Originally Posted by
Learn2Eel
Ok, I'll grab out my Grav-Tank Eldar. I can sit at 36"+ the entire game away from that Exocrine and blast the rest of your army to pieces, ignoring a BS4 Quad Gun that can only average 1 hull point on one of my 3 HP AV12 skimmer tanks a turn, and that is if I fail a 4+ Jink save. In this situation, the Quad Gun won't do much damage, and the AP2 from the Exocrine is wasted. I'd be more afraid of that medium range AP2 because it can eviscerate my D-Scythe Wraithguard when they are inevitably forced to jump out. A Quad Gun though? Pass. Oh, and if you try and deploy that Quad Gun forward, I'll either steal it from you or just kill the easy Exocrine target. It might be a similar situation if there was no Quad Gun....but those points could also be spent on a Bastion with either a Zoanthrope or Venomthrope, something I'm much more afraid of as killing Synapse creatures is the easiest way to beat Tyranids.
Alternatively, I'll bring my standard Tau. Even without Broadsides and only one Skyray, my entire army out-ranges your Exocrine on a Quad Gun, meaning the little boy doesn't ever get to use its AP2 on something valuable like...I don't know....a Riptide. Enjoy trying to catch my 2+ armoured monster between Jet Pack and fodder Fire Warrior units. At least if your Exocrine was advancing with the rest of the army then that AP2 pressure would actually force me to shoot at it and let other stuff get through. This way though, you can have those 100 points and I'll just eliminate everything else without a care in the world for the baby.
What if I crack out classic Death Korp style Imperial Guard? You'll have to spam either Biovores or Mawlocs to break down my infantry blobs reliably, while my artillery/heavy weapons can just pound the rest of your army to death. Losing a few infantry models, presenting AV14 front vehicles or having barrage tanks hiding behind cover gives you no decent targets for the Quad Gun. Even if I run the T7 W4 3+ armoured artillery units from Forge World, that Quad Gun still ends up being a waste as it only averages one unsaved wound per every three wounds inflicted on them. Remembering that these things come in squadrons of three, are cheap as chips and have ablative Guardsmen wounds. Your Exocrine ends up being an expensive paper-weight instead of using that AP2 large blast to clear out my infantry significantly quicker.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this as every time I have used the tactic, it has failed and just made me say to myself "why not take a Zoanthrope in a Bastion for the same points cost while keeping the Exocrine?" My meta consists heavily of long-range armies, like Tau, Eldar and Imperial Guard. Yours may differ, and ultimately the Quad Gun + Exocrine combo might work against some armies, mostly close assault ones, but those long ranged armies can ignore it every day of the week and see usually both the Exocrine and Quad Gun being wasted points. If I can afford to ignore your T6 W5 3+ monstrous creature with a nasty AP2 gun, I'm going to be the one cheering, not the Tyranid player.
By the by, if these aren't tactics, what are they?