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Hi guys,

In my recent game, I came across an interesting moment without realizing it during the game.

Tyranid has the ability to pinpoint most models and kill it.

All you have to do is using a Deathleaper (I will never play a game without this guy) and a boneswords unit; in my case, tyranid shrike with lash whips & boneswords.

Deathleaper reduce one character's leadership, and bonesword has the ability to ID a target.

Every new codex has a lot of scary heroes, and many lack eternal warrior, maybe we can take advantage of this character assassination ability.

Thoughts, comments?

Yes... Deathleaper makes it easier but I would rather give the Shrikes paired sword for a 3d6 Leadership test. Even Ld 10 has a 52% chance of failing for each wound.

Yeah it would also work with a broodlord to some extent.

How about suggesting your opponent has a child out of wedlock? Worships the occult? Cheats on his taxes?

...Oh, wrong kind of character assassination.

See, I was thinking of sending over a genestealer all tarted up to his hotel room to surprise him and friends as though he hired her and forgot...

Hesperus wrote:How about suggesting your opponent has a child out of wedlock? Worships the occult? Cheats on his taxes?

...Oh, wrong kind of character assassination.

I lol'd.

I think you're better off using a brood of Lictors rather than the Deathleaper: more survivable and outputs more character killing power. The trick, it seems, is to ignore the urge to drop them in front of the character you want to kill, despite the ability to arrive anyways 1" away from other models, or within 6" of a unit you want to kill, or to worry overmuch about the whole Pheromone Trail thing. Drop them in terrain, for Stealth-enhanced cover, and then use Fleet to get them in combat.

Lyracian wrote:Yes... Deathleaper makes it easier but I would rather give the Shrikes paired sword for a 3d6 Leadership test. Even Ld 10 has a 52% chance of failing for each wound.

A lot of people at my club take advantage of most tyranids have no frag grenade, so they throw their troops in cover. If my Shrikes don't strike first or simultaneously, they may never strike because their poor 5+ armor save. Bone sword being a power weapon is already a plus, and the ID ability is a cheery on top of ice cream. I'm not saying a paired sword don't have its place, but keep striking last really puts my morale down. Lash whip cheers me up, .

Nurglitch wrote:I think you're better off using a brood of Lictors rather than the Deathleaper: more survivable and outputs more character killing power. The trick, it seems, is to ignore the urge to drop them in front of the character you want to kill, despite the ability to arrive anyways 1" away from other models, or within 6" of a unit you want to kill, or to worry overmuch about the whole Pheromone Trail thing. Drop them in terrain, for Stealth-enhanced cover, and then use Fleet to get them in combat.

Using Lictors to take out specific character takes some serious skill, and I'm not even close to average player level.
I'll keep my fingers cross to hope their HQ fail their inv save, and then fail leadership test. If they don't fail their LD test, I just blame my deathleaper not being scary enough. Plus, Deathleaper helped me won or draw so many objective games, I feel guilty to kick him out.

New Player wrote:A lot of people at my club take advantage of most tyranids have no frag grenade, so they throw their troops in cover. If my Shrikes don't strike first or simultaneously, they may never strike because their poor 5+ armor save. Bone sword being a power weapon is already a plus, and the ID ability is a cheery on top of ice cream. I'm not saying a paired sword don't have its place, but keep striking last really puts my morale down. Lash whip cheers me up, .

The whips only work against models in base contact so I prefer to use Stranglethorn Cannon to pin them or tie them up with gaunts/gargoyles first so they do not get any bonus from the cover.

Lictors, on the other hand, come equipped with a Frag Grenade equivalent, Flesh Hooks, have Move Through Cover and Fleet to help ensure that the charge connects, and Stealth so that they can pop up in cover so they don't get [easily] gunned down prior to the charge.

Although the Stranglethorn Cannon is also handy, because if your troops are in cover then they're not in vehicles, and its pathetic AP isn't going to make a differences anyways.

Am planning a "It's Rainin' Bugz" army for 2000 points. Using Harpies and Drop-Podding Carnifexes in tag-team formation. The Carnifexes have Frag Spines and Adrenal Glands of course, so they get to charge in at the equivalent of Initiative 8. Yay.

That said, for most wetwork, yer gonna wanna bring a Broodlord with Implant Attack. He's worth it, honest.

MagicJuggler wrote:Am planning a "It's Rainin' Bugz" army for 2000 points. Using Harpies and Drop-Podding Carnifexes in tag-team formation. The Carnifexes have Frag Spines and Adrenal Glands of course, so they get to charge in at the equivalent of Initiative 8. Yay.

How do you get eight? One plus one plus two is four...

Compared to paired swords Implant Attack seems a waste. While it can not be resisted it is completely random.

The Broodlord gets enough attacks (and very cheap rerolls with a pair of scything talons) that he has an excellent chance of getting an Implant Attack off on the charge, and of course he can make your lovely IC (or, for that matter, MC) just stand there doing very little in case he needs another round to finish him off...

Lyracian wrote:

MagicJuggler wrote:Am planning a "It's Rainin' Bugz" army for 2000 points. Using Harpies and Drop-Podding Carnifexes in tag-team formation. The Carnifexes have Frag Spines and Adrenal Glands of course, so they get to charge in at the equivalent of Initiative 8. Yay.

How do you get eight? One plus one plus two is four...

Compared to paired swords Implant Attack seems a waste. While it can not be resisted it is completely random.

The Harpy halves the initiative of units that it charges and counts as having Frag Grenades. So I'd treat the Carnifex as effectively 2(1+1+2)=8. Granted, this could also be done using a Lash Prime or Lash Tyrant, but a drop army needs some ranged anti-tank, if only to suppress return-fire.

Lyracian wrote:

New Player wrote:A lot of people at my club take advantage of most tyranids have no frag grenade, so they throw their troops in cover. If my Shrikes don't strike first or simultaneously, they may never strike because their poor 5+ armor save. Bone sword being a power weapon is already a plus, and the ID ability is a cheery on top of ice cream. I'm not saying a paired sword don't have its place, but keep striking last really puts my morale down. Lash whip cheers me up, .

The whips only work against models in base contact so I prefer to use Stranglethorn Cannon to pin them or tie them up with gaunts/gargoyles first so they do not get any bonus from the cover.

It's true that whips only work against models in b2b. When we are talking about character assassination, we are most likely dealing against an IC. In an assault, the IC must get into b2b or s/he doesn't get to attack.

A club member taught me this trick recently. If my sword/whip Shrikes charge an IC with a group of troops (Example: Rune Priest + 9 Grey Hunters), focus all my attacks on the Grey Hunters instead because they die easily to power weapons. There is a chance that I will win combat, and the Rune Priest group will break off and fall back. When that happens, just escort them off the table by being within 6" next to them. Of course, there is no guarantee this always work, kind of interesting to kill an IC without even touching him/her.


@Nurglitch: I seriously over look that flesh hook = frag grenade. Lictors and deathleaper just got more interesting to me. THANK YOU!


@MagicJuggler: For the Carnifex in pod, would a Trygon work better? Points are about the same, Trygon has better assault power, and it doesn't really mishap on deep strike (it can, but it's so rare).

@Ian Sturrock: All my stealers die every game, so they are filing a complain to the hive mind requesting a new owner. It's sad to be a stealer in my army. That's why I had been holding back to give this fragile group a 60 pts model leader. But I had heard so much success stories about broodlord, time to get ballz, I'll give him a try.

A lot of characters are Toughness 4 or 5. Strength 10 instagibs them. Strength 6 doesn't. As for ranged suppression, dual Brainleech Devourers is still pretty handy for dealing with light vehicles (12 TL S6 shots>12 non-TL'd S5 shots after all; *yes* it has no AP, but Shakes/Stuns/Weapon Destroyed still does its part to negate enemy return-fire) or torrenting infantry. And as mentioned, Frag Grenades.

New Player:

Don't take it as the Gospel Truth, but I'm pretty sure that a regular dumb-schmuck Rune Priest only has an extra wound on a Grey Hunter, so given that your Shrikes have Boneswords, he'll be vulnerable to Instant Death from wounds that will ignore his armour save.

MagicJuggler:

Two Lictors have a Rg6" S6 AP- Assault 4 Rending weapon. Gives them the ability to either interdict a vehicle, or rend it to wreckage.

Nurglitch wrote:New Player:

Don't take it as the Gospel Truth, but I'm pretty sure that a regular dumb-schmuck Rune Priest only has an extra wound on a Grey Hunter, so given that your Shrikes have Boneswords, he'll be vulnerable to Instant Death from wounds that will ignore his armour save.

MagicJuggler:

Two Lictors have a Rg6" S6 AP- Assault 4 Rending weapon. Gives them the ability to either interdict a vehicle, or rend it to wreckage.

Oh I know what you mean. The Rune Priest was just a random example. I don't even remember if that dumb-schmuck (haha) have an inv save or fearless. The trick from the club member can apply to most IC with a group of buddies. I'm gonna try to run more lictors tonight since now I learn they have frag. Maybe after couple games with them, I can write a comparison on lictor vs sword/whip shrikes, and we'll go from there.

@MagicJuggler: That's an interesting take on the carnifex, so I'm gonna try to run them for a few games tonight. I'm just used to playing with a Trygon.

What does the rest of your army look like though?

New Player wrote:It's true that whips only work against models in b2b. When we are talking about character assassination, we are most likely dealing against an IC. In an assault, the IC must get into b2b or s/he doesn't get to attack.

I guess it is play style. I would rather be killing them on a 3d6 test than getting them striking at I1. Lash whips are just too expensive for me to add to the cost of Shrikes.

New Player wrote:A club member taught me this trick recently. If my sword/whip Shrikes charge an IC with a group of troops (Example: Rune Priest + 9 Grey Hunters), focus all my attacks on the Grey Hunters instead because they die easily to power weapons. There is a chance that I will win combat, and the Rune Priest group will break off and fall back. When that happens, just escort them off the table by being within 6" next to them. Of course, there is no guarantee this always work, kind of interesting to kill an IC without even touching him/her.

It is a good tactic. I chased two Marine units off the table this way in my last game. Spore Pod scatter put it perfectly covering his table edge so each unit fell back from combat to be 3-5" from the pod and then ran off the edge on his turn.

Hesperus wrote:How about suggesting your opponent has a child out of wedlock? Worships the occult? Cheats on his taxes?

...Oh, wrong kind of character assassination.

You mean your opponent is a Dark Eldar, a Chaos Cultist, and a Tech-priest?

Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.

An Inquisitor, a Chaos Sorcerer and a Farseer walk into a bar...