tyranids unit of the week Tyranids Unit of the Week: Psychophage

[Brother Nathan]

++ Psychophage++

 

 

We have a new unit of the week! Another new unit, the Psychophage. love it hate it? does it fill any gaps in your army? let us know, 

 

• 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?

[Xenith]

I think the psychophage is a sleeper unit in the codex - 125pts gets you a large base with 6" FNP aura, and 10w with 5+ FNP on itself, with an ok combat profile. This guy will keep your bigger bugs alive for a bit longer, and the 6+++ on small ones is worth a good amount, and will foul up enemy plans. 

 

If your opponent has a psyker, this will munch right through, however if they don't then it's a big more of a tough prospect - the D6 attacks is not game changing, and you might be better off buying 20 more gaunts than giving 20 gaunts a 6+++. 

 

I think this would work best as part of a monster mash army that's running to get into melee as fast as possible. 

[Brother Nathan]

whilst i like and want.. the effectiveness of  its random attacks and such has me...  parke d in a monster lot it may be better but for the cost... id want a wee bit more reliable output. can see it getting a reduction in points. 

[ZeroWolf]

It'll be interesting to see what changes the full codex brings for it. I've used it once so far (in a combat patrol fight, so different abilities altogether) so I can't offer much insight.

[Xenith]

Yea, looking at it again, I think I'm over-valuing the 6++.

 

Previously, Venomthropes gave cover or similar but were not worth it at the 100-120 pts they were. The psychophage will only ever be really effective if the stars align and:

1. the opposing army includes one or more psykers
2. you get into combat
3. You roll well. 

Something like the exocrine also has random attacks, but is a lot more reliable with D6+3, has +1T, +4W, though sacrifices any melee ability, however can reach out and project that damage to 36" away.  Unless psykers turn out to be a key component of armies in 10th, I don't see why you'd pick the psychophage over the exocrine, especially when you can simulate it's effects with a stratagem, or better (5++) for free with a tyrant. For defensive purposes, 3x venomthropes seem better as they give +1save and -1 to hit infantry, then also get 15 Anti-infantry attacks. 

 

In it's current form it wouldn't be an auto-pick for me even at 90pts. 70 would see it in serious competition with venoms. 

[Evil Eye]

As part of the combat patrol (which actually looks sort of enjoyable compared to whatever's going on with mainline 40K!) I'm pretty much obligated to painting mine. It's certainly an interesting unit as a sort of Pyrovore/Venomthrope hybrid.

The model is a bit close to the Venomcrawler though, so I changed it up a bit.

[Brother Nathan]

i know we are primarilly keeping this a non model thread but ive seen a lot of complaining about the model and it being too much like a certain chaos one but ive to say as a model i like it and as a nid it has the similar markings but is different enough to open up a world of conversion options... i deff want 2 and to massively repose the second... 

 

part of it will likely be figuring out how to most effectively get value out of the fnp. is that more effective on large high number of wounds or more effective on trying to save expensive wounds? how difficult is it to keep as much of such in range to get that buff etc. is it goes below 100 points essentially giving anything an ext5ra wound for every 5  in suitability. but how that compares value wise when zoans give out 6++ or things giving out cover etc... and we have a fnp strat...

Edited July 26, 2023 by Brother nathan