Indra
14-10-2008, 11:05 AM
Rippers, Biovores & Spore Mine Clusters- Part 1: Beginner Level
With any Tyranid army, there is always a need to fill certain choices in the force organisation Chart, and with other cheaper options at first glance certain units such as Rippers and Spore Mine Clusters can often be overlooked. In this beginners article we'll be looking at some basic uses for these very handy units. Before we proceed any further however, allow me to explain the format of this article for these particular units. As they are generally very limited in their choices what I intend to do is outline their basic uses and then focus on using specific combinations in increasing difficulty progressing through intermediate and expert level. You may find that some points are repeated a little, but this can't be helped. However, as the articles following the beginning explanations are quite short, it's going to be prudent of me simply to include all three levels of use in one single article. It should also be pointed out that where we refer to Spore Mine Clusters, that taking Biovores from the Heavy Support section use the exact same tactics, except that every turn you get to shower the enemy in spores as opposed to one off landings.
Hopefully you'll find these articles handy and we might start to see more inclusion in armies of these incredibly underestimated units.
Beginner Uses: Rippers
Rippers are by and large noted for their main strengths being the number of attacks and wounds in their profile. Bearing this in mind when taking into account that Rippers never count as scoring units the main uses for the little guys then become limited to either damage absorption or damage infliction. Whatever the job role they need to fill, they can easily switch between the two should the need arise. In general the combination of these two roles means that they are ideally suited to tying up units that you want to remove from effective use in the game. One thing to note however with Rippers is thier Toughness of 3. This means that any attack with a Strength of 6 that wounds them is going to cause Instant Death, and therein lies thier weakness. Couple this with being Vulnerable to Blasts and you potentially lose whole units in careless situations. The good news however is that they are able to maximise cover saves with thier Swarms special rule conferring an additional +1 to the cover save, and when used in conjunction with thier Move Through Cover rule, you can really make the most of what the tabletop has to offer.
Rippers and Biomorphs.
In general, unless you are tailoring your Rippers to go against specific foes, then I find that Biomorphs on them are probably going to bump up your points costs with no real effective return in effectiveness, so rather than going off on one in the articles themselves I'll describe them below in one hit against what they'd be useful for and you can pick and choose for yourselves, although if I genuinely feel that there are useful biomorphs in any scenario I'll explain in that entry.
Adrenal Glands (WS): Given that they start with a WS of 3, the benefit of WS4 with Rippers is almost lost in my opinion, unless you face primarily Ork or Imperial Guard armies, or even WS3 Eldar Guardians as the majority of armies that you might face will either have WS3 or WS4 as a standard stat line, so regardless of taking this biomorph you'll mostly be rolling 4+ to hit in assaults, and based on the number of attacks that you might roll, your statistical chance of increasing your number of hits doesn't really improve very much.
Adrenal Glands (I): Again, as with the WS boosted Adrenal Glands you're not really going to get much out of this biomorph as going from I2 to I3 isn't going to help much against most armies, maybe with the exception of Orks. The only real other use for the Initiative boosted Adrenal Glands is the dice roll for Sweeping Advances, but again this is a call for you to make on a personal level.
Enhanced Senses: This Biomorph is of course only any use if you intend to take Spinefists. The boost takes you from a paltry BS1 to a moderately less paltry BS2. The Twin Linked state of Spinefists will aid in the hit rolls, so if you plan on taking Rippers with Spinefists, this really is essential. Otherwise, its a total waste of points.
Extended Carapace: The boost from armour save 6+ to 5+? Utter waste of your points in my humble opinion. Why? Well most shooting weapons have an AP5 line anyway, so the points spent will go to waste immediately, and if you need to use your natural armour save then you are not in cover, and therefore not using your Rippers to thier fullest capacity, or you are in assault. Why take this biomorph at all? It's really a big waste as even woods will give you a 3+ Cover save with the Swarms rule.
Flesh Hooks: Only a useful add-on if you need to scale vertically impassable surfaces, as even if you strike in initiative order when assaulting units in cover your initiative is still going to be in all liklehood lower than the opponent. Waste of points in all other cases. In the old rules (4th Ed) this allowed you to strike simultaneously with units you assaulted that were in cover, however this has now been altered to striking in initiative order, as noted.
Toxin Sacs: Wonderful biomorph this one, even if it is high cost. You will always need a good Strength value with Tyranids as even the ranged attacks are based on this stat line. You'll never go wrong with this boost, except in maybe using a few more points than you'd like, but the number of attacks Rippers can pour out both shooting and assaults can make sure this cost earns it way back into your good books. Also, since all assaults against vehicles (with the stated exceptions, walkers etc) strike the rear armour, which in most cases is an average AV of 10, you can actually destroy tanks with Rippers by glancing hits. Worth bearing in mind...
Leaping: The first of the two movement Biomorphs, and its the cheaper of the two. It allows an assault move of 12", but the Rippers DO NOT become Beasts as per the rules, so they do not gain the benefit of being able to Run and then assault after doing so. Bear this very important detail in mind with the movement biomorphs. However, the range for which models get to contribute attacks to assaults increases from 2" to 3". This biomorph is good for surprise assaults once in range, and if taken on rippers that do not have Spinefists, it's advisable to run until the turn you intend to charge into assault. I'd not recommend taking Spinefists on Leaping Rippers, as Winged Rippers are far better suited to ranged attacks.
Winged: First and foremost, Winged Rippers are FAST ATTACK choices as stated in the codex. They are not troops, so if you plan to use these as your compulsory troops choices it isn't going to work out. Secondly, as the more expensive movement Biomorph (10 points!!) it's only advisable to take this if you plan on staying out of cover and Line of Sight entirely, as they count as Jump Infantry, meaning dangerous terrain tests! However, they are far faster than thier leaping or slithering counterparts, and when equipped with Spinefists and Toxin Sacs they can be very damaging indeed as they can race into weapons range and then assault if within 6" as well. That means they could spit out 3 S4 shots each and then assault with 4 S4 attacks each as well with a large number of wounds to soak up damage. They would be incredibly expensive at 26 points per base by the time you add Enhanced senses as well, but they could not only inflict a lot of wounds and take a lot of wounds, but they could effectively remove high priority targets from the game by either tying them up of killing them.
EXCEPTION NOTE:
SYMBIOTE RIPPER BIOMORPHS FOR OTHER FoC CHOICES:
These are now a redundant biomorph, so you should now never take this upgrade as outnumbering no longer affects Morale Tests after losing a combat and this biomorph only affected this. The same can be said for the Carnifex Thornback Biomorph. These are now TOTALLY REDUNDANT- DO NOT TAKE THEM!
Beginner Uses: Biovores & Spore Mine Clusters
As far as basic uses go, it all depends upon what kind of clusters you take. Spore Mines in the 5th Edition rules are far more effective thanks to the new Blast rule, where even a partially covered base counts as being hit, as opposed to the 4th Edition rule where a partially covered base would only be hit on a 4+. In other words, thanks to the rules as they now stand, Spore Mine Clusters are totally devastating in how effective they can now be. Now there are two ways in which Clusters can be used. Either as Direct Strike weaponry for instant damage or as area deterrents, or even to provide Cover Saves thanks once again to the new rules. I'll cover in more detail as the article proceeds, beginning with Direct Damage and then progressing in more depth and difficulty towards area deterrents.
One thing that will remain a bone of contention, will be the Deep Strike Mishap Table (P95- Rulebook). In the 4th Edition Rules FAQ regarding the destruction of units Deep Striking into contact with enemy units Jervis Johnson said that Spore Mines by the very action of being Destroyed exploded as per the rules in the Codex, so blast templates were placed as normal, even though Spore Mine Clusters were destroyed in the process of thier Deep Strike. It may be now that this FAQ is no longer valid due to the rules change, but I feel that as it was relating to a rewording issue in the Codex that it may still stand and as such the article will assume as much- however, if your opponents disagree with this either solve it via dice roll (4+ the FAQ stands) or simply be very careful in your deepstriking as to avoid mishaps.
Obviously with Biovore shooting you are not Deep Striking, so landing upon an enemy unit simply equates to a meesy pop of the cluster.
With 3 types of mine to choose from the choice can make a lot of difference in the game.
Frag: S4, AP5 makes these great against Eldar Basic Troops, Orks, Tau and Imperial Guard. Thier high Strength ought to wound easily enough and the AP5 is respectable as well.
Toxin: Better AP than Frag (AP4), but wound on 4+ regardless of toughness, so great against high toughness units. The worst enemy of Fire Warriors and Aspect Warriors...
Bio-Acid: S3, AP3, these have a hard time wounding anything T4 or higher, but when they do, you can pretty much guarantee that unless its in terminator armour it's dead. Even against Vehicles you can score a maximum penetration of 15 so even Landraiders can be destroyed with these, although they do tend to be far more effective against lighter vehicles. Eldar Grav Tanks melt easily... especially those pesky Vypers... Space Marine Players tend to fear these the most due to thier AP3. many squads have been melted to nothing thanks to that stat line for unwary commanders.
Part 2 can be found below.
With any Tyranid army, there is always a need to fill certain choices in the force organisation Chart, and with other cheaper options at first glance certain units such as Rippers and Spore Mine Clusters can often be overlooked. In this beginners article we'll be looking at some basic uses for these very handy units. Before we proceed any further however, allow me to explain the format of this article for these particular units. As they are generally very limited in their choices what I intend to do is outline their basic uses and then focus on using specific combinations in increasing difficulty progressing through intermediate and expert level. You may find that some points are repeated a little, but this can't be helped. However, as the articles following the beginning explanations are quite short, it's going to be prudent of me simply to include all three levels of use in one single article. It should also be pointed out that where we refer to Spore Mine Clusters, that taking Biovores from the Heavy Support section use the exact same tactics, except that every turn you get to shower the enemy in spores as opposed to one off landings.
Hopefully you'll find these articles handy and we might start to see more inclusion in armies of these incredibly underestimated units.
Beginner Uses: Rippers
Rippers are by and large noted for their main strengths being the number of attacks and wounds in their profile. Bearing this in mind when taking into account that Rippers never count as scoring units the main uses for the little guys then become limited to either damage absorption or damage infliction. Whatever the job role they need to fill, they can easily switch between the two should the need arise. In general the combination of these two roles means that they are ideally suited to tying up units that you want to remove from effective use in the game. One thing to note however with Rippers is thier Toughness of 3. This means that any attack with a Strength of 6 that wounds them is going to cause Instant Death, and therein lies thier weakness. Couple this with being Vulnerable to Blasts and you potentially lose whole units in careless situations. The good news however is that they are able to maximise cover saves with thier Swarms special rule conferring an additional +1 to the cover save, and when used in conjunction with thier Move Through Cover rule, you can really make the most of what the tabletop has to offer.
Rippers and Biomorphs.
In general, unless you are tailoring your Rippers to go against specific foes, then I find that Biomorphs on them are probably going to bump up your points costs with no real effective return in effectiveness, so rather than going off on one in the articles themselves I'll describe them below in one hit against what they'd be useful for and you can pick and choose for yourselves, although if I genuinely feel that there are useful biomorphs in any scenario I'll explain in that entry.
Adrenal Glands (WS): Given that they start with a WS of 3, the benefit of WS4 with Rippers is almost lost in my opinion, unless you face primarily Ork or Imperial Guard armies, or even WS3 Eldar Guardians as the majority of armies that you might face will either have WS3 or WS4 as a standard stat line, so regardless of taking this biomorph you'll mostly be rolling 4+ to hit in assaults, and based on the number of attacks that you might roll, your statistical chance of increasing your number of hits doesn't really improve very much.
Adrenal Glands (I): Again, as with the WS boosted Adrenal Glands you're not really going to get much out of this biomorph as going from I2 to I3 isn't going to help much against most armies, maybe with the exception of Orks. The only real other use for the Initiative boosted Adrenal Glands is the dice roll for Sweeping Advances, but again this is a call for you to make on a personal level.
Enhanced Senses: This Biomorph is of course only any use if you intend to take Spinefists. The boost takes you from a paltry BS1 to a moderately less paltry BS2. The Twin Linked state of Spinefists will aid in the hit rolls, so if you plan on taking Rippers with Spinefists, this really is essential. Otherwise, its a total waste of points.
Extended Carapace: The boost from armour save 6+ to 5+? Utter waste of your points in my humble opinion. Why? Well most shooting weapons have an AP5 line anyway, so the points spent will go to waste immediately, and if you need to use your natural armour save then you are not in cover, and therefore not using your Rippers to thier fullest capacity, or you are in assault. Why take this biomorph at all? It's really a big waste as even woods will give you a 3+ Cover save with the Swarms rule.
Flesh Hooks: Only a useful add-on if you need to scale vertically impassable surfaces, as even if you strike in initiative order when assaulting units in cover your initiative is still going to be in all liklehood lower than the opponent. Waste of points in all other cases. In the old rules (4th Ed) this allowed you to strike simultaneously with units you assaulted that were in cover, however this has now been altered to striking in initiative order, as noted.
Toxin Sacs: Wonderful biomorph this one, even if it is high cost. You will always need a good Strength value with Tyranids as even the ranged attacks are based on this stat line. You'll never go wrong with this boost, except in maybe using a few more points than you'd like, but the number of attacks Rippers can pour out both shooting and assaults can make sure this cost earns it way back into your good books. Also, since all assaults against vehicles (with the stated exceptions, walkers etc) strike the rear armour, which in most cases is an average AV of 10, you can actually destroy tanks with Rippers by glancing hits. Worth bearing in mind...
Leaping: The first of the two movement Biomorphs, and its the cheaper of the two. It allows an assault move of 12", but the Rippers DO NOT become Beasts as per the rules, so they do not gain the benefit of being able to Run and then assault after doing so. Bear this very important detail in mind with the movement biomorphs. However, the range for which models get to contribute attacks to assaults increases from 2" to 3". This biomorph is good for surprise assaults once in range, and if taken on rippers that do not have Spinefists, it's advisable to run until the turn you intend to charge into assault. I'd not recommend taking Spinefists on Leaping Rippers, as Winged Rippers are far better suited to ranged attacks.
Winged: First and foremost, Winged Rippers are FAST ATTACK choices as stated in the codex. They are not troops, so if you plan to use these as your compulsory troops choices it isn't going to work out. Secondly, as the more expensive movement Biomorph (10 points!!) it's only advisable to take this if you plan on staying out of cover and Line of Sight entirely, as they count as Jump Infantry, meaning dangerous terrain tests! However, they are far faster than thier leaping or slithering counterparts, and when equipped with Spinefists and Toxin Sacs they can be very damaging indeed as they can race into weapons range and then assault if within 6" as well. That means they could spit out 3 S4 shots each and then assault with 4 S4 attacks each as well with a large number of wounds to soak up damage. They would be incredibly expensive at 26 points per base by the time you add Enhanced senses as well, but they could not only inflict a lot of wounds and take a lot of wounds, but they could effectively remove high priority targets from the game by either tying them up of killing them.
EXCEPTION NOTE:
SYMBIOTE RIPPER BIOMORPHS FOR OTHER FoC CHOICES:
These are now a redundant biomorph, so you should now never take this upgrade as outnumbering no longer affects Morale Tests after losing a combat and this biomorph only affected this. The same can be said for the Carnifex Thornback Biomorph. These are now TOTALLY REDUNDANT- DO NOT TAKE THEM!
Beginner Uses: Biovores & Spore Mine Clusters
As far as basic uses go, it all depends upon what kind of clusters you take. Spore Mines in the 5th Edition rules are far more effective thanks to the new Blast rule, where even a partially covered base counts as being hit, as opposed to the 4th Edition rule where a partially covered base would only be hit on a 4+. In other words, thanks to the rules as they now stand, Spore Mine Clusters are totally devastating in how effective they can now be. Now there are two ways in which Clusters can be used. Either as Direct Strike weaponry for instant damage or as area deterrents, or even to provide Cover Saves thanks once again to the new rules. I'll cover in more detail as the article proceeds, beginning with Direct Damage and then progressing in more depth and difficulty towards area deterrents.
One thing that will remain a bone of contention, will be the Deep Strike Mishap Table (P95- Rulebook). In the 4th Edition Rules FAQ regarding the destruction of units Deep Striking into contact with enemy units Jervis Johnson said that Spore Mines by the very action of being Destroyed exploded as per the rules in the Codex, so blast templates were placed as normal, even though Spore Mine Clusters were destroyed in the process of thier Deep Strike. It may be now that this FAQ is no longer valid due to the rules change, but I feel that as it was relating to a rewording issue in the Codex that it may still stand and as such the article will assume as much- however, if your opponents disagree with this either solve it via dice roll (4+ the FAQ stands) or simply be very careful in your deepstriking as to avoid mishaps.
Obviously with Biovore shooting you are not Deep Striking, so landing upon an enemy unit simply equates to a meesy pop of the cluster.
With 3 types of mine to choose from the choice can make a lot of difference in the game.
Frag: S4, AP5 makes these great against Eldar Basic Troops, Orks, Tau and Imperial Guard. Thier high Strength ought to wound easily enough and the AP5 is respectable as well.
Toxin: Better AP than Frag (AP4), but wound on 4+ regardless of toughness, so great against high toughness units. The worst enemy of Fire Warriors and Aspect Warriors...
Bio-Acid: S3, AP3, these have a hard time wounding anything T4 or higher, but when they do, you can pretty much guarantee that unless its in terminator armour it's dead. Even against Vehicles you can score a maximum penetration of 15 so even Landraiders can be destroyed with these, although they do tend to be far more effective against lighter vehicles. Eldar Grav Tanks melt easily... especially those pesky Vypers... Space Marine Players tend to fear these the most due to thier AP3. many squads have been melted to nothing thanks to that stat line for unwary commanders.
Part 2 can be found below.