Void Prowler
Void Prowlers are Light Cruiser-equivalent Bio-Ships of Tyranid Hive Fleets, used for scouting and escort duties. Void Prowlers come in a metric shit-ton of sub-types depending on their intended purpose.
Breed[edit]
Basic[edit]
Bio-Projectile[edit]
The torpedo-boat brother. The Bio-Projectile Void Prowler is meant for duking out with vessels equal to its size and class at short-to-medium ranges. However, its lack of Dakka limits it to a supporting role rather than a proper line ship.
The price difference of the Tyranid Light Cruisers seems to be primarily dictated by what is the prow weapon equipped, as ships with the same frontal weapons, like the two torpedoes equipped Light Cruisers, the Corrosive Projectile Void Prowler and the Bio-Projectile Void Prowler, cost about the same. The Bio-Projectile Void Prowler only costs 1 point less than the Corrosive Projectile version, so when it comes to choosing which broadside weapons to pick to complement your prow weaponry, you can forget about price cost and just worry about what is more useful for your fleet's needs.
Remember, unlike the escort ships with torpedoes, the Light Cruisers can replenish their charges at the cost of troops, while using a separate ability to replenish troops when those start running low.
It is armed with 4 Bio-Torpedo Launchers and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5-5.3km; approx
- Mass: 12 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Corrosive Projectile[edit]
The sister ship of the Bio-Projectile. The Corrosive Projectile Void Prowler excels as a close-ranged support ship. Due to the short-range of the Pyro-Acids, the Corrosive Projectile works best if you fire your torpedoes at point-blank range rather than a deterrence at longer ranges.
Of the two torpedo equipped light cruisers, the Corrosive Projectile Void Prowler has slightly higher dps, with tied crits per minute, when compared to the Bio-Projectile variant. Remember that thanks to the Tyranid's abilities to replenish both troops and special weapon charges (at the cost of troops) you can actually use torpedoes beyond just the 3 charges that the ships come equipped with.
It is armed with 4 Bio-Torpedo Launchers and 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5-5.3km; approx
- Mass: 12.2 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Ram-Boat[edit]
Bio-Strangler[edit]
The Bio-Strangler is the stock 'standard' of what would be called as 'Ram-boats' due to their habit of having weapons that must either ram ships or latch on to, to become effective.
The Light Cruisers with feeder tentacles don't get an upgrade to their effectiveness versus the escort versions, as they still only cause a single assault action with every "tick" of the ability. What does change with the tier up in weight class however, is the Hook tentacles ability that comes along with it.
Now that your tentacle equipped ship weighs more itself, it can better pull other line ships towards it, without flinging itself towards the enemy. You still should be careful hooking into larger vessels however as there is still a large difference between say, Light Cruiser and Battleship sized vessels.
It is armed with Feeder Tentacles and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5-5.3km; approx
- Mass: 12.1 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Corrosive Strangler[edit]
The Corrosive Strangler Void Prowler is just there to fuck with enemy morale. This is the more close-range assault variant of the Bio-Strangler. Whilst the Bio-Strangler depletes a ships' hull and shield through its Bio-Plasma before going in for the kill, the Corrosive Strangler just bum rush and showers the ship with Pyro-Acid.
As such, if you want some extra morale demolishing fire effects to complement your troop consuming feeder tentacles, then the Corrosive Strangler Voidprowler is a good option. An excellent choice against Ork vessels thanks to their weakness to fire and their heavy morale penalties.
It is armed with Feeder Tentacles and 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5-5.3km; approx
- Mass: 12.5 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Corrosive Clutch[edit]
A bio-ship armed with what is essentially, a giant claw. The Corrosive Clutch Void Prowler is meant to rip apart and crush the hulls of ships with relative ease, bypassing Void Shields by the factor of the immense size of its beak. So for all intents and purposes, it is a Crushing Claw supersized and fitted on a bio-ship.
The Corrosive Clutch Void Prowler and its Bio-Weapon equipped variant both get an upgrade to their claw damage with the scale-up in vessel size front of the smaller Frigate and Destroyer-classes. With their complete bypassing of armor, these unique melee weapons are amazing against heavily armored enemies, especially those that take a hit to their hull points for their armor, like the Astartes vessels. When you also take into account the ramming damage, these vessels can really cripple otherwise hard as nails vessels.
It is armed with Great Claws and 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5.3-5.6km; approx
- Mass: 13.5 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Bio-Clutch[edit]
The Bio-Clutch is similar to the Corrosive Clutch, except that instead of Pyro-Acid Batteries, it has Bio-Plasma Batteries instead. This makes the vessel more suited for anti-armor purposes with its lance-like effects of the Bio-Plasma.
Due to this, Bio-Clutch Void Prowler is even more deadly to heavily armored enemies like Astartes, than its cousin the Corrosive Clutch Void Prowler, thanks to the Armor and Shield piercing broadside weapons. While you can't use them at the same time as the armor ignoring Great Claws, if you happen to miss with your melee charge or the enemy starts to evade your grasp and slide past, the Bio-Plasma weapons can open up to keep punching through their tough hulls.
It is armed with Great Claws and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5.3-5.6km; approx
- Mass: 13.1 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Ordnance-Boat[edit]
Acid[edit]
The primary 'standard' ordnance-boat and quintessential acid spewer. The Acid Void Prowler is meant for close-range engagements as its Heavy Pyro-Acid Artillery spews forth a gout of corrosive substances that could weaken the hull of enemy ships whilst its Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons deal with them at a range.
Of the two all standard weapon variants of Light Cruisers, the Acid Void Prowler takes the top DPS position while coming in at a tie for crits per minute. There aren't any prow mounted Bioweapons in the Light Cruiser class, so the only difference between these two ships is what type of broadside weaponry they bring. If you need some armour-piercing in your life, the Bio Acid Void Prowler might be more your style.
It is armed with 1 Heavy Pyro-Acid Battery Artillery and 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5-5.3km; approx
- Mass: 12.8 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Lance-Boat[edit]
Bio-Acid[edit]
The annoyingly named Bio-Acid Void Prowler is NOT the same as the Acid Void Prowler. If anything else, it's the direct opposite of an Acid Void Prowler. An Acid Void Prowler is a close-range brawler that showers the enemy in Pyro-Acid ordnance. The Bio-Acid is more of a lance-boat due to the much longer range and anti-armor Bio-Plasma.
It is considered as the other all standard weapon Light Cruiser of the Tyranid fleet, the Bio Acid Void Prowler trades the spot for top DPS dealer, while tying for CPM but has a good shot at outdoing the Acid Void Prowler in practical DPS when up against heavily armored or shielded enemies.
Something to keep in mind, shield piercing does not mean that this weapon will ignore Holo-Fields or somehow affect Shadowfields, so this bonus only benefits you against standard shield using factions.
It is armed with 1 Heavy Pyro-Acid Battery Artillery and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 5-5.3km; approx
- Mass: 12.6 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 2.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2[edit]
The Tyranids in general, have a wide selection of ship varieties to choose from that often only differ from each other in very small ways. Particularly with the Light Cruiser and Cruiser categories of ships, you'll find the entire large pool of vessels is a handful of weapons, mixed and matched to pretty much give one option of each possible combination.
While this gives a lot of versatility to the Tyranid player in being able to really tailor their fleets to their preferred play-style and needs, it does do a fair bit to eliminate much of the uniqueness you can find between the ships of some of the other factions. The Light Cruisers of the Tyranids are on the short end for hull hit points according to their weight class, but make up for it somewhat by taking high defensive troop numbers, great assault damage and engines that are slow for their escorts, but thanks to the lack of change in the tier up in weight, are fast(ish) for Light Cruisers.
| Vessels of the Tyranids | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Battleships | Hive Ship (Ancient One) | |
| Cruisers | Void Prowler - Cruiser (Razorfiend Dark Prowler - Void Fiend) - Devourer | |
| Escorts | Escort (Escort Drone - Vanguard Drone Ship Kraken) | |
| Logistics | Narvhal | |
| Landships | ||
| Bio-titans | Viciator - Dominatrix Hierophant - Hydraphant | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Harridan | |