Tyranid Tactica: The Lictor

The Lictor

The Lictors of most hive fleets have been taking a lot of flak. There is a new codex on the way, but this should not be a reason to keep those amazing looking lictor models on the shelf. They have such style and panache, how can you say no to those tendrils? Lets take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the lictor, and how you can use their abilities to quietly take down your foe.

The Pros:
Lictors have four major things going for them: Stealth, High Strength, Pheromone Trails, and Feeder Tendrils.

Stealth: Lictors deploy with "Hidden Setup" meaning that they use the deep strike rules to enter play into terrain. Currently, the 5th ed rules state Lictors have to a dangerous terrain test when coming into play. This should change with the new codex due out in January. Fortunately, most opponents I've played against, and various stories from other Nid players; most allow us to deploy normally, without the roll.

This selective deployment is great for many reasons. It makes your opponent think twice about what he or she is putting in and around cover. This can help funnel some juicy targets into the open. The other benefit to stealth is: Independent Character killing! With the new changes to 5th edition, Lictors have fallen into the role of taking out Independent characters. This is not 100% though.



With new assault rules regarding IC's, Lictors have a great opportunity to earn back their point values. With IC's in assault, when the IC is assaulted, they move before the rest of the unit they are with. Which means, the IC must move into base to base contact with the lictor. There are some variables to consider. 1)Retuine with the IC cancel out the character rules. 2)You do take a risk if the IC has a toughness greater than four, or multiple wounds. Pick your targets carefully. A good example is Sgt. Telion. You can assault into the scout squad and have a very good chance of taking Telion out. You also have the same odds of low toughness IC's, via the insta kill rule.

High Strength and Pheromones:
They are two key parts of how Lictors work. Pheromones are great for helping those outflanking genestealers and Broodlord scuttle onto the table. They also help bring in units for clutch occasions. Remember, they can't be used on the Lictors themselves. What would be clutch? Taking out heavy weapon teams/squads or vehicles. With the newer fifth edition rules, vehicles get cover saves! This means a lot more vehicles in and around cover, it also means you'll see some fire teams setting up around there as well. This is prime Lictor hunting ground. A whirlwind or a Basilisk that stays in cover is asking to be torn up. The high strength of six, coupled with automatic hits on vehicles that haven't moved, and you're always hitting rear armour, means that you'll be able to take out pesky heavy support fast!Now lets look at the wonderful feeder tendrils that Lictors have built into them. There are so many different uses for them. It, however, isn't like the big hammer of a carnifex, it requires a smoother and delicate touch of a surgeon to make the most out of them. Some forward thinking is required for these babies to be used effectively. A Lictor within range of a full brood of hormagaunts, all of a sudden, crank out the damage that brood can do, rerolling any misses out of ninety six hits. Or, helping out some raveners who have swept around a flank or deepstruck into behind the enemy lines. Helping out the smaller units with a large number of attacks really make the Lictors usefulness stand out. You can help out the MC's of the group as well. Parking a Lictor next to a Hive Tyrant and a Carnifex can change the tide of a fight, though feeder tendril genestealers can as well. Personally, I love rushing my hormagaunts into a line near to where I've popped my Lictor. They just taking some pre planning and cooperation from other units.

Cons:

Lets look at the weaknesses of the Lictors now.

Cost: Eighty points is quite hefty for one unit, it is frail, doesn't have many attacks, and can find itself in trouble quite quickly. A full brood of Lictors can easily be replaced by a full brood of Genestealers. You have to make sure if you're going to commit to using Lictors, you use them against things the Lictors were meant to take down. Of all the units in a Tyranid army, Lictors are the ones you can't throw away. Again, if you use them to hunt squishy IC's or go after heavy weapon teams, you can easily earn back their points.

Frail: Toughness four means a lot of insta death for your Lictors. Because they are usually behind the enemy line, it means that they will be out of range of synapse, and will get squished for sure! Watch out for hidden power fists and power claws! This also means you can't run headlong into a tactical squad or an IG squad and expect to walk out the winner. Just by sheer amount of numbers, and a weak armour save in combat. If you're trying to hold up the shooting of a large squad, you will not only have wasted points by throwing a Lictor at them, but they will still also be able to shoot at your other units.

In conclusion, Lictors are stealthy predators of the Tyranid army. As opposed to swarming an opponent with numbers, or bludgeoning them with monstrosities, Lictors demand a little more finesse. The James Bond of the Hive Mind. No one aspect of a Lictor is powerful, if you rely an individual ability, you will likely lose your Lictors. You need to use all their abilities at the same time, in unison, with the rest of your army. They can make that swarm buzz a little more, they can make your MC's hit that little bit extra, and silence guns and IC's who are foolish enough to stay in cover when there is a Lictor lurking about.

Take all of this with a grain of salt. The news of the new fifth edition Codex has been released, and hopefully our Lictors will get those tweaks they need. They are not an essential branch of a hive fleet, but if you know how to use one, they will be the most lethal of your hive.

Orks vs. 'Nids

Recap of the Fight:

The Orks had heard rumours of a bug infestation on their planet. The Boyz tried to piece together the clues, it always came up the same. Dem' bugz are makin' a home in Orky cities.

The Warboss gave the orders and climbed into his mech suit, it was time to wipe dem bugz off dis' Ork world. Find anyting' buggy, and burn it to da ground!

The infestation center had been identified, a three story building that had been shelled out, all the mess of bugs were streaming out from there. When the Warboss arrived on the scene, they could see spore chimneys and hive nests starting to spread from the epicenter.

The Warbosses DeftKopters streaked out towards the hive building, intent on fire bombing it from a safe advantage. They skimmed along the edges of ruined buildings and ramparts, ready to let loose a volley. That's when the building errupted. Hormagaunts and warriors streamed out of every window and crack in the wall. The Kopterboyz thought they were high enough to be well out of reach, but they misjudged the leaping distance, and were soon swarmed by gaunts.

The warboss and his entourage of buggies hit the gas to speed and help the Kopter boyz, so focues on the sight of kopters being dragged back down to earth, they didn't not see the Tyranid Warriors levelling their weapons at his convoy. Goblets of acid sprayed around the buggies, but they were moving too fast, the large blast of carniverous vegetation shook the Bosses buggy, but it kept on moving.

Three lines of boys moved up towards a hive node, as spore mines drifted down from the air. The back rank of Ork Boyz ignored the threat, and moved past them. The violent stampede of an Ork mob set off the toxin mines, choking the life out multiple boys. They came down hard on the hive node, and were intent on destroying it, when they heard the continuous chitter of gaunts running across the field. Soon, they felt a high pitched scream enter their Orkish brains as a hive tyrant and guard walked out from the building to face the multiple waves of boyz threatening the hives resources. The boyz held their ground, even when from behind a giant wall, a carnifex erupted and began careening forward. The kopterz managed to escape the hormagaunt swarm, and beelined for biovores that had been spotted. Of the five, there were only two left from the squad. They stopped to drop some fire bombs on three warriors they had uncovered in the ruins. The explosions caught the attention of a lictor, camouflaged against the broken walls of the rampart. It leapt out and brought one of the kopters down, as the Hormagaunts and warriors lept at the lone remaining Dekt Kopter, crashing it into the side of he building, cratering it.

Far away from the rest of the fighting, in a wooded area outside the ruined town, Stormboyz dropped from the sky, the rockets on their back, scorching the forest floor where they landed. They could see the sickening hive node, pulsing, and absorbing the trees and soil around t, small insect like creatures being spit out from it. The boyz were scouting ahead for a bigger wave of boyz to come in, as they were locking down the area around the node, they did not notice the genestealers silently, climb down from the trees. Not even a warning shot was fired off, as the Stormboyz were left in a pile of scorched earth where they stood.

The gaunts and carnixfex slammed into the waves of Boyz and Nobz at the fenced off area of town. Gaunts and boyz were being tossed aside in the giant melee. The nobz tried to wound the carnifex, but it's chitnenous armour bounced off any shots, and the boyz could only try to hold down the rampaging carnifex as it tore through boy after boy.

The Warboss surveyed the scene from his buggy, things were not looking good. He ordered a hard right turn, as the four buggies changed course to stare directly down the Hive tyrant and warriors. He gave the order to plow forward, his Nobz jumped out of the buggy with him, as the back row of buggies lined up their shootaz. Three toxin spore mines floated down from above, and ina three explosions of poisonous gas, all the buggies were destroyed or wrecked, leaving only the boss and his nobz to fight the hive tyrant.

In the woods, the late wave of boyz to backup the stormboyz grew in anger, when they saw lurking genestealers with parts of the Sotrmboyz rockets hanging off their claws. Their cries of rage drew the attention of the genestealers who rushed forward into the fray as Claw met choppa and Green Orkish fury!

The grand melee in the middle turned into a quagmire. The nobz and boys couldn't kill the carnifex, and the carnifex was being slowed down by the piles of dead orks around it. The boyz had enough, when the saw a pistol blow a hole through the side of its head, and then seeing armour and brain matter regenerate, the boyz knew it was time to run! The knob grabbed the last remaining boy, and made back for home. The warboss roared in rage, as he saw his boyz and knobs either retreating, or being torn to pieces. It was then the chameleon like lictor jumped from a pile of rubble, leading the way for the hive tyrant and warriors to follow. The warbosses knobs were ripped to shreds by the onslaught of talons and claws. The warboss knew this day was lost and began to break back towards his remaining boys.

The warboss struggled to run in his mech gear, the toxin spore already poisoning his body. It was harder to breath, he called out to a squad of surviving boys, to round them up, when they looked over in his dircetion, a lone seed bounced into their ranks, exploding. Carniverous plant tendrils erupted from the ground, rending the boyz into mush. The warboss tried to roar in anger, but his mech suit lurched forward, the lictor had not given up pursuit, it was leading the rest of them, to him. It's claws ripped deep, its feeder tendrils already absorbing and processing his dna. He tried to pull the lictor off, but a wall crumbled and the tyrant guard rushed forward, clawing and biting away at the feet, bringing the warboss to the ground. He tried to get up, but the blind bulldog like guards were pinning him down, the scream in his brain grew louder. They were waiting for the Hive Tyrant. The Warboss looked up, defiant, as the emotionless Hive tyrant drove down his talons into the warboss, and tore him in two.


Far away from the fighting, the bloody fight with the genestealers was over. The boys pumped extra rounds into the corpses, just to make sure, and stomped in a few skulls, to make extra sure. They looked into the forest, where the hive node was, it had already absorbed much of the area. The pine forest grew out of control into a mutated jungle, the temperature began to raise, and microbiotic spores in the air began to make the boyz cough. What was concerning, was the node was now spitting out gaunts, freshly covered in ooze, and guarding the node. The boyz knew they'd have to pull back and tell the warboss. They had to burn this place from the sky, and soon!


Sieze and Hold mission: Tyranids -2 Orks -0

Space Marines Vs. Tyranids.

Preface: Shauns Marines are now all fully painted, and look great. This was his unofficial first game, we had a previous one where he was learning the rules. With some epic moments involving a Captain and a Broodlord =D

Telion moved through the brush. The forest gave cover to his scouts. They had encountered the Tyranid threat earlier, outside the city. The bugs were sticking to the forests, which were now growing wild and out of control. Telion locked a round into his bolt rifle. His scouts were setting up an over watch, keeping an eye on the rest of the forces as they moved forward.

Reports came in that a radar station had been overwhelmed by the bugs, and they were pushing out of the forest more so every day. The Marine librarians had been collecting data. Studying the dna and behaviour patterns of the Tyranids. They managed to simulate an organic plant in some shelled out ruins, this would be the sweetest bait, but the Marine revenge would be sweeter. The Captain in charge of the operations, a good man and veteran of the previous conflict, held a squad near the organic pile, hoping to exact a toll for fall friends. A librarian moved forward with a forward tactical squad to intercept any bugs coming for the resources, and maybe sneak around and take back the radar station. It would be tough, but the Dreadnought that was lumbering beside them would make the task easier. Of course, the terminators were in reserve, to make a final push for the station.

The bugs behaved exactly as expected. They began to pile out of the radar station, already beginning to look over run with spores and digestion pools full of bioacid. Great swathes of gaunts ran forward, screeching and chittering, being driven forward by the iron will of the hive mind. They seemed different, however. They seemed to be impatient. The librarians were too informed from their research, the Tyranids were coming at full pace. Raveners burst out of the ground from behind a hill, and began to slither forward, as endless waves of gaunts lept and sprang forward. Warriors, with limbs formed into weapons began firing at the Dreadnought. Venom crystals impacted hard, but dented the facade of the walking coffin. Then the minds of the Marines filled with a scream. A hive Tryant with an escort of tyrant guard stepped from the station, and fired more venom crystals towards the dreadnought. The Marines stuck by their research though, and were well out of range.

Telion gave the order over his comm link: "FIRE!" Missiles, Lascannons, Bolters and Sniper rounds errupted from everywhere. The first rank of gaunts was almost cut down, as missiles impacted into the center of the brood, and into the radar station itself. Telion ordered his scouts to focus their fire on the creatures driving the swarm forward. The snipers struck true, inflicting serious wounds on the warriors, but the swarm continued. Telion could see every inch of the battlefield. The plan was working! It was working to great effect. It would be rough, but the original idea should succeed. Draw the bugs out, and then sneak around behind with terminators and scouts, and claim the radar base. He shot a few more rounds into the warriors driving everyone forward, landing more hits into the brood, his shells impacted the soft forest floor with a statisfying "thud."

The Space Marine Librarian kept his unit calm. Telling them to pour on the fire, shredding gaunt after gaunt with bolter fire. The unit worked in perfect unison, shooting, reloading and firing at the same time, working as a team. The gaunts drew closer, more rounds fired, more gaunts fell, and yet they still game. Smoke trails of missile launchers arched over head, as more explosives landed into the center of their mass target. The gaunts continued forward. The librarian blinked, he could see the events unfold before they happened. He counted all the clips for the bolters drop to the ground in unison. The gaunts lept forward and slammed into the group with mindless vigor.

The Captain took a look at the battle ahead of him. He could see the Dreadnoguht shudder with impacts, but it appeared to still be turning out an impressive rate of fire from it's stormbolter. "Just a little closer," he tought. "Then you can see what that thing is packing." The Marines readied more missiles for firing. A marine went to an ammo crate resting against the side of the ruined building. The wood creaked as he opened it, he reached down to grab more rockets, when green ooze dripped down onto it, and began to sizzle the metal casing. He looked up, and saw that he was face to face with a genestealer. It's red, snake like tongue, licking the air around itself. It's acidic green saliva burning into the rubble. Before he could yell a warning, they flowed over the wall and swarmed him, ripping him to shreds, like his armour was made of cray paper.

Telions ear erupted with screams of horror. The Bugs pulled something he wasn't expecting. They used their own trick against them, damnit! He turned his attention back to their fortifications, and could see his fellow Marines being torn down by the wave of Genestealers. The larger than life silhouette of the Captain raged on in the melee. Cleaving and chopping genestealers down, as they rended apart the bodies of his commrade. A scout tried to line up a shot at a genestealer clawing at the back of the captain. Telion held his rifle, and shook his head. "There's a good chance you'll hinder the captains fight. He's done this before, let him exact his revenge, on his own terms." His brow furrowed. "We have bigger concerns at the moment, focus your fire the synapse. The sooner those can be brought down, the sooner we can start reclaiming a section of our planet." The scout nodded. Another volley of sniper fire rang from the forest, and impacted into the warriors. Telion lined up two shots of his own, and put two rounds through the skulls of two warriors. They twichted and bled green bioacid as they fell dead to the ground.

The pyschic screamed lessened a bit for the Marines. The librarian could feel a part of the will waiver, this was his chance. The hormagaunts felt it as well, as they paused to realign themselves. The Marines took the iniative and struck forward driving the Hormagaunts back. The Hive Mind was not as strong as it was before, and the Hormagaunts reverted back to their genetic instincts, and fled from the Marines. The Marines let up a giant cheer, it was cut short. The Librarian focused his mind and used a warp vortex to transport his brother in arms to a safer location, and closer to the captain, who was now the only marine left in a swarm of genestealers.

More gaunts arrived and began to skitter across the ruins of an old bunker, there was a new sound that accompained them. The serpent like raveners began to pull ahead, with celerity. They were trying to intercept the Marines and Dreadnoguht before they could return fire. They were not fast enough. The hormagaunts ran back into the powerful control of the hive mind. Their simple minds being forced forward again, cause da ripple in the swarm and they stopped for a brief moment. The Librarian saw it as his only chance, and screamed the command to open fire. And open fire, they did! The Marines unleashed a salve of shots into the hormagaunts, mowing down rank after rank, then the air began to smell of ozone, as a small spark ignited fuel and heavy flame throwers belched fire forward into the ranks of gaunts, incinerating the brood into a pile of ash and ooze.

The Hive Tyrant roared and fire two more salvos of poison crystals into the dreadnought. The venom cannon began cracnk and dent the armour, but the Marines were ready and layered it on thick. The Dreadnougth continued to rumble. The three raveners impacted violently into the side of the walking tomb. Agile and hissing, their claws raked into it's side, and began to rend the metal from walker. Ripping it's armoured fist, off the side of the hull; trying to render it defenseless. The dreadnought had more than just powerfists, and turned to counter the serpent nightmares. The plan was still, somewhat, intact, hold your ground! The synapse creatures were lagging behind, and could not impose their directive upon the raveners. Hissing, and seeing one ravener crushed under the foot of the dreadnought, the other snakes sensed fear and began to tunnel into the earth to escape. The dreadnought crushed the fleeing snakes, burning the remains into char.

The librarian looked over the battle field, there was still a giant swarm of gaunts running forward, and these had a behemoth of a hive tyrant whipping them forward. He summoned a warp vortex around his men again, and they appeared behind the swarm. "Keep to the plan," he thought to himself. He tried to look into the forrested areas, to spot Telion, to see how he was doing. "Where are those Terminators, now's our chance!" He unleashed a pyschic wave of fire and began to incinerate the gaunts from behind. They turned to face the new threat behind them, when more sniper fire pounded into their other side, a cross fire!

Telion looked through his binoculars, to see how the captain was doing, his armour was being torn off his body, but the pile of genestealers was growing. He did not know how this was going to end. The Captain had losses to avenge, he remembered the story of the broodlord ambushing the Captains men, leaving only one and the Captain himself. He could understand the frustration and anger, and hoped the captain would find peace before he found death. Telion leaned back against a tree, to line another shot up onto the hive tyrant. Then he felt something on his shoulder, a tendril began to crawl down from the tree, and slowly wrap around his neck. He spun around, as the lictor peeled itself off the trunk of the tree and lept down at Sgt. Telion. The impact was was brutal. He could feel his teeth rattle. The lictor made a deep clicking sound, and slashed at him with it's claws. He held up his rifle in defense as it got shredded into pieces of scrap. Telion turned to warn his men, but his back lit up in a burning sensation, the creature had ripped into his thigh, he spun and saw his blood pouring onto the forest floor. He tried to reach for his pistol, but the lictor raked it's claws across the face of Telion bringing him down. The scouts screamed in terror and anger, some fired at the predator, others ran at it with combat knives drawn. The combined sniper fire and close combat brought the creature down, but its work had already been done.

The Terminators finally teleported in behind enemy lines. They began to open fire on the hive tyrant, shells and rounds bouncing off it's thick armour. It's tyrant guard seemed to jump unconciously into the path of bullets, deflecting them without realizing it. The Librarian had heard the attack on Telion over the comm link, and could see the captain still waist deep in genestealers. Cooler heads had to prevail. We could not lose another hero today. He tapped his fingers to his ear, and called for the forces to fall back, fall back to the main fortifications back in the city. They would not get their radar station back today, and a lot had been learned. That knowledge, unfortunately, came at a high cost.

Final Score: Space Marines -0 Tyranids -0

It was a great came. The big turning point was me running my hormagaunts out of synapse range, and then Waterman unloading on a brood of 20 and just pasting them with rapid fire and twin linked heavy flamers. It was great fun, and it looked awesome with painted dudes =)

Lictor and Hive Tyrant, painted.