-Odin: what are you supposed to do with this guy? I used to click on it all the time, but after some games that slowly turned sour for me, I am starting to think that it might be better to defend with it, especially if it is the highest health unit in the set. Thoughts?
Clicking Odin is something you should generally do only if you're desperate, or you get a great opportunity. It gains you 4 attack this turn, and costs you 1 attack every turn for the rest of the game; it's kinda the inverse of Blood Pact, in a weird way. Odin is usually best treated as a 3/5 with extra breach pressure, where you never click on him but do click his Steelsplitters. In
9avQ6-Yds9Q I had probably won the game already after my Antima Comet hit, but Odin was able to lock things down by soaking 4 damage per turn, with his extra 4-damage breach threat forcing Awaclus to defend for more than I could sustainably attack for.
-Cauterizer: he's freakishly expensive for two attack (the similarly priced Cynestra has three attack). When is it good? I am "translating" the cumbersome way it works as "At the beginning of your turn, gain 2 attack. You can sacrifice this for 7 health. While this is in play, engineers gain prompt.", which basically makes this a very defensive attacker. It seems kind of awkward to place in your build queue.
$11 for 7 health is a pretty decent defensive deal already, and you get to deal 2 damage for a turn or two as well. In
8wCZu-d9ews, my opponent manages his Engineers very carefully to keep his Cauterizers firing as long as possible, and uses the giant HP buffer to get up a ton of Tarsiers that I can't really threaten to breach even with a Frost Brooder.
-Hannibull: cheaper than Cauterizers but more expensive than Iceblade Golems. There's only 4 of them, and has the huge disadvantage of being frontline. I have absolutely no idea what to do with them. They are very strong on paper, but when my opponent knows what she's doing, they always fizzle for me.
I have trouble playing with Hannibulls too. They are a decent rusher, if you can put enough pressure on to stop your opponent ever getting 6 attack, but if you can't manage that you are in a lot of trouble. As a frontline unit, it combos well with other frontline units, for example Wild Drone. If you can rely on your beefy frontline units to be hard to kill, you can completely ignore building defense. Hannibull can also be decent in the mid- to late-game where your opponent is getting close to breaching you: he either lets you get away with 2 attack fairly cheaply, or he spends 6 precious damage killing just $9 worth of stuff, which can give your defense a break. In
c9aId-zELyn, I get the dream combo of Wild Drone + Hannibull, and just let him chew through my regular Drones, ignoring his Wild Drones to bull-rush (har har) his defenders, preventing him getting any attack up.
-Hellhound: anyone ever bought one?
Hellhounds are amazing. They only cost a tiny bit more than Tarsiers, and don't have to wait a turn to attack. The extra Engineer is also a huge help in defending these breach-vulnerable units. Really, $5 is the cheapest you can get a unit that attacks for 1 every turn without some disadvantage (eg, Tarsiers don't attack next turn, Rhinos only attack twice, Shredders are frontline...). Hellhounds even come with an advantage! As long as R/B isn't a bad tech choice in the set, Hellhound is a great way to make use of your tech investment when there's nothing else urgent to do. In
9gmQa-sHeFl, for example, I get a second Blastforge early so I can double-Hellhound instead of double-Tarsier; the initial investment of $5 is a bit steep, but pays for itself with the attack efficiency, and helps out later when I need to start getting a lot of Walls.