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Hi guys,

This isn't really a tactics issue, so apologies if this is in the wrong place. I'm not looking really for tactics or trying to find a useful role for these units or trying to persuade people to take them or anything like that. It's more of a "what were these units designed for?" query.

I was looking at our friends the Haruspex and Pyrovore and running a couple of little sample combats with the Haruspex (because I really am that bored). What I noticed was that, when you pit a Haruspex against a Carnifex, the Carnifex has a reasonable chance of killing itself.

Which made me think -- are these critters GW's attempts to design units around the Acid Blood biomorph?

The Pyrovore's Volatile special rule seems an attempt to get around the mitigating effect that Instant Death normally has on Acid Blood (in fact, the Pyrovore's Acid Maw attack is also S5 AP2, though this might be coincidence). Maybe looking at the thing as a Heavy Flamer platform is wrong -- it's a kamikaze bomb. Maybe the Heavy Flamer is there mainly for a pre-charge attack and/or Overwatch. (By the way, if you charge a unit of Pyrovores with Ork Boys you'll statistically lose half the attackers to the Acid Blood).

The Haruspex's regeneration as it consumes also seems maybe designed to work with this; he can last for a while in a melee as long as he keeps inflicting Wounds, and all the while the people inflicting the damage run the risk of killing themselves (very noticeable in my aforementioned case of a Carnifex vs. a Haruspex, since the Carnifex is I2).

What do you think? Am I following a red herring?

I think your theory sounds quite possible from an intent standpoint.

Unfortunately they both suffer fr9m not being able to get into combat to make all the special rules work and on top of that they have poor ws so have a hard time hitting even when they get there,