Tyrant Guard: Another Use?

[phayze]

So as per codex rules, for each Tyrant in your army you can purchase a brood of tyrant guard. Shield wall rules say that a tyrant can jump in the brood just as if it was an independent character. Sweet.

So what can we do if we want that flyrant that's so good? Ignore the guard? Leave Warriors to do the CC? Way too flimsy.

I just played 1500 points against Tau with an Imperial Knight ally, and granted, it was just one game, but I like what I did.

I ran a flyrant with devourers,
a brood of 3 tyrant guard with adrenal glands and lashwhip boneswords,
a tyranid prime with reaper, fleshhooks, and adrenal glands,
a small brood of hormagaunts with adrenal glands
a tervigon with termagant tax
a hive crone
and a carnifex with crushclaws scytals regen adrenal glands and spinebanks.

I chose to attach the Prime to the tyrant guard, and run them with the gaunt and carnifex blockers up the side where his warlord/broadside unit was hiding behind an aegis, with his Knight walking up the same side.

the knight ended up meeting a charging carnifex next to an archeotech artifact, the time flow stabilizer, letting my carnifex blow him up as he stomps me out, and my choppy brood to advance up the field.

Long game short, he shoots up everything, but never really focuses down the guard brood (big mistake), and the guard pass their 3+'s really well, losing only one on the way to the support commander's squad. I'm holding two of the objectives, his pathfinders and firewarriors are staring down the gants and tervigon in the corner, and my prime brood is positioned to assault the warlord's squad and challenges the commander. I shred up to 3 instant death wounds and 3 normal wounds before he strikes, saves his 2+ on the instant deaths, and fails one regular wound. he whiffs on hurting the prime, and the guard knock out a missile drone, losing nothing. He loses by two, fails his leadership, and is sweeping advanced, securing me total victory.

Pretty fun game! Both of us were rather surprised by the performance of the tyrant guard brood, and I intend to run them as my choppy squad in the future.

So what do you think, hive? they're pretty expensive per model, but is it worth it for a dependable and killer brood?

[gigasnail]

Well of course they do great if your opponent never shoots them with ap3 or better weapons, or doesn't torrent them down, and let's you walk across the board to get into CC.

[brassangel]

You didn't detach the brood from the Flyrant, did you? I'm pretty sure he can't leave them; he joins "just like a", but never becomes an IC, nor is granted permission to leave them like an IC can.

[gigasnail]

yeah flyrant can't leave if he joins. yes, it's stupid, we know.

[brassangel]

It's different, that's for sure. It was a useful "restriction" in the previous edition when opponents couldn't single out the Tyrant as an IC. Now it's irrelevant, and I kind of wish he could leave. Tyrant Guard would be sweet with a Prime attached while the Flyrant swoops around killing stuff.

[phayze]

Mar 14, 2014 2:10:32 GMT brassangel said:

You didn't detach the brood from the Flyrant, did you? I'm pretty sure he can't leave them; he joins "just like a", but never becomes an IC, nor is granted permission to leave them like an IC can.

Well thats just the thing. The only prerequisite for bringing tyrant guard is that i have to have a hive tyrant. Thats it. Shieldwall special rule says that I CAN attatch a tyrant to them, not that I MUST. i can have the flyrant never attach and fly around, while the prime walks with an attached guard.

[gigasnail]

yeah, i think he just wanted to be sure you were clear on it. this comes up a lot.

the issues really are points, the fact that it's a slow moving (even with fleet) CC unit, and that taking a prime is not taking a flyrant and generally not the best option. even with skyblight, you're generally going to be better off taking a third flyrant than using that other slot on a prime.

[phayze]

Mar 14, 2014 4:10:21 GMT gigasnail said:

yeah, i think he just wanted to be sure you were clear on it. this comes up a lot.

the issues really are points, the fact that it's a slow moving (even with fleet) CC unit, and that taking a prime is not taking a flyrant and generally not the best option. even with skyblight, you're generally going to be better off taking a third flyrant than using that other slot on a prime.

True true but not everyone has deep enough pockets to dish out the $400 needed for skyblight. Im constricted to models i have on hand, and 1 flyrant is what I've got. Im constricted to the models ive got. Not much i can do. Optimally i'd field 50 flyrants, but its just not physically or financially possible.

I respect your help, but I'm poor

[gigasnail]

i understand the pockets problem. my red chinese allies can help.

[coredump]

I would put CClaws on one of the TGuard.

[phayze]

Mar 14, 2014 7:02:21 GMT coredump said:

I would put CClaws on one of the TGuard.

To add diversity if fighting armor? I thought about it, but most of the armies I face are infantry heavy without many dreadnoughts or anything, just MC's like dreadknights and riptides, and the I1 from unwieldy is an iffy choice.

[mattblowers]

Played Tyrant Guard lately in an escalation league where flyers were restricted for the first four weeks. Tyrant Guard are spectacular in CC. I was shocked how well they did. The issue, like with anything else in 6th ed. is actually getting into combat. I gave them LW&BS, AD, and TS. They tore it up. They basically gave me two mini budget 'fexes. With a walkrant they created a fear factor in my opponent far greater than their actual threat. For tournaments, probably not, but they did fine in this situation.

[phayze]

Would you recommend putting the TS on them? And what did you choose to do with the guard after the four weeks were up?

[Hive Bahamut]

I've been wanting to try this since I played Dawn of War 2. They really are mini MC. My problem is I hated the metal ones and now that they have plastic, I'm moving and all that fun relocating stuff. I always thought the Prime made the best babysitter as much as I hate the Whifflebat, he is the only unit in our entire codex that can strike at I8 with grenades.

[phayze]

and at S7 on the charge with AG/reaper. He punches fast and hard, the only thing you're trading from a tyrant is having another flyrant, or S8 AP2 on the charge with NO grenades.