I've been thinking about this guy ever since I finished up my magnetic Trygon/Mawloc. A lot of people on the intertubes are bashing this guy, and when you think about it the Mawloc doesn't seem that powerful. Sure, its initial strike can do some damage but in a 5 turn game you're only getting to use his abilities twice. However, I think there's more to it than that.
The Mawloc is the Tyranid version of the tank shock. It's one of the few abilities in the game that can move the opponent's models. You can use it to push models off an objective. If the opponent is turtling up, you can make him rue that decision with a Mawloc not only in the damage, but if you push the model into something else and there's nowhere else for it to go, it is destroyed. I may be wrong on this rule, but I think you can also push models off the table with it. This strategy can wreck an IG parking lot.
Furthermore, what other model can disappear from one side of the board and appear on the other the next turn? The eldar can zip around and cross the battlefield long ways in two turns but the Mawloc can even beat that speed (Eldar: 48" in two turns unless you took Star Engines, Mawloc: unlimited). This can come in use in the Capture and Control mission.
That said, I think that if you're going to take a Mawloc, you need to take more than one. A single Mawloc won't do much, especially if it misses. Redundancy is crucial in this regard.
These tactics and ideas are untested and unproven. Here's some questions for comments.
Have you used the Mawloc? What did you think?
Have you used more than one, and how did that turn out?
Aside from its killing power, are there any other uses?
The Mawloc's ability to move across the battlefield is valuable, no doubt- the problem is, realistically it takes two turns to do so, not one- you leave on movement phase of A and arrive on B, during which you can't assault and have no shooting, so you've effectively lost the turn. Still, nothing beats a T6/W6/3+ creature for contesting objectives.
ReplyDeleteMultiple Mawlocs work fine if you have other MCs in your list to support them (or as fine as they ever will, anyways.) As always, target saturation is key to making Tyranids function.
Contesting is the main other thing to do with the Mawloc. Rarely will his ability to move units matter much, as he just isn't accurate enough to actually be used that way.
He can be useful as a way to put a big annoyance in the opponent's backfield- while he may not be terribly killy, he is just as tough as any of the other big dudes and he can always charge something and spend a couple turns carving it up or HnR away to annoy something else. All in all, he's not a terrible choice, just totally outperformed by the Trygon for a minimal increase in points.