Lictors and why they work

[mattblowers]

With all due respect being paid to the player who took the GT lately with the lictor heavy list, I think too much is being paid to it. Suddenly tyranids are popping up as the new BMOC (too be fair, 5 flyrants is pretty strong) and everyone seems to be adding lictors to their lists. Their ebay price has risen significantly in the month of December. I've long been a proponent of lictors in single model broods and I've championed them for some time, but all this hullabaloo seems to me to be much ado about nothing.

Let's get this out of the way. Lictors, while good, did so well precisely because they were played expertly by a great player that knew how and when/where to use them. A noob grabbing lictors off the shelf will be sorely disappointed by the result unless they understand what makes them so good.

So let's try this to help each other out.

1. What makes lictors work/ why are they effective?

2. What is the best way to play them?

3. What is their greatest strength?

These are my thoughts.

1. Lictors work because they are good at working solo. They do great work in units of one. They are a great "special forces" unit. You opponent has to deal with them because they can be a real threat, but they don't stand up to any real attention. They won't tar pit anything and neither are they your biggest threat, but they can really be a pesky nuisance that makes a big distraction.

2. They are disposable. Don't try to play them otherwise. I've had them turn a wraithknight for a turn; to me, that's a win. I always deepstrike them. With their ability to deepstrike wherever you want them, you can use them to place between something you don't want caught in combat and your opponent. You can deepstrike them behind a vehicle for a pretty good chance to strip a hull point or two on the turn you come in. With native stealth they are pretty resilient if dropped in ruins for a 3+ cover save. Create distraction and exploit your enemies weaknesses is where lictors really excel. They don't fair well in a gunfight and any concentrated effort will kill them easily. I find that I can maximize their strengths when I hold all lictors in reserve so I can deepstrike them into areas where they can cause the biggest disruptions later.

3. This may seem to be obvious, but their biggest strength is the their LD 10. This means that you can run them far away from your main force without worrying about IB raising it's ugly head. They are a self-reliant unit that are best used going off and doing their own thing. The fact that their high LD negating IB just reinforces for me how harsh IB is on us.

What say the hive?

[WestRider]

They're kind of the ultimate MSU Unit. Capable of doing significant, but not usually substantial damage; durable enough that they can't just be cleared out with "spare" firepower from Rhino Stormbolters and such, but fragile enough that it feels like overkill to direct a proper Unit at them; capable of operating independently, but can also buff some other Units if the opportunity arises, and have much better mobility than many people expect thanks to Hit & Run; and not too badly priced for that mix of qualities.

But yeah, they absolutely require skilled play to get value from them. If you don't have a plan for them, if you don't make best use of their capabilities, it's really easy to throw away all their value.

[Davor]

What is BMOC?

[Yautja]

Bounce My Obscene Cleavage.

[mattblowers]

Dec 26, 2014 14:53:38 GMT Yautja said:

Bounce My Obscene Cleavage.

That made me laugh. Thanks for that.

Big Man On Campus. It's an ESPN thing for the current hot trend in ____.

[FTGT-BeeCee]

honestly, i think their biggest strength is in numbers. Combined with their ability to arrive from reserves anywhere is huge, especially as more tourneys adopt a maelstrom element.

They come in groups of one but i think they work best in groups. 3 lictors arriving near a choice target means your opponent has to dedicated at least 3 units shooting to wipe them out, more if they are in cover, out of LoS, etc... They are instant threat saturation, especially if you can get multiples on the board at the same time. Combine that with your flyrants and you are able to throw 3-6 threats in a part of the board all at the same time.

[creatureboi]

With the new cytes I'm planning to add a couple of lictors to act as guides and general disruption. They will run as singles and try to infiltrate/deep strike into ruins or the best cover available. If the enemy concentrates fire on them they go to ground and are actually quite hard to shift so it's likely at least one of them will survive until my cytes or mawlocs come in. I know the lictor/mawloc combo has taken some stick in the past and I'm not counting on it as a game winner but it's an extra thing my opponent has to worry about. Every shot at a 50pt lictor is one less at my game winning units

[yoritomo]

I've got to agree with Mr. BeeCee, lictors are okay as single models, but truly excel when they are with friends.

Look at the numbers, with three wounds each and a 3++ save in ruins it will take a substantial amount of firepower to get of three lictors. And if your opponent does maneuver his force to alpha strike your lictors then they can go to ground for a 2++ save. Having your opponent commit way too much firepower to killing three lictors is worth the points in my book.

But let's say that your opponent ignores them for some reason. Since they don't scatter the should be within charge range as soon as they hit the table. On the charge they have 12 attacks at S6 with Ws 6. That's what, 8 hits for 7 wounds? Oh, and we can't forget that they're rending hits, so at least one of those should auto wound. And before they lose any of those attacks your opponent has to do 6 wounds to the brood in close combat. Now I wouldn't send this against a dedicated assault unit, but against a backfield support unit such as devestators or tanks this is an auto win.

And let's not forget that they do have flesh hooks. One lictor with 2 shots is pretty meh, but 3 with 6 shots should be taking off hull points from vehicles or putting wounds on squads. It's not the greatest thing in the worlds, but at least it's something they can do once they hit the field.

[Yautja]

I disagree. They're definitely best as individuals in my opinion, ala DL formation. Nothing stopping you having them close to each other. The important thing is disallowing a single enemy unit from killing more than a single Lictor.

[mattblowers]

Dec 26, 2014 16:08:31 GMT Yautja said:

I disagree. They're definitely best as individuals in my opinion, ala DL formation. Nothing stopping you having them close to each other. The important thing is disallowing a single enemy unit from killing more than a single Lictor.

This, 100% for me. They work best when your opponent has to deal with them and overspend to take them out. A riptide/wraithknight/fire warrior team take out 3 lictors almost as easily as one. 3 seperate units leaves 2 still alive to cause trouble. I'd be curious how people who run multi-model broods run them and how that works out for you. 150 points for 3 is MC level of points for a 5+ save and T 4, I don't think so (even with the 9 wounds). Nothing stops you from charging 3 seperate units on the same unit if want, but diversify if you need that too. MSUs is why I love Deathleapers formation.

[WestRider]

Read what BeeCee actually said, guys. He's talking about taking three individual Lictors but still dropping them all in the same area. So they can hit like one Brood of 3, but it takes at least 3 Enemy Units to gun them down, or forces an Assault Army into a Disordered Charge.

In my experience, it depends. There are a number of things that a single Lictor can actually take on pretty well, like a ThunderFire Cannon, Whirlwind, or Wyvern. For other things, you're going to want several. Once I also dropped one on an Objective way away from anything else, and he did no damage for me, but him being there picked me up 3 Maelstrom Points. They're very situational Units, and you've got to be able to read the Game and your Opponent's Army well to get the most out of them.

[Yautja]

Yeah for Maelstrom it is nice to have the option of dropping one perfectly within range of an objective to earn a point.

My plan at the moment is Skytyrant and DL formations together. If not allowed, DL and two individuals with Skytyrant.

If there's cover behind any enemy vehicles I'll certainly be landing there for some cheeky rear shots. If there's far off objectives that need claiming, I have the option to spend 50p to claim it. Lastly, use them to assault whatever my Skytyrant brood has tied up.

Yeah they're only T4 but fleet/hooks means they're reliable to perform to their stat's potential, which with MC strength and RC can hurt anything.

[russellr]

Nice posts guys, especially the original post.

New players often overlook the flesh hooks, but they're surprisingly effective. They may not be twin-linked brainleech devourers, but they're actually good, instead of being a practically useless weapon when tyranid warriors use them.

[coredump]

Sean was using 8 Lictors plus Dleaper, so he had 9 'lictors' he could drop in. What this does is allow you to tailor how many you need to put to solve a problem. Some things, 1 lictor is fine, but if you need 3 or 5 or whatever, you can drop that many.

And has stated, they will land exactly where you want them, and still count as 3 or 5 or whatever separate units.

That said.... I am interested in how Sean continues to do; looking at the bat reports, some of his success came from folks having no clue what they were facing. His first opponent took his 10 termies and abbadon out of the land raider, and moved them within 6" of a lictor. 3 Mawlocs later... his premeire unit was wiped out. He is still using them, and still doing well according to his blog.... so we'll see.

I still would not advise them for most lists.... I think they are an 'all in' kind of model. Take a ton with mawlocs, or go a different route.

[eskimo]

I'm doing some minor conversions with my 3 Deathstorm boxes out of the Primes.

A list i thought may be fun but for social gaming i'm aiming toward.

Deathleaper
Lictor 1x3
Shrikes 3x3
Genstealer + BL 3x5
Dakkafex 1x2
Tfex

May work out if board allows good infiltrate spots.

Really think the formations are ideal. Also comms relay to get what you need at the right time.

It's a shame there isn't an alternative to the Flyrant. These are also helpfull for doing the Go to Ground trick and then the GTG being able to assault.

If you can lock the Lictor in combat with some weak troops the Pheromone trail will work nicely for the Mawloc.