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Accepted wisdom is to give the Broodlord a minimum retinue of 5 GS with extended carapace, as 5 extra wounds to get him through the heavy bolters and into combat. However, after watching my poor Broodlord consistently fail to reach CC (4 for 4, so far), I'm getting frustrated. "If only he could FLEET", I grumble, "Infiltrate AND fleet would pwn!"

So here's a weird idea. How about taking a completely un-upgraded Broodlord with a maximum sized retinue of 11 kickin' GS (extended carapace, flesh hooks, maybe even scything talons...) and treating the Broodlord as an ~80 point piece of wargear for them, that gives them infiltrate and 3 wounds? If you get 3 wounds on the unit, then lose the Broodlord as a casualty - your infiltrated Genestealers just got their Fleet back! Expensive and risky, but might work...what do you think?

I considered that the "can't spread wounds around to avoid losing models" rule might prevent taking the Broodlord as a casualty from anything less than S10, until all the stealers are dead. However, I seem to recall that the above rule only applies to units with *more* than one multiple-wound model. Since the BL and the ExCp stealers all have 4+ armour saves, I should be able to assign the wounds where I like, right?

I think I may try this tactic out, at least until I get my second Tyrant built and painted...

My only thought is that this is very very expensive wargear, that takes up a slot that can be filled by another Hive Tyrant.

And don't we all just want all our slots filled by Hive Tyrants?

Infiltrating GS is his goal.
I think.

Sorry about the initial post, the paragraphing disappeared somehow.  Now edited.

Yup, I want fleeting infiltrating genestealers.  So the BL becomes a very expensive piece of wargear for that purpose.  It's totally not worth it for the usual 5-GS retinue...but for the 11-GS maximum retinue...maybe?  Fully tricked with ExCp, FH, ST, the unit comes out to ~355 pts including the naked BL. Think of it as paying 8 pts per stealer for infiltrate plus a 3-wound buffer.  I consider 8 pts for Leaping on Warriors to be worth it, so...

Assuming that 3-6 unsaved wounds are dealt in the first round of shooting, the BL will fall.  In the following Nid turn, the remaining 8-11 stealers should be able to reliably contact an enemy that they infiltrated 12.5" awy fromt, since they get their Fleet back (with the BL gone).  This is the crux of the idea: the BL must go down, or else the unit can't move fast enough to catch anything.

Would they make their points back?  I dunno, have to try it though! I'm tickled by the idea of using the BL as extra wounds+wargear for the stealers, a reverse of the usual pattern.

The Broodlord can't be instakilled by S10 because he is a Synapse Creature. The only way to get him killed is get shot -and taking wounds- by 3 different units (because you can't let him take all the wounds) or if he is the only viable target in range.

Infiltrating stealers would make their points back but I hardly see any piece of terrain where you can hide 12 modells without LOS. When you loose the broodlord, the brood will be depleted and to far away to munch more than one unit. At least this is my experience when I face a broodlord. But he forces me to deploy careful and prevent 12" infiltration which can be good (although I don't think it is worth 200p ^^).

Ummmm, you can't have him take *all* the wounds from an enemy unit, but you can indeed allocate the first 3 unsaved wounds the unit suffers to him, just no more after that.

The issue I have with this plan is that you need to have the enemy shoot you for this plan to work. Unfortunately, if the unit is being shot then chances are your opponent can direct enough firepower to wipe the unit out. It's not like Genestealers stand up to fire all that well.

Essentially you'd have to find a situation where the enemy does just enough wounds to kill the Broodlord, but not enough to wipe out the unit. Honestly I don't see that scenario occuring enough times to be worthwhile. Perhpas you might fool a newish player who hasn't figured out what you're doing once, but once you play that guy again (or any vet) will quickly see through your ruse and just obliterate the unit.

First problem, how are you infiltrating 12 models just outside of 12" from the enemy without being seen?

Efficiency issue, scuttling stealers move and assualt an average of 31" in 2 turns, your tactic is only worthwhile if it is better than this 31" distance normal stealers can cover.

With 12 and 15" deployments in most missions this means yo uwill be 43-46" across the table on turn 2 with normal stealers anyway.

Another problem is that indeed your broodlord might save one of the 3 wounds you allocate to him and not die! esp if he is in cover.

If on the other hand you are infiltrating 18" away then the fleet still won't get you into CC.

Personally the way I use the broodlord is I keep him on 4+ save, I have him soak up 2 wounds and then put the rest on the stealers, this way I get to keep 2 extra carapace stealers alive (worth 40pts in my book) and I still have my broodlord who kicks *donkey*in CC when/if he gets there. Personally use the min sized stealer retinue as it is easiest to infiltrate out of los.

The other option is to take non carapace stealers with the BL, advance in cover, you will lose the stealers but this is fine, just make sure you have a nice long line of spinegaunts nearby, he is an IC so cannot be targeted unless he is closest (spines will prevent this) BL can then join the spine unit who then assualts a far away enemy and the BL is now making a nice 6" assualt move along with 2 6" pile in moves per turn untill it reaches CC.

Yeah, it would probably be difficult to pull off in practice. Especially hiding 12 models.

However, regarding obliteration of the unit: I usually tend to infiltrate my BL+min retinue near one flank anyways. With decent terrain coverage, I don't think it's very likely that more than a couple of units could target them in the single shooting phase they would get.

I'm more worried that they'll get ignored, witht the nearest units just walking away. And then it's back to spending the game dragging the BL across the table .

Would scuttling GS's really be more point effiicient? At 24-25pts each, losing 3 wounds of scuttling GS's isn't much different than losing a naked BL...and I doubt one could close with scuttlers without taking at least 3 wounds...

I don't have a lot of experience running stealers. I've run a couple of broods of 6, but I'm reliably down to 1 or 2 by the time they hit CC, which isn't that devastating. I'm hoping the Sacrificial BL trick would let me land 8 or more GS's on a unit, which should be able to wipe out pretty much any one unit in 2 assault phases. I'd have toI land on the end of a unit, such that some targets are not engaged in my own assault phase, to keep my stealers protected from shooting in his turn of course. But then, using fleet to move into any unit within 13+" and start consolidating down the line.

I do like the spinegaunt - IC trick though...makes feeder tendrils worthwhile...hmmm. Kind of lose the infiltration advantage if you need to keep them near enough to spinegaunts. I suppose that with many spinegaunt broods, you could still use infiltration to pick the most tactical spot to deploy though.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I think this is worth a try. I'll let you know how it works out.

Tried the Sacrificial Broolord tonight. Sadly, it fell foul of some abysmal Marine shooting, and some good saves on my part.

Managed to infiltrate behind some hard cover, out of LOS, 12" away from the center line of the long edge in Escalation. There was a juicy minimum Tac squad in cover 12.1" away, from which it would be possible to roll up through a second tac squad and intoan even juicier Libby Termie squad. I even had Dawn in my favour, so turn one was nightfight, and I got first turn.

First turn I ran 6" around the cover. The tac squad opened up with their bolters, but only scored a single unsaved wound! I put it on my Broodlord, but no more wounds were forthcoming. In my second turn, I hove 6.1" away from the supposedly illfated Tac squad. Unfortunately, on my opponent's turn 2, he brought in 8 Assault Marines with 2 Flamers not inches from my unit. 2 Flamers, 6 Bolt Pistols, and 10 rapid-firing Bolters (from the two Tac Squads) later and my 11x 25 point Stealers (FH, EC, ST) were dust - I was left with a naked Broodlord with a wound on him.

Luckily I was able to charge a Lictor and some Termagaunts into the combat, but the Assault Marines managed to Fist the Broodlord to death before the last of them fell to the Lictor.

I'm certain that if I hadn't thrown such lucky saves on my opponent's first turn, I would have been able to fleet the 11 superstealers into the Tac Squad on my turn 2. Though they might well have obliterated the squad, and missed consolidating into the next one; and suffered the same Flamers/Assault Marine death in the end.

However, all is not lost - I am building a Flying Tyrant for my 2nd HQ. The Broodlord will sit on the shelf and wait for 1000 point or less games.