Search for the anti-Tau: Mawlocs?

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**Kain**

Deadshot wrote:
Ok, they have a weakness to flamers, just like most Nids. That's why you go after the vehicles which can't overwatch or models without flamers.

Except all they can do is shoot two S6 rending shots when they appear, at which point the guy just wheels some flamers around and torches your rear end. I've tried it against the Tau, the battlesuits can kill him ridiculously fast, as can the counter-assault flamer space marine or guard squads.

**Saythings**

Most nids weakness is flamers? No. Just Lictors and dirt cheap gants.

I'd argue Mawlocs don't give two hoots about flamers. Don't know where this Lictor-talk came in but it's not very reliable. The p-trails are terrible because Hive Commander does the same thing but on Turn 2. Yes, you don't get to scatter ,but Lictors go down so fast that you can't really rely on that either. Plus Turn3 reserves are awful.

I'm not going to argue to jy2 as he is a veteran in the 40k community and all his points in the Mawloc not doing that much damage at valid. However, I would like to put out that the aoe from deepstriking isn't the Mawlocs strong point. It doesn't really matter if you full scatter and do nothing. It's the beast with T6 and W6 that is important. Unless you have an extremely mobile army, he'll be in assault range of something, especially with fleet. Also, I'd never, ever, ever, run a single Mawloc. 170 points is dirt cheap for the T6W6 MC your investing in. You run 3 of them for almost the same as 2 Carnifexes in Spod. 3 of them running around in your deployment and things will die fast and on every assault.

Ygmarl are good, they have their uses. Simply saying a "smart" opponent will make their terrain deploy null is silly. To contradict everything said earlier, a smart Nids player will not put his Ygmarl in the terrain completely in the enemy deployment if he has the bodies to flood it. Even if you shoot at the Ymgarls the turn they come in, that's less shots at the rest of your army. I don't know, maybe the 3 Mawlocs that's also in your deployment might keep them busy. Can't just simply ignore everything else. Any good Nid army will have multiple threats at the same time on Turn2. Ygmarls, Mawlocs, Doom in Spod, Carnifex in Spod, 2 Flyrants, Zoans in Spod. So many options (lictors not being one). You aren't going to be like I hope these 5 Ymgarls and 1 Mawloc does the trick!!!

**jifel**

jy2 wrote:

Allow me to elaborate.

When I talk about the effectiveness of certain units, I always look at it from the perspective of how well it can do against my armies. If it is effective versus them as well, then IMO it is a good TAC unit. My armies:

- Necrons. Don't care. You (referring to the Mawloc) only have wraiths initially as a target. My warriors will be in flyers until Turns 5 when you jump out for objectives.

- Tyranids. Don't really care as well. You kill some gribblies and maybe put 1W or so on an MC. Doesn't really phase me at all.

- Chaos Space Marines. You may hurt my oblits, but other than that, you'll mainly be hitting zombies. Whoop-di-do.

- Chaos Daemons. Grinders and FMC's don't care. Min-sized troops will be deepstriking. Heralds+horrors, well, horrors are cheap anyways. I can afford to lose a few.

- Orks. You kill some ork boys or maybe put a couple of wounds on my nob bikers. You could go after my lootas, but that is trading a 170-pt unit for about a 100-pt unit. Orks will survive. They also don't really care.

- Grey Knights. Currently, I am running Draigowing + henchmen (or perhaps necron allies). No skin off my teeth if you want to target a 12-pt henchmen unit, or you can go after my paladinstar but I guarantee you will lose the mawloc on my turn.

The mawloc is good against mostly the MEQ armies. However, against a lot of the Xenos armies, he is just not as effective (though I believe he can be effective against Tau).

Also, if you are familiar with the mawloc, there are ways to play against it to minimize its threat.

1. Spread out a little more.

2. Do not surround your unit such that when he shows up, there is nowhere for your unit to go (and thus be destroyed).

3. Place some of your guys on the upper levels of the ruins.

4. Reserve your more vulnerable units (i.e. troops). You'll probably already do this if you are running MSU troops without transports anyways.

5. Stay in your transports until you absolutely have to get off.

6. Just take it in the gut and then kill it on your turn.

7. Just laugh when he scatters off target, hitting nothing.

Most of these armies though are the armies that Nids match up well against.
Nids are the hard counter to Necrons, and unless the dice abandon me I am very confident going against Crons.
Mirrior Matches are tricky I admit, but I could hit a few Biovores. The best thing for the Mawloc to do would be hide out and contest last turn. As Nids vs Nids in objectives can get quite brutal, this could be extremely valuable actually.
CSM: I could easily pick off a few Havocs or Oblits, and those Oblits/Havocs will not be able to kill it alone in their turn, so either I get more damage or you have to put 2-3 units of shooting in. Also, Chaos usually doesnt have that many long range units... So that could be all your fire support for one model.
Daemons, again could see utility as a late-contester or hitting units that just Deepstruck in, like Plaguebearers, as they'll be bunched up. Even if I scatter, the threat could be enough to make your horrors run instead of shoot.
Orks: There arent too many Ork lists in 6th that I've seen that scare me... this is a good match up that I will be confident for regardless of the Mawlocs inclusion.
Grey Knights: I actually dont see Draigo wing much, but GK with Warp Quake up could be a pain. Still, I could put a lot of Ap. 2 wounds on there foot units...

1-7: There are many ways to make a Mawloc less effective, but they all hurt my opponent! Spreading out your Tau is contrary to what the army is designed to do. Spreading out any shooting army usually lessens their effectiveness. Reserving troops and staying in transports just lessens the amount of shooting I'm taking. And yes, the Mawloc can scatter. in a given tournament, it ll happen a few times. But the idea, the threat of the mawloc will be highly effective in making your opponent change his plan. Anytime I can make my opponent change his game plan that he had coming in, I like my odds against him. Changing someones plan is the best way to get in their head and force them to make mistakes, which I know because thats how I lose, when I play lists like Drop pod wolves with Jaws that I just hadnt accounted for.

Basically, a Mawloc will make my "good" matchups not quite as easy while my "bad" matchups are a bit easier. I'll take that balance any day!

**Red Corsair**

I think the Mawloc is way under rated. My bro has a great centerpiece mawloc that he sculpted almost entirely himself so he loves fielding it. It will miss and scatter often, but that doesn't really matter as when played intelligently you can place him in a position where an opponent has to deal with the threat. He has also stolen victory a half dozen times by simply deploying him in a corner and waiting for the right moment to knock objective campers off that distant objective, while gaining line breaker. Most importantly it's about personal play style, just because one player swears a unit is rubbish on the internet doesn't make it so. You always need to play test a unit. For example jy2 has amazing results with flyrants, but I know my brother will only take one at most as he ALWAYS fails grounding tests and never rolls good powers, does this make flyrants bad? Obviously not, but for him he wins more often with swarm lords and Mawlocs.

**Evileyes**

Can't you use intercepter against mawlocks? So it would pop up, and get blasted, wouldn't it?

**Desubot**

The general thing that intercepts now are the tau riptides or broadsides

s7 a2 3 shots at bs 3
or alot of st 7 ap 4 missiles

whats the stats of the maw?

**Kasrkin229**

You could Try some Tyrannofex's with Ruptures cannons ( S10 AP 4 two blast right ? ) ---- And Tau Vehicles Can Overwatch now -- Point Defense Relay there burst canons and Drones can over watch

**jifel**

Evileyes wrote:Can't you use intercepter against mawlocks? So it would pop up, and get blasted, wouldn't it?

Desubot wrote:The general thing that intercepts now are the tau riptides or broadsides

s7 a2 3 shots at bs 3
or alot of st 7 ap 4 missiles

whats the stats of the maw?

The Mawlocs blast happens before Interceptor however, so itd be a waste.
And large blast, Strength 6 Ap 2, basically a barrage weapon out of LoS.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kasrkin229 wrote:
You could Try some Tyrannofex's with Ruptures cannons ( S10 AP 4 two blast right ? ) ---- And Tau Vehicles Can Overwatch now -- Point Defense Relay there burst canons and Drones can over watch

I think TFexs are too pricey, and honestly not that good vs. Tau, whereas a Mawloc is very good against them.

**Evileyes**

jifel wrote:
Evileyes wrote:Can't you use intercepter against mawlocks? So it would pop up, and get blasted, wouldn't it?

Desubot wrote:The general thing that intercepts now are the tau riptides or broadsides

s7 a2 3 shots at bs 3
or alot of st 7 ap 4 missiles

whats the stats of the maw?

The Mawlocs blast happens before Interceptor however, so itd be a waste.
And large blast, Strength 6 Ap 2, basically a barrage weapon out of LoS.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kasrkin229 wrote:
You could Try some Tyrannofex's with Ruptures cannons ( S10 AP 4 two blast right ? ) ---- And Tau Vehicles Can Overwatch now -- Point Defense Relay there burst canons and Drones can over watch

I think TFexs are too pricey, and honestly not that good vs. Tau, whereas a Mawloc is very good against them.

Yeah, but paying the price of a mawloc for one blast, wouldn't be very good. Tau are more scared of the giant monster in their lines, but if you can blam it right after it comes out of the ground, that essentially turns it into a super expencive one-shot blast.

**Desubot**

Whats the chances of it getting blamed after the blast?

whats its t/w/s?

if it survives getting intercepted and takes a whole round of shooting, that would give the rest of your army to run up and punch some fish not to mention anything that intercepted wont be shooting much.

**More Dakka**

Most Tau tactics I've seen involve their scoring hiding behind ADL's with their Broadsides while the RTs run around up front. Biovores can take care of FW pretty handily, along with Sinperdrones and those markerlight jerks of various flavours.

I'd stick to the board and use MC's with Ironarm and Endurance to soak up the firepower, their average shooting is S7 and S5, your MC's will mulch their MC's in CC.

**jifel**

Mawlocs are 6 T6 wounds, 3+ save. Basically, Tau can kill them, but only by committing a decent amount of firepower.

**Desubot**

At those stats a single riptide would do 1 wound, missilesides, 1.5 ish per suit.

I think the maw might be the way to go.

to pull the heavy hitters away for a turn would let you fly a FMC in quickly or bum rush a bunch of ground units into CC

Edit: Come in > eat the Troops > ignore the suits for a turn.

**Saythings**

With the new meta leaning towards MCs and Flyers, I don't see why Riptides still use the Ion weapon. More shots = more potential wounds. TL-SMS and Heavy Burst Cannon are much more practical weapons. That being said, chances are a Mawloc will either absorb every shot of a Tau army or be ignored. If you ran 2-3 Mawlocs, as cheap as they are, you'd have a much better chance of keeping them alive and for them to wipe squad after squad in assaults.

They are incredibly effective in large Foot Print armies. I don't mean because of their template or against hordes, but I mean they are incredibly resilient and will almost always kill what they assault. If they don't, they are safe from being shot at. Keeping synapse on them makes them fearless and keeping them outside gives them 2 more attacks. It's a win/win.

**Desubot**

Saythings wrote:
With the new meta leaning towards MCs and Flyers, I don't see why Riptides still use the Ion weapon. More shots = more potential wounds. TL-SMS and Heavy Burst Cannon are much more practical weapons.

Actually main reason is that against non xeno type flyers st 6 is pretty weak and it has a medium range. as well we lost our Higher str long range guns from our broadsides, having a nova charged st9 ordnance weapon against land raider tough threats is useful. tl-dr ions are better TAC tools.

**Amoras**

They are always fearless don't even need synapse If they fail ib they yust become more deadly.

**Saythings**

The Ion weapon is only S7 and 3 shots against flyers as well though and can't use templates against flyers. The other option of a 18" Melta is ridiculously short. I guess it's a preference. I've had more success glances flyers to death then getting those lucky pens that cause them to explode. I believe AV12 is the highest for any flyer. I'd take number of shots over rolling a single die. They did take away the high strength weapons that Tau used to have, but Ion shots against a Landraider still leaves you with a single shell. I'd rather use long range firepower from a Broadside.

I know Mawlocs have IB-Feed, I must have forgot they also had Fearless? Oops

**Desubot**

Saythings wrote:
The Ion weapon is only S7 and 3 shots against flyers as well though and can't use templates against flyers. The other option of a 18" Melta is ridiculously short. I guess it's a preference. I've had more success glances flyers to death then getting those lucky pens that cause them to explode. I believe AV12 is the highest for any flyer. I'd take number of shots over rolling a single die. They did take away the high strength weapons that Tau used to have, but Ion shots against a Landraider still leaves you with a single shell. I'd rather use long range firepower from a Broadside.

I know Mawlocs have IB-Feed, I must have forgot they also had Fearless? Oops

Its not really a Tau thread but Broadsides can only glance a raider to death, and unless you are the most luckiest man in the world or have loaded dice, statistically you will need about 8 broadsides to do 1 glace per turn.

but that's getting off topic.

**Thaylen**

Saythings wrote:
With the new meta leaning towards MCs and Flyers, I don't see why Riptides still use the Ion weapon. More shots = more potential wounds. TL-SMS and Heavy Burst Cannon are much more practical weapons.

The heavy burst cannon provides mid strength shooting. Something the tau can already do with fire warriors and missile suits and missilesides. The riptide's strengths are rock hard defence and the ability to provide an intercepting S8 Ap2 Blast.

Given that I have access to the riptide and that crisis teams can double up on weapons, I usually run a team of crisis with double missile pods and velocity trackers and I give the riptide a ion accelerator and fusion blaster with early warning override and stim injectors. The suits hunt light vehicles/flyers and the riptide hunts MC's and elite infantry, with the option to pursue heavy vehicles with smash and fusion if needed.

**Saythings**

Thought you could only shoot the S7 Heavy3 weapon from the Ion on flyers. You can't shoot the S8 or S9 because they are template weapons.

I wouldn't think a riptide with Ion and Fusion would do much very MCs. Only 2 wounds maximum a turn. Hmmm.

**dementedwombat**

I run riptides as interceptor platforms and to counter heavy armor. Broadsides can do anti-air (or a sky ray if I feel like using my heavy support for one of those, although it did completely gut a flying hive tyrant with almost contemptuous ease today, so I might be bringing it out more often).

Short version: I ran against a Tyranid list that had a mawloc being the only thing on the table at the start of the game (deep struck devil-gaunts and the doom and a flying tyrant. Had lictors and the deathleaper coming in wherever they wanted, and a couple units of outflanking genestealers). I put 5 wounds on the mawloc first turn, second turn evreything fell out of the sky and the mawloc went underground, third turn it took out one squad of fire warriors then I shot it dead with my riptide's fusion blaster.

Question, can you go to ground against the mawloc? It seems stupid as hell from a narrative standpoint. I don't think you can since it's not actually a shooting attack.

EDIT: I actually interceptor-killed the doom (and his pod, I dropped the str 8 ion accelerator blast on top of it in the middle of my own gunline. yes I hate the doom that much), then finished the tyrant, the gaunts (and their pod, 2 squads of pathfidners with ion rifles), and one squad of genestealers (with broodlord) all in one turn. I think I'm putting my tau on the shelf for a while. i love them but it just didn't feel fair.

**Saythings**

I believe it says no cover save allowed. Don't have my codex with me. It is an submerged attack from under you, so I can't imagine you would get cover saves.

Sorry, off topic - Could you explain how a Riptide with Ion be better than Heavy Burst Cannon? It's it 3 S7 shots vs. 8 S6? Since you can't use the Ion's S8/9 weapons (as they are templates)? Could be wrong, I just don't see how Ion/Fusion is good on a Riptide.

Mawloc would get beat up by the Ion's S7 AP2 Heavy3 though and Fusion Blaster. That's for sure. But I like more shots rather than less. I think I like the SMS/HBC set-up better cause it's possible to kill a Mawloc in 1 turn (if you're lucky) rather than shooting all AP2 weapons and only causing a maximum of 4 wounds to a 6 wound monster. Obviously you can fire more shots from something else, but I'd argue (versatility-wise) I'd rather have 12 shots than a Large Blast template (Burst Cannon vs. Ion).

**dementedwombat**

It depends on what you're using your riptide for. Each unit in the Tau codex is a platform, able to fill many different roles depending on how you want to structure your army.

I use my riptides to counter heavy armor on the ground and as a platform for intercepting things. I don't use them for anti-flier. To be honest I almost never shoot the ion blaster with its normal profile, it's always overcharged.

If you were using your riptide as a platform against heavy infantry or light fliers then the burst cannon is better, but I feel those roles are handled more effectively by other platforms in my army.

I also put the fusion blaster on there for the express purpose of ripple firing against the doom with interceptor

**jifel**

Actually you can take cover vs the Mawloc... but if he's in terrain, then the Mawloc gets that save later too.

**Thaylen**

Saythings wrote:
ISorry, off topic - Could you explain how a Riptide with Ion be better than Heavy Burst Cannon? It's it 3 S7 shots vs. 8 S6? Since you can't use the Ion's S8/9 weapons (as they are templates)? Could be wrong, I just don't see how Ion/Fusion is good on a Riptide.

Its 3 S7 AP2, with an option for S8 AP2 Large Blast attacks vs 8 S6 AP4 with the option for 4 extra shots with gets hot attacks.

S6 is not terribly better than the S5 shooting that your fire warriors get. Vs hordes the large blast available to the ion weapon evens the race on number of shots on the heavy burst cannon.

The ion accelerator offers attributes that are hard to find in other weapons in the tau arsenal, S8, AP2, and S9/Ordinance Rule if you overcharge.
The heavy bust cannon is not quite strong enough to threaten heavy armor. In nova charge mode, you will likely overheat twice and only hit 2 extra times. You gain rending, but if you were after AP2, you may as well be using an Ion accelerator.

**Krellnus**

Saythings wrote:
Sorry, off topic - Could you explain how a Riptide with Ion be better than Heavy Burst Cannon? It's it 3 S7 shots vs. 8 S6? Since you can't use the Ion's S8/9 weapons (as they are templates)? Could be wrong, I just don't see how Ion/Fusion is good on a Riptide.

Because its much more cost efficient to get AP:2 from the Tau elites slot than it is other slots and it is much more efficient to get anti-air from the heavy support slot than it is any other slot.

**Saythings**

Thanks guys! Newer to Tau and that helped me a lot!

**jy2**

dementedwombat wrote:
I run riptides as interceptor platforms and to counter heavy armor. Broadsides can do anti-air (or a sky ray if I feel like using my heavy support for one of those, although it did completely gut a flying hive tyrant with almost contemptuous ease today, so I might be bringing it out more often).

Short version: I ran against a Tyranid list that had a mawloc being the only thing on the table at the start of the game (deep struck devil-gaunts and the doom and a flying tyrant. Had lictors and the deathleaper coming in wherever they wanted, and a couple units of outflanking genestealers). I put 5 wounds on the mawloc first turn, second turn evreything fell out of the sky and the mawloc went underground, third turn it took out one squad of fire warriors then I shot it dead with my riptide's fusion blaster.

Question, can you go to ground against the mawloc? It seems stupid as hell from a narrative standpoint. I don't think you can since it's not actually a shooting attack.

EDIT: I actually interceptor-killed the doom (and his pod, I dropped the str 8 ion accelerator blast on top of it in the middle of my own gunline. yes I hate the doom that much), then finished the tyrant, the gaunts (and their pod, 2 squads of pathfidners with ion rifles), and one squad of genestealers (with broodlord) all in one turn. I think I'm putting my tau on the shelf for a while. i love them but it just didn't feel fair.

Wow....that was a very risky move for your tyranid opponent. He could've been tabled on T1 with just the mawloc on the table.

Never, EVER just deploy 1 unit on the table, especially against an ultra-shooty army that can take away your cover and that don't need LOS to fire some of its guns.

And yes, stupid as it seems to be able to duck while the floor opens up and swallows you, you can G-T-G against the mawlocs special attack.

**BrotherVord**

jifel wrote:
Alright, so I'm a competitive player, and I'm a Tyranid player. I play Chaos for fun, but for anything serious I bring Nids. The general consensus is that Tau are bad new for Nids, and based on math hammer I don't disagree. So, what to do, how to adapt? The standard tactic against gunlines (and I love playing guard or SM) is to hit him with lots of reserves, usually Flyrants, the Doom, and 2 Ymgarl broods, all at the same time with Hive Commander. I haven't actually played the new Tau yet, but I hate to be unprepared.

BUT, near as I can tell, Tau could do pretty well vs. that. Interceptor heavy means Broadsides could quite possibly kill the Doom before he gets that important damage in. Also, Intercepting HYMP could blow any Ymgarls away, before super overwatch kills the rest. Right now, I've already added more Biovores to my competitive lists, to hit Pathfinders and the like while discouraging a Tau opponent from staying in a single bunch. However, that is fallible because Tau now have ignore-cover and LoS weapons like Missiles.

But honestly... how would Tau deal with a mawloc? The Mawloc is THE ultimate anti castle. Usually an opponent who sees a Mawloc just decides "well, I'll spread out then." But Tau lose some significant advantages when they choose to do this, and it would allow Ymgarls to make it into CC without overwatch of death. I think with the rise of the Tau in the competitive scene that a single Mawloc could be very very worthwhile... He's considered "decent" against other armies, enough that he isn't useless. But imagine dropping a Mawloc on an opponent. Assuming he has his drones to the outside, as most Tau do, he could hit some Broadsides and probably kill at least one model or two. If he castles anyways, then the squad very well couldn't move and would just auto-die! Even if not, Thats a 6 wound MC right in my opponents face. He has to deal with that, or there's a unit gone next turn, and with any luck he just burned his Heavy weapons trying (maybe succeeding) to kill the Doom of Malan'tai with Interceptor. Against standard opponents it just becomes easier to play the objective game by using him as a late game contesting unit in addition to the damage he could cause.

So, what do you think? I've spent some time looking through the mathhammer, and he could be the key to Tyranid evolution. The metas changing, and lately it hasnt been doing Nids any favors.

Mawlocs do not reach their potential if they are fielded without other Mawlocs, and they especially don't reach their potential if they are fielded without the rest of your army about to pop in to say hello.

If you're going to try this, I recommend using at least two Mawlocs, possibly even three. I would make sure that you give your opponent plenty of other targets to think about shooting because they are going to be very exposed after they emerge from the ground and do their damage. It will also be important to have at least one other unit within assault or shooting range with LoS on something at least semi-important, otherwise you're just going to let your opponent shoot them up as soon as they arrive...and they likely will not make up their points in one turn.

**Thaylen**

BrotherVord wrote:
jifel wrote:
Alright, so I'm a competitive player, and I'm a Tyranid player. I play Chaos for fun, but for anything serious I bring Nids. The general consensus is that Tau are bad new for Nids, and based on math hammer I don't disagree. So, what to do, how to adapt? The standard tactic against gunlines (and I love playing guard or SM) is to hit him with lots of reserves, usually Flyrants, the Doom, and 2 Ymgarl broods, all at the same time with Hive Commander. I haven't actually played the new Tau yet, but I hate to be unprepared.

BUT, near as I can tell, Tau could do pretty well vs. that. Interceptor heavy means Broadsides could quite possibly kill the Doom before he gets that important damage in. Also, Intercepting HYMP could blow any Ymgarls away, before super overwatch kills the rest. Right now, I've already added more Biovores to my competitive lists, to hit Pathfinders and the like while discouraging a Tau opponent from staying in a single bunch. However, that is fallible because Tau now have ignore-cover and LoS weapons like Missiles.

But honestly... how would Tau deal with a mawloc? The Mawloc is THE ultimate anti castle. Usually an opponent who sees a Mawloc just decides "well, I'll spread out then." But Tau lose some significant advantages when they choose to do this, and it would allow Ymgarls to make it into CC without overwatch of death. I think with the rise of the Tau in the competitive scene that a single Mawloc could be very very worthwhile... He's considered "decent" against other armies, enough that he isn't useless. But imagine dropping a Mawloc on an opponent. Assuming he has his drones to the outside, as most Tau do, he could hit some Broadsides and probably kill at least one model or two. If he castles anyways, then the squad very well couldn't move and would just auto-die! Even if not, Thats a 6 wound MC right in my opponents face. He has to deal with that, or there's a unit gone next turn, and with any luck he just burned his Heavy weapons trying (maybe succeeding) to kill the Doom of Malan'tai with Interceptor. Against standard opponents it just becomes easier to play the objective game by using him as a late game contesting unit in addition to the damage he could cause.

So, what do you think? I've spent some time looking through the mathhammer, and he could be the key to Tyranid evolution. The metas changing, and lately it hasnt been doing Nids any favors.

Mawlocs do not reach their potential if they are fielded without other Mawlocs, and they especially don't reach their potential if they are fielded without the rest of your army about to pop in to say hello.

If you're going to try this, I recommend using at least two Mawlocs, possibly even three. I would make sure that you give your opponent plenty of other targets to think about shooting because they are going to be very exposed after they emerge from the ground and do their damage. It will also be important to have at least one other unit within assault or shooting range with LoS on something at least semi-important, otherwise you're just going to let your opponent shoot them up as soon as they arrive...and they likely will not make up their points in one turn.

I could see some potential in a list with double hive tyrants (winged, 2xdevourerers), 3x Tervigons, 3x Malwoc. For some MC overload. Sprinkle in hiveguard, doom, ymgarls, and biovores as points and taste allows. You could drop some serious pressure on your opponent. Turn 1, your flyrants cruise to shoot targets at maximum weapons range, tervigons breed and push forward, malwocs burrow. Turn 2, malwocs arrive, tyrants push close with fly speed (stay flying). Tervigons and gaunts (spawned or otherwise) are not far behind. Opponent is looking at 5 MC in assault range. with the numbers to support them not far behind.

You could consider harpies for the Fast attack slots for extra MC overload, but you may run into points issues (harpies also kinda suck as well).