Friday, January 24, 2014

Codex: Tyranids army

A friend and I pored over the contents of the codex tonight as he is a veteran of many Tyrannic campaigns.
We dissected the units for about three hours before committing anything to paper. Here were our thoughts after that:

220 Flying Tyrant (Hive Commander)

285 Swarm lord

196 30 Termagaunts (19 x Devourers)

210 Tervigon (Cluster spines, Electroshock Grubs)

162 9 Skyslashers

90 2 VenomThropes

150 3 Zoanthropes

130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord

130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord

165 3 x HiveGuard

120 3 x Biovores


140 Mawloc
1998pts

Took a while to work this out. We moved units in and out of the matrix to see which ones would do the thing we most wanted them to do and when we would want it. Pretty torn over the Hive Tyrant vs. Hive Crone but we finally decided on the Hive Tyrant. That was an area we talked about a LONG time. The Psyker powers of the Hive Tyrant were a big selling point though. Tyranid Psyker powers are pretty awesome and the more chances you get to give out FnP or to pin the enemy, the better. Its marginal performance against multiple flyers will have to be offset by what it contributes in defense.

Effectively the way it works is that the Broodlords will infiltrate and pin units down (using The Horror). The Zoanthropes roll for a second power may also yield The Horror, though many of the powers would be very good, as they will be helping to provide Synapse and they can do a lot to protect the various broods around them if need be.

We wanted something to counter the Eldar shenanigans with their Serpent hulls, so we included a unit of Hive Guard to help us bring down one or two of those. The fact is, Hive Guard can really take on a LOT of things and provide first blood pretty well if given a chance.  BS 3 isn't awesome but...

The Biovores are just a FANTASTIC tool. It's really amazingly worthwhile to take them. For one, it's a barrage, so yet another chance to pin the enemy (seeing a theme?). For two, for those who've read the rules, it can pump out an incredibly awesome and almost guaranteed blast of great power if it fails initially to do its duty. Talk about a fun unit. AP 4 is awesome against so many armies as well. Interesting tactics came to light while we discussed what a MISS would allows us to do and it was pretty fun to think about. You don't HAVE to ram the spores into anything. They can just form a fence when needed. They can also be used to slow enemy movement, cut off flyer movement and so on. It just has a lot of uses.

The Mawlocs function is fairly obvious: try to intentionally force the mishap so your weapon can go off twice, potentially killing any singular target you want. The important one preferably. Things like Riptides will care LESS, but they won't NOT care entirely! Against Markerlights, and other high value targets it will be immeasurably useful and if the enemy does not kill it, it gets to do it all again. If its not killed, it provides cover and forces the enemy to fire on it. If pinned the enemy may find that more difficult.
Venomthropes are there to protect the brood with Stealth. Der. not much else to say honestly. In a fight with hordes if they survive, they do do a fair amount of potential damage although... That's probably hoping for a lot.
Skyslashers are the spearhead. They can be empowered by the Broodlord and are a serious amount of wounds to get through. High powered weaponry will be forced onto them rather than higher toughness targets for a round, to try and double them out, which is a boon to the army. Optionally the enemy might fire behind them to hit Termagaunts BUT if they do, its 3+ saves at worst for intervening models and the Venomthropes, plus of course the Skyslashers are still there and threatening. Also, that leaves less shots to go into my Synapse.  Gargoyles are the other option but we are going to test the Skyslashers first.

The Hive Tyrant makes the Tervigon outflank, and in effect, allows its babies to have done the same. Great for objective stealing and surprising the enemy flank as well as affecting their deployment. All kinds of plus's. The Swarmlord ensures its timely deployment and the mawloc come on in turn 2 (we hope) and keeps on coming. This effectively gives the army 5+ troops choices. the Swarmlord has an immense radius of Synapse, which will help in the round after reserves arrive since Synapse is not checked on units newly arriving from reserve.

All in all I was pretty pleased with the concept. Anti-horde control for zombi armies is well under control. MEQ armies will find the army more than a match in melee and the availability of dual chargers and fleet units will mitigate the effects of overwatch. The lack of AP 3 is a bit of a blind spot and MEQ will not wilt easily under the shooting, but of course they are Tyranids...

One thing we didn't explore as much yet because we want to see what happens, is whether it makes sense to do two units of Sky slashers instead of one. Not too sure about that part. I think testing will give us a good guess. he plans to give it a whirl tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. Basically you added the Comms relay to the Hive Tyrant more or less I guess.

    Gargoyles could go in place of Skyslashers. Not sure how much difference it makes?

    How many pinning results do you get from this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good way to look at it. I could pay 70 points for a Comms Relay. Or I could just add points to the Hive Tyrant. By doing that it becomes a Swarmlord with longer synapse, more wounds, more Psyker powers and so on. Really good bargain so long as he stays alive. Plus i can at some point consider the Bastion with or without a gun because I didn't get tied up on a comms relay. not that it seems likely in this list but.

      Gargoyles OR Skyslashers are fine but Skyslashers aren't getting hung up in trees and are not making Instinctive Behavior checks plus ARE fearless. There is some give and take. I think you'd not go wrong either way.

      In the initial game, Dan managed to pin units three times and got blocked on one. Really good Broodlord production. The Genestealers also mauled a unit and whittled another before dying.

      Delete
  2. It is an interesting take for sure. You have seen my list already ( PMed you). I think in the end Nids are better with more bodies on their gants and less upgrades. Not sure I like skyslashers over gargoyles either but ... the list should work. I could nit pick it here and there but why (eg drop one biovore and add 6 spore clusters fast attack for str9).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am considering a single Hive Guard. it keeps majority toughness at 6, and makes the Swarmlord even more difficult to kill. A Zoanthrope would have to go in order to do it.

      I do like the concept of the spore clusters. I Don't have a codex in front of me to tell me what the costs are there.

      Delete
  3. 6 spore clusters are 30 points and str9 so not a bad deal and you have FA slots open. Again, an idea. Also I do not like upgraded Termagants. I would prefer more bodies on the table but that is me. Tervigon will smash vehicles - i don't like upgrades on Tervigons either, lol. But hey, i see your list working as is. It is very well thought out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well that certainly is an interesting idea! You're sacrificing, potentially, 4-5 shots with the Biovore in exchange for a single STR 9 shot. That isn't nothing. However, there may be another answer. Devourers are awesome. Really. And on the outflank, twice as awesome potentially. But it's points that are there and if i drop 7 more of the Devourer weapon upgrades, the list remains unchanged in form and essential function, but I gain the Spore Clusters. It's not a terrible trade and you keep the Biovore.

    I do like that idea. That like is somewhat reinforced by the battle reports I have observed online wherein Tyranids sometime benefit from playing cat and mouse in their back field for a bit. the added ability to reach out and touch someone is appealing during those initial rounds if that should become the case (such as against TaDar)

    So you would then have 5 Large Blasts, plus a 2+ wounding template weapon outflanking, and when that all resolves itself, you have a lot to think about for the enemy. If you missed badly with the blasts, so what. tyranids never TRULY miss. they just saturate the enemy more!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 220 Flying Tyrant (Hive Commander)
      285 Swarm lord
      168 30 Termagaunts (12 x Devourers)
      210 Tervigon (Cluster spines, Electroshock Grubs)
      162 9 Skyslashers
      90 2 VenomThropes
      150 3 Zoanthropes

      130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord
      130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord
      165 3 x HiveGuard
      120 3 x Biovores
      30 6x Spore Clusters
      140 Mawloc

      2000pts

      Delete
  5. ACTUALLY:

    220 Flying Tyrant (Hive Commander)
    285 Swarm lord
    40 Tyrant Guard
    176 30 Termagaunts (14 x Devourers)
    210 Tervigon (Cluster spines, Electroshock Grubs)
    162 9 Skyslashers
    90 2 VenomThropes
    150 2 Zoanthropes

    130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord
    130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord
    165 3 x HiveGuard
    120 3 x Biovores
    30 6x Spore Clusters
    140 Mawloc

    1998pts

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ugh... too trigger happy. Fixed it.

    220 Flying Tyrant (Hive Commander)
    285 Swarm lord
    40 Tyrant Guard
    176 30 Termagaunts (14 x Devourers)
    210 Tervigon (Cluster spines, Electroshock Grubs)
    162 9 Skyslashers
    90 2 VenomThropes
    100 2 Zoanthropes

    130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord
    130 5 GeneStealers+ Broodlord
    165 3 x HiveGuard
    120 3 x Biovores
    30 6x Spore Clusters
    140 Mawloc

    1998pts

    ReplyDelete

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