Topic: "Feeding Frenzy"

[Whitehat51]

I was informed of a tactic in a different thread about Tau Mechanized armies called the "feeding frenzy," in which a player surrounds a transport with Piranhas and then blows it up(with fusion blasters or a railgun or whatever else is handy), causing all the troops inside to instantly die with no place to deploy.

Can someone tell me if this is a legitimate tactic?  I play rhino rushers at my gaming store a lot, and to say to them "Hey, sorry you just lost 350 points worth of guys in there, that's what we Tau players call a feeding frenzy.  Oh, your sorcerer was in there too?  Wow, bad day for you huh?"

Anyway, I'd just like to know if this would work and if so, how to use it.

[Lord of Winter and War]

I've seen it used to great effect against a land raider with a marine command squad inside. The piranhas with fusion blasters made short work of the tank, while the passengers burned in the wreckage due to the skimmers blocking the front and sides. It would be a very, very mean thing to do.

[DammageInc]

Deep striking gun drones can do a similar thing, killed a few IG command squads this way

[Whitehat51]

What are the drop points out of a Chimera, Rhino or Land Raider?  If I could master this tactic, it would make my mechanized Tau unstoppable.

[Rudkin]

Chimera/Rhino/Devilfish: Sides and rear

Wave Serpent/Falcon: Rear

Land Raider: Front and rear


I think that's it, anyway. Your best bet may be to casually ask what they are the next time you are playing an opponent with any given transport. I'd recommend not using the Feeding Frenzy in the same game as asking this. Make it a casual request (idle curiosity or the like; don't make it obvious or they'll know that you're up to something) and then remember it for next time!

[PaxImperator]

Chimera/Rhino/Devilfish: Sides and rear

Wave Serpent/Falcon: Rear

Land Raider: Front and rear

Chimeras only have a rear acces point. Land Raiders have front and side access points but no rear one. Incidentally Whitehat, I'm a bit surprised at seeing someone as highly proficient with Imperial Guard as yourself asking about access points on a Chimera. Left your codex someplace else I suppose?

The tactic actually strikes me as more effective against a Land Raider than a Rhino because it'll often be harder to get to a Rhino's far side to block the access point there. At least the Rhino is easier to blow up so it balances out in a way.

[Wyddr]

The Feeding Frenzy is a great tactic, but it is really hard to pull off against vehicles with more than one access point. If you do it, your opponent should congratulate you on an impressive move, not get angry. It isn't cheating--it's part of the game.

The trick is to make sure you block as much of the access point as possible. If he can place a guy within 2" of the access point and still be 1" away from your unit, some of the guys will make it out alive.

Then, of course, there's killing the transport itself. It is all too often you are going for that penetrating kill when you realize the rhino has popped smoke and all you can score is a 'crew shaken' or, worse, 'armament destroyed.'

[Razyus]

Except you don't actually have to destroy the vehicle just hit a penetrating hit, so yeah smoke launchers make it a lot harder. But if the vehicle cant move and you are blocking the exits they can't dissembark anyway. So you have another turn, when the smoke launchers will have run out.

Razyus

[Whitehat51]

Chimera/Rhino/Devilfish: Sides and rear

Wave Serpent/Falcon: Rear

Land Raider: Front and rear

Chimeras only have a rear acces point. Land Raiders have front and side access points but no rear one. Incidentally Whitehat, I'm a bit surprised at seeing someone as highly proficient with Imperial Guard as yourself asking about access points on a Chimera. Left your codex someplace else I suppose?

The tactic actually strikes me as more effective against a Land Raider than a Rhino because it'll often be harder to get to a Rhino's far side to block the access point there. At least the Rhino is easier to blow up so it balances out in a way.

Hah, thanks, but I don't feel competent with my Guard anymore.  With my old list, I just got 2 losses and a win today alone.  As long as we're talking about the "fresh" list in the IG tactics section.  I will be posting a bat-rep with them soon as well.  The new one that I'm making will have 80 conscripts instead of the old 40, and still keep all the tanks and all the heavy weapons, in fact adding more missile launchers and storm trooper with plasma guns.  It turned out I was wasting like 400 points on extra stormies and equipment I didn't need.  I then cut it in half and put into two 5-man squads with plasmas, fitted my command squads with plasma as well, gave every infantry squad a heavy weapon, and fitted my Leman Russ to be a mobile bolt-platform with 3 heavy bolters and a heavy stubber pintle.  But I digress.

Can anyone tell me of any real success stories with the Feeding Frenzy?  If not, I intend to make it my trademark tactic at my gaming group and just tear apart everyone dumb enough to put a big termie squad in a land raider.

[The GrimSqueaker]

Word after boring word....

Mate, this isn't the Guard Board. Take it over there where people may give a amphetamine parrot about it.

Can anyone tell me of any real success stories with the Feeding Frenzy?  If not, I intend to make it my trademark tactic at my gaming group and just tear apart everyone dumb enough to put a big termie squad in a land raider.

I suggest you do just that. Make it something you do every game and then get back it us as to your sucess. 

[Whitehat51]

Yeah, I just thought I'd put it out there.  But I was wondering if anyone had any good stories about it, like(hypothetically), "I played a Dark Eldar army once, and wiped out both his massive Incubi retinues with feeding frenzy; and he was telling me that he wasn't trying to be cheesy by using two squads of Incubi, HA!"  Has anything like that happened to anyone?

[The GrimSqueaker]

Okay, you have Dark Eldar issues. Less than good to know. Keep it on topic or watch the replies disappear.

[Whitehat51]

Well.... I wasn't against Dark Eldar, I was just kind of making an example.  It's still on topic though; it is just Feeding Frenzy in general, and this has to do with it.

[Wyddr]

Dark Eldar transports are open-topped, so the whole damn thing is an access point. No feeding frenzy possible, there.

I, also, have precious few success stories to tell. Generally, the tactic is just too much trouble to pull off to be worth it. Most of my opponents don't run terribly mechanized lists (with the exception of the Eldar and, occasionally, a Sisters list), so an 'expensive unit in a transport' is a rarity. Even when it does show up, it is typically more practical to blow the thing up than wait the extra turn to set up/execute the Frenzy. Entangled Terminators in the open are just as dead as Terminators stuck in a burning transport, with the added bonus of freeing up Piranha usage for an extra turn.

Go and use it, though--let me know if you can pull it off with any regularity. In my experience, battlefields are seldom so perfectly aligned that it is likely to occur.

[Whitehat51]

Well, I figure that I'd be using my Piranhas almost solely for that purpose, unless there's no transports around.  The way I see it, even if I don't kill it with the Fusion blasters that get double armor penetration, I give mine seeker missiles so Markerlights could provide the kill, or Railguns if they're more convenient.  Either way, if I can pull it off, you can bet you'll hear about it.

[Shas'Oink]

ive used it against an opponents land raider, packed full to the brim with lovely expensive 2+ armour save terminators.... he wasnt too pleased to say the least...

but in truth it is very difficult to pull off because there are so many variables and lots of things that need to fall into place in order for it to work... unlike the "fish of fury" which is much more direct and controllable.

it works very well agaisnt standard tanks but is much less reliable against skimmers... esp eldar ones. when facing imperial armies though it can be devastating.

for chimeras you can achieve this with a single piranha (though you need to make sure it survives long enough to do it!!). parking it in front of the rear access point and causing a penetrating hit will force the passangers to disembark, and, being unable to do so (thanks to the position of your piranha) they will be destroyed.

get used to doing this first, because working on transports with multiple access points takes much more co-ordination. the most obvious thing is to use additional piranhas... and remember to make use of their gun drones... which can disembark to block an exit themselves!

i dont think its something that you can rely on to be a trademark game winner... though the great thing about it is that marines wil have to direct heavy weapons fire agaisnt piranhas to stop it (front AV 11 makes them immune to bolters)... so the threat of a feeding frenzy can serve to draw fire away from your hammerheads or whatever... giving them more killing power...

if you want to work your list around it then be sure to equipe your hammerheads with ion cannons. that way you force your opponent to choose if he wants to risk getting slaughtered in their tanks by a feeding frenzy... or mauled on foot by AP3 weapons...