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View Full Version : Winged Tyranid Warriors...Shoot or Assult?



Oktober
08-15-2009, 10:07 AM
Hello All,

I was wondering what your take on the winged warrior is...I recently got 6 wings for a squad of warriors and I am not sure whether to throw on a few devourers, deathspitters and maybe a barbed strangler or if I should add rending claws or maybe just scything talons.

What is your opinion? What is the best weapon for the winged warrior?

Ulf
08-15-2009, 05:07 PM
Winged warriors with ranged weapons. The idea sounds great, firepower with good maneuverability. But it does not work, as most of their weapons dont have enough range (a maximum of one weapon with 36", rest is 24" tops) to stay out of the enemies heavy weapons range. Heavy Bolters or Rocket Launchers take your warriors down in no time, and even with wings you can't outmaneuver them.

Wings and close combat weapons makes some more sense. It's an expensive unit, and they are worse than most comparable troops from other codices like assault marines or even raptors, but they can still prove useful if you need to bind that devastator squad in close combat quick.

Most of the time, warriors seem like a waste of points to me. I really tried them in multiple ways, but in the end I ended up converting their models into Tyrant Guard. :\

Inquisitor Malak
08-16-2009, 05:20 PM
Don't take Winged Warriors. Ravenors do their job a million times better, and can be just as shooty (a brood with twin-linked devourers can pump out enormous amounts of fire).

Warriors are best used as fire support and for counter-assaults. I like the following build;

6 x Warriors, 5 x deathspitters, barbed strangler, rending claws, toxin sacs, extended carapace
(221 points)

Not too expensive, and you get a good balance between shooting ability, close-combat and staying power. When shooting, you're pumping out 5 x S6 AP5 blasts and a S4 AP5 large blast on the move. On the charge, they chuck out 18 x S5 Rending attacks at WS4/I4. In defence, they have 12 x T4 wounds with a 4+ save.

Placed behind a Gaunt meat-shield, or supporting a unit of Outflanking Genestealers, you can cause a lot of problems for the enemy with this unit.

Yhcrana
08-16-2009, 06:16 PM
In 4th edition I used a squad of winged CC warriors to support my Flyrant, they made for a good flanking force.

In 5th edition I prefer leaping warriors, with run they can move fast and assault 12".
It depends on what role you want them to do, they can both shoot and assault well.
Deathspitters got a big upgrade with the new blast rules and perform quite well.

Chumbalaya
08-17-2009, 07:22 AM
Winged Warriors are too expensive and too easy to gun down.

Either keep them cheap and shooty (lots of templates) or just get Carnifexes instead.

Oktober
08-17-2009, 08:28 AM
I actually have had good success with warriors. I usually give them devourers or deathspitters and one barbed Strangler and keep them behind some gaunts but I do have the wings from forgeworld (6 of them) and am curious the best way to have them. I think what I'll do is wait for the new codex as I expect them to bring back something with a flamer template. Would be nice to have them primarily assult driven but with flamers they would be great...I just hope they improve the armour as that is pretty much the only thing I don't like about adding wings to them (and the point cost). I have 6 with sything talons and rending claws with leaping and they shred thigns quite well. They may be pricy but IMO they are worth it. And yes, ravenors are probably a little better but no synapse.

BuFFo
08-17-2009, 08:58 AM
If you go winged anything, make it CC viable.

Leave the shooting for the foot sloggers.

Crotch Lictor
08-18-2009, 01:48 PM
If you go winged anything, make it CC viable.

Leave the shooting for the foot sloggers.

I would think an exception to this would be the Devil Flyrant. Haveing 12 shots with rerolls on misses and wounds is pretty sweet against certain enemies. That's a lot of saves to make. Especially if it's a smaller squad. There's bound to be some 1's in there. A good support choice to soften up an assault target.

Ulf
08-18-2009, 06:14 PM
I would think an exception to this would be the Devil Flyrant. Haveing 12 shots with rerolls on misses and wounds is pretty sweet against certain enemies. That's a lot of saves to make. Especially if it's a smaller squad. There's bound to be some 1's in there. A good support choice to soften up an assault target.

While the second part is true, the wings dont really add to the killiness. They make your tyrant faster, which is fine, but for their price you can get Tyrant Guard, which will make your Tyrant last a lot longer (makes finding cover much easier + wound allocation). And yet again, even with 12" movement, the 18" weapon range makes sure you will get under heavy fire, and even Hive Tyrants dont last long against plasma/lascannon/melta/stuff due to their lack of invulnerable saves (yeah, im ignoring the 6+ they can get on purpose).

Alien
08-18-2009, 09:58 PM
There is nothing as disheartening as getting all excited about your new purchase and unit, just to have everyone say, You've waisted you're time and money, it kind of deflates your mojo.

I say use them in close combat, they can absorb extra wounds and deal out a lot of damage in the process. I usually shoot up the flying shooty warriors easily, best to wipe out troops with them.
good luck :)

Chumbalaya
08-19-2009, 07:24 AM
There is nothing as disheartening as getting all excited about your new purchase and unit, just to have everyone say, You've waisted you're time and money, it kind of deflates your mojo.

That's why you should playtest with proxies before buying a crappy unit :P

Jwolf
08-19-2009, 07:47 AM
Shooty Winged Warriors can be okay (not good, but okay), but they need to be wound-striped to get very far. Wings do make them a lot more expensive and not any better (probably worse, since they can't get Extended Carapace). Make sure they keep cover handy if you want them to do much of anything besides take it in the face.

They are almost exactly the unit that Sternguard dream about - "See, we can too earn our points back!"

Crotch Lictor
08-19-2009, 08:16 AM
While the second part is true, the wings dont really add to the killiness. They make your tyrant faster, which is fine, but for their price you can get Tyrant Guard, which will make your Tyrant last a lot longer (makes finding cover much easier + wound allocation). And yet again, even with 12" movement, the 18" weapon range makes sure you will get under heavy fire, and even Hive Tyrants dont last long against plasma/lascannon/melta/stuff due to their lack of invulnerable saves (yeah, im ignoring the 6+ they can get on purpose).

I see your point, but wings do cost less than 1 Guard. In some cases, I prefer the maneuverability to the two wounds and foot slogging in some cases. I do run slogger tyrants as well (wings are pinned and removeable on both). As long as you don't leave him unsupported, a winged tyrant can last the game. I guess we're getting offf topic though.

Alien
08-22-2009, 01:00 PM
That's why you should playtest with proxies before buying a crappy unit :P

I like your tact bro :)

I know what you mean, I bought a baneblade before ever trying one and found that it so unbalanced the game that I never used it again.

Old_Paladin
08-23-2009, 07:56 PM
Why not spread the love around a little, a little shooting and a little CC.
Warriors are a jack of all trades, try them out as such.
As another plus it allows them to take advantage of the new wound allocation rules. With synapes, they are immune to most kinds of instant death(Nobs wish they had that ability). If each one is armed differently then the whole unit can usually take one wound before anybody dies.

They aren't going to make their points back (good thing victory points usually aren't used anymore). They MUST be used tactically. Use them to contest objectives, or target isolated wuss units (like the little daisy picker unit a lot of players leave in their backfield, or Snikrot Kommandos).

Some poisoned fleshborer, spinefist, devourer, deathspitter shots, followed by a charge with some poisoned Talons, Claws and hooves will make a mess of most things. [assuming warriors can take all of those weapons, it's been years since i've seen the codex).

Anggul
08-29-2009, 03:40 PM
Winged warriors are not worth their points at all. Much better with leaping, in which case combat. That said, I take winged warriors, but this is purely because they look amazing and I love them. Mine are ranged, because, while easy to gun down, they're even easier to gun down in rapid-fire range.

So yeah, makes for great-looking models, but not good if you're playing them to actually fight well.

Exitus Acta Probat
08-30-2009, 12:02 AM
As JWolf said,
they are ok.
They are generally not worth their points, but they are cool models.
As the 'dex is around the corner though, DON'T PANIC! (wishing I had a thumbs up kinda smiley right now)...they may actually become good again :confused: (I don't honestly think they were before, but I didn't have everyone agreeing with me on the last 'dex about em)

The key here is, target priority. Do NOT go after things solo, or hard. Use them as a fast moving support unit for a long reaching assault, or to go rough up that unit of (scouts/rangers/hiding broadsides...etc etc).

I think JWolf meant wound distribution when he said 'wound stripe'...so mix them up. Make the saves easily distributable, to make them last longer. Devourer/Scything, Scything/Rending, Scything/Spinefist, Scything/etc etc etc...however you want to do it. The goal should be saturation, so maximum dakka, combined with choppy rending for medium targets. It's kind of the way I do mine, only on foot with leaping. Keep em alive, soaking fire and threatening.
If they die, hope that they drew more fire than they are worth (delivering something far nastier on the next turn unscathed)

Rahakanji
09-01-2009, 12:31 PM
the problem with Flying and Shooting is the Armoursave of only 5+.
So better in CC than being killed by Bolters...