Just build your First Executor in era 1 Starts and it will become the Night Hammer as a Hero.
Your Brother propably plays as IR and that is the reason for the build option itself.

No, he plays EA and he can just built the Night Hammer itself as a Colonel Cronus. I never have the option.

Just build your First one and it will be Cronus

That has not worked any of the times I tried it and according to my brother he can build Cronus as himself without issue.

There is no buildable Cronus that way in the mod.
Did you start in era 1?

I do start in Era 1. According to the in-game information, I should be able to build the Night Hammer specifically. The fact that the PA is able to build Sysco with the Vengeance as a hero with no other requirements implies that Cronus should be the same.

You build a generic Executor and when it is Finished there will be a Text poping Up, which Said that it is the Night Hammer and Cronus has the command of it.
That is how It works in 3.0

There is NO build option with Cronus as Icon!!!

If that is the case, then it's not very well explained in the mod. It says nothing about how Cronus is recruited or explains how the Night Hammer itself comes to be. I'd thought my game was glitched for the longest time, especially after I saw my brother using Cronus in an EA era progressive. It's very confusing. I apologize for being obstinate.

Technically the Night Hammer was Not build at the time Delvardus was in Charge of the Territory around Eriadu and in later era Starts He has the Night Hammer as His flag.
So it makes Sense to hide it and have the surprise when you build your First Executor.

I understand the history, it's just frustrating when the game hides features. I didn't understand Zsinj's pirates being random but they eventually got an in-game explanation with 3.0. Hiding Cronus like that seems honestly nonsensical to me. At least it's better than my game being broken.

It's a thing because we couldn't lock units for non-main factions

That's fair, but you could stand to have a better explanation in the game itself. Because Sysco was a thing and there were nothing specified in the tabs about how to get Cronus and the Night Hammer, I assumed I was having a glitch. I'm glad to know that's not the case and understanding the workaround is interesting, but I feel a better explanation would avoid misunderstandings like this in the future, or at least cut down on them since it's impossible to truly idiot proof something.

After PG patch we can lock and unlock stuff for any faction anyways

So the confusion should be resolved by the .1 update?

I'd not call it confusion at all, but yeah, Delvardus will just get upgrade to NH