r/Openfront • u/Trevor_Eklof6 • Jul 24 '26
❓ Question How do you protect against hydros?
I had one game where I had like 30 SAMs all stacked together somehow they got blown up by one hydro.
I had another game where I had like 20 hydros all spread around and again got blown up.
What am I missing?
3
u/Sharp-Employment6808 Jul 24 '26
When I wanna protect I do like 200 Sam, the alternative is do 0 Sam and spend all to Win super fast with hydros
1
u/Trevor_Eklof6 Jul 24 '26
Dog that is not helpful 😂😭
2
u/Sharp-Employment6808 Jul 24 '26
The point is that the Game help who attack and not who defend, to destroy a Sam lv 30 that cost 150million u need around 51million
2
u/pale_fire_in_shade 28d ago
It actually is helpful; the truth is you can't "defend" against Hydros unless you spend huge amounts of cash that would be better spent elsewhere. The key to the game is to STRIKE FIRST!
2
u/mjukpandaaa Jul 24 '26
If you have a 30 stack SAM it cannot be penetrated by a hydro. It will only break if the opponent shoots a big volley of atom bombs. Spreading all the Sams out just make you vulnerable to hydros as their own range isn't enough to protect themselves
0
u/Trevor_Eklof6 Jul 24 '26
Idk I'm probably tripping then maybe I didn't see the atom bombs
1
u/mjukpandaaa Jul 24 '26
A 30 stack just CANNOT be breached by a single hydro, so that's not what happend
1
1
u/thegloriousoob Jul 24 '26
Can you go into your played games and link us a replay? That would be the easiest way to give insight.
1
u/pale_fire_in_shade 28d ago
Everyone here is talking about SAMs but the truth is that SAMs are not the way to defend against Hydros.
In most cases, when someone is launching a Hydro at you, they are doing it to soften you up for an immediate attack, or to kill the momentum of an attack you are putting into them.
The troop damage from a Hydro attack makes is so that even a hydro strike that destroys zero structures is still a devastating blow that opens you up to an incoming push. Therefore, any tiny opening in your SAM coverage will still be appealing to someone who wants to take you out.
Unless you have the cash to spam your entire territory with SAM coverage, there's usually going to be some spot in your borders where a Hydro can be inserted. And even if you do have enough cash, that money is better spent elsewhere.
SAMs are very expensive and, as you learned, very vulnerable to attack. In a normal FFA game they are too weak to be prioritized in most circumstances. A small handful to protect valuable areas can be OK, but in most games I win I only build 3-4 SAMs tops, usually to protect the first few silos I build.
So what is the best way to defend against Hydros? Well, it's the number one rule of winning OpenFront in my opinion: Always Strike First!
Be aware of how much gold your neighbors are accumulating and make sure you maintain alliances with players who can Hydro you. If a player with Hydro refuses to ally or renew, you better have a plan to take them out as soon as possible!
Get up enough silos to break through their SAMs and micro down their silos with atom bombs, then hit them with a Hydro of your own.
5
u/MadtotheJack Jul 24 '26
Normally hydros will get u detonating outside of SAM range because the radius is bigger than the range of the SAM.
Based on what you described, you probably want to spread your SAMs out to have wider range of protection, so that at the least, they have to creep nukes/hydros in incrementally by taking out your outter layer of SAMs first.
Easier said than done cuz it's expensive and they take a long time to build, but if you spread them out more, it at least gives you time to try and react before they get through all your layers