Hopefully you get the reference to the movie Predator! Anyway, its been a while since we chopped up Nids, so let's take a look the other gimmicky elite choice from the codex: Deathleaper (I'll give you one guess as to who the other one is lol).
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Psykers to psuckers: Deathleaper makes people really scared by coming onto the board. In game this translates to a model of your choice in the opponent's army receiving a drop in leadership by D3. This can be really fun for dropping the effectiveness of enemy psykers and psychic hoods as everyone already knows. It also, when combined with shadows, means enemy force weapons shouldn't be too much of a problem from the particular psyker that is trying to insta kill our MCs. One drawback to this is that some armies are running multiple psychers, so you won't get everyone.
There are also characters and models that benefit from leadership based abilities like counter-attack ect, so there are other case-by-case uses for Deathleaper, but I think psychic defense is the main use for this effect.
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Where did he go? Oh, he's contesting! Deathleaper has another wonderful ability that allows him to keep disappearing and popping back up. You can use this ability to leave and then re-appear the next turn. the idea is to time it right, counting on the game ending on turn 5, so you can contest an objective if need be. The best part is that if the game ends, you have it, if not, you lost a creature that really had no further us in your army anyway. the enemy can mitigate the effects of this by spreading out on an objective he holds in order to keep you from being in range to contest, but I have found this really doesn't happen very much. Consider this an important ability, but understand it is not an overall strategy for winning and that it is also situational.
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Layers of defense: The deathleaper has many layers of defense to protect itself. First off, enemy units who wish to shoot at it have to shoot per nightfight and then half the distance rolled. Sometimes an opponent chooses to shoot him forgetting this rule and it costs them a round of shooting. Deathleaper also has stealth, which means all the lovely 5th edition cover will be granting him 3+ and he gets a 2+ for going to ground. Finally, he also causes units within 12" of him to move one less D6 in difficult terrain (which is where Deathleaper will be), which can stop folks from moving in on objectives late in the game and protect nearby units from possible assaults (sometimes).
To round off his defense, he also has WS9, meaning most troops units are hitting him on 5's AND he has hit and run, so if you appear to contest, the opponent still might not scrape him off the objective. This also makes him a good unit for killing small squads and for assaulting to move units off of objectives.
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Deathleaper can also use his fleshhooks to pop rear armour on vehicles, but that is also situational.
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The cons: The first major con with Deathleaper is the fact that he takes one of our valuable elite slots. no matter what kind of nid army you run, this slot is valuable. While Deathleaper offers a little bit of utility, he also needs to fit your synergy and you also need to understand that he is a little gimmicky and as with all gimmick units, you must evaluate how useful your army is without him. If you find yourself needing him in the list, you may want to find a better plan, if you can win without him, but he is a nice little topping on your nid sundae, then take him at your pleasure.
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What lists does he work well with? The drop list is a great place for the deathleaper as drop nids (nids with heavy reserves and Hive Commander) are pretty reliable on their own and his abilities (and the chance he will show up early) compliments most drop nid builds very well.
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For heavy walking lists and for mass horde lists, he is still pretty effective as he still hurts the enemy leadership and powers, but he also gives you the late-turn contesting unit that can turn the game for you (walking nid lists are great for wiping objectives in multiple objective games and holding them two objective games, but sometimes struggle with far off objectives in terms of mobility and synaptic range). He is a little more oddball in these builds but still a decent choice.
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Overall: what makes Deahtleaper a strong unit is the massive amount of options he gives you for messing up your opponents plans. He will likely have to count on trying to hold an extra objective to pull off a win against you or will have to work damn hard to kill the Leaper. Anything he commits to killing the leaper will have to deal with the fact that they may not get to do so - wasting that unit's time and against Nids, he may not be able to stop you from contesting and holding more than him. In the hands of an inexperienced player, Deathleaper is an annoyance. In the hands of an experienced player, Deathleaper can be the deciding factor in objective missions.
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Those are my thoughts and experiences on Deathleaper. I would love to hear your ideas, concerns, experiences and anything else you can add to this article.
I hate the deathleaper, he gimps a rune priest all game and combined with shadows of the warp makes it a real PITA to get off any kind of spells. Especially because there is nothing you can do to counter it, you cant kill him to get rid of it because he's never on the board.
ReplyDeleteThat and having to remember to bubble wrap all your objectives at the end of the game to try and stop the death leaper ninja. Death leaper is defiantly one of my least favorite nids to play against.
small thing to bring to your attention on one of his defensive abilities. Enemy infantry units within 12 actually roll one less dice WHEN moving through difficult terrain. It doesn't actually state that it causes them to move as if they were in difficult terrain.
ReplyDeleteRoger, I will change it when I get to a comp. Thanks fishes.
ReplyDeleteChanged, thanks Fishe, thank god I have never used that trick on anyone.
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ReplyDeleteFishe, the game you are referring to is a game between CVinton and I and while you were pretty close to the table most of the time, the check you are referring to involves him rolling a 3 and myself a five and I caught it later and admitted it, despite the fact that it would not have made a diference since the units in question were a trygon and a unit of Marines, both I4.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to troll, take it to the forums, I hear there is still space beneath their bridges. If you want to have a constructive conversation via this blog, then by all means, stick around. Once again, thanks for the catch in the original post - cheers.