Tyranid AA

[maugrim]

Well, I suppose we can always use these now: (as per BolS)

Firestorm Redoubt
Classification: Medium bunker [STANDARD FORTIFICATION]
Cost: 2x Thunderfire Cannons
AV: 14
Access Points: As modeled (3)
Fire Points: 1
Rules: Medium sized Bunker, and two quad lascanons. The quad lascanons are 2 shot linked Icarus lascanons. They are able to independently fire and are not target-able separate from the redoubt, however they are always fired automatically, (BS:2 CANNOT be manned) however they automatically fire at the closest flying monstrous creature or flier if one is available.


Tyranids don't care about them not being able to be manned... we can't anyways, so its a wash for us. But is it really worth the points?

[infornography]

It is expensive, but it is four twin linked las cannon shots per round albeit at BS2 and without your ability to handle target priority. I think it is probably overcosted.

Firestorm Redoubt at BS2 (auto)
2.20 hits
glance +
vs av10 2.20
vs av11 1.83
vs av12 1.47
pen
vs av10 1.83
vs av11 1.47
vs av12 1.10
destroy target
vs av10 .60
vs av11 .49
vs av12 .36

It puts on about as many glances against AV12 as a dakka flyrant and has a MUCH higher chance of causing it to be destroyed outright. Dakka Flyrant is more reliable against lower AV targets though. Tough call. It definitely gives us a new option to deal with flyers, but not a great one. If it has interceptor it might be worth it, but without being able to see the actual rules for it I don't know.

I am also curious about the vengeance weapon batteries. If those battle cannons only autofire at the nearest target as well then they might be more dangerous to use than beneficial, but if you can aim them? holy cow that is nasty.

Also something that has never come up for me, does anyone know if any rules specifically deny the use of synapse from inside a building, because if not, putting 3 warriors with a barbed stranger inside would provide a pretty good sized area of synapse and be able to fire from relative safety.

[WestRider]

They do have Interceptor. I'm rather more sanguine about the Firestorm Redoubt now than I was at first. It is actually pretty decent firepower, even at BS2, and the thing is pretty big, lots of room to hide stuff behind it. The guns being Emplaced Weapons rather than Weapons Emplacements is also significant, makes them rather harder for most Armies to shoot away.

The Vengeance Battlecannon, tho, are also required to auto-target, which seems like a big problem.

As far as I know, Synapse, like all other "Aura" abilities, measures from the edge of a Building when inside it. Come to think of it, I think the Doom's Aura would, too, but I can't really think of a good way to make use of that at the moment. Doom in a Basion could be a heck of an area denial tool, but Nids aren't really an Army that needs that.

[innocent]

Yes it has Interceptor. This would have been great about a year ago. As it stands, flyer armies are on the decline, and the only armies that still feature problematic air units are Guard (Vendetta) and Chaos (Helldrake). Spending 200pnts for something that's only useful in 1 out of 4 games is not great.

Still, if your meta still relies heavily on flyers I would go for it.

[infornography]

I was under the impression that it would target ground targets if there were no flyers to shoot at, and it can do a lot of damage to ground targets as well, though autofire all but guarantees it won't be aiming at anything useful against some armies.

Against Orks, IG, or marines though, if it doesn't have flyers to swat it will probably be aiming at a transport coming toward you and that is pretty handy.

As for which armies make heavy use of flyers, in my local meta that would be Codex marines, Chaos marines, Necron, Tyranid, Imperial Guard, and Grey Knights. As well as pretty much anyone who takes IG allies.

No shortage of flyers to swat.

[revx]

Jul 15, 2013 8:50:34 GMT innocent said:

Yes it has Interceptor. This would have been great about a year ago. As it stands, flyer armies are on the decline, and the only armies that still feature problematic air units are Guard (Vendetta) and Chaos (Helldrake). Spending 200pnts for something that's only useful in 1 out of 4 games is not great.

Still, if your meta still relies heavily on flyers I would go for it.

i think info's is more on: your forgetting other nids flyrants, deamon princes, and necrons are still flier heavy. even tau and eldar's new fliers are nice. i would also expect new fliers in the new codex getting released.

[innocent]

Jul 15, 2013 9:36:53 GMT infornography said:

Against Orks, IG, or marines though, if it doesn't have flyers to swat it will probably be aiming at a transport coming toward you and that is pretty handy.

The gun targets flyers first. If there are none, it targets the closest unit. Could be a transport, true, but it could also be a unit of Boys or Bikes, or if you are playing against a gunline, a random infantry unit. A bit of a gamble for 200pnts.

Jul 15, 2013 13:17:19 GMT revx said:

i think info's is more on: your forgetting other nids flyrants, deamon princes, and necrons are still flier heavy. even tau and eldar's new fliers are nice. i would also expect new fliers in the new codex getting released.

FMCs are not the hardest thing to deal with with Nids. Just like others deal with ours, they are susceptible to grounding test, and with tons of gants on the ground it's not hard to do.

Eldar and Tau's best lists do not feature flyers. Necron Scythe Spam is still a problem but is on the decline due to Tau.

I wouldn't drop a scoring Tervigon for it. Though if I could fit one in without sacrificing too much I'd give it a serious thought.