Proposed Warpath Army: The Swarm

[darkPrince010]

Hey all. Figured I'd post this idea here, since you guys seem to be the go-to people for KoW/Warpath info.

Although I know Mantic is planning an army equivalent for the GW-army-that-shall-not-be-named, I couldn't wait

The army hopefully rerflects it's inspiration, with a strong emphasis on swarms and really, really big individual monsters. I hopefully kept the same rough ratio of shooting:assault that the original had, although I strongly suspect the points may be way too high/low, especially for the Swarmlord infantry and the Heroes/Monsters. I used the Marauders as a base template, and fiddled around from there.

Comments and ideas are highly welcome!

EDIT: Here are the name equivalencies:
Broodlings-Termagaunts
Bladelings-Hormagaunts
Bloodthieves-Genestealers
Grub Swarm-Ripper Swarm
Swarmlord-Tyranid Warrior
Spore Lobber-Biovore
Nest Protector-Hiveguard
Hivelord-Hive Tyrant
Devestator-Carnifex
Hive Wyrm-Trygon
Sky-Eater-Harpy
Mindworm-Zoanthrope
Toxin-Beast-Pyrovore/Venomthrope
Shadowclaw-Lictor

EDIT: v2.6 updated 11/2/12

[Baragash]

Your Regenerate rule doesn't specify when to take the test.

I'm not familiar enough with WP to comment on the list, sorry, but as I said in another topic it's quite helpful to list what the units are equivalent to in the GW list for those of us who aren't intimately familiar with the GW list.

[AlexHolker]

Personally, I'd replace your Regenerate rule with my Regroup (n) special rule - removing (n) points of damage every turn rather than 1/6th of them. It's faster, meaning there's less risk of accidentally regenerating one unit twice or skipping one altogether, and it would mean healthier heavy units don't regenerate slower than sickly ones.

You could also consider giving some of the weaker units Craven, and the Synapse creatures Taskmaster (negates Craven within 6") if you wanted to make them function more like their 40k equivalents.

[darkPrince010]

I like that. I felt that the Inspiring for the Swarmlords felt like a bit of overkill, so Craven/Taskmaster would work better. I also agree that the Regenerate shoudl just be (n) damage per turn, not 6 on a d6.

Units and their equivalents:
Broodlings-Termagaunts
Bladelings-Hormagaunts
Bloodthieves-Genestealers
Grub Swarm-Ripper Swarm
Swarmlord-Tyranid Warrior
Spore Lobber-Biovore
Nest Protector-Hiveguard
Hivelord-Hive Tyrant
Devestator-Carnifex
Hive Wyrm-Trygon
Sky-Eater-Harpy
Mindworm-Zoanthrope
Toxin-Beast-Pyrovore/Venomthrope
Shadowclaw-Lictor

[darkPrince010]

Updated the Army List!

[Graeme]

Apologies for the threadromancy, but just wanted to say thanks for putting that list together. I tried it out last night against forgefathers and it seemed to be about fair.

If you were looking for feedback, I'd suggest that the regenerate rule might be a little OP. I think it may play better if you get to roll 'n' D6, where n is the unit's regenerate ability, and remove a damage token for each dice that comes up 4+.

In general though I thought the rules were good, cheers!

[darkPrince010]

Awesome, thank you!

To tell you the truth, I hadn't gotten a chance to try them out yet, so I'm glad the points values and overall balance seemed about right!

I agree that a more random chance of Regeneration would probably be a bit more balanced, especially for larger unit sizes. I'll change that and fix some format/naming errors I noticed looking through the list again.

I'd appreciate any other feedback you had on the list: What units worked well/poorly, did anything have particularly good or bad synergy with the overall army, were there any unexpected or severe weaknesses or strengths that the army seemed to have, anything like that?

[darkPrince010]

Updated the army list, fixing grammar errors and taking into account the new Regenerate rule as well as tweaking some of the prices on Sections and Platoons as they were a bit low (Especially for the platoons).

[Graeme]

Well, I ran a platoon each of broodlings and bladelings, a bloodthieves team, a swarmlord section, 3 nest protectors, one hivelord, one devastator and one hive wyrm.

The broodlings sat on an objective all game and never got to fire at anyone, so I can’t say much about them. The bladelings fast movement enabled them to whip across the battlefield in no time whatsoever and over the course of the game they weathered an ungodly amount of shooting thanks to the old regenerate rule and took out two enemy squads in close combat. I think the nerf to regenerate and points hike you’ve given these guys is fair.

The bloodthieves got shot before doing anything, so again, not much to say here. The swarmlords are very good, in my game they sat fairly centrally and dominated the middle of the table with their guns. The points cost is high though, so I think they’re probably fair. The nest protectors seemed to work better as anti-infantry guns rather than anti-tank (I shot them at both), which is a bit of a departure from their function in the other game, but not necessarily a problem.

The three big bugs all performed well, but they are a bit different under these rules – whereas in 40k they have lots of wounds which are more-or-less easy to remove, here they are only ‘nerve 2’ but very hard to hurt. What this means is, they tend to die after the first wounding hit (but that hit is difficult to achieve). Feels a bit strange, would possibly suggest raising nerve and lowering def?

[darkPrince010]

Thanks for the feedback!

So, do you think Nest Protectors might be a bit more in line with their 40K anti-light-vehicle function with a higher Piercing value, or do you think they work better at their current cost and function?

Also, do you think all the bugs should get a Nerve boost and Def drop, and should they all be equally changed, or do you think the "smaller" big bugs are good where they are? (I'm thinking here of the Sky-eater and Hivelord) Not sure which big bugs you used, but I really appreciate your feedback!

[Graeme]

To make the nest protectors more 40k, yes, I'd remove blast and raise their piercing value.

I used the trygon, hive tyrant and carnifex equivalents and certainly for those three I'd suggest reductions to Def 6 with corresponding nerve boosts up to 4. That way, they can take something like their 40k equivalent of a bunch of wounds before they get wasted (assuming average nerve rolls).

This was only my first game of warpath though, so bear in mind that I'm not an expert by any means!

[darkPrince010]

Eh, first impressions usually are pretty valuable anyways, regardless of experience. I'll give them all the bump (Maybe only Ne 3 for the hive tyrant and the harpy equivalents, just since they're a bit more fragile than the other two in 40K)

[darkPrince010]

Updated the list. I've taken Graeme's reccomendations on the H/M Def/Ne values, updated the Ne to the 1st edition format, and added the name of the equivalent unit in parentheses. Additionally, I've added in the Lictor as a seperate H/M, and given the Genestealers Stealthy, so a "in-your-face" infiltrating army is now an option!

As always, C&C is appreciated!

[darkPrince010]

Whoo. Played my first few full games using this list, and the Genestealers/Bloodthieves are way, way too powerful. They were designed to be a glass cannon, but I overshot it too much and MSU tactics allow them to spam the enemy. I'm going to cut them down to 10 attacks, 5 move, and Crushing Strength (2) in the next release of this list.

Additionally, the Bladelings/Hormaguants and Broodlings/Termagaunts are a bit too powerful with their to-hit and Def, so I'm dropping those both by 1 each as well.

[darkPrince010]

Updated the army list to keep it in line with v2.0 of Warpath rules.