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Hey everyone, I want to take a poll here to see what you fellow bug players think of the lictor. I used to use a genestealer shock list and the +1 reserve rolls were great and the ability to assault first turn was awesome too. I like the 'teleport' homer, but how useful is it if it comes in at the same time as everything else or perhaps after it? I've tried them twice and they absolutely did not perform the function I bought them for: To make sure things don't scatter. How are you guys & gals using them? Vote whether or not you use them and tell me why.

I may not be a nid player, but Lictors are definaetly up there on my "Most feared bugs" list. They get in, they wreak horrible horrible gak on your rearguard, then get out. Not fun for anyone caught up in that.

I don't like them. Their effect on deepstrikes and reserves are applied far too late. At best I can have a 50% chance to turn the 3+ reserve rolls into 2+ on turn three. Or I can have a 67% chance to turn the 2+ into automatic success on turn three.

If they had an effect while they were i reserve I might use them more, but as it is I have much better things to spend my elite slots on.

I find them too fragile in combat.

Well, basically all of you think the same way I do.

- The rules for reserves don't help over half the time
- T4 still means they get instakilled in combat
- There are really nice elites for the first time in a decade
- They're still a 1 trick pony (although very good at smashing those tanks like our Little Lord said)

I wish I could justify putting them in purely for the backfield work, but since they can't assault the turn they come in, it just doesn't seem worth it anymore.

Deathleaper works pretty well. Stick him in a ruin or woods with your objective in it. Attackers are suddenly slow moving through cover nearby (meaning your objective holders are more likely to get the charge), and you can guide in deep-strikers precisely (the +1 to reserves isn't that great, but the auto-guide for Mawlocs and Turn 3 Spores is very nice).

To benefit from the reserves bonus/deep strike homing, you could try 3 Lictors as 3 separate elite choices. One of them should show up in time to be useful.

Lictors, not to mean the deathleaper, need to be taken in their full allotment per slot for them to be effective as I see it. A single lictor gets murdered, usually, but a trio of them usually get the job done that I needed them to do. I especially like combining them with a hive tyrant's reserve bonus when I am running units like drop-spored carnifexes or zoans.

Flashman wrote:To benefit from the reserves bonus/deep strike homing, you could try 3 Lictors as 3 separate elite choices. One of them should show up in time to be useful.

IMHO, even if a lictor appears at turn two, it's still too late. I don't want to wait until turn three to benefit from my reserve roll bonus. And once again, it's not like I've got plenty of elite slots to spare. Taking three lictors just seem unwise.

Interesting possibilities, but with zoanthropes, hive guard, venomthropes, and ymgarl, as elite alternatives I don't see anyone using them.

I have used them to harass or force my opponent to make suboptimal decisions. They have worked in this way, but I seem to keep rolling Kill Points, which just ruins them for this purpose. Sure, I saved a wound on an MC, but I gave up an easy Kill Point to do it. More often that not, I have not felt I made a worthy trade-off. When he takes a tank with him; priceless!