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They seem to be very expensive heavy flamers. Can they be used effectively for their point cost

This is a unit whose point cost is only an insult.

They are competing for the Elite FOC slot in Tyranid lists. That makes them overpriced no matter what they do to infantry. Especially as what can easily read as an assault unit with one attack. (Really?)

In a spod they have some potential for killing entrenched infantry, although they are still not comparable to anything else in the elite slot. Or really even anything for the points in an army that basically specializes in killing infantry.

I have yet to see anyone use them as anything other than Biovore stand-ins (if you know much of biovores, that is almost worse than non-use).

ChocolateGork wrote:They seem to be very expensive heavy flamers. Can they be used effectively for their point cost

No they are an Elite unit that can not kill tanks well.

But they are only the second worst unit in the codex.

They really don't perform very well. Essentially a Heavy Flamer which isn't the best at surviving, and has a chance to roast your own units when it dies. Yeah, it's CC attacks ignore saves, which would be good if it had more than 1 fething attack. Spodding them in could be used as a distractionary tactic or to get rid of a GEQ unit hiding in cover, but most of the time they're simply not worth it.

no. not really. stay far away from them.

They're not only one of the worst units in the codex (a codex that has some real duds, despite the stars) they're one of the worst units in the game.

Stay away.

The trick is not to think of them as ordinary units, and to consider them as suicide units. They're there to die and take large amounts of the enemy with them.

The trick is to consider their capabilities. Take their Instinctive Behaviour, for example. They'll succumb to Rage, but their Flamespurt can still be used. They don't just explode if you hit them with Instant Death, but they also have Acid Blood combined with 60mm bases.

Shove them into a unit of Assault Terminators and laugh hard. Hurl them into a mob of Orks or Guardsmen, and laugh hard. Giggle as rape-gangs of Death Company melt, and then explode.

The real power of the pyrovore is to convert your own and then vibrate the opposing units off of the table.

Short answer? No
Long Answer

Lyracian wrote:

ChocolateGork wrote:They seem to be very expensive heavy flamers. Can they be used effectively for their point cost

No they are an Elite unit that can not kill tanks well.

But they are only the second worst unit in the codex.

What's the worst unit?

Matty! wrote:What's the worst unit?

Old One Eye.

Nurglitch has some good points, I'm sure in casual play they might accomplish something eventually. But currently, if you're playing decent opponents, chances are they've mostly brought vehicles. And the tyranid elites section contains some brilliant vehicle killers, a role which isn't really available in the rest of the FOC. So no-one would take them even if they were half price, IMO.

Nurglitch wrote:The trick is not to think of them as ordinary units, and to consider them as suicide units. They're there to die and take large amounts of the enemy with them.

The trick is to consider their capabilities. Take their Instinctive Behaviour, for example. They'll succumb to Rage, but their Flamespurt can still be used. They don't just explode if you hit them with Instant Death, but they also have Acid Blood combined with 60mm bases.

Shove them into a unit of Assault Terminators and laugh hard. Hurl them into a mob of Orks or Guardsmen, and laugh hard. Giggle as rape-gangs of Death Company melt, and then explode.

about it, really. In any other context they are useless. However, as suicide units, they're actually not too bad.