Rippers in 6e

[squash]

Has anyone considered Ripper Swarms as being improved in this edition? I know when you talk about Rippers there's a rote action to say banish them, personally I use mine for objectives (not holding them, they're literally the objectives in my game), they're the only use I've found for them. But I'm beginning to rethink. All of my thoughts have to do with spinefists.

First of all, Rippers are fearless, but easily acquire Rage, bringing their number of attacks to SIX per model. SIX.

Depending on the extremely ambiguous wording of the 'Interviening Models' rule, Rippers could screen your entire army, monstrous creatures and all.

If not used for screening, Rippers can deep strike, which would allow a volley of firepower. That doesn't sound like much, but each Ripper (not raged) would average .73 wounds against a toughness 4 target, that's almost identical to the devilgant, which admittedly is 50% cheaper, but...

Rippers overwatch like a mofo. Between 4-6 (rage) TWIN LINKED shots per ripper is an extremely potent overwatch, it would be hard for us to match that kind of overwatch shooting point for point with any of our other models.

So what do you think, plausible?

[Talonis]

Just a few points:

Rage does not increase your attacks for Spinefists.

Im sure the height of the rippers, most units will shoot over the top, for MC's anyway I dont think they will give a coversave.

Yes they have a few attacks with rage, but at the chance of them eating themselves if they fail that IB test. Do rippers even take normal IB test?

You could use them to tie up units, soak overwatch shots and deepstrike shoot, but I personally think that if your going to use them, keep with with your army so they dont kill themselves and can provide some screening from charges or counter charges if need be.

They probably are a bit better this edition, but I have not used them yet to be sure ( not that I actually used them much last edition either)

Also... I thought that this thread would have been started by Blindmage

[bloodborne]

the hinging premise behind this is flawed, as rippers lose wounds equal to the amount of the die role they failed their IB test by..., which means, if you roll a 6, it's not much of an issue, as you only lose one wound, roll a 12 however, and you've just lost 2.3 bases out of the swarm.

Also, this:

"A unit that feeds is subject to rage as detailed in the warhammer 40,000 rulebook. In addition, the unit may not fire any weapons during the shooting phase, though it may still run, according to the stipulations of rage."

Codex: Tyranids: page 33

sorry... but this simply wouldn't work.

[squash]

Man I do not know what I was thinking, thinking that rage improved shooting, just had a complete brainfart, sorry about that.

There is a big looming question mark as to how well they provide cover, there's two ways to interpret that rule, and I don't know which one is correct, it's so horribly written, but I believe I heard that tournaments are siding with the ripper-friendly interpretation.

I still think that 6 attacks on the charge on a fearless model is a pretty exciting prospect though, the only thing we have that does that is a Trygon.

[bloodborne]

scratch that... trygon gets the +1 charge attack, if it is a regular, and it rages, correct if wrong, but it also gets +1 for that too, so you now have 8 attacks on the charge... just to be clear, someone correct if this is innaccurate...

[squash]

No.. You're right. Still. COME ON, SIX ATTACKS.

[wisdomseyes1]

Yea, rage is interesting.

The only significant change to swarms I have noticed in 6th edition is that they can't contest objectives anymore. I consider that a massive
Debuff. Personal opinion I guess.

[Deleted]

An extra attack ws2 s3 i2 in exchange for guaranteed 1-7 wounds instantly before the combat even starts? Let us know how that works out for you.

[andy089]

I think if you got a Prime, two venomthropes and a full unit of rippers with spinefists and toxin sacs and keep those together, they wouldn't be that bad. But that would just be a gimmick and really for competitive games...

[squash]

Why the venomthropes?

[bloodborne]

andy, termis with devourers still do it better, spinefists on rippers simply are not worth while. the whole question of their viability with the use of IB-feed is moot, as they simply are incapable of using the extra attack at all on the spinefists, add to that, you are shooting a strength 3, BS2 weapon... sure, you have 4 shots per base, against MEQ though, how well do you actually think that will fare?


I want to love rippers, trust me, I really do. BUT, I also REALLY want to love carnifexen, and that simply will not happen with the current ruleset for them...

[squash]

I suspect you're right, I'll field a full unit next week to satisfy my own curiosity.

[Deleted]

I should say I am going to field some Rippers just to use the FW models. *drool* That's Ripper swarms done right, a wave of gnawing maws. Not 4 worms crawling around!

[bloodborne]

forgeworld is a good excuse to field any model... investing that amount of money in one model and then not using it is a waste in my opinion... heh

[andy089]

you're probably right
=(