This week's winner was the Heka-Gigantes. And with their +150 HP boost from the patch it was no real surprise.
They may not be the most attractive myth unit in the game, but just how good are they?

Here's their stats:

Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Favour, 5 Pop spaces
HP: 850
Speed: 3.30
Hack armour: 44%
Pierce armour: 44%
Crush damage: 30
Hack damage: 25

Special attack: Pounds ground which sends units flying, causing additional damage. (see further information on special attack later)

No specific upgrades available.

So in general, quite a tough unit. Slow with low armour and a high cost, but nice HP and damage.

For a basic test to see how good the unit is, I start with a battle vs a Hoplite.

NOTE: All human and hero units used in the tests have Medium upgrades, Heavy upgrades, Champion upgrades, Copper armoury upgrades Bronze armoury upgrades and Iron armoury upgrades. All buildings have the Masons and Architects upgrades. MU upgrades and other upgrades will be stated.
All attack rates are tested per hit, not second. This is fine as the Heka-Gigantes attacks every second.
The Heka-Gigantes special attack has been invoked on a greek villager behind the Heka-Gigantes each time so it does not affect the results of the battle.

Test 1: 1 Heka-Gigantes vs 1 Hoplite (Zeus)

Hoplite stats:
HP: 166
Speed: 4.70
Hack armour: 52%
Pierce armour: 38%
Hack damage: 12

Heka-Gigantes does approximately 28 damage to Hoplite per hit
Hoplite does approximately 9 damage to Heka-Gigantes per hit

Heka-Gigantes kills Hoplite in 6 seconds with 804HP left.

Interestingly, the Heka-Gigantes does more than its base hack attack to the Hoplite each hit. Even with the crush attack, the attack is very high, especially considering the Hoplit's high armour.

From what I could see, it looks the Heka-G attacks twice per hit, because as the Hoplite's HP goes down, it jerks suddenly. Normally, when attacked, the HP would just drop in one go.

From this, I have come to the following conclusion:

The Heka-Gigantes attacks units with 2 of its arms each hit. Therefore, its base attack is doubled

This makes it an extremely powerful unit. 50 Hack damage and 60 Crush damage is a hell of a lot!
Because the Heka-Gigantes has 4 arms, it means each arm does 25 Hack Damage, and 30 Crush Damage, making it one of the strongest MUs in the game.

It even manages to beat 5 Hoplites, although only just with 9 HP left.

But with all that crush attack, how do they do against buildings?

Test 2: 1 Heka-Gigantes vs 1 House (Thor)

House stats:
HP: 495
Crush armour: 14%
Hack armour: 30%
Pierce armour: 95%

Heka-Gigantes does 96 damage to house per hit

Heka-Gigantes destroys house in 5 seconds.

Very impressive, 5 seconds is no time at all, and even with 2 building improvements the house falls extremely quickly.

But how about bigger buildings?

Test 3: 3 Heka-Gigantes vs 1 Palace (Kronos)

Palace stats:
HP: 2600
Crush armour: 14%
Hack armour: 30%
Pierce armour: 95%
Pierce damage: 12
Range: 20

Palace is destroyed in 10 seconds.

I was amazed at the speed in which the Heka-G's took down the Palace. Taking this experiment further, I wanted to check if they really were the "best seige myth unit". Are they better then Scarabs and Behemoths, units directly for seige?

NOTE: All of these MUs cost 5 pop spaces, total of 15 pop spaces are used.

3 Heka-Gigantes destroy Palace in 10 seconds
3 Scarabs destroy Palace in 11 seconds
3 Behemoths destroy Palace in 11 seconds
3 Collosi destroy Palace in 15 seconds
3 Mountain Giants destroy Palace in 16 seconds

It's official, the Heka-Gigantes is the best seige MU in the game. Not only does it demolish buildings faster than Behemoths and Scarabs, but it has the ability to fling units who try to attack it away with its special attack.

Following this I wanted to see if the Heka-G's are the best seige unit over all in the game.

The Heka-Gigantes destroy the palace faster than:
5 unupgraded Catapults
5 unupgraded Seige towers
3 fully upgraded Heliopoli
5 unupgraded Portable Rams
5 fully upgraded Petroboli
5 fully upgraded Destroyers
3 fully upgraded Fire Siphons

The only non-myth units that destroy the Palace faster than the Heka-Gigantes are Sekhmet's Catapults and Seige Towers and Baldr's Portable Rams with all available upgrades.

Very intersting indeed. This makes me wonder why people whould choose Rheia for her Behemoths when they could go Helios and get Heka-Gigantes+Strong Fire Siphons. Heka-Gigantes seem to be the perfect Myth Units for Kronos, because they are cheaper, and since he gets cheaper seige as well, Helios seems a very wise choice if you're against a building spammer.

Anyway, now for the fun bit: The special attack. This is what I have found out through many tests:

1. The Heka-Gigantes' special attack sends units around it flying, causing them damage by pounding the ground with all 4 of its arms.
   
2. When the Heka-Gigantes uses its special attack, units are flung back approximately 10 meters (range) from where they are standing.
   
3. The special attack can only affect up to 30 units at a time
   
4. Units within 30 metres in front of the Heka-Gigantes and up to 10 metres to the side may be flung backwards
   
5. Your own and allied units are not affected by the special attack
   
6. Small hills are formed once the special attack has taked place. They are permanent until built on but cause no real problems.
   
7. The special attack can do from 5-50 damage to a unit depending on what it is (i.e, it is lower against heroes)
   
8. If used near water, units will not be flung into the water, but will land on the edge of the land.
   
9. Unlike the Shockwave God Power, the Heka-Gigantes' special attack does not stun units after being flung in the air.
   

The Heka-Gigantes' special attack works on:

All human units(indluding Jarls and War Elephants)
All Greek Heroes (including Bellerophon, Perseus and Polyphemus)
All villagers
Hersir
Priests
Pharoahs (including Son of Osiris)
Atlantean Heroes
Destroyers
Minotaurs
Cyclopses
Anubites
Mummies
Scorpion Men
Einherjar

The Heka-Gigantes' special attack does not work on:

Seige weapons
Water units
Flying units
All other Myth Units apart from those mentioned before

Being able to fling heroes backwards is very useful, and the Heka-Gigantes special attack is one of the most useful in the game. Microing the Heka-Gigantes to use it's special on the right units can have devastating effects for your opponent.

Further notes

The Heka-Gigantes defeats all human units one on one, including Jarls and Atlantean Heroes. They can defeat Mythic Priests and Hersir, but lose to Mythic Pharoahs and all Greek Heroes.

The Heka-Gigantes wins one on one against the following Mythic MUs:
Collosus
Fire Giant
Lampades
Fenris Wolf
Mountain Giant

The Heka-Gigantes loses one on one to the following Mythic MUs:
Avenger
Phoenix
Mummy
Chimera
Argus
Frost Giant
Medusa

Heka-Gigantes are affected by:
Medusa Stone Gaze
Perseus Stone Gaze
Mummy's Minion Change
Argus' Toxic Acid
Lampades' Chaos

Suggested Usage

The Heka-Gigantes is a very powerful unit, and almost certainly worth its high cost. Use it as seige, a meat shield, support for your army or even for it's special attack alone. Heck the only thing it can't realy do is raiding - but since its special works on villagers it might be fun to try

Conclusion

The only real "brute" myth unit the Atlanteans get, the Heka-Gigantes is a very impressive and powerful unit. When used right, they can cause a hell of a lot of damage to units and buildings alike.

Its only real cons are it's very slow speed, and very poor armour, making it easy for ranged units to get at it. Although expensive, they are well worth it. Just make sure you're not spending that amount of gold on a unit that will be taken down by the 10+ priests or the Perseus just out of your LOS. Keep them away from heroes and heal them with Caladria or borrow an allie's Healing Spring or Priest.

Against Greece: Be careful of Greece's powerful archers and heroes. Use them against infantry, cavalry and most importantly: buildings.
Against Egypt: Probably best not to rely on them too heavily against the Egyptians. Priests and CAs will be able to take them down easily due to the weak armour.
Against Norse: Again, another Myth Unit that thrives against the Norse. Use the special attacks on Jarls and Hersir and take down those weak buildings.
Against Alantis: Like the Norse, Atlanteans have a bit of trouble against MUs, particularly without Valor. Use Heka-Gigantes to fling out any heroes they throw at you, but watch out for Argi and Lampades.

Compared to the Colossus, the Heka-Gigantes wins on all levels apart from the HP. The Heka-Gigantes is certainly up there with the best Myth Units, and I hope to see lots more of them. They may be ugly, but they sure are powerful. I know lots of people like that

Thanks for reading guys, please vote for the MU guide I should do next week from the following MUs

Promethean
Caladria
Servant
Carnivora
Automaton
Nereid
Behemoth
Dryad
Argus
Man-O-War

[This message has been edited by ArtemisChimera (edited 02-14-2004 @ 11:26 AM).]