Hades' Bonuses:
BUILDINGS HAVE MORE HIT POINTS - This is a solid bonus. I dont know if it slows build time but it is one of the many things that makes Hades a powerful defensive god. Good to have against rushers.
BUILDINGS HAVE MORE ATTACK - Serves a similar purpose as having more hit points,its a good thing to have. These two together make surrounding towers with houses even more effective.
ARCHERS DEAL MORE DAMAGE - This is a powerful bonus. Toxotes are already strong archers, this makes them Hades' main unit in most cases.
HUMAN UNITS HAVE A 20% CHANCE OF RETURNING FROM THE DEAD AS SHADES - Awesome to have - shades have long LOS, making them good for watching a gold mine, settlement or choke-point, and they are very good as suicide soldiers or scouts. Sending them into enemy bases to check out what they're building is an excellent example of a suicide use for them. Shades are not considered man or myth, do not counter and are not countered. They become tougher with each age.

As we can see, his specials help him defensively and resource wise in the long run. Free soldiers plus stronger toxotes, more hp and attack on buildings. However one of the reasons I love Hades is that his powerful defensive aspect doesnt really need much attention, allowing me to play offensively and aggresively as well without worrying.

GOD POWER: Sentinel - Summons four stone, stationary, long range archers that defend a town center. I think this enhances Hades' defense even more. It can be used in two ways: One, use it on your home base for defense against rushes, etc. or, two, use it on a forward base to make it harder to breach. I also like to use it when a scout enters my town - but I dont place it until he is in the center of my town - he thinks he's alot safer than he really is until he's dead.
TECHNOLOGY: Vaults of Erebus - Gives you about 1 gold per second. Very good tech, gives you 60 gold per minute in that case. In my opinion this is one of the best major god techs there is.

THE GOD PATH
Classical Age: Ares and Athena

ARES
FOCUS: Human Soldiers
God Power: Pestilence - All the buildings in a wide area that produce soldiers, myth units or heroes stop functioning for a while. Great for launching early attacks when your enemies have 2 soldiers and cant pump out any more for a while. An ok god-power in my opinion.
Myth Unit: Cyclops - Incredible for a Classical Myth Unit. Very expensive in both cost AND population, but makes up for it with 650 hitpoints, a solid crush attack that DOUBLES with it's upgrade, a powerful hack attack, tough armor and a very slow recharge/animation but very rewarding instant kill special against human units. It can be used as an amazing classical siege weapon when upgraded.

Techs: Will of Kronos - Doubles Cyclops Crush attack, adds +7 Hack Dmg, makes Cyclopses train faster. Turns a great myth unit into the best classical myth unit without much contest.
Spear of Panic: Increases Hoplite Attack - I usually dont research it but it could be put to good use.
Sword of Dread: Increases Hypaspist Attack - Same as above.
Bow of Horror: Increases Toxotes Attack - This one is a good reason why most Hades players go for Ares - it makes your already strong archers into... hmm, lets see, running out of adjectives here... umm... REALLY strong archers. Good tech.

ATHENA
FOCUS: Infantry
God Power: Restoration - Makes all the units and buildings except for titans regenerate extremely quickly for about 3 or 4 seconds. Nice god-power.
Myth Unit: Minotaur - A very strong myth unit that combines good damage, decent speed, heavy armor and a powerful special attack altogether to make it almost equal with an upgraded Cyclops when upgraded itself.
Techs: Sarrisa - Improves Hoplite Hack Armor - this is an okay tech but it's way over-priced.
Aegis Shield - Improves Hoplite Pierce Armor - same as above only even more over-priced.
Labyrinth of Minos - Makes minotaurs stronger and makes them 50 food cheaper. Good if you have alot of minotaurs.

THE CHOICE: I used to go Athena but between cyclops, pestilence and the bow upgrade I switched to Ares. I find Ares to have a slightly better myth unit, better fitting technologies and equal god power. If I were you I would always take Ares.

Heroic Age: Apollo and Aphrodite

APOLLO
FOCUS: Archers
God Power: Underworld Passage - Creates two passageways through the underworld through which up to 25 soldiers can travel instantly to the other Passageway. AWESOME god-power. If you take Apollo, this will usually be one of your main reasons. It has several uses such as titan gate destruction, raiding, forward base, etc.
Myth Unit: Manticore - A ranged myth unit with a spread attack. I believe the special attack launches more spines over a wider area. This thing is a very good archer myth unit and in groups the spread, area attack really kicks in against archers and infantry. Its a pretty good unit, but a little expensive.
Techs: Oracle - gives all your buildings and units an LOS boost. this tech is okay, good against forward base builders.
Temple of Healing - All your temples will heal all your units at an extremely fast rate one at a time when they are near it. Great, solid tech that gives you another shot at healing if you took Ares.
Sun Ray - Improves Archer and Archer myth unit attack. Very good tech in conjunction with archers and Manticores.

APHRODITE
FOCUS: Villagers
God Power: Curse - Turns a few enemy units into pigs, based on hit points. This god power is better than most think. If cast on low hp units, it can kill 8 or 9 of them! That can be very useful against archers, alot more so than Zeus' Bolt. I rate it a very good.
Myth Unit: Nemean Lion - High hp, high pierce armor myth unit with a solid crush attack as well as Hack Attack. Nemean Lion has a Roar special attack that does alot of damage in the area around the lion. When upgraded Pierce Armor rises to 80%! Awesome against egyptian priests when upgraded and isnt super expensive.
Techs: Roar of Orthus - Nemean Lions get more hack and pierce armor. Good if your using them. Great against egyptians.
Golden Apples - Villagers gather favor 15% faster. This goes hand in hand with Hades powerful myth units and is dirt cheap. Get it if you are or plan on using lots of myth units and myth techs.'
Divine Blood - Villagers move faster, build quicker and carry more. This is an AWESOME tech, that allows you to sacrifice a few of your villagers for military as well as have a better economy. This will help you all game and it is a MUST when you take Aphrodite.

THE CHOICE: I've been taking Aphrodite recently. Even though Underworld Passage helps alot, I haven't needed to use it as much. The extra economy and Nemean Lion really helps. However, its never a bad move to go for the Manticore, Underworld Passage and Healing Temples of Apollo.

Mythic Age: Artemis and Hephaestus

ARTEMIS
FOCUS: Archers
God Power: Earthquake - over a wide area does massive crush damage and can easily take down Castle Buildings, barracks, temples and some town centers. It does enough crush damage to kill a few villagers and archers in the area too. AMAZING SPECTACULAR AWESOME FABULOUS WONDERFUL god-power. It is the best in my opinion of the five destruction powers(Tornado, Meteor, EARTHQUAKE, Implode, Lightning Storm). It has a straight-forward usage and is great at it. Base is flattened, titan gate is in pieces, villagers are dead, good game.
Myth Unit: Chimera - High speed, high damage, high armor, high hit point melee myth unit with a short range fire breath special attack that is spread like the manticore spines. What can I say. Chimeras rock.
Techs: Shafts of Plague - Increases Archer damage. Good for Hades but the favor cost is way too much.
Flames of Typhon - Increases Chimera hit points and damage. Pretty straight-forward.
Trierarch - More crush armor on Arrow Ships. First of all, water wars have usually ended by now and second of all, almost WORTHLESS. And third of all, way overpriced. If it was 2 gold, 2 favor I would get it but 300 gold and 40 favor? You're kidding me.

HEPHAESTUS
FOCUS: Human Soldiers
God Power: Plenty - Creates a large vault from which huge amounts of resources flow every few seconds as long as its in your control. This is also an AMAZING SPECTACULAR AWESOME FABULOUS WONDERFUL god-power. It really helps if you've been raided and barely have crawled through the ages with enough resources. No wonder Aphrodite and Hephaestus are married - they're both awesome for your economy!
Myth Unit: Colossus - Huge hit-point, heavy crush damage, incredible pierce armor myth unit with no special attack. Colossus can also eat trees and gold mines to replenish health. This is a great way to deprive your enemy of gold. These are good against the Egyptians, like the Nemeans, because of their gold destruction powers and their pierce armor against priests.
Techs: Hand of Talos - Improves Colossus hit points. This is good if you are using Colossus.
Shoulder of Talos - Only available after Hand of Talos but does the same thing.
Weapon of the Titans - Improves unique unit attack.
Forge of Olympus - Armory upgrades 75% cheaper. Awesome and really pays off if you haven't done all the armory upgrades.

THE CHOICE: This choice is pretty easy. If you have low resources go for Hephaestus, and also go with Hephaestus against Egyptian to take care of priests. Go Artemis if you want to turn the battle in your favor, finish them off, destroy a titan gate, or need a myth unit that doesnt really have a weakness.(not including heroes)

HADES UNIQUE UNIT: The Gastraphetes - Slow, low hit point archer. Now I bet you're thinking "WHAT? Why bother? I thought Gastraphetes rocked!" Well, read the rest. Gastraphetes have high damage, and solid CRUSH damage. They range of 24, which OUT-RANGES ANY BUILDING, and benefit from Flaming Arrows. Gastraphetes have enough range and damage that when in large groups, they should do very well against BUILDINGS, infantry and archers and even do well against CHARGING CAVALRY. They also become decent against myth units after Beast Slayer has been researched. The siege archer with no counter... THE GASTRAPHETES! They are very expensive for a human unit but you should have enough resources by Mythic. If you dont, thats why you take Hephaestus. Like with the Cyclops, Chimera, Colossus, Nemean Lion and Manticore, the price pays off incredibly well.

CONCLUSION: Hades has an interesting playstyle. He is born to be defensive, but that doesnt mean he has to PLAY defensive. He innately IS. His buildings have more hit points. You dont have anything extra to use that. You dont have to on Sentinel or high dmg buildings, do you? Nope. This allows me to have a very offensive, raiding, constricting playstyle, but Hades has a good economy too. His powerful, versatile god path gives him a wide variety of tools to work with. Hades is very tough but is also alot of fun and I hope this has helped people learn more about him!

[This message has been edited by Meanotaur (edited 10-22-2004 @ 08:10 PM).]