Infestation Nodes

[nidnewbie]

I'm toying with the idea of playing with these in my next league game. I would use Hive Comander to get an advance before charging my genestealers. Any suggestions for precisely when they are put on the table? Do I treat each one as a unit placing one at a time alternating with my opponent or just toss 'em down whenever I feel like it while deploying?

Cheers!

[No One]

So for a start:

nidnewbie said:

I would use Hive Comander to get an advance before charging my genestealers.

Is illegal:

Reinforcement units cannot make a Normal Move, Advance, Fall Back or Remain Stationary in the turn they arrive for any reason

Any suggestions for precisely when they are put on the table? Do I treat each one as a unit placing one at a time alternating with my opponent or just toss 'em down whenever I feel like it while deploying?

I'd say before anything else (i.e. at the start of step 10, the start of deploying your army): they're definitely not units so are not an alternating activation placement. And they deploy before the genestealers are set up in reserve, which happens at step 10.

Infestation: If your army includes any units of Genestealers, you can place up to four infestation nodes anywhere in your deployment zone when your army deploys. You can then set up any units of Genestealers lurking, instead of setting them up on the battlefield.

[bigpig]

Its mainly a defensive tool and actually a big risk. By protecting your stealers from shooting for a turn (and a half maybe) you give up the ability to move them and telegraph where they will arrive. If you do choose to make it work, which is potentially possible in a league format where you know what you are going up against, make sure your league opponent doesn't really have the ability to reach out and remove your nodes. LVO 2019 I had an opponent put their stealers in nodes and I responded by using slingshot hormagaunts and "missed" biovore shots to pretty easily remove all his nodes. It can be very costly if they want to be on your side of the board

[No One]

I've thought about them with double stealers+Swarmlord: essentially one unit on board, slung T1/2, 2nd unit shows up T2, slung/charge T3. Basically just cut down on how much of my army needs to hide in deployment. But nodes being removable makes it quite risky, and it being (usually) useless till T3 is also fairly eh.

[nidnewbie]

I'm glad I brought it up! Thanks to the hive for the education.

[inadvisablewarriors]

The one time my buddy used nodes, I had stealth suits jump in and delete all of them in short order. It was a 1,000 point game so the board was pretty small.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

For infestation nodes, if an enemy is at 9", am I able to setup the genestealers to be 3" out from the enemy?

The rules I'm seeing for infestation nodes do not state that the genestealers need to pop up outside of 9"

[No One]

Technically no, but >9" yes, so you can get a 3" charge: of course, at that point you're playing with fire

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Nov 29, 2021 13:03:33 GMT No One said:

Technically no, but >9" yes, so you can get a 3" charge: of course, at that point you're playing with fire

Do you have the rule handy that limits the range to greater than 9?

[No One]

If an enemy model is ever within 9" of an infestation node, the node is destroyed and removed from the battlefield.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Nov 29, 2021 15:15:21 GMT No One said:

If an enemy model is ever within 9" of an infestation node, the node is destroyed and removed from the battlefield.

The enemy is 9.1" from the infestation node so it is not destroyed.
I place my genestealers between the enemy and the node at 5.9" from the infestation node, so 3.2" from the enemy.

Is this legal?

[No One]

Yes

[zimko]

It's also foolish to bank on that scenario ever becoming a reality.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Nov 30, 2021 14:02:15 GMT zimko said:

It's also foolish to bank on that scenario ever becoming a reality.

Agreed. A friend I know got really lucky with that scenario. I was asking as I didn't think it was legal.

[infornography]

Infestation nodes are a huge, foolish gamble. For every time they work out in your favor there will be 3 times they either left your stealers stuck in reserves or spawning in a completely worthless place on the battlefield.