Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tyranofex, Red-Headed Stepchild?

Image from aduro on Dakka Dakka (used without permission)


So while perusing the blogs of FTW, I found this : THIS

And in the midst of my reply, I found that i was getting a bit long winded, so i've decided to make a blog post about the Tyranofex myself.

So, the tyranofex is a Big Bug, and when i say big i mean big. Toughness 6 Wounds 6.

He gets some nice options, but for any of my points, i can see only one loadout for him that would be worthwhile:

Tyranofex
Regeneration (I.E. You Can't Kill Me short of a Force Weapon or Special Ability)
Rupture Cannon (48" Range, S10 Assault 2, Ap4, but you'd get a cover save anyway right?)
Cluster Spines (18" Range S5 Large Blast. Hell Yeah)
Dessicator Larve (Template S1, Wounds on a 2+)

Why this configuration?

First, Regeneration makes him all but impossible to kill. Sure, with High Str weapons you're going to wound him, but he's got 6 wounds, and can get them back. Force Weapons and the like will still kill him, but well yeah, if you let a Librarian get into HTH with him, you've screwed up pretty good.

Rupture Cannon is a must, sure you're not going to kill infantry with it, but against armor, you're not going to get a better weapon short of Zoanthropes.

Cluster Spines - I took these simply because with a BS of 3, his other shots will miss more than this will. a large blast that can deviate at most 9" is much better than a stinger salvo.

Dessicator Larve- sorry, against anything close enough, the Dessicator Larve is your best bet. wound on a 2+ is far better than any of the other options.

So, now you've got a MC that is neigh unkillable, who can pop tanks, and if your plan is not going quite well, can decimate infantry. yes, 2 weapons can shoot per turn, so you can launch that large blast, then shoot the dessicator larve and really soften up a unit.

now on to CC. You are a Monsterous Creature so you've got power weapons, and roll an extra D6 vs vehicles. so you CAN penetrate a land raider with your Strength of 6. (6+6+6=18) though on average you're only penetrating 13 (vs average rear armor of 11)

Yes, he is 295 points. is it worth it? Very much so.

ok, vs an Assault Space Marine Squad (That Charged Him), he will take (on average) 20 Hits (Ouch) and from that, take 4 wounds, which he will save 3 (and a third) of. Now let's add in their bolt pistols (10 shots)
6 hit, 1 wounds, he saves it 5/6 times.

so he Takes 1 wound. attacks back and causes 1 wound. yay, now he has the advantage because their odds just go down from there. so he can and will. do a lot of damage.

now let's turn it arround. he shoots his blast template (for ease of reference he'll miss completely.) - 0 hits
fires his Dessicator Larve (little, but we'll say 3 hits) 2 wounds, 1 fails.

same as above, he takes 1 wound. now he causes 2 on the charge. he wins combat. they may or may not get away. now against SM tactical squad he does better.

and against a TH/SS squad he gets romped, but who does not?

He's worth his 300 points every day of the week.

while he may not compare to the fire output of a Leman Russ, well he's infinately more survivable.

6 comments:

  1. "Rupture Cannon is a must, sure you're not going to kill infantry with it, but against armor, you're not going to get a better weapon short of Zoanthropes."

    None of his other weapons come close to the rupture cannon but even for anti armor, it is weak since as I noted your 2 shots are hurt by bs 3, even S10 only pentrates 33%, and only 33% does the target get destroyed.

    For anti heavy tank, 2 sets of 2 zoans in pods are better adding in anti MEQ and Synapse. Sure he will not die but he will also not do much in cases where no heavy armor appears.

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  2. true, but the other weapons are for when the heavy armor does not show up. he can still pump out that Pie plate (wounding most of everything on 3's) and when he gets close he can fire that template to do a decent ammount of wound.

    Perhaps it's just a personal taste, but I think he is a hidden Gem.

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  3. I am sure some games he will work out great but I just hate the idea of having a tank killer who the odds say will take several turns to kill the target. A 19% chance of immoblizing or better the Av14 target each turn will leave a lot of turns of frustration the way I roll. I am sure I will only get the 5 or 6 on the hit dice every time.

    What do you think of the other main weapons? Should the Tyrannofex(~200) really be lower cost with one of those then the big jump to get the rupture cannon(~ +40). Seems like a waste to spend the time to write new weapons that are just not going to be used.

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  4. I think this guy would be a lot more viable for other people to take if his starting cost was 200 points.

    I'm pretty sure that we are in agreement on the other weapons:

    BS 3 on an assault 3 weapon (Stinger Salvo) (Crap)
    12" Range on an assault 20 Fleshborer (Crap)
    Acid Spray (Funky, but still crap)

    Now, how would I fix it?
    a good fix would be a basic bump is BS to 4 that would make him better and more versitile.

    Acid Spray and Rupture Cannon should both be AP3 (or 2 on the Rupture Cannon for 40 points)

    As is though, the only way I can take him is with the loadout i listed. other loadouts are simply a waste of points in totality, with the loadout I use, They're just a waste of points by choice :D

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  5. I played my first game with the new nid codex vs black templars (1850 points).

    I used a tyrannofex, and it was BRILLIANT!!

    By end of turn 2, he had killed a dreadnaught and vindicator!

    I kept rolling 2 hits, and then very good penetration rolls...thus big booms!! haha

    he was well worth his points I believe.

    Oh yeah, also in one turn he was down to 1 wound (being blasted by another vindicator?), but I rolled 3 sixes for regeneration!!!

    So he was back to 4 wounds gain :)

    cheers,
    Paul

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  6. may i point out that wounds caused by a C'tan ignore all saving throws and cannot be regenerated due to the drain life rule. a C'tan would muller a TH/SS squad because they wound it on 4s are slower, and get wounded on 2s with no saving throws. C'tan start of at 300 pts so are definatly in the same class

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