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As one who was complaining about 'Nid AA before, I have definitely come around to the thinking that they DON'T need fast AA keeping up with the Assaulting Swarms.
I really do like the idea of a more stationary air defense basically over your own table half, and the Swarms launching attacks out of that. I just think thats plain cool. It has a high coolness factor in my eyes, shall we say.
That said, I do think the stationary AA needs an upgrade. Half a dozen floating balls with a total max spread of 25cm+the base widths and a max range of 15cm is just sad. It can just be flown around too damn easy. Its almost pointless.
My vote would be for dropping the AA off Gargs and lowering their cost a bit (I could care less if they have armor or not...a 6+ save. Is this really an issue? Who makes 6+ saves? I sure dont...).
Then improving the Spores, AND giving more of the Larger Bio-Titans (DC4+ ones) the Energy Blast that the Dom has. THAT can provide the cover for the advancing swarms.
As far as the Spores, well, they are problematic. I like the entire concept, but its going to be difficult to come up with a version of them that avoids every problem people think up.
Problems:
--Need to be decent, but not too good.
--Can't be too cheap or too expensive.
--Can't be overly annoying.
So, I have a few ideas.
Currently, we get 6 Spores for 150 points. They have 5+ Armor, 6+ FF, 10cm move, 15cm AA5+ attack, and are Instinctive, Independent Support Craft.
Here are a couple ideas for altering them...some new, others old.
--Add more to the formation. Simply make them 6-9 for 25 points each. That gives people the option of making a bigger cloud of them if they want, and avoids the other basic problems such as cost. Not terribly original, but it might work.
--Make them into DC2 WE's with only a 6+ or no save at all. This makes them more survivable (perhaps too much), but makes them better by letting them spread out twice as far. The concern about them being too good in an Engagement is silly...you are going to manage to get, what? 1-2 of them into the actual Engagement (10cm move, 10cm spread on them before moving, 15cm range)? And if they lose you pick them all up (Instinctive). They would definitely be more survivable against shooting, only being hit by AT or better weapons...but an opponent could simply assault them to obliterate them. They will probably only have to fight 1-2 of them if they hit an end of a line. And if your opponent is so stupid as to put a formation within 25cm of every Spore in the Swarm, so they ALL get to assault him...well, I think stupid covers that nicely.
--Change them utterly. How about this:
Represent them with one big spore. 150 points for a single Spore with the following stats:
Type: WE
Speed: 10cm
Armor: 5+ (maybe 6+)
CC: -
FF: 6+
Explosive Spores, 30cm range, 4xAA5+, Disrupt.
DC 4, Instinctive, Independent, Support Craft, Regeneration.
This represents a massive cloud of high-floating spores (multiple damage points, requires AT or better weaponry, Regen) that the opponent has to fly through (multiple AA attacks), yet will be destroyed by concentrated ground fire (vulnerable to assaults, AT/MW/TK fire). Its fewer DC than the current 6 Spores have, but a bit harder to kill due to not being hurt by AP weaponry (except in Assaults) and Regen. It gives a good Flak Envelope, but not incredible, and has the added benefit of being a single model, so it doesn't affect the enemy with its ZoC anywhere near as much as the 6 Spores do.
It would also be easier to play with. Sure, its a definite Abstraction of the fluff, but I think it might work pretty well, and solve a bunch of problems.
What do you all think?
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