Hi folks,
During April I spent some time painting some fire support units for my old school Tyranids. The large one is an Exocrine, produced by Armorcast. I think the Hive Fleet Proteus scheme works on it quite well, particularly the bright green ribbing. It was yet another exercise in "trusting the process"; I was really sceptical about painting the eyes yellow, but heavy black shading around the edges helps to differentiate them from the orange armour.
In 2nd Edition, Biocannon has a whopping 4d6 + 8 armour penetration. On average you are getting 20, which is enough to penetrate the track on some of the heaviest tanks. You still need to roll well to penetrate the hull or turret, but it can manage it with a maximum penetration of 32! The front hull of a Landraider, it's toughest value, is only 22. Penetrated locations continue to take damage every turn, which makes Exocrines the bane of vehicles.
Biovores are only 20 points each, but limited to 1 per 750 points of Tyranids. The reason for that is that they are very effective. Spore mines can mess up infantry, and have a solid armour penetration of 2d3+d6+10. An average of 17 will chew through a track nicely. The kicker is, once penetrated, the hit will continue to do damage, to random locations. So a penetrating hit to the track may lead to a crippling hit to the hull or turret. This makes them excellent!
Next month is going to be tricky, with a bunch of spore mines and gargoyles to do. I am not sure if I will be able to get it all done, but I will give it a shot.
See you across the table,
Marc
