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Just some brain droppings as I absorb the new rumours concerning the tyranid book:

First, lictors:

I've got to say, I'm actually rather impressed by them. No, they can't assault on the turn they show up, but that's not what lictors are really for anyway. Lictors now have a few new abilities and retain a few old ones. In order of ascending importance: great cover save, +1 reserve rolls, regained the 3rd wound, marbo-style deep strike, and best of all, they are teleport homers. Teleport homers: this is huge. Why? Because of the new spore pods.

Lictors now synergize beautifully with a few other very powerful tyranid units. With the ability to purchase drop pods, range becomes less of an issue for many of the bug guns. By using them as teleport homers, things like podding zoanthropes and hive guard, deepstriking raveners (with the outstanding new thorax flamers), deepstriking trygons and mawlocs, and podding h2h units will be able to show up precisely where you want them. This is especially dangerous for the flamer-ravs and the hiveguard, which can be placed for maximum shooting effect.

This also works nicely with the tyrant power that allows 1) a single outflanking unit, and 2) +1 reserve rolls. This ensures that the lictors appear when you need them (and the rest of your stuff does, too), and also lets you outflank something like, say, a huge gaunt screen to hide your stuff (including your lictors) behind.

I can see a layered wave of units appearing/podding right in the heart of the enemy, rather than slogging across the board: initial wave of infiltrating genestealers to hide the soon-to-appear lictors behind, followed by the pods/ravs (with a combined +2 to reserve rolls from lictors + tyrant) wave of outflanking gaunts (or even a unit of 3 'fexes, since that doesn't seem to be restricted) and all the other laser-precision deepstrikes that will follow.

Just a thought - but I think that lictors add a lot to deployment and options beyond their effect in h2h.

Yeah i would agree with the final note of the OP. I haven't looked into to many rumours/confirmed facts about the new 'dex, but I'm certainly looking forward to it. It seems that in the new codex 'Nids are a bit more "Up in your Face!" as a whole. Podding down thropes and shooty fexes seems alot better than plodding up the field

I'm just thinking though, don't reserve all arrive at once? like, if i have a chaos chosen squad with an icon outflank, and it arrives the same turn as my oblits, i cannot guide the oblit onto the chosen- So if i get a lictor and unit X in a spore pod on the same turn, is there something that would allow the lictors teleport homer (pheremones im presuming?) to work?

Probably not the place for it but... do spore mines work the same as drop pods (doubting it) or is it just a DS? and does anyone know the str/AP of these ravener thorax flamers? I think i might need to give the rumour forum a good working over to find out some more...

yeah reserves happen all at once so you cant pop in a lictor and use its benefit to reserves on the same turn.