Flying Monstrous Creatures

[lickitor]

Here's some questions out for the 6th edition players who have good solid experience with the new rules. And preferably those who have often run flying monstrous creatures like our harpies or flyrants.

What do you think is the biggest threat on the table to our swooping FMCs? Is it the heavy weapon squads with something like missile launchers? Or is it the larger weaker units with so many shots? Or is it something else entirely?

If I was running FMCs in my list, which kind of units would I want to target with my FMCs? Or which units would I want to avoid? I'm interested in hearing other players thoughts and experiences with these units so I and other generals can have a better understanding of them.

[ravengoescaw]

When swooping the biggest threat is large many shot units. If gliding same as any other MC. As for targeting the is unit by unit. Flyrant: Flyers, then tanks, on their back side. Harpy if you choose to take it, Infantry.

[vivi22]

Biggest threat? Probably anything with skyfire first and foremost because if it gets a reasonable number of shots you are going to hit the ground. Massed shooting is a problem after that so you need to try and limit things like that by either attacking less shooty units or a specific table edge first until the rest of your army catches up and can tarpit some of them. To be honest though, I'm less concerned about mass shooting than I originally was after having two of my friends in a team game fire every single shot they had from their Tau and Necrons at my Flyrant and it only fell when the last unit fired at it. Yeah, I got lucky with some of the grounded rolls but they had trouble hitting it at all. I think I only made 3-4 of them. Haven't had the opportunity to really use one since though so maybe I did get unusually lucky. Even still, it shows they can be hard for some people to deal with.

As for target priority, I would say Flyers first since they have skyfire. I'm not sure I'd have a hard and fast rule after that since it depends on the situation. What is the biggest threat right now? Tanks, infantry? If they've got massed shooting infantry and their vehicles are just a couple of rhinos I'd probably just ignore the vehicles for now.

[Jabberwocky]

The biggest threat for me is usually sternguard with re-rolls to hit. These will sometimes be saved until something else can ground my flyrant, such as bolters, sometimes used right off the bat.

TL assault cannons are problematic as rending effectively bypasses the protection of iron arm, though OM can help with this.

For harpies, you have 2 choices. Stay out of bolter range and be relatively safe but only use 1 weapon, or push forward with your flyrant(s) for target saturation. If you push forward, you are especially vulnerable to volume of fire such as heavy bolters, auto/assault cannons, rapid fire etc.

Your own target priority will really vary with opponent army and your own set up. Don't just consider threats to your flyers but also threats to your ability to win, i.e. Your scoring units (which sometimes includes FMCs).

[vivi22]

Oct 7, 2012 11:38:16 GMT Jabberwocky said:

Your own target priority will really vary with opponent army and your own set up. Don't just consider threats to your flyers but also threats to your ability to win, i.e. Your scoring units (which sometimes includes FMCs).

One thing I've noticed from the few times I've run a single Flyrant so far is that my friends overreact and try to take it out immediately because they expect them to be hard to kill. That might change in time, but people are going to get kind of worried if there's a FMC, or worse, several just zipping around the table unloading on their units, especially if they don't have flyers of their own or other good answers for them. If your opponent does overreact like that, that alone can keep the heavy fire off of other units.

But yes, I definitely agree that it all depends. If I was up against someone with one unit that has skyfire and I think he's going to freak out over the FMC's if I kill it, I might head straight at it to take it out. If I think he'll just ignore those though and focus on my scoring units, then I'd probably prioritize protecting them.

[fragile]

The biggest threat to FMC's that I have found, is the twin linked Tesla weapons. They really dont care if they have skyfire or not, as if they get a 6 its 3 hits and twinlinked means a much better chance of it.

[wisdomseyes1]

I don't use FMC in tyranids very often, but a weakness with my Daemons FMC is probably... yea, skyfire. that is the most effective way to hit them, causing a grounded test and likely a wound because if it has skyfire its likely a flyer which means it has nice guns.

[pom611]

I've played a few games with the harpy and flyrant now and have found my opponents ignoring them unless they have another flyer I don't think they will any more but I think the biggest threat to are FMC's is defiantly other flyers as so far I've had trouble taking out flyers before they take out my hive tyrant...

[N.I.B.]

Oct 7, 2012 9:05:47 GMT ravengoescaw said:

When swooping the biggest threat is large many shot units.

This. All armies can have access to this plain counter - having many different units that can shoot. Skyfire is still rare, otherwise it's obviously a hard counter.

[coredump]

Large multi shot units don't worry me much. It doesn't matter if they hit me once, or 6 times... still only 1 grounding test.

Lots of small arms units don't worry me too much. (I may get grounded, but then am pretty immune to them.)
High S guns don't worry me too much. (They usually don't get many shots, and need a 6 to hit)

What worries me is the combination. If I am in range, and without a cover save, of a number of small arms units, and a number of High S units... then it is a problem. The small arms Ground me, then the High S kill me.

So... play range, and play the flanks. And when possible, stay in or behind cover. If you fly up the middle... you are dead. If only a couple of units can get shots at you, you should survive.

Oh, and yeah, Skyfire/flyers are the biggest threat.

[lickitor]

That's a good point coredump, i'll keep that in mind when deciding where to position my units

[kippawah]

Oct 8, 2012 0:14:32 GMT fragile said:

The biggest threat to FMC's that I have found, is the twin linked Tesla weapons. They really dont care if they have skyfire or not, as if they get a 6 its 3 hits and twinlinked means a much better chance of it.

This.

[thisguy1109]

coredump is right, and the situation varies. 90% of the time i run 2 flyrants up the flank. I'll keep them together to shield my warlard and there is not much that they cannot destroy together. Espcially if there is a key unit to destroy and 1 just cant get the job done.

[ranmafan]

Don't forget FMCs can also Deep Strike using swoop and cannot hurt themselves with Blasts. If the opponent doesn't have any AA guns, feel free to Deep Strike your Harpies and then blast the (please do not swear) out of them at point blank range rather than risk them being shot up in the first turn (assuming you go second).

I normally fly my FMCs over terrain - they ignore terrain unless they get shot down, and if they get shot down they can take cover saves from area terrain rather than get perforated by all those Krak missiles coming their way. If they get ignored instead, great! They fly around willy nilly vector-striking, dropping spore mines and blasting away with Stranglethorns, or smashing tanks.

I still personally can't bring myself to field a flyrant though - too damn expensive as a fire magnet, and for what a harpy and a lot of devilgants in a spore can do twice as effectively.

[blindmage]

Oct 8, 2012 18:40:53 GMT kippawah said:

Oct 8, 2012 0:14:32 GMT fragile said:

The biggest threat to FMC's that I have found, is the twin linked Tesla weapons. They really dont care if they have skyfire or not, as if they get a 6 its 3 hits and twinlinked means a much better chance of it.

This.

But it's only 1 test. as long as it's one units worth of shooting they can get as many hits as they want and it only causes 1 Grounding test.