The mini-artifacts for initiative in the beta simply don't work, and even if they did, they shouldn't work as described (I specifically asked one of the closed beta testers, and he said that in reality, it's not +24, but +2.4, which is a completely different matter and quite acceptable). Ugh, I'm so tired of answering questions about Hydras. Everyone is saying how useless they are, and even that they're detrimental to the player (although Infiltrator from the Ubisoft forum, who probably played with them more than anyone else, fortunately thinks otherwise). I agree that they move infrequently, but is the value of any unit solely based on dealing damage? Are there no other tactical considerations? For example, holding out until the hero's next cast or blocking a Matron from any enemies of size 2x2... In my opinion, all the arguments about accumulating initiative during a battle and then taking several turns in a row are only valid for battles with neutral creatures. In PvP, you'll simply get hit with magic for being too fond of using Defense with units that shouldn't be used for that.