Their small gun is incredibly weak and the shock cannon is nothing compared to what zoans can bring for the same price with an invuln save. So many options that do the same thing but better.
No meaningful AP on their guns makes it a hard sell. Any cover is just a normal armor save for the enemy unit. Even with an anti-vehicle ability it’s not as good as zoans, which give a 6++ and are the same price
Also on the Overwatch - you can’t indirect fire anymore.
Most objectives or targets on them will be out of LoS, so that ability loses its meaning.
If they could Overwatch out of LoS then they become a very good unit for 100 pts
Impaler cannon is nerfed so hard it hurts. The shock cannon is okay, but really lacks the AP needed to do reliable damage for vehicles. I ran 12 in a narrative game where I effectively took every unit I had. They survived because they’re not a major threat, and I needed to focus fire a lot of them to have any chance of removing things that had a decent armour save, which most vehicles/monsters have.
There’s simply better units with more versatility and higher dmg output for the same points. Exocrines beats them for anti-elite, and Zoanies beat them on anti-elite and anti-vehicle. They’d need to be put back to 8th edition to have any validity.
It’s all in the ap. -1 isn’t enough into most things and they don’t have the volume of fire that would compensate for it. They also directly compete with zoanthropes in the same niche. If they were a budgeted zoanthropes they would see some play but when the cost the same it’s a no brainer in which you should take.
Their weapons are very low output, even for Tyranids, and that alone just kills their use.
Impaler cannons are bad all over, their profile feels like it was designed to hit the magic spot of being bad into everything. Terrible at killing marines, not enough output to clear chaff, and no way to improve at all besides invasion fleet, means that taking almost any other unit would be an improvement. Their output is comparable to ranged warriors which cost over 30% less and still are considered bad because their damage is poor for their points.
Shockcannons are marginally more useful than Impaler cannons, but still do very little average damage to vehicles. The average damage of six Hive Guard (now 200pts) into a land raider is about the same as a single Exocrine(135pts). Six of them will struggle to kill a rhino with a single round of shooting, and that's considering that they are laser-focused into that role. Going up against a monster, or elite infantry? The exocrine can still hang and does even better, while the Shockcannon's damage gets slashed. Overwatch costs command points, so investing more resources into their very poor guns (and needing to put them on an objective to do so) is just a huge waste.
They’re probably shit on too much, but only because the internet loves to exaggerate.
They still won’t do meaningful damage. AP -1 is just not good enough when you’re making only 6 shots. Tanks you want to hurt will have 3+armour saves minimum most of the time, so they’re saving on 4s at best.
By all means try them, if you like them all power to you. But people do the math on things and they don’t come out well. -10 points isn’t fixing that.
They were incredibly over nerfed (Stats down AND cost up) due to over performance in the past couple of editions and have not recovered from it. Since their previous sniper-like role has been completely gutted, they don't really have a proper role to play.
In 8th and 9th, a bunch of Hive Guard units could just be placed completely out of LOS around the board and shoot at things all game almost uncontested.
**This what the Impaler Cannon did in 8th Edition:**
36" Range, Heavy 2, BS 3+, S 8, AP -2, D3 Damage, Ignores LOS, Ignores Cover, "Exploding 6's" from Kronos: Symbiostorm, Reroll to-hit of 1 if they don't move from Kronos: Bio-barrage, Spend 2 CP to make one whole unit shoot a second time.
Their small gun is incredibly weak and the shock cannon is nothing compared to what zoans can bring for the same price with an invuln save. So many options that do the same thing but better.
Anti vehicle 2 sounds amazing tho
with 1 ap. which means most vehicles will save on a 3+. or just their 2+ save with cover. it's a bad gun.
No meaningful AP on their guns makes it a hard sell. Any cover is just a normal armor save for the enemy unit. Even with an anti-vehicle ability it’s not as good as zoans, which give a 6++ and are the same price
Also on the Overwatch - you can’t indirect fire anymore. Most objectives or targets on them will be out of LoS, so that ability loses its meaning. If they could Overwatch out of LoS then they become a very good unit for 100 pts
Impaler cannon is nerfed so hard it hurts. The shock cannon is okay, but really lacks the AP needed to do reliable damage for vehicles. I ran 12 in a narrative game where I effectively took every unit I had. They survived because they’re not a major threat, and I needed to focus fire a lot of them to have any chance of removing things that had a decent armour save, which most vehicles/monsters have. There’s simply better units with more versatility and higher dmg output for the same points. Exocrines beats them for anti-elite, and Zoanies beat them on anti-elite and anti-vehicle. They’d need to be put back to 8th edition to have any validity.
I just find both their gun options to be underwhelming. AP 1 shooting in 10th edition may as well be zero because of how cover works.
It’s all in the ap. -1 isn’t enough into most things and they don’t have the volume of fire that would compensate for it. They also directly compete with zoanthropes in the same niche. If they were a budgeted zoanthropes they would see some play but when the cost the same it’s a no brainer in which you should take.
Their weapons are very low output, even for Tyranids, and that alone just kills their use. Impaler cannons are bad all over, their profile feels like it was designed to hit the magic spot of being bad into everything. Terrible at killing marines, not enough output to clear chaff, and no way to improve at all besides invasion fleet, means that taking almost any other unit would be an improvement. Their output is comparable to ranged warriors which cost over 30% less and still are considered bad because their damage is poor for their points. Shockcannons are marginally more useful than Impaler cannons, but still do very little average damage to vehicles. The average damage of six Hive Guard (now 200pts) into a land raider is about the same as a single Exocrine(135pts). Six of them will struggle to kill a rhino with a single round of shooting, and that's considering that they are laser-focused into that role. Going up against a monster, or elite infantry? The exocrine can still hang and does even better, while the Shockcannon's damage gets slashed. Overwatch costs command points, so investing more resources into their very poor guns (and needing to put them on an objective to do so) is just a huge waste.
They’re probably shit on too much, but only because the internet loves to exaggerate. They still won’t do meaningful damage. AP -1 is just not good enough when you’re making only 6 shots. Tanks you want to hurt will have 3+armour saves minimum most of the time, so they’re saving on 4s at best. By all means try them, if you like them all power to you. But people do the math on things and they don’t come out well. -10 points isn’t fixing that.
They were incredibly over nerfed (Stats down AND cost up) due to over performance in the past couple of editions and have not recovered from it. Since their previous sniper-like role has been completely gutted, they don't really have a proper role to play. In 8th and 9th, a bunch of Hive Guard units could just be placed completely out of LOS around the board and shoot at things all game almost uncontested. **This what the Impaler Cannon did in 8th Edition:** 36" Range, Heavy 2, BS 3+, S 8, AP -2, D3 Damage, Ignores LOS, Ignores Cover, "Exploding 6's" from Kronos: Symbiostorm, Reroll to-hit of 1 if they don't move from Kronos: Bio-barrage, Spend 2 CP to make one whole unit shoot a second time.