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has any one run up against this cheese yet? I would like to know how to counter it if it happens to me.

Here is the scenario. Nid player takes units that give him bonuses to reserves, attempts to surround your units with pods, and then pops mawlocs out of the ground and removes your models from play.

I have yet to see this in a tournament, but being a former nid player, I never thought that mawlocs were that effective.

Spread out and don't give him the opportunity to surround you. It's a pretty easy tactic to beat by disallowing him a good place to land with his pods. Even at 2500 points, that's almost half his army filled with mediocre units that really only function as a one-trick pony. Spread out, take away his landing options, then smash him once he's on the ground. Also note that his lictor's reserve bonuses don't stack with each other (they will stack with a Tyrant's or the Swarmlord's bonuses) and don't function until the turn after they come onto the board. The homing beacon function also does not work until the turn after they come in.

Urban terrain and put everything on the top floor of a building?

Could you explain why this strategy is dangerous in any capacity? I feel as if I'm missing some vital detail.

Could you explain why this strategy is dangerous in any capacity? I feel as if I'm missing some vital detail.

If units are unable to move 1" away from under the mawlocs template they are removed from play. So lictors and pods box in units/army and mawlocs come in and stuff just gets removed from play because there's no where for you to go. Thats the theory anyways

Problem is if the tactic fails, you are hosed. And its easy for it to fail -- your opponent can simply reserve on you. Also since lictors homer doesn't work until the turn after they arrive -- its a good chance those pods and lictors get killed instead of the enemy.

I honestly can't blame Nid players for this. They are probably getting desperate after the multiple nerfs that GW has hit them with.

winterman wrote:

Could you explain why this strategy is dangerous in any capacity? I feel as if I'm missing some vital detail.

If units are unable to move 1" away from under the mawlocs template they are removed from play. So lictors and pods box in units/army and mawlocs come in and stuff just gets removed from play because there's no where for you to go. Thats the theory anyways

Problem is if the tactic fails, you are hosed. And its easy for it to fail -- your opponent can simply reserve on you. Also since lictors homer doesn't work until the turn after they arrive -- its a good chance those pods and lictors get killed instead of the enemy.

So this entire strategy is hinged on the opposition forming into a tight little group, doing nothing while you establish your formation, and then luckily having your reserves come in the way you want?

If that's the case, the the correct way to counter this strategy is to play normally.

This is why it is bad: Lictors aruive on turn two and you can't use the pheremon trail before turn 3. This means mawlocks do nothing turn one, go to ground turn 2 and pop up on turn 3. That is 3 tursn with a LOTT of points tied up.

If you are in a psyker heavy enviorment then it might be worth to take the deathleeper and a mawlock. While the DL is not good, he is hard to kill, keeps psykers down and he will contest in the last round so you have a muatch better chance in objective games. And if it tick over to turn 6 then the mawlock will pop out before the lictor charges.

As a nid player that is 1 of the worst strategies I've seen in a long time so much could go wrong and your banking on scatter dice that can put every model 12" in different directions lol plus your list is built around this strategy and what happens after you've deep striked?

So this entire strategy is hinged on the opposition forming into a tight little group, doing nothing while you establish your formation, and then luckily having your reserves come in the way you want?

Well its a bit easier on the nid player then that, since turn 2 you can ensure mawlocs arrive automatically, you get hive commander for the +1 for your other units, and between your opponents own models, any impassible terrain and your reserves its not hard to surround a clump of units; isolated units; or part of a formation. Then place mawlocs, hope they don't scatter far and profit. Or wait a turn as already mentioned but to me that'd usually be worse, even with the possibility of no scatter.

Not defending the strategy, in the end its pretty horrible regardless. Just trying to relay more info that seems to be missed.

With a hive tyrant and swarmlord you are still arriving on 2+, not quite automatic. The Lictor's bonuses do not stack with each other and do not take effect till they have been on the board for a turn.

No, you start the Mawlocs on the board, and then burrow them first turn. They'll pop up automatically from then on.

So you either hide in your transports or just spread out to coherency? This army list seems really bad, I dis-recommend you spend money on it.

Nightbringer's Chosen wrote:No, you start the Mawlocs on the board, and then burrow them first turn. They'll pop up automatically from then on.

The problem is that it pops up turn 2, but the lictor does not go into effect before turn 3.

Could be powerful, going through the codex one of the things that jumped out at me was mawloc+lictor dropping big blasts on people.

but in reality it doesn't work due to how lictors are reserved, and how weak mawlocs blast generally is.

one of the many unfortunate problems due to bad writing in that codex.

Again, I would say it is a fine cresendo of a finish of you have 1 mawlock and 1 deathleaper on your codex. A finish for the end turns, but nothing to base your whole army on.

The problem is that it pops up turn 2, but the lictor does not go into effect before turn 3.

But the lictors still block moves out from under the blast. So yes less accurate, but the lictors still figure into the whole removal bit. You keep saying this like you have to use the lictors phermone trail. That is just a bonus in the odd chance you can use it.

Gah why am I even posting, its still a horrible list lol.

Again, I would say it is a fine cresendo of a finish of you have 1 mawlock and 1 deathleaper on your codex. A finish for the end turns, but nothing to base your whole army on.

Yeah I can see that. I have a 3x2lictor list in the works for giggles and I may add a mawloc for the fun factor. But game breaking cheese it is not.

I have an IG player this might work against. But that's about it. IT also wouldn't deal with his vehicles.

Might be funny to try some time. I wouldn't buy the models to do it, but if I already had them I'd try it once, at least.

The mawloc can't pop up in difficult terrain, or he gets a mishap roll.

Just deploy in cover.

ph34r wrote:So you either hide in your transports or just spread out to coherency? This army list seems really bad, I dis-recommend you spend money on it.

I'm not saying this is a good list idea, but hiding in your transport wont help vs this tactic if it goes off like it s supposed to, vehicles are also removed from play if they cant be moved legally.

kill dem stunties wrote:I'm not saying this is a good list idea, but hiding in your transport wont help vs this tactic if it goes off like it s supposed to, vehicles are also removed from play if they cant be moved legally.

Possibly the cheapest way to get rid of a Titan in the game. Encircle the titan with a bunch of crap troops and the send in the Mawloc.

bucheonman wrote:The mawloc can't pop up in difficult terrain, or he gets a mishap roll.

Just deploy in cover.

Uh, no. He makes a dangerous terrain test in difficult terrain, mishap in impassable....big difference.