Hey Dakka,
I wanted to put this together to show something I'm experimenting with in 9th. I'm digging all of the "bad" stuff out and playing in in
TTS.
The first up is the Sporefield strategem.
For reference, after deployment but before the first turn begins you can pay 3CP to deploy up to 2 units of spore mines anywhere on the field more than 12" away from an enemy. You do have to pay reserve points for this so it's expensive
CP wise and you have to build a smaller list to fit it in.
According to the Tyranids
FAQ, this strategem and Call the Brood creates units that have a hive fleet trait that matches at least one model in your list.
You could have a battalion of Leviathan and a fortification detachment with one Kraken sporocyst. This allows Sporefield to create Kraken spore mines.
Imagine a situation where a knight is deployed as follows. It could be any big, scary unit. I'm just using a knight as an example.
In this situation, I've placed my sporemines here:
What's important is that if I get first turn, I'm prepared to pounce. If I get second turn, I've actually blocked the knight in and prevented it from reaching an objective:
As Kraken, you can roll
3d6 and choose the highest when advancing. The unique strategem, opportunistic advance, allows you to double the distance rolled on advances for one unit (1CP). Metabolic overdrive allows a unit to move twice at the cost of 1CP and mortal wounds on rolls of a 1 for each model in the unit.
On average, both units move 13" but this is a timelapse showing the models move and what dice were rolled. The unit on the left opportunistic advanced and the unit on the right used overdrive.
What's unique is that they detonate if a unit is within 3" at the end of the charge phase. You don't actually have to charge to detonate! Each mine roughly results in 1
MW (rolls of 1 do nothing, rolls of 6 do d3, everthing else is 1
MW)
I rolled it through 3 times and it resulted in 15, 17, and 20 mortal wounds. A unit of hiveguard or even enough fleshborers may be able to pick off the last few wounds on the knight.
Do you think this is worth it in 9th? The board control and aggression has made an impact in my test games. Even diverting fire into models that yield no victory points makes an impact.
What do you think?
