Swarmlord in 9th edition

[xj85]

Hi all,

What’s your view on the Swarmlord in 9th edition?

In my view he provides such utility still even without the Genestealer slingshot. He he is a good psyker, decent beatstick in melee and provides a lot of movement advantages with his hive Commander ability for all units. I regularly play with combat warriors and they work well with his abilities. He is also quite easy to hide in 9th due to terrain.

Also my opponents always hate seeing him as he provides a lot of unpredictable plays.

Now with the FW monsters buffed he can slingshot a scythed hierodule in the enemy lines in turn1.

[hiveoverall]

Like Katze said in another post (the post on psychic ritual), if no enemy psycher is there to ruin your day, move to center of the board, cast psychic ritual, then hive commander back him safely behind cover in the shooting phase.
I also think that is the best use for him, as Tyranids can sometimes struggle to chose a 3rd sec mission. Swarmlord enables us to choose this one, among all the stuff we used to do in 8th with our good old swarmy boy 

I think he also works well with our newly improved dimachaeron too, as he can help Dima jump around, jump around, get up get up and get down

[xj85]

That is a nice idea, will keep that in mind. Thanks for sharing.

[TheDeepestShadow]

Nov 7, 2020 10:57:49 GMT hiveoverall said:

Like Katze said in another post (the post on psychic ritual), if no enemy psycher is there to ruin your day, move to center of the board, cast psychic ritual, then hive commander back him safely behind cover in the shooting phase.
I also think that is the best use for him, as Tyranids can sometimes struggle to chose a 3rd sec mission. Swarmlord enables us to choose this one, among all the stuff we used to do in 8th with our good old swarmy boy 

I think he also works well with our newly improved dimachaeron too, as he can help Dima jump around, jump around, get up get up and get down

Can confirm the Dimachaeron double move is brutal, had a game against new Deathwatch yesterday and it got to Eradicators T1 and blenderized them. Also used Swarmy afterwards to do the Psychic R shenanigans you described, worked great.

[hiveoverall]

Nov 8, 2020 15:16:06 GMT TheDeepestShadow said:

Nov 7, 2020 10:57:49 GMT hiveoverall said:

Like Katze said in another post (the post on psychic ritual), if no enemy psycher is there to ruin your day, move to center of the board, cast psychic ritual, then hive commander back him safely behind cover in the shooting phase.
I also think that is the best use for him, as Tyranids can sometimes struggle to chose a 3rd sec mission. Swarmlord enables us to choose this one, among all the stuff we used to do in 8th with our good old swarmy boy 

I think he also works well with our newly improved dimachaeron too, as he can help Dima jump around, jump around, get up get up and get down

Can confirm the Dimachaeron double move is brutal, had a game against new Deathwatch yesterday and it got to Eradicators T1 and blenderized them. Also used Swarmy afterwards to do the Psychic R shenanigans you described, worked great.

Hah, the hive mind is now a force to consider
Did the Sm player have 0 psychers ? How did your three ritual casts go through ?

[murderfiesta]

Librarians aren't particularly important for most Space Marine builds especially compared to Chaplains, and taking a Librarian removes your ability to take Abhor the Witch, so I'm not surprised when many SM forces simply aren't running psykers.

[TheDeepestShadow]

Nov 8, 2020 16:56:00 GMT hiveoverall said:

Nov 8, 2020 15:16:06 GMT TheDeepestShadow said:

Can confirm the Dimachaeron double move is brutal, had a game against new Deathwatch yesterday and it got to Eradicators T1 and blenderized them. Also used Swarmy afterwards to do the Psychic R shenanigans you described, worked great.

Hah, the hive mind is now a force to consider
Did the Sm player have 0 psychers ? How did your three ritual casts go through ?

Basically what murderfiesta said above, most marines don't really prioritize psychic, especially the ones I encounter, since there are much more efficient options like the Chaplain. That being said, I think Deathwatch is on of the variants where it is actually worth taking a Librarian as they have 3 really solid powers to choose from now.

Regarding Swarmy's Psychic Ritual shenanigans, first turn I didn't bother attempting since I wanted to cast Catalyst/Onslaught on the 2 Dimas I had running up. Since I used Hive Commander on one of the Dimas which required him being out in the open, I used Metabolic I Overdrive to hide Swarmy again. Since my first turn charge wiped one of two squads of Eradicators and the other squad couldn't see Swarmy, the next 3 turns were trivial for getting Psychic Ritual since the only other threat was Bladeguard who were busy with the Dimas and a Scythed Hierodule. The Dimas did not need any more slingshotting with their massive movement starting from the center.

I will caveat here that this Deathwatch list may not have been the most optimal, especially against my list and the codex is still new so all the tricks haven't been figured out. But unless they deployed back as far as possible the T1 charge was basically unavoidable.

[No One]

TheDeepestShadow said:

Since I used Hive Commander on one of the Dimas which required him being out in the open, I used Metabolic I Overdrive to hide Swarmy again.

Metabollic is after you move. It's not a double move whenever.

[hiveoverall]

Ah yes SM have captains and chaplains as support, so it makes sense that adding a librarian as well is an issue for them. I also didn’t think about abhor the bit(wit)ch (sorry for that very bad pun), another reason to discard librarians.
Good for us ! I am loving 9th more and more !

[TheDeepestShadow]

Nov 9, 2020 12:36:23 GMT No One said:

TheDeepestShadow said:

Since I used Hive Commander on one of the Dimas which required him being out in the open, I used Metabolic I Overdrive to hide Swarmy again.

Metabollic is after you move. It's not a double move whenever.

Ah that was my mistake then, thanks for catching this, I shouldn't have been able to do that. I don't think it would've changed who was getting targeted, but something I need to remember in the future. Would probably be too good if Metabolic Overdrive could be used in shooting.