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Until they fix the Harpy, this is my idea of a new Tyranid flying monster designed to attack other aircraft.

So Tyranids as everyone knows are lacking AA, pretty bad. In true Tyranid fashion I felt that the best way to achieve Air Superiority is through close combat. This would be a fast attack choice for the Tyranids, potentially as an upgrade for the Harpy.

Tyranid Zephyr
WS: 2
BS: 3
S: 6
T: 5
W: 4
I: 3
A: 3
Ld: 8
Sv: 4+

Points: 175

Weapons: Scything Talons, Flesh Spines

Flesh Spines: An aerial form of Flesh Hooks designed to take out tough Flyers, with extreme damage done at close range
Range: 12"
Strength: 6
AP: 2
Type: Heavy 2
Special: Skyfire, Melta

Special Rules: Flying Monstrous Creature, Agile, Instinctive Behaviour - Feed, Vector Dancer, Dogfighter

Dogfighter: The Zephyr may elect to move a second time in the Shooting Phase. This is treated identical to the movement phase, but may only move between 6 and 18" and must continue Swooping. Additionally, it may vector strike a second target if the target is a Flyer, Skimmer, or Flying Monstrous Creature.



The point of this unit is to primarily take out flyers, but it will be capable of doing damage in an assault. Although, just looking at its profile it will obviously do much better at one than the other. I gave it the low weapon skill and initiative to represent its sluggishness while on the ground, but while in the air it is much more adept. Also, with Dogfighter it is entirely possible for this guy to take out two enemy flyers in one turn. Flesh Spines are risky because you'll on average only hit with one and need close range, causing most players to choose a second vector strike if it is AV 10 or 11 but still having a shot at hurting AV 12 (or 12+ in case of apoc).



Well Dakka, any thoughts?

I think this might be a bit overpriced for what it does. The Harpy is viewed as being too expensive for what it can do, yet it is cheaper than this and it has both a superior statline (+1 WS, +2 I, +2 LD) and a lot of extra gear bolted on (Stinger Salvo, Heavy Weapon, Spore Mine Cysts, Grenades that halve enemy initative). It also isn't quite as one-dimentional, so while it is a poor dogfighter it has a lot of other functions that can still make it worth considering.

With that in mind, I'd probably drop it to 140-150 as is or maybe add a secondary weapon system (or perhaps Armorbane on Vector Strikes) to keep it around 175.

Flesh Spines should also probably be assault weapons, as nothing else in the Tyranid codex is a true "heavy" weapon and if I remember correctly said weapons have no effect on a Monstrous Creature anyway. As for their functionality, they look ok. As you said, high risk and high reward potentially (though in keeping with the Harpy might not hurt to twin-link them). Fluff part should probably read "A larger variant of Flesh Hooks designed to maximise armor penetration, especially at close range" as an aerial version of.Flesh Hooks would just be Flesh Hooks on a flying chasis.

Not sure what I think of the Dogfighter rule. Does it function for a glide-mode Zephyr or just a swooping one?

I also think you should make the AA Spines 18"

What about a jerk that shoots a really big frog tongue with bitey teeth out from the ground! Decent shots and extra good for grounding checks and whatever.

Might even have upgrades to be able to pull units around or do some dumb movement trick.

I'd like to keep the points cost to prevent spam. What about adding tank hunter, increasing the spine range, and maybe armorbane to the vector strike? I think that might be a little over the top though.

Honestly, with Tyranids I find it to be an extremely bad idea to create new units, simply because they just force more competition for valuable slots, kind of like the agony of looking at the Elite section before a battle while you choose your list. Rules are fun, but generally, it becomes a pain when you have to create new ones to force a unit to do what you want it to. Shooting twice is actually semi overpowered, in a sense, because it would actually mean your talking about effectively doubling attacks for the same price. just to throw you some inspiration, heres the Harpy I came up with for my fandex a while back. Honestly, while close combat seems logical, it would probably turn the unit into a suicide ordeal, because of the mass of the two objects involved, and more aircraft would most likely die from crashing into your bug than would actually be brought down from their attacks.

Harpy – 150 pts
Composition
• 1 Harpy
Harpy WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
3 3 5 5 4 5 2 10 4+
Spore Mine WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
- - 1 1 1 1 – 1 –
Weapons and Biomorphs
• Hardened carapace
• Scything talons
• Spore mine cysts
• Stinger salvo
• Twin-linked stranglethorn cannon
• Wings
Special Rules
• Instinctive Behaviour – Lurk
• Fearless
• Sonic Screech
• Living Bomb (Spore Mine Only)
Options
• Replace twin-linked stranglethorn cannon for
-Twin-linked heavy venom cannon – 10 pts
-Twin-linked devourers with brainleech worms (two sets) – 20 pts
• Replace stinger salvo with
-Cluster spines – free
• A Harpy may take
-Adrenal glands – 5 pts
-Toxin sacs – 5 pts
-Regeneration – 10 pts
-Bonded Exoskeleton – 10 pts

I had another dakka member test the harpy, and it does well on a 1 on 1 basis against enemy fighters. Reasonable chance to win, but nothing overpowered. Hope you find this inspirational in a potential rework.

I remember your fandex, I liked almost all of it. I'd love to just give the harpy a close combat option with some of the rules I put. I think I know what you're saying about the bug getting squished. That would be the case if it were a ramming attack, but I always interpreted it as a strike vs a ram.