Rippers?

[Space is pretty big]

So. Boo to overwatch for being a jerk...

In fact there are a lot of pain in the @$$ updates for combat that make our jobs hards.... and nearly ALL of them simply break down to screwing up our charge.

Only, what if we don't have to worry about charge restrictions and (please do not swear) like overwatch?

With rippers, what were the reasons we didn't use them in 5th?

Well they had (please do not swear) armor, but what 'nid doesn't. Thing is, theres a new threat for us. We get shot to bits and we lose the chance to charge as our upfront attackers get taken off first.
Only, being 3 wound models, you really have to fry the rippers before they start losing bases.

Movement, who wants to get stuck behind a ripper swarm? Only, Rippers now ignore difficult terrain restrictions, so no worries of falling behind. That also makes them a little beefier for not getting killed off the bat.

Fearless. Rippers were basically killed automatically in combat.
Now? Heheheh, not so much. (So much smile face!)

So, what does that leave us? An ultrafast, highly expendable unit that doesn't take any important FoC slots, that can crawl up the backside of enemy troops and make their life a pain for combat by killing off all their defensive rebuttals.



Thoughts?

[Obsidorox]

It is something I am very eager to try and seems to fit the fluff fantastically. I think I have enough stuff to give them a whirl but it sounds hilarious.

[nurglitch]

They can't go to ground anymore, which is a bit annoying since they made good, cheap cover for other units, and great for tunnelling swarms to contest objectives. Not sure if swarms are still prohibited from capturing objectives, which is something to check.

Their Instinctive Behaviour is Feed, and with A4 per base, that's a hefty 6 attacks on the charge. At I2 with no bonus to Initiative from teeny tiny Adrenal Glands, but them's the breaks. But they're Ld5. So lengthen the synaptic gap at a critical point, they'll lose 2 wounds on average, and be wonderfully expendable against whatever you throw them at. Good for locking enemy units in cover.

No overwatch from blasts, but D3 hits from templates might be a female dog.

[creep]

Well at least always the first Ripper is hit

So if hes on 1 LP you dont care if its a Bolter or a single Basilisk hit it will still kill just one LP Ripper
thats awesome if you think about it.... before S 6 Templates killed two Rippers per wound they caused.
Now its one Ripper swarm
already scratched or not.

[gloomfang]

I started a thread in Tactics on this very subject:
thetyranidhive.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Tactics&action=display&thread=39324

The reason no one took them in 5th? Fearless wounds. They could not hit anything so they died in droves to combat resolution.

The second reason: They didn't serve a purpose. They couldn't score (still can't). They didn't have fleet or bounding leap or a gun. There was nothing that guants coudn't do better.

6th ed there is something that they can do better than everyone else, soak up overwatch.

I plan on using rippers a LOT. Especially at 2K as I will be using 2 FoC for the elite slots anyway and I have to take 2 troops for the second FoC anyway (Taking PoM as the HQ of that force for HQ).

[nurglitch]

gloomfang: You're incorrect about Rippers lacking a purpose. They were a cheaper meatshield than Termagants, and handy for contesting objectives. Now they're going to be fantastic for locking down units for charges by other broods, and pretty useless for contesting objectives.

[Space is pretty big]

Jul 3, 2012 17:57:22 GMT nurglitch said:

gloomfang: You're incorrect about Rippers lacking a purpose. They were a cheaper meatshield than Termagants, and handy for contesting objectives. Now they're going to be fantastic for locking down units for charges by other broods, and pretty useless for contesting objectives.

Yeah but it was a heft investment in risk for a very little reward, a reward that could be gotten by other more useful means.

With fearless death gone though, there goes the cost of that investment.

[nurglitch]

It wasn't a hefty investment. At 50pts for five swarms you got 50% more wounds than ten Termagants. For 60pts you could deep strike them into difficult terrain with little risk, and thanks to having Stealth and being able to Go To Ground you could get a Cv2+ that prevented any need for a pesky Instinctive Behaviour test, and thus Rage movement (and 'kiting'), and wounds from Mindless. Cheap, effective, and often a game winner.

[rainthezangoose]

thing is they no longer get +1 to cover anymore do they ?

[ikken]

yep i was just reading the over watch rules , and they state that a unit can only shoot over watch once per turn . which means that tervagons popping out lots of small cheap/free gaunt squads will be important , or ripper swarms are now usefull as cannon fodder .

you have to watch your timming in 6th i ambeginning to relise .
you basicly want to double charge a unit if you can .
1st with something cheap and expendable ( rippers )
your opponent has the option to overwatch/shoot them or not ifhe does , great he spent his over watch shooting on a cheap disposable unit ( we got a ton more where they came from ) or if he doesn't over watch shoot them , and holds his fire because he figures you are going to hit him with that big squad of hormagaunts or genestealers and he would rather shoot them instead , he runs the risk that the rippers will make it into B2B with him and he won't be able to overwatch shoot the genestealers / hormgaunts because he is not locked in CC with the rippers.

ripper swarms escorting assault units i think will become par for the course .
this might be huge for us , as other than orcs with grots i don't think any other army has disposable units like this . at least none of the armies we tend to worry about ( SW, BA,GK ) .

they have a flying option as well , so they could escort gargoyls , harpies , flyrant ,shrikes ect .
parasite of mortrex might have to be re-evaluated as well , his ability to produce extra ripper swarms in CC could become really handy . and these swarms don't cost a FOC slot .

rippers all of a sudden become something your opponent can't afford to ignore any more as they will mess up a big part of his defense against us .

maybe 6th edition won't be so bad on us after all .