tyranids unit of the week Tyranids Unit of the Week: Von Ryan's Leaper

[Brother Nathan]

++Von Ryan's Leaper++

 

 

We have a new unit of the week! Another new unit, the leaper. will it be bounding across your battle lines into your foes? Share your bio information with the hive. 

 

• To compliment a list, or to build a list around? Will the beta rules affect your list(s)? And at what points restrictions?
• What size unit? Will you be running multiple units?
• What Enhancements, Hyper Adaptations and Stratagems do you prefer and how much does it depend on the above choices?
• Are you buffing this unit? If so, how?

[Brother Nathan]

our lictor lite new speedy choppy boys with all the tenticals... amazing new models overlapping the gap between our old metal hormagaunts and lictors... from barely a name in the 3rd edition dex to a fully fledged model has had a big... leap... ho they justify their points? imo... yes... i need some. 

75 points gets you 3 m 10, t 5 w 3 4+ 6++  that have 6 attacks each(more than some of our hqs)) 3+ws str5 ap1 which is a nice profile each but with stealth infiltrate and fights frst... and free heroic intervention strat...

and thats it. fast hits hard enough to be worth the profile. so a pretty nice straightforward profile and i think at current points pretty solid. lots of attacks works well with our hyper adaptions as the more attacks generate more 6s. sur e they will like the buffs from our other boosters such as fnp  and strats like deth frenzyor adrenal surge  but i dont think theres much they need nor worth investing too much for the points.

 

also its interesting comparing them to hormagaunts... 3 models t5 9 wounds, 10 models t3  10 wounds. 15 attacks str 5 ap1. 30 attacks str 3 ap1... points being so similar they are probably exceedingly similar ... adds maths....

 

hormas against meq.. 30 attacks. 15 hit. 5 wound.2/3 failed saves

leapers against meq.. 18 attacks 12 hit. 8 wounds. 4 failed saves.

 

not huge but a dead marine vs 2 dead marines with no boosts. mind hormagaunts will benefit more from... anything... but seem sa lot fairer pointed than i initially thought. 

 

curious to see em in action. thoughts?

[ZeroWolf]

I've had the pleasure of using them already. On their own they're really good. I'm thinking of adding to them (waiting to see if they get a multipart kit before jumping on eBay). Didn't use any stratagem on them mind but giving them feel no pain can help them survive if they're caught between targets. I did toy with giving them the synaptic insight stratagem to allow them to target my sons captain who was hiding in the Terminator squad but they got squashed before the opportunity arrived sadly. Their infiltration move can help put pressure on your opponent.

[Xenith]

They seem like a decent speedbump to slow melee armies down, and a decent infiltrator to assault something important in shooty armies! 2x3 of these would put some early pressure on the opponent, and the faster you can box them into their DZ the better! 

[ZeroWolf]

I wonder if it'd be fun to use in conjunction with Barbagaunts 

[GenerationTerrorist]

I think these are the standout unit of the Index, to be honest.

I've ran a unit of 6 and they have sliced through Guard/Eldar and non-Terminator Marines, just through sheer weight of attacks.

 

Once I've painted up everything from Leviathan, I will add another unit of 6. They are a decent threat and an excellent forward-deploy for early pressure. My eventual plan is to run an Alien Cunning enhancement, and use these on the board, along with 3 Screamer Killers coming in from reserves, for maximum carnage and confusion.

[Arson Fire]

Leapers have very similar stats to raveners, and have the same price.

In terms of pure combat power raveners are stronger. They're getting an additional attack per model and re-rolls to wound, along with a weak shooting attack. Plus the ability to teleport around the battlefield from turn to turn definitely comes in handy for scoring secondaries.

However leapers are a bit more sneaky with their infiltrate/stealth abilities, and fights first + pouncing leap makes charging them or even being near them dangerous.

 

Personally I like the raveners a little more, but I can see the use for a forward deploying unit of leapers to start the game on a midfield objective, daring the opponent to send anything forward to take it off them.