Tyranid Tail Biomorphs - worth it?

[GravesDisease]

I really want to like tail biomorphs - Ever since watching "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas", i've always wanted to own a tail. With the new tyranid codex, many monstrous creatures can get get a choice of 1 or 2 of the new selection of tails which are essentially a special attack which is unaffected by most other modifiers.

Whilst i do like how it is stipulated they must be modelled, it does make it a bit more punishing to experiment. For the price of two or three gaunts you get essentially another attack which is roughly the same as a base attack (i.e. the bone mace on a fex is not too diffent from a normal attack, as with a prehensile pincer on a trygon).

Too expensive to justify taking it?

[Misieq145]

No, they are not worth it. They were better in 4th ed and still were of dubious usefulness for points. Now they are totally meh mostly because you dont get any serious AP, even more when you have little choice depending on model. If it was an auto-hit, maybe... well, if you are thinking of even semi-competitiveness, stay clear of them.

[Theik]

I don't consider the tail attacks to be particularly impressive. A bone mace might seem like an extra Carnifex attack, until you factor in that even an imperial guardsman gets an armor save against the attack. With the very best AP value on them being str4, ap4, I don't really see any reason to give it to my monsters. If they are fighting things that are weak enough to get injured by the tail biomorphs, they were weak enough to kill without them just as easily. Not worth the extra cost.

[GravesDisease]

Ah crap just reread the codex, you're right doesn't get smash from being MC. What a bummer.

[Anggul]

Yeah it's a shame, they don't really seem to have put much thought into them. I don't see how a Carnifex swinging its tail with a massive great mace on the end doesn't ignore any kind of armour. The Scythe surely should have been multiple hits like it used to be, it's even called a 'Thresher' Scythe now. The Toxinspike is cool, but 2 attacks would have been nice. The Pincer... I dunno, might take a bit more thought but I'm sure there could be something different.

[DarkLink]

Tails are mostly good only for crunching vehicles, which MCs already do very well. I wouldn't bother.

[Haighus]

Do Carnifexes still ignore the unwieldy on the mace tail though? In the rules for unwieldy it just says that it is ignored by MCs. This isn't a special rule of the fex, it is part of the special rule of the biomorph itself, so atm I'm thinking that the carnifex will hit with the tail at I2 rather than I1 with unwieldy.

[daboarder]

Do Carnifexes still ignore the unwieldy on the mace tail though? In the rules for unwieldy it just says that it is ignored by MCs. This isn't a special rule of the fex, it is part of the special rule of the biomorph itself, so atm I'm thinking that the carnifex will hit with the tail at I2 rather than I1 with unwieldy.

Yes because its the tail weapons OWN special rules that contain the caveat ignoring unwieldly, not the MC rules themselves

[Haighus]

Good, that is what I thought when reading it. Can any non-monstrous creatures actually take the mace anyway though? If it is MC only giving it the unwieldy special rule is really pointless.

[daboarder]

woudn't be the first pointless rule in the codex

[Anakzar]

Sadly those tails have to be used as is... The rules for the tail biomorphs "Also note that a tail attack is not affected by other Melee weapons, biomorphs, upgrades or special rules belonging to the owning model, or vice versa." Meaning you have to use the tail weapons as is...

[daboarder]

and as is, the tail weapon ignores unwieldy on MC's, that is AS IS

[Anakzar]

Well being able to ignore unwieldy is a special rule belonging to MCs so the tail attack is not affected by the MCs special rule ignoring unwieldy.

Therefore the stats of the tail attacks must be used as is. Wish it was not so but it is... guess they will have to FAQ it to make it clear for some folks. Makes tail attacks lame and not worth the cost.

[daboarder]

Well being able to ignore unwieldy is a special rule belonging to MCs.

no its not, and that is why the tail ignores it
its part of the unwieldly special rules themselves and how they interact with one of the unit types in the game.

edit: Monstrous creature is a unit type NOT a special rule