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I think of rippers of being suicide. Give em wings and you cn send them of to hold up the big guns and do a bit of damage with some toxin sacks.

When I run them, I upgrade them with the DS burrowing ability to split the opponent's fire as the horde pushes up. If any of them survive (since they can't go to ground) I tend to push them up against rear units or throw them against units in cover. It buys my other units precious time and saves some of the army's endurance for 'crunch' time. Not effective, but when you're fielding 27+ models of them, plus the PoM, things get interesting. Obviously, the list doesn't win much, but it sure is fun to play with!

They can help with reserves..

30 points for a unit can add to the total unit count allowing more units to deep strike, outflank, dormant, etc...

They can be completely hidden behind Aegis Defense Lines.

In a reserve-based list they can work, especially if you take the ADL with relay.

-Myst

Mysticaria wrote:
They can help with reserves..

30 points for a unit can add to the total unit count allowing more units to deep strike, outflank, dormant, etc...

They can be completely hidden behind Aegis Defense Lines.

In a reserve-based list they can work, especially if you take the ADL with relay.

-Myst

except you got to have that silly synapse unit in range so they don't forget to breath.

Sorry I am not sure on this but if you are not within 12 inches of a synapse beast do they take wounds and die or do they just have to take leadership test like the other gaunts?

 Chaos Rising wrote:
Sorry I am not sure on this but if you are not within 12 inches of a synapse beast do they take wounds and die or do they just have to take leadership test like the other gaunts?

Both...sort of. I believe that they take a test and for every point they fail by they take a wound (Mindless). And their LD is what, 6?

-Yad

 Chaos Rising wrote:
I think of rippers of being suicide. Give em wings and you cn send them of to hold up the big guns and do a bit of damage with some toxin sacks.

You can't "give" Rippers wings, the winged unit is a seperate entry (Sky Slasher Broods).

Apart from that nitpick, I'm not sure if this is the most optimal usage for the unit, as you are looking at almost 20 points per base with that configuration while at the same time being extremely vulnerable to S6+ shots (which are all too common between Scatter Lasers/Shuriken Cannons, Psycannons, Plasma weapons, Auto Cannons, Telsa Destructors, MC Devourers, etc.).

From my experience, Rippers if run at all are best kept as cheap as possible and ideally brought in as large a brood as possible (5-9 ideally). Their job is more or less to screen other, more important units and maybe tie up something in cover to preserve another unit's initiative in a later charge (Rippers don't really care about cover, being I2 anyway).

Yad wrote:

 Chaos Rising wrote:
Sorry I am not sure on this but if you are not within 12 inches of a synapse beast do they take wounds and die or do they just have to take leadership test like the other gaunts?

Both...sort of. I believe that they take a test and for every point they fail by they take a wound (Mindless). And their LD is what, 6?

-Yad

Rippers are LD 5, so they will more than likely fail, though at least they are IB Feed units so while they will probably loose a base or two they do get Rage and full control of them. They do not need to check on the turn they arrive from reserves though.

Average roll on 2 dice is 7, so even if you are outside synapse should not lose more than 1 base unless you are really unlucky. On average roll you don't even lose one base, but the odds of losing 3 bases in one phase is zero. If you are taking a 30-point unit for the express purpose of reserving more units and you aren't counting on them to do anything but prevent you from being tabled on turn one, then they serve that purpose regardless of their instability. Also, I kind of like the idea of the fluff... hive mind doesn't keep them focussed and all the little buggers run off to find something to eat.

That said... I did this unit in a recent tournament and found they were pretty fair at this role. I didn't really need them, and they just kind of ran around and tried to get in the way. Most people just ignored them, but a couple had fun shooting them with baleflamers and stuff. Often I had the terrain to have hidden a Hive Guard, who is only 20 points more for a minimum sized unit and definately would have contributed more to the offense.

A guy on "thetyranidhive" uses rippers pretty succesfully in low-point games. He takes large units of them with spinefists I believe. A unit of 10 with spinefists is something like 150 points (from memory so don't quote me) and it gets 40 something twin-linked shots... then he takes 2-3 of those units with the Parasite of Mortrex and just swamps the enemy in dice. Not sure if it translates well to high-point games, but may be a fun option.

-Myst

barnowl wrote:

Mysticaria wrote:
They can help with reserves..

30 points for a unit can add to the total unit count allowing more units to deep strike, outflank, dormant, etc...

They can be completely hidden behind Aegis Defense Lines.

In a reserve-based list they can work, especially if you take the ADL with relay.

-Myst

except you got to have that silly synapse unit in range so they don't forget to breath.

Except Nids can't take an ADL

Wrong. They can, they can even take a gun - they just can't shoot the gun.

I guess I've read the FAQ wrong then, bonus! Park my Biovores behind an aegis defense line! Although saying that, I can't find the FAQ anymore, has it been removed, allowing us to use them again?

Eldercaveman wrote:
I guess I've read the FAQ wrong then, bonus! Park my Biovores behind an aegis defense line! Although saying that, I can't find the FAQ anymore, has it been removed, allowing us to use them again?

Pg 2 of the FAQ first question under FAQ.

barnowl wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:
I guess I've read the FAQ wrong then, bonus! Park my Biovores behind an aegis defense line! Although saying that, I can't find the FAQ anymore, has it been removed, allowing us to use them again?

Pg 2 of the FAQ first question under FAQ.

Tyranid or BRB?

You can't "give" Rippers wings, the winged unit is a seperate entry (Sky Slasher Broods).

That is what i meant

Eldercaveman wrote:

barnowl wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:
I guess I've read the FAQ wrong then, bonus! Park my Biovores behind an aegis defense line! Although saying that, I can't find the FAQ anymore, has it been removed, allowing us to use them again?

Pg 2 of the FAQ first question under FAQ.

Tyranid or BRB?

Tyranids. It is in the question about Bastions. Kind of odd placement but covered.