(in progress)
(http://dominion.diehrstraits.com/scans/darkages/hermit.jpg)(http://dominion.diehrstraits.com/scans/darkages/madman.jpg)
Hermit is one of the self-upgrading cards in Dark Ages, upgrading into a Madman on turns when you decide not to buy anything. The two cards have little in common with one another - the former is a poor man's Altar, and the latter is a one-shot Tactician thing. However, the cards do work well with each other.
What do they do?
Hermit is one of the few cards that allows you to poke through your discard pile, allowing you to trash a card from there or from your hand. I had actually been expecting a card like this since playing Ascension, which had discard-trashers from the beginning. Whenever I think about this aspect of Hermit, I always get an image of some grungy old man poking through my trash with a stick. After you've chosen a card to trash (or elected not to), Hermit then requires you gain a card costing up to $3. Barring cheap cards you want en masse, such as Fool's Gold or Squire, this will typically be a Silver. Already a pattern emerges - Hermit feels very similar to Jack of all Trades. It loses the Spying and the draw, but its gain and trash are more flexible. Playing DoubleHermit and gaining only Silver plays very similarly to DoubleJack, but it's not as fast and not nearly as resistant to Attacks, given the lack of draw, though it does do quite well against Looters and Cursers (better than Jack, even, since it can trash from the discard). This is where Madman enters the picture.
On turns where your coin fielding is not up to par, gain a Hermit with your Hermit, and let him sail off to the trash pile. There may even be turns where you have a substantial amount of coin fielded, but if your opponent hasn't started greening, and/or you've played several Hermits this turn, and/or you're nearing a reshuffle, go ahead and skip the buy. Don't think of these turns as "wasting your buy" - you're essentially just buying the Madman, with whatever you happen to have in your hand. So instead of forfeiting the turn before you play it, like Tactician, you're forfeiting the turn you gain it. One play of Madman is certainly very nice, but the card really shines when you're able to play more than one, bringing you up to 14 cards in hand, normally. Now, I've been comparing Hermit to Jack, but using Madman as draw after a discard Attack would not be a very good use of Madman - this card is at its best with larger hand sizes. Playing a Madman after a Militia would be like playing a level 2 City, which is nice, but given that you only get to use that Madman once, you should probably save him for a better turn. Hermit/Madman really showcase what I've found is the unspoken theme of Dark Ages - cards you don't play without thinking. You can't just run on autopilot in Dark Ages games, playing Villages and Smithies and buying a Province - you have to consider what order you want to play cards in, and even whether or not you want to play a card this turn.
Given the ephemeral nature of Madman, typically if you're going for a Madman strategy you want to make it fast, so you can win before you run out of Hermits to trash. Luckily enough, Madman is just the card for the job. If you've been tending your deck correctly, one or two plays of Madman should field you enough to pick up a Province.
So the Hermit/Madman pair gives you everything - Actions, draw, (limited) trashing, and virtual +Buy. But virtual +Buy is definitely not as good as real +Buy, so a couple Markets or somesuch would be good to add to the mix. And limited trashing can always use more help, so a card like Spice Merchant to eat up your Coppers would also be good to pick up. And when you're out of Treasures you want to trash, just feed it to the Hermit.
So when should I buy Hermit?
Earlier is better - you'll typically want to open with Hermit; either double up, or pair it with a Treasure trasher like Moneylender. Outside of Cursing/Looting games, Hermit essentially only gets three uses out of its trashing, so feel free to send them off to be mad after your Estates are gone. In Shelters games, you typically want to hang onto your Necropolis (barring better Villages in the kingdom), so you'll really only get two trashing uses there. One card that gives a much longer life to that trashing is Rats. Since it turns every card into an Action, you can use Rats to eat your Coppers, then Hermit to trash the Rats, giving you a nice little +1 Card bonus, and gaining Silvers to ensure you don't go broke. The great thing about this is that Hermit can trash the Rats you just gained from your previous Rats play, since it's just sitting in the discard pile.
How can I add to a Hermit/Madman strategy?
Anything that draws cards! Laboratory, Smithy, Hunting Grounds, Menagerie, anything that increases your handsize. If they're $3 or less, you can even pick them up with your Hermits. Madman wants to be played with the largest handsize possible, so even Tactician, which you might think would be overkill, can combo with Madman. Engines with good draw ensure you find your Madmen more often, and ensure that you get more out of them.
Hermit specifically also likes cards that do something when trashed. Trash a Fortress from the discard, and it goes into your hand. Trash a Squire (preferably freshly gained from another Hermit), and gain the best Attack on the board. Et cetera.
Now I'm sure there are some of you out there who, like me, have always disliked the idea of having to trash away a card after one use of it and have it be gone forever. Well, thanks to Rogue and Graverobber, they're not gone forever! Donald X may have done everything he possibly could to make sure you can't Graverob a Madman, but that doesn't stop you from Graverobbing the Hermits! Trash-gainers allow you to no longer worry about running out of Madmen - there is now an infinite supply.
An odd quirk of rules allows another instance to provide an infinite supply of Madmen. If you Scheme a Hermit on a turn where you don't buy anything, it is saved from being trashed, but you still get a Madman. Scheme effectively turns Hermit into a Madman-gaining machine. Similarly, if you Possess an opponent with Hermits, you can get free Madmen that way, as well.
My opponent has lots of Madmen! What do I do?
Go back in time and get your own Madmen. Failing that, there's a couple things you can do. Discard Attacks will handicap Madman quite nicely, as previously described. The best cards for this are Ghost Ship (the card I hate most in this world), which will keep your opponent from cycling, and Pillage, which will handily knock that Madman out of your opponent's hand. And if Graverobber or Rogue are being used to get back Hermits, you can also get back your Pillages to keep the onslaught going. And while Cursing will easily be remedied by their Hermits, Swindler can be evil against Madman, turning him into a Curse or Copper, and turning the Hermits into (comparatively) useless Silvers.
Good with:
+Buy
Treasure trashers
Engines
"When you trash this" cards
Trash gainers
Scheme
Counter with:
Swindler
Discard Attacks