Zoanthrope supporting via Biomancy

[Deleted]

Was playing around with army lists and thought about letting zoanthropes trading in thier psychic powers for Biomancy rolls.

1. The main idea would be to either walk up the board hiding behind thier 3+ invuls while enfeebling enemies and endurancing freinds, provided those 2 powers are rolled. Iron arm could be good, but for anything else I would default to smite and shoot up anything that gets close.

2. Speaking of smite, What if 3 zoans just defaulted to smite and podded in to kill off a squad of whatever is threatening? Longfangs, Tau crisis stuits, ect. ***I know I could use ymgarls for this but am considering other options...

Any opinions on the above?

[Jabberwocky]

It certainly wouldn't be terrible, as long as you have other units worth supporting.

[halos]

I did this as part of a tournament list about a month ago.

It works alright but I think really the chance of rolling useless powers is too great. More than once I was lumped with only a single useable power with the rest all Leech Life of Iron Arm or what-have-you.

Of course I was only using 2 'thropes, perhaps with more it'd work better, but really I think you'd be better off just trying to squeeze in another Tervigon, or use the slot for Ymgarls/Hive Guard/whatever.

[jifel]

Use 2 Thropes, so Iron Arm isnt useless. In 3 it means nothing, in two it could be a pretty tough brood. Enfeeble/Endurance are both great. Life Leech meh, Warpspeed the worst, Hemohrrage is meh. Warp Speed and Hem. I'd say should go to Smite...

[coredump]

Oct 23, 2012 5:24:07 GMT @zackman55 said:

2. Speaking of smite, What if 3 zoans just defaulted to smite and podded in to kill off a squad of whatever is threatening? Longfangs, Tau crisis stuits, ect. ***I know I could use ymgarls for this but am considering other options...

Any opinions on the above?

To pull this off, I think I would approach it thusly:

Take a roll on Bio.
If you get something you don't like, trade for Smite and roll again.
If you get something good (Enfeeble or Endurance) then keep that and roll on Telep and take Psy Shriek

I think Psy Shriek is better than Smite, but you also want a good blessing/Maladiction power, so you can support when not within 12" of an enemy.

[imukuni]

Zoants in a pod with the Telepathy primaris power is better than biomancy. No armor or cover, no roll to hit, goes against LD not toughness (better for things like plague marines who are Ld 9), just better anti-troop. I have gone against zoants who got the power endurance and watched as I couldn't kill a warrior squad with shoota boyz, but other than that the zoants did nothing.

[Jabberwocky]

Psy Shriek does roll to hit, it's a witchfire.

[coredump]

I agree that Psy Shriek is better than Smite; but I think having Smite + Enfeeble/Endurance is better than Psy Shriek. It gives you more options for the next turns.

[angeleania]

I run 2 Zoans for exactly that, these swap their spells first, invariably you get one with end or enf. as said default to smite if get the (please do not swear) ones. Then i use them purely as support. sit at the back or roll behind every thing else. Buffing or debuffing as they can. Can be used as Synapse back up. worth the 120pts. no one ever seems to bother with them either. Too many other threats about.

[imukuni]

Oct 24, 2012 10:55:41 GMT Jabberwocky said:

Psy Shriek does roll to hit, it's a witchfire.

Dang, I missed that. Maledictions don't need to roll to hit, right?

Also It was brought to my attention that enfeeble is tons better than I had thought. I watched a nid player this week take 3 squads of zoants and some Tervigons. He took Biomancy with all of them and got enfeeble 5 times. At the beginning of turn 1 he reduced an ork boy unit of 30 to 0 strength. According to the BB, if a model has a 0 in strength, toughness or wounds it is destroyed.

Is that even legal?

[WestRider]

No, it's not legal. Leaving aside the question of whether or not different castings of Enfeeble stack with each other, Blessings or Maledictions cannot reduce a stat below 1. It's in their description on Pg. 68.

Enfeeble is still pretty awesome, tho.

[imukuni]

well, watching someone cheat was still educating... at least for me and because of this forum.