Few Nid Questions

[phat_pete]

Just have a few basic questions about fleet ideas and maybe a few rules questions (if I remember what the questions were!).

I'm gonna knock together/kit bash a Nid fleet soon to go with my friends Nid army. What options are normally good for the Hive ships? Do people normally just go all out on fighter bays?

What is the best loadout for escort drones, I thought about just giving them all pyro, due to the range and generic-ness.

My 1st thoughts were to have:

2 Hive ships, max load out of launch bays and pyro batteries in the prow slot.

A couple of cruisers with pyro on the prow and sides and feeder tentacles on the other slot

Escorts with pyro

Kraken squadron with pyro
Kraken squadron with feeders
Kraken squadron with bio plasma
Kraken squadron with claws

a couple of vanguard drones (probably with pyro)

With regards to the escort squadrons, am I right in saying that they can be single units or squadrons up to 12? (so 1-12).

[andrewchristlieb]

each hive must have a min of 6 drones and may take 6-12 additional escorts, which may be grouped in squadrons of 1-12 so yes you could have a Hive and 18 individual escorts (nasty for tentacle drones and claw kraken!). Note that a Vanguard list requires squads of 6-12.

Most hives I've seen have been super carriers or max out on pyro-acid, or a combination of both. Pyro escorts can be nasty but cruisers are kind of overrated. Kraken are awesome.

[Mallich]

With regards to the escort squadrons, am I right in saying that they can be single units or squadrons up to 12? (so 1-12).

Yep. Just remember that this could make command and control very difficult, since if you make a command check to override instinctive behaviour it would only affect 1 escort. It could also make battery fire ineffective, since each of the tiny squadrons will be affected by blast markers. I think that you would want some escorts in "proper" sized squadrons.

As for the cruiser, adding a single torpedo launcher can make command and control easier (look at the instinctive behaviour chart).

[phat_pete]

cheers guys,

with regards to escort squadron size, i was thinking of having the bulk of them in squardrons of 5, maybe having a couple of vanguard drone spread out on their own as single units like AWACS

[phat_pete]

Another question or 2:

1) Do the Hive Ships themselves have to follow the instinctive behaviour?

2) The port/starboard weapons for Hive Ships: I understand that if you buy 3 launch bays, you actually get 3 port and 3 starboard (so 6). What about the pyro/bio. Do you get double or just 3 (if you buy 3) of the stated amount. Eg pyro batteries get 4 per choice so if you buy all 3, would you get 12 or 24? If it was 24 that seems a little over powered

3) The reinforced carapace refit states that if a cruiser takes 4 to have 10 hp, it then becomes a hive ship. What does this mean with regards to fleet selection etc?

Cheers in advance

[andrewchristlieb]

1) Yes the rules state that a hive ship can make a leadership test to change or ignore instinctive behavior for themselves or another ship/squadron within 45cm. pg 82 Armada

2)You would get 24, 12 port and 12 starboard, not overpowered at all. When you buy 3 Launch Bays you get 6, 3 port and 3 starboard.

3)In a one off game this is just telling you that you cannot take 4 as then you would have a hive ship not a cruiser. In a campaign its kind of iffy. You can either play the same way just stating that you cannot take a 4th at all, or you can play where it evolves into a hive ship, changing its sheet to one for a hive and picking new weapons slots etc.

The campaigns I've participated in that had them evolve this was the only way to get new hives, the idea being that you could "birth" new cruisers/ escorts but not a whole hive. This actually seemed quite good as the Nids took a lot better care of their hives, You didn't see any super monster hives and they were usually very well protected, very fluffy.