Friday 10 December 2010

'nids part 5. What's the point in Rippers?

Taking a little hiatus from the Tervigon tutorial I ask the above question, just what is the point in Rippers? Don't get me wrong, I love them, I love the fluff [as they say] I like the fact you can put 4 on a base, or 3 if you're cheeky, the fact they come as part of  the Termagant, Hormagaunt and Warrior sprues, and you can have them winged or tunneling for deep strike shenanigans. But why take them when two Hormagaunts in their place would do a better job for a few points more and not take up another troops slot?


I mean I've had some good results, a brood of three killed a terminator once and another time they deep striked [using tunneling] and secured an objective, until I got home and read that the GW store manager was wrong - swarms can't capture objectives [but Hormagaunts can, another +1 for them].

Please, someone give me a solid reason to have them. My son's got 3 bases so far and I've another 2 to add but seriously the only reason they'll be on the battlefield is if he chooses them in a list or we've run out of Hormagaunts, which isn't likely.

P.S. did I not mention they have a WS of 2?!

4 comments:

  1. I run rippers in several of my tourney lists, albeit those lists are for comped tournies.

    Anyway, I think that one of the best things about them is that they give you great mobile cover when crossing the battlefield. With the swarm special ability, they get a +1 cover save. This effectively gives them a 3+ on the move. Depending on how close your other troops are behind them, feel free to go to ground and have the bugs behind them charge forward. At max you have a 90 point unit getting a 2+ cover save.

    Also, with a high number of bases (I use 9) when they do attack, they're throwing out a lot of attacks. You don't want to hit any special troops with them (as you pointed out, WS 2), but against regular troops, they're hitting on a 4+ and wounding on a 5. Not too bad for the amount of attacks their throwing out.

    I hope that helps. I love to use them, and I think that they're often overlooked for not the best reasons.

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  2. The other problem with rippers is that they harm themselves when out of synapse range.

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  3. Strength 3 is awesome when your unit is trying to kill itself (T3 not so much). But, as you know, they got better with the advent of Maelstrom missions. Dare I say it, they are viable now :-O

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    1. I do love the the little fella's and have about 4 or 5 bases to make it so expect to seem them soon[ish].

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