming more towards differentiating Hydra and Cabal and not having any Hydra team also be Cabal affiliated automatically.
A possibility for a “new” character and could be Captain Hydra, Steven Rogers from the Secret Empire storyline.
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Team Tactics (8)
Endless Legions
C-. You’ll just respawn the Grunts anytime you activate Red Skull 2 anyway.
Inevitable Betrayal
C+. The effect is great but the power cost is just immense.
Occult Research
C+. I could just copy and paste from Inevitable Betrayal here…
Scientific Method
B. It’s a cool card to use with Zola and Strucker.
The High Council
B-. Great, potentially game winning, effect, but very hard set up. It’s also a bit of a win more card as if you meet the requirements you’re probably already in a good spot.
Two More Shall Rise
B-. Theme win but in practice it won’t do too much in reality usually. Basically free if one of your targets for it is Helmut Zemo but that’s unlikely because of his alter ego.
World Domination
C+. Good effect with very hard set up. (Notice trend here ?) Only really achievable on Mayor Fisk.
Sleeper Agent (technically unaffiliated)
A. A very good card because the superpower it grants is so well used by characters that can throw every round on their base power like Hulk, iHulk or to a lesser extent Angela (because she only throws terrain). Just be careful that it doesn’t help you meet affiliation requirements as you can (technically) only pick TTC after you’ve chosen squad affiliation. So you have to meet the 51% affiliated criteria before you can play the card. Should it work that way? Maybe not but it does.
Characters (17)
Abomination (5)
A. Emil Blonsky is a pretty cool reliable tank and damage dealer. He helps Strucker out with his kit, too.
Arnim Zola (3)
B-. Zola has great attacks, superpowers and control. But is counter balanced by being slow and rather trivial to take out. His model is absolute fire though.
Baron Helmut Zemo (4)
B+. Helmut Zemo is the rare occasion of 4 threat leader that is always worth considering even if he isn’t your leader. He’d make a lot of teams and be an auto include here in Hydra if it weren’t for a certain 3 threat.
Baron Strucker (3)
B. Strucker as character is fine. He’s not too trivial to remove and his range 3 energy gun that can hand out incinerate is decent, too. He is a good anchor for a gun line. Sadly the rest of the affiliation doesn’t support that particularly well.
Baron Zemo (3)
A+. The reason Helmut Zemo has such a hard time making lists or squads. 3 threat Zemo is fast, hits like a truck, offers the reroll like his 4 threat version and can charge with an extract on him. He’s been the only character taken by every single team at WTC 24. So, you know, he’s quite good.
Bob, Agent of Hydra (2)
B+. Bob may look like a joke character on first glance but in reality he’s just a super reliable 2 threat that offers the threat of one really explosive turn.
Crossbones (3)
C+. Classic Crossbones needs help getting around the board and his superpowers are a bit costly.
Crossbones, Merciless Merc (3)
A-. Crossbones 2 is very much an E specialist but he’s fantastic at his job.
M.O.D.O.K. Scientist Supreme (4)
B-. MODOK 2 mostly offers the potential of an easy dual affiliation with Criminal Syndicate. As a character he is fine, but not great.
Red Skull (4)
C+. Undervalued in Cabal but really not all that worth it in Hydra. He is pretty much designed around his own leadership and doesn’t really function without it. You also don’t want to trade him for:
Red Skull, Master of Hydra (5)
A. Even with Abomination coming Red Skull 2 still absolutely the strongest model in Hydra. You’d have a hard time convincing me not having him in the roster.
Red Skull, Master of the World (4)
A in general but B- here. He’s another Johan Schmidt and doesn’t beat out Master of Hydra here in Hydra. Simple as that. Play Cabal if you prefer this version of the character.
Sin (3)
C. She can be a battery for Inevitable Betrayal. Not sure that’s worth 3 threat, though.
Spider-Woman (4)
A-. Jessica Drew is fast, not too easy to take out with Stealth and Martial artist and has a steal. Essential to have if you want to go down the scenario focused archetype here.
Taskmaster (3)
B+. An undervalued character (and awesome in the comics too) overall that is just plain and simply good at his job.
Viper (3)
B. Viper is fast, can place herself and has stealth. Under Red Skull 2 she can double long move and place Range 2 each turn. She’d be impressive if Black Cat didn’t exist and could do the same and more. Here Viper holds the affiliation tag over her at least.
Winter Soldier, Operative (4)
B. Bucky 2 is a fine back point sitter that can kill people out of stealth range. Especially helpful if Shang-Chi is causing a lot of problems for you.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
Abomination (5)
Baron Strucker (3)
Baron Zemo (3)
Bob, Agent of Hydra (2)
Red Skull, Master of Hydra (5)
Spider-Woman (4)
Taskmaster (3)
Hulk (6)
Dracula (5)
Agent Venom (4)
Team Tactics (10)
Two More Shall Rise
World Domination
Sleeper Agent
Cosmic Obliteration
Double Agent
Gamma Burst
I Am A Baron, After All
Brace for Impact (R)
Survival
Recalibration Matrix
Secure Crisis
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Extract Crisis
Research Station Attacked! (E, 15) (R)
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)
Struggle For The Cube Continues (F, 17)
That’s it for today. Next up: Inhumans
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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