Prime in a Pod

[alamomelt]

I'm under the impression that I can't attache a Prime to a unit (of Warriors, say) and then drop that unit in a Mycetic Spore. I did a cursory search of the forums and just found results about Primes joining Carnifex broods.

So is this idea correct? No Primes in Pods?

[WestRider]

That is unfortunately correct. It's in the Tyranid FAQ.

[Nightmare20]

No primes in pods, and can only add the Prime to SQUADS so no Hive Tyrant (without Tyrant Guard), Trygon, or Tervigon as they are singular only.

[alamomelt]

Thanks, I couldn't remember that I read it in the FAQ and was going nuts about not seeing it in the IC rules.

[nurglitch]

On the other hand, apparently you can outflank them, or run them through a Subterranean Assault tunnel.

[infornography]

If you want a warrior brood to arrive in the enemy's backfield with the prime, take a flyrant with hive commander and outflank the unit, they can arrive together that way as Nurglitch points out. Though Subterranean Tunnel isn't worth the effort. Far too unreliable

[nurglitch]

I've had it mentioned to me that it's quite reliable if there's a Communications Relay to give the unit and its Trygon a re-roll so they're much more likely to come up in order.

[ranmafan]

Problem is that the rule for the Trygon's tunnel requires units using the tunnel to appear 'in subsequent turns' - and any reserve rolls modified by Hive Commander, Alien Cunning or a Comms Relay would affect ALL units coming in.

You'd literally have to roll 1s for units besides the Trygon in order to make use of its tunnel. That's kind of pointless.

I can't think of another scenario that would allow you to bring the Prime and a Warrior squad together in any decent order - outflanking the Prime w/ some gaunts and deep striking the Warriors is kind of redundant, for example.

[WestRider]

The Comms Relay gives you Re-rolls, not a modifier, so it actually does help.

[coredump]

For the trygon, you would reroll a 1 or 2
For the warrior squad, you would reroll any 3+ (to keep it in reserves)

IIRC, it gives you about a 44% chance of pulling it off. (I am not saying it is a worthwhile move, but the comms relay does make it more reliable; particularly if you use two warrior/gaunt/whatever broods)

[nurglitch]

It's pretty decent odds with a Trygon, an infantry brood, and a Comms Relay. The Trygon will have 88% chance of arriving on turn 2, barring other modifiers, while the infantry brood will have a 44% chance. Beats 66% and 66%, reducing the chance of them both turning up on the same turn from 43% to 29%. For the sake of comparison, it's almost like having them both turn up on 4+, and now on 5+.

I do like the idea of outflanking a Prime with a horde of Termagants though. Pity they can't outflank and use the Subterranean Assault, but I think that would probably be unbalanced.

[blindmage]

Apr 23, 2013 18:41:20 GMT nurglitch said:

I do like the idea of outflanking a Prime with a horde of Termagants though. Pity they can't outflank and use the Subterranean Assault, but I think that would probably be unbalanced.

I don't see any reason you can't add the Prime to the Termie brood that's in Reserve waiting for the Tunnel. Or do you mean allocate them to come in via Outflank, and swap to the tunnel if it becomes an option so you don't get hosed?

[coredump]

cant do that switch

[infornography]

Using the subterranean tunnel, even with no reserve boosters and a comms relay, results in too high a chance that a unit that tactically needs to be in the opponent's half of the board, ends up on your board edge. Also it means that the unit isn't coming in until at the earliest turn 3 if things DO go right and they won't be able to assault anything until turn 4. That means your Trygon is going to be hanging out like a big target for a turn while his support skitters up the tunnel (if you are lucky)

The prohibition on using the tunnel the turn the trygon arrives just doesn't work very well. It makes it unreliable, even with a comms relay (more reliable is not the same thing as reliable) and not even a good strategy if it does work out as your reserve units will by design have to come in divided across multiple turns.

That gives your opponent time to deal with your units in smaller groupings rather than all at once. The reason the high reserve strategy works is because you overwhelm your opponent with too many targets for them to deal with mostly in the same turn (turn 2).

It is just too cumbersome to build a strategy around and I wouldn't advise anyone, especially a new player, trying it.

[dakkathrope]

I personally play a high reseverse startegy and have at least 50% of my army show up turn 2. (assuming everything goes well.) I've tried the trygon tunnel dozens of times in 5th and 6th ed. and it fails to be effective almost every time. The only time it has helped me is if I keep a longer ranged troop in the tunnel reserve (warriors with venom/strangler) That way they either end up rear field synapse/point cap, or show up after everything hits the fan and cancap points further upfield.

However, like Infornography stated, having reserves spread out over several turns rarely has the same success as it all showing up at the same time. When I run warriors they are outflanking, and I usually footslog the trygon as a wound sponge off of my tyrant/tervigon.