Slayer-Fan123 wrote:Yeah I'm fine with the Tyranids getting that. Webway Gate the Strat? Absolutely not.
Pretty sure we're talking about the actual Webway Gate model, not one of the Webway Strike/Assault/Ambush strats.
Tyrannocytes getting turn 1 deepstrike is probably fine. The same screening tactics that were important prior to the reserve rule changes would become important again, but 'nid players would be investing in a pretty costly model to put on turn 1 pressure. I can't think of any 'nid units that would break the game by landing on turn 1 instead of turn 2. They don't have a lot of crippling short-ranged dakka. THey'd basically just be throwing a very killable problem unit in your face turn 1 that you'd have to take care of rather than shooting/advancing downfield right off the bat. It's a speedbump delivery, basically.
I'm of the opinion that the webway gate is literally the worst unit in the game right now. Letting units come out of it on turn 1 would make it significantly less bad, but still leave it pretty bad. I feel like the webway gate might need a more thorough overhaul. The biggest issue with the webway is that it actively becomes a liability if you go second. Your opponent might blow it up immediately (at which point you can only salvage a single unit from it, and that only if you have a harlequin detachment to grant access to the right stratagem). Charging the gate allows your opponent to use it as a sort of movement booster for his units. Getting close to the gate but not destroying it can functionally prevent the gate's contents from ever entering play. Unfortunate terrain placement combined with the gate's rules can make it really tricky to put the gate in a useful position in the first place.
And on top of that, most units that might consider using the gate (i.e. anything without built-in deepstrike) is probably better off using a stratagem. A blob of guardians, for instance, can be really tricky to place usefully using a gate. The gate and the enemy would have to be placed such that the guardians are legally far enough away from the enemy, legally close enough to the game, and still within 12" for their shuriken catapults to be brought to bear. Melee units would have a long bomb charge to make. Short-ranged shooting units have guardian problems. Long-ranged shooting units don't really need the gate in the first place. The only situations where a gate seems like it has a use are:
A.) You want to deepstrike a ton of stuff without built-in deepstrike, and you don't want to spend a ton of
CP to do it. The thing here is that you'd be bringing those units in one at a time through a single gate, so you're presumably only bringing in three or less units in this fashion. At which point, spending a couple
CP to just webway strat them onto the table is probably better. You can speed up the rate at which units arrive by taking more webways and/or using the harlequin strat, but then you're investing a ton of points and a moderate number of
CP into a gimmick whose only purpose is spending a ton of
CP. Plus, you're only allowed to put so much of your army into deepstrike in the first place, so chances are good that the webway strats will be a more efficient way of pulling off mass deepstriking.
B.) Monsters. Monsters can't currently deepstrike via the webway, cloudstrike, screaming jet, etc. strats. So you can have some talos or wraith lords or an avatar show up through the gate. Talos might actually be tempted by this approach if you happen to be fielding harlies (so that your opponent doesn't just turn 1 kill or lock up the gate thus trapping your talos squad), but they'd all still be stuck making long charges. I guess coming out turn 1 if you get the top of turn would let you turn a wraith lord into a distraction carnifex?
Personally, I lean towards treating webway gates less like a deepstrike pad and more like a vehicle with an unlimited transport capacity shared between all gates you control. This would allow you to potentially disembark from the gate even if enemies were nearby (as long as they weren't completely swarming the gate), and other units could move after disembarking thus turning the portal into a sort of launch pad. I wouldn't mind advancing some fire dragons or howling banshees or harlies or incubi out of a portal if the rules would let me; as is, the portal is just a much riskier and more limited form of deepstrike.
