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I'm modeling my mycetic spore pods "Spods" with relatively large footprint (5" diameter) hemispheres. At first I thought I was hamstringing myself competitively by so doing, since I'd need a 7"+ hole (+ unit's base size) to drop them into the opponent's lines, which is unlikely with a wary opponent. However, now I'm thinking that the larger base size would actually be *beneficial* when targeting off of Lictors for accurate Spodding. This of course depends on getting a Lictor in on turn 2 so it can use Pheremone Trail.


TAKING ADVANTAGE OF LONG RANGE ACCURATE DEEPSTRIKE OFF LICTORS:

Turn 2: If Lictor comes in, it deploys exactly where you want it (in cover, far from any template weapons and outside of assault range of anything tha might kill it in assault). Maybe the Lictor shoots something, but that isn't its main purpose. In your opponent's turn, the Lictor goes to ground if wounded by anything sufficient to kill it, for 2+ cover save (Stealth + Go To Ground). So on average, it would take 7+ missile/las hits to instakill it, or 36 bolter hits. The Lictor *should* survive to turn 3.

Turn 3: Any of your spods/Trygon still in reserve come in on a 2+ due to the Lictor bonus. Accurately deepstrike the spod at the maximum 6" distance from the lictor. 6" deepstrike + 5" diameter spod + 2" deployment distance from the spod = 13" + base size on either side of the 1.75" Lictor base, for coverage of 27.75" diameter + 2x base size.

Spodding CC units like CC Warriors, Hormagaunts or Screamer-Killer Fexes will be able to land accurately to take advantage of any LOS-blocking terrain or at least cover anywhere in that 2 1/2' diameter circle; this will protect them against the post-drop turn of shooting. Shooty units can use the accurate placement to get a perfect bead on an appopriate target (ie a side shot on a vehicle that is far from any Psychic defenses in the case of Zoeys, or a Dev squad/landspeeder squadron/HW squad for Dakkafexes/Trygon, etc).

The Zoeys have 1.75" bases + 18" Warp Lances for another 19.75" in any direction, which means you can pick a target anywhere in a 47.5" diameter circle centered on the Lictor. That's almost a 4' diamater, which is half the total area on a 4' x 6' board. And that can be centered whereever you choose (within reason) when deploying your Lictor. Spodding Warriors should have the same range with Deathspitters/Devourers, Spodding Dakkafex will have slightly larger range with its 60mm base. Trygon is only 12" guns but has a much larger base.


GETTING THEM IN AT THE RIGHT TIME:

The tough part is making sure you have a Lictor down on a turn prior to when the desired unit comes in. This can't be guaranteed, but force construction can make it more likely. There are two good options:
A) 2 Lictor / Deathleaper units, and NO Hive Commander Tyrants, with at least 4 spodding units / Trygons; or
B) One Lictor/Deathleaper unit, a Hive Commander Tyrant, and at least 6 spodding units / Trygons.

A) Running 2 separate Lictor units (or one Lictor unit + one Deathleaper), there is a 75% chance to get at least one of them in on Turn 2. If running several deepstrikers (Trygon, Fex in spod, Zoeys in spod, Warriors in spod) it's likely that at least half will *not* arrive in turn 2, so will be available in turn 3. Recommendation is to run 4 deepstrikers, to average 2 available in turn 3. Unfortunately, due to the Elite slot crowding, running 2 Lictor units means only one Zoey unit, which means you have only a 50% chance of it remaining in reserve to come in off the Lictor. On the rare occasions you get both Lictor units in on turn 2, you can place them to cover almost the entire board for deepstrike accuracy.

B) Running a Tyrant with Hive Commander and only one unit of Lictors/Deathleaper, there is only a 67% chance of the Lictor coming up on Turn 2, and only 33% of your spodding units will remain in reserve. You would have to add not only an extra spodding unit of Zoeys, but another spodding unit of some sort (for 6 deepstrikers total) in order to have the an average of 2 units remaining in reserve for accurate deepstrike.


In either case, any spods that come in at the same time or prior to the Lictors can of course use the normal spod rules to guarantee a reasonably safe (if not accurate) deepstrike, so all is not lost if this doesn't work. And really, a 33% or 25% chance of it not working fantastically is no worse than say, fielding Chaos Daemons. :p

Anyways, my point is: some people will make their spods with as small a footprint as plausible to try to squeeze them into small holes in the opponent's lines. However, I argue that larger spods are far from crippling - they allow for a considerably larger area of accurate deepstrike when using Lictors.

You don't think that's a tad too big? It's blocking off large areas of the table from your opponent, and how tall is the thing for blocking LOS?

Aduro wrote:You don't think that's a tad too big? It's blocking off large areas of the table from your opponent, and how tall is the thing for blocking LOS?

It's only 2 1/2" tall, so will block LOS to small and medium bugs, and give cover to Fexes/Tyrants. Just short of covering half of a Trygon unless I build it up though. Yes, it denies a fairly large area of the table, but it's no bigger across than a Space Marine drop pod (I think). Besides, it can be killed and then it gets removed (unlike a Drop Pod which remains unless it explodes).

I was trying to think of how to model a smaller, taller one without going the Plasma Hatcher route...but frankly making it *smaller* seemed like 'torquing the rules' to sneak it in the enemy lines.

I dunno...what's the consensus, is 5" diameter too big? How wide is a SM Drop Pod?

About 3". The doors open up further than that, but the general consensus is that everyone ignores those.

Aduro wrote:About 3". The doors open up further than that, but the general consensus is that everyone ignores those.

Ah ok, I've only seen them used the doors open, and we counted the doors as part of the vehicle.

Do others think that 5" spods would be considered "cheesy" and exploitative? They're still limited in that they can't really strike into holes in the enemy lines, and don't block LOS after they get killed.

The main point for building them this way is because I'm cheap, not to exploit the size; the advantage for long-range accurate deeptriking of of lictors is something I thought about afterwards.

The spore pods have limited range on their weapons, and increasing the footprint gives them a larger overall threatzone. Also, 5" diameter gives you alot of LOS blocking.

I would have to really be impressed by the model to allow one that big - impressed enough to convince me you did it because the resulting model is cool and NOT to gain LOS blocking and increased ranged weapon threat area.

I'm just going to take monster bases and put Plasma Hatchers on 'em. It's a cool conversion, it gives it a footprint consistent with other MC's, and gives you a fair shot of getting cover behind the thing.

whats a plasma hatcher?

kaiservonhugal wrote:whats a plasma hatcher?

http://www.amazon.com/Mega-Bloks-Plasma-Hatcher-Monster/dp/B00172M8YG

Everyone who thinks a 5" wide spod is "cheesy" had better send an email to Chapterhouse Studios
(see http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/276353.page#1297033)

Yeah, I'm dubious of how that's coming out so far, though do note that's a large Crater, and not the spod itself.

Aduro wrote:Yeah, I'm dubious of how that's coming out so far, though do note that's a large Crater, and not the spod itself.

Heh, true. I'm interested to see how much of the crater their spod will actually fill up, and how tall it will be.

I've managed to start making up my spods with the 5" half-globes, Maccrage bitz and copious amounts of hot glue for texturizing. I'll post up some pics in the modeling forum when i get the chance (probably not until tomorrow night).

Due to the fact that they're hemispheres that are only 2.5" tall in the middle, they don't actually block that much LOS, really. They'd block 50% of a Carnifex only if it was directly behind it, and they have no chance of giving cover to a Trygon. They wouldn't block LOS completely to Warriors or Raveners either (though they'd give those units cover). They'd block LOS to Hormagaunts, but you'd never be able to deploy a full unit of 20 within 2" and keep them all behind it.

I'll post some pics with each of those units behind too.