What the mawloc?!?

[purestrain]

The mawloc!



To start, he's got 16 attacks at s7 ap-1 d1 (though the strength degrades). Now that's pretty solid, but where things get fun (and strange) is the new Terror from the Deep.



In your movement phase, you place down a marker anywhere on the battlefield. At the end of your next movement phase, the mawloc comes in anywhere within 12" of that marker and outside engagement range of enemy models. If he comes in within 9" of enemy models, he can't charge that turn. When he does this, roll a die for every unit within 6" of the marker and add 1 if they have 6-10 models, and add 2 if they have 11+ models. On a 3+ they take d3 mortals, on a 7+ they take flat 3 mortals. You can only have one mawloc come in a turn this way


Also biostatic rattle is crazy: At the start of the fight phase you chose a unit in engagement range of it and roll 3d6, if you beat their leadership they cannot reroll hit or wound rolls in that phase

[killercroc]

Mawloc is actually useful now? Well I never thought I'd see the day!

So, if strength degrades I'd assume it goes 7/6/5 meaning he's still well off to deal with standard infantry and semi-elite ones. 16 attacks is nice, especially if he stays WS 3+, Ap is a touch on the low side for dealing with anything but chaff, and 1 damage makes sense if he's just going to be a blender targeting troops. However, 9th is really looking like the edition of tougher troops, most having either good armor or 2 wounds now so I'm not sure just how much killing he will realistically be able to do.

Terror from the deep is pretty interesting though, now wording wise it looks like you place the marker one turn, then he shows up the next turn, giving your opponent time to try and get away, basically a Tyranid orbital bombardment. Even though he cant DS into combat or charge in if he's so close, a big Monster in your back line causing Mortals to a bunch of units for disruption does seem like a good time!

[joysan76]

i would be curus to know what happens if instead the enemy spreads enough and don't let you have space to deploy it

[purestrain]

Mar 8, 2022 15:37:58 GMT joysan76 said:

i would be curus to know what happens if instead the enemy spreads enough and don't let you have space to deploy it

they would be hard pressed to take up 12 entire inches of area and still not let you be just outside of 1" or barely within that 12

[jimmicus]

Tasty. I wonder if monstrous size will stay the same? S8, AP-2, D2 attacks on this boi will be very good against some armies.

[tylertt]

Imagine tossing on Thunderous Impact too...

[infornography]

That doesn't strike me as enough mortals to be consequential to anything other than a low end character. I mean at most it kills one aggressor and is only if it is very lucky. For an attack that you not only take two turns to pull off but telegraph in advance, it really seems like it isn't worth it.

Probably the best thing you get out of it is intimidation and map control. And that is only if your opponent doesn't do the math ahead of the attack and just shrugs their shoulders and move on as if you hadn't put down the marker. Maybe divert a unit or character slightly to avoid the radius, but any experienced player will probably just mostly take it on the chin and not deviate their battle plan more than a couple inches.

Also if that wording is accurate, the mortal wounds are around the marker you put down the previous turn, not around where the mawloc actually ended up. That is REALLY weird. Maybe that means you can put the marker where the tftd does the most damage and still place the Mawloc 9" away from enemies so he can charge them too... I suspect this is a mistake though and they meant 6" from where he ended up. I guess we will see. If you can tftd AND charge then that does make him MUCH more attractive even if the charge has to be the standard 9" away.

[killercroc]

Mar 8, 2022 16:09:47 GMT infornography said:

Also if that wording is accurate, the mortal wounds are around the marker you put down the previous turn, not around where the mawloc actually ended up. That is REALLY weird. Maybe that means you can put the marker where the tftd does the most damage and still place the Mawloc 9" away from enemies so he can charge them too... I suspect this is a mistake though and they meant 6" from where he ended up. I guess we will see. If you can tftd AND charge then that does make him MUCH more attractive even if the charge has to be the standard 9" away.

I noticed that too after I posted, I thought the Mawloc causes mortals from itself not the marker, the mortals from the marker itself makes it completely avoidable. I figured it was the Mawloc trade off, you could DS 9.1" away then charge, or you could DS just out of engagement for mortals but no charges that turn. If they do in fact come from the marker... it's a huge nothing.

[infornography]

Not quite nothing. a 6" RADIUS means a 12" pie plate. Put the marker somewhere you don't want the enemy units moving to. Maybe use it to herd them together in a tighter formation than they would normally. Again though, unless you hit quite a lot of units, 0-3 MW per unit is not much. Most experienced players will probably just march right through it unless they are custodes or something that would experience a significant hit from that and even then they could bank on the lower model count units being less likely to be hit at all.

All in all, I am not impressed with tftd but if it is just a nice add on to the Mawloc's melee proficiency then ... sure, I'll take it! 12 attacks is substantial even at AP-1 1D.

[purestrain]

Its also getting tougher, so im guessing somewhere at the t7 3+ 13-14W section of life.

Its a very good use for castle armies, plop the token directly inside of a large swath of units, unless they move you just put him outside of 1" of a unit in the area and a ton of things take damage, then if they dont kill it they have to deal with a semi hefty model sporting enough swings to easily kill chaff and open up. you could also try for the 9" if you can still be within 12 of said marker for a charge.

[killercroc]

Well yeah not nothing, a 12" area is a lot, I more so meant that a unit could more often than not easily move out of the way or just take the hit (like you said, for a lot of armies 0-3 mortals isn't much). In most games a unit moving 6" away from the marker won't cause a huge battlefield change, at least in the games I play people move units their full speed each turn and I don't see people scrambling up their armies to avoid it. Personally, I'm more interested in the Mawlocs massive amount of attacks and it being a blender monster, TftD is just kind of a little afterthought special rule from what I can see, where in previous editions it bursting out of the ground was it's big scary move.

[purestrain]

Mar 8, 2022 16:44:27 GMT killercroc said:

Well yeah not nothing, a 12" area is a lot, I more so meant that a unit could more often than not easily move out of the way or just take the hit (like you said, for a lot of armies 0-3 mortals isn't much). In most games a unit moving 6" away from the marker won't cause a huge battlefield change, at least in the games I play people move units their full speed each turn and I don't see people scrambling up their armies to avoid it. Personally, I'm more interested in the Mawlocs massive amount of attacks and it being a blender monster, TftD is just kind of a little afterthought special rule from what I can see, where in previous editions it bursting out of the ground was it's big scary move.

It was only useful in 7th, but it scattered so it usually screwed up anyhow, in 8th it wasnt that good and the strat they made to help it technically made it worse by Tftds own wording.

Now you can hurt things if they're dumb enough to stick around, if they get out of the area you can now at least try to make a charge at them. seems like a pretty flexible ability.

[gigasnail]

if the mawlock has 16 attacks, the trygon going to come out swinging.

[hivemind03]

We're finally getting more than 1 attack per arm. I like it

[N.I.B.]

Mar 8, 2022 19:25:52 GMT gigasnail said:

if the mawlock has 16 attacks, the trygon going to come out swinging.

Perhaps. But Mawlocs have had more attacks than Trygons for a long time.
I dunno about the new TftD, sounds like worse than what we have today, at least against the preferred targets (elite units/single models). And when has telegraphed arrivals ever been a good thing? We don't know yet if the strat Unexpected Incursion will remain. Also, harder to get to 7+ than 6+. I think the Crusher Stampede will still be an option, but the army wide rules will stay within the army of renown. In effect, the Mawloc will still be fairly easy to take down.