Tyranid primes and genestealers

[danielhayman]

Is it a good idea , to attach a prime to a unit of genestealers - to keep them alive until combat ? Like taking ap4 shots and such :/ random idea I had --- my opponents don't really bother with primes because they prefer to shoot at tyrants and my faithful Trygon called maude ...

And is it allowed ?

[Lanesend]

No sorry that is illegal.
You could call him John or Andrew, though....

[DarkGuard]

You can do so, but you may lose the ability to infiltrate, and you'll definitely lose your fleet re rolls.

I'd rather take a Broodlord, does a similar job, can add psychic powers and doesn't compromise the Stealers abilities.

And lanesend, why is attaching a Tyranid Prime (independent character) to a unit of Stealers illegal?

[danielhayman]

I think it's worth it personally , for the save mainly , and wouldn't the unit give the prime fleet ?

[Lanesend]

Jokes aside. Yes, you can. But you will loose the re-roll for running from fleet. And you can't infiltrate them, I think, because the Prime doesn't have that rule (or did this also change in 6th, like outflank).

DarkGuard. I was joking about his Trygon called Maude, but reading it back it wasn't very clear.

I think the idea isn't that bad. I sometimes put a Prime with Raveners for the first turn (depending on the army I face) and then you'll even loose a lot of movement. But I want my units to hit the enemy at the same time. A lone unit of Ravs or stealers won't do as much as a concentrated assault one turn later.

[danielhayman]

I don't bother infiltrating them anyways , I run them near other important things so they tend to get ignored - it just annoys me when they get over watched by ap4 weapons which fire twice and kill most of them :3 the prime would help - I tried it yesterday and it seemed to work :/ until some chaos guys with ap3 bolters finished him off

[Lanesend]

^ That would be Rubric Marines of the 1000 Sons. Very nasty stuff with overwatch, also for our bigger monsters!

[danielhayman]

Thousand sons ! Yes that was them . It was horrible . But an armoured shell hive tyrant with +3 toughness on iron arm sorted them out

[WestRider]

Yes, you can Join a Prime. You can even still Infiltrate or Outflank them if you like, as those are "at least one Model" abilities. He does cause the Unit to lose Fleet, but they still get Move Through Cover.

[glassiya]

Aug 30, 2012 12:18:19 GMT danielhayman said:

Is it a good idea , to attach a prime to a unit of genestealers - to keep them alive until combat ?

What stops you from joining him to Warriors for the same reasons? Oo

[danielhayman]

Aug 30, 2012 15:20:30 GMT glassiya said:

Aug 30, 2012 12:18:19 GMT danielhayman said:

Is it a good idea , to attach a prime to a unit of genestealers - to keep them alive until combat ?

What stops you from joining him to Warriors for the same reasons? Oo

Because I have lots of genestealers and just can't bring myself not to use them - and I only own 4 warriors :/
Genestealers were all I ever bought really , I just love em and want to keep them alive

[coredump]

Why not just add 6 more stealers instead of the prime?

Losing fleet is a big deal.

[DarkGuard]

Aug 30, 2012 21:31:56 GMT coredump said:

Why not just add 6 more stealers instead of the prime?

Losing fleet is a big deal.

Indeed. I remember reading somewhere that an assault move through cover from a fleeting unit is more reliable than an assault move through the open from a non-fleeting unit. As you can see, a big deal.

And Lanesend, fair enough, my bad.

[eugee]

I attach a prime to warriors because I want to stop S8 weapons from claiming more than 1 wound from my unit. With a unit of stealers, S8 weapons are killing the same number of wounds as S4 weapons are. Stealers & Warriors are reversed for me, actually:

I attach a prime to warriors to keep the warriors alive.
I attach a broodlord to genestealers to keep the broodlord alive.