Range anxiety. Not just for electric vehicle owners anymore.
Yeah, I know not everyone will get that. Oh well.
From this thread:
"My thoughts - the difference is small enough for the issue to come down to personal preference, so I'd still (probably) go with rending claws. I don't want to pay premium to have a unit with a potential 24" assault range, for them to 'be forced' to stay within 18" of Swarmy. It's that potential 24" charge that will disrupt enemy timing and cause problems. If they go down to 18" charge like many other Tyranid units, you're wasting their potential.
I probably value the independence factor higher than you purgatus."
N.I.B., I'm glad to say, completely "gets it." It IS largely personal preference and play-style. Each setup offers some strengths and some drawbacks. For ME, in THIS army, it makes sense to have the 2ST. But even for me, if it was in another army I might go for the RCs (and would in many cases).
One thing that I perhaps didn't emphasize as much as I could have is that in addition to having the Swarmlord my decision was made in part because I ALSO have Genestealers. So I have a rend delivery system that does a FAR better job of killing, for example, FNP Marines or even Dreadnoughts than the Raveners do. I would never send Raveners against a Dread if I could help it, with or without RCs. Furious Charging Genestealers? Yeah, that might be worth a shot if my shooting fails and my MCs aren't available.
The other issue is the idea that I'm "forcing" the Raveners to stay within 18" of the Swarmlord by not giving them RCs.
Well, even with RCs, they really WANT to stay within 18" of Swarmy, at least at the beginning of the movement phase. Ld 6 is not something I want to bet on, and there's a reason that Swarmy's 18" synapse range works well with Raveners.
Now, DURING the movement phase, both the Raveners AND the Swarmlord are moving 6 inches. So if they started out pretty much next to each other they will stay pretty much next to each other.
Then, remember that the Swarmlord bestows his special ability at the beginning of the shooting phase (before runs occur), to any unit that is within 18" at that point. It lasts until the end of the turn, it specifically says that. This is not an aura, so if the Raveners move out of range after that point they still have the Furious Charge.
So to get the Furious charge they had to be within 18" at the start of the shooting phase. After that the Raveners will run and then assault. So really we are talking about a potential target range up to 36 inches away from the Swarmlord, not 18.
Hopefully that helps explain my thinking in that area.
