Strangleweb Use?

[Deleted]

A Strangleweb planted in a brood of termagants would be great for objective holding against assault armies now that overwatch is around. You'd always have a turn to stop their assault dead. Roll for the Devourers first, possibly encurring a -1ld. Then you roll with the Strangleweb with increased odds of forcing the enemy to ground. Come your turn you have a unit in firing range to rain the pain on, possibly keeping them pinned for another round of shooting or a free and softened charge.

[Jabberwocky]

You can't pin a charging unit. Nor would you be likely to with d3 S2 hits.

Plus, the devourer LD modifier is only for the 25% casualty morale check.

[Deleted]

Actually the Go to Ground section in the 6e book says units can be forced to ground from overwatch on page 40.

And the Devourer doesn't state that the ld penalty is for the casualty check, it just says they receive -1ld if a moral check is taken. Doesn't say how it has to occur.

Sure, it wouldn't pan out too often with MeQ, but GeQ I bet you'd have decent odds, and when it worked it would be that enemy units downfall.

[Talonis]

This could be a viable use for the strangle web, if you can indeed pin charging units. But does "take a pinning check" mean the same as "forced to go to ground?"

[commandersasha]

Blast weapons can't be fired as Snap Fire, thus not in Overwatch either.

[bobnik]

@ sasha: However TEMPLATE weapons can - and that's just what the strangleweb is...

[Deleted]

Well if a unit fails a pinning test they are forced to go to ground, that's what pinning does. It is also a template so D3 auto hits so no worrying about BS1 stuff.

[andy089]

Yeah, but "and they shall know no fear" basically makes marines auto-pass pinning tests, or am i wrong?

[Deleted]

No, SM are still subject to pinning, they would just be a harder to get it to work against, since you're wounding on a 6.

[creep]

You don't take 25% morale checks while charging.... can't find something about pinning so it seems legit?

[Jabberwocky]

Page 21, in bold.

Overwatch cannot cause morale checks or Pinning tests. Any shots fired as Overwatch can only be fired as Snap Shots.


Sorry.

[Deleted]

Oh well, guess the strangleweb is still useless. I tried

[nurglitch]

It's not useless, you just failed in gap analysis between the needs of the Tyranid army in winning games, and strangleweb capabilities. Don't blame yourself though. It'll take a while before people adapt to the new edition.

[Deleted]

Nothing in 6e changed how the Stangleweb operates or effects units and I haven't heard of anyone using or having luck with them though. If anything they got hurt by 6e with the new allocate wounds from the front rule. With how fast termies get taken off the board, just keeping the one with a strangleweb up far enough to use it alive would be like winning the lottery.

[nurglitch]

I used them in 5th edition, and didn't need to get lucky: throw enough automatic hits on a unit and they make their own luck. Likewise there's no mystery to using them in 6th edition: just make sure that they have a meatshield of 27 other Termagants to suck up any casualties.

Having them camp backfield objectives has always been the wrong way to use Troops-choice Termagants, though right enough for Brood Primogenitor Termagants. You want them to advance toward an objective and provide an additional pinning weapon to obviate the I1 penalty for charging units in cover. Instead of sticking them at the front of a unit upon deployment, put them in the back rank so that they're in the front rank by the time they are needed.