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 foto69man wrote:
Quick question for the experts...

Heirophant or Harridan and why?

I have the money saved up to buy one or the other. I like the look of both, leaning towards the harridan for the flying aspect/gargoyle transport. I run a flying Dakka Tyrant, putting together a crone, and thinking of trying skyblight over endless swarm. So it'd work out better synergy/looks-wise. And......not a lot of skyfire/interceptor in lists round these parts ;-)

Thoughts?

Both are pretty solid, but the ?Harridan is best because of how hard it is to ground now, it will just dominate the board.

Eldercaveman wrote:

 foto69man wrote:
Quick question for the experts...

Heirophant or Harridan and why?

I have the money saved up to buy one or the other. I like the look of both, leaning towards the harridan for the flying aspect/gargoyle transport. I run a flying Dakka Tyrant, putting together a crone, and thinking of trying skyblight over endless swarm. So it'd work out better synergy/looks-wise. And......not a lot of skyfire/interceptor in lists round these parts ;-)

Thoughts?

Both are pretty solid, but the ?Harridan is best because of how hard it is to ground now, it will just dominate the board.

Truth. The only hope of killing a Harridan now is a Manta. Smart opponents won't even shoot at it. However, a hierophant is nearly as tough with a venomthrope embarked inside. SHOOT AT MY 2+ RUINS COVER! YOU WON'T! Plus the hierophant could help the rest of your army gain some dope cover (I call it shroudstar). If you need to, even your FMCs can get 2+ cover while flying if they jink since the hierophant can travel at their slowest speed when it tops out. In addition, the hierophant TEARS things apart in assault. Just don't get caught in assault with it unless your name is An'ggrath. And even then you'll want the charge. So you ask yourself, are those benefits that the hierophant provides worth the extra ~300 points that it costs (depending on whether you run the venom inside or not). If they are, go for it. If not, or if you want more options to take with the rest of your army, then don't. You really can't go wrong either way. With the nerf to D weapons, they both are going to be EXTREMELY difficult to kill.

On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me. Rippers?

 foto69man wrote:
Quick question for the experts...

Heirophant or Harridan and why?

I have the money saved up to buy one or the other. I like the look of both, leaning towards the harridan for the flying aspect/gargoyle transport. I run a flying Dakka Tyrant, putting together a crone, and thinking of trying skyblight over endless swarm. So it'd work out better synergy/looks-wise. And......not a lot of skyfire/interceptor in lists round these parts ;-)

Thoughts?

Rules-wise the Harridan is best, without question. There are very few effective weapons in the game to reliably kill it, and in return it gives you a ton of strong firepower, vector strike ability and threat range.

The Hierophant is more viable now that D-weapons have been toned down, and you can do some cool gimmicky things (as above) with it's transport ability. It's probably the only realistic way to use Genestealers too

luke1705 wrote:
Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors?

Mixed termagants, usually 10-15 fleshborers and 5-10 devourers. With a Venomthrope nearby it's fairly hard to clear them away, and they can put down a fair amount of firepower. They can cripple most other infantry, and the sheer number of dice is even effective against Terminators.

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

 PrinceRaven wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
Actually it'd be less than 67%, as you can possibly double up with each Hive Tyrant.

Your actual chance would be 55.56% I think.

I might have missed a rule. On my Mastery Level 2 Flyrant, I roll 2 dice for psychic powers. If both dice are the same, I reroll 1 of them. I can't get stuck with 2 copies of the same power on one model, can I?

Regardless, The chance of rolling Warp Blast on 1 dice is 1/6. On 4 dice it is 4 * 1/6 = 4/6 = 66.67%

What I'm saying is Tyrant A could possibly have 1 or even both powers the same as Tyrant B, so the actual chance is 2/6+(4/6*2/6) or 55.56% to get at least 1 Warp Blast.

That is the chance of getting Warp Blast on one of the Flyrants but not both.

The Chance for Warp Blast on one HT is 1-(5/6*4/6) which is 44.44%.
Chance for getting it on at least one Flyrant is 1-(.55*.55) which is about 69% chance.

That also sows there's a 14% chance that both will have it, as getting it on exactly one was 55.56%.

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

I've been using a brood of 3 Warriors in my Living Artillery formation and they've been really surprising.

They never leave cover, they snipe with a Barbed Strangler (which is pretty decent for such a cheap weapon, especially since you can re-roll the scatter thanks to the formation), and they are surprisingly hard to kill.

They are now my preferred back-field Synapse unit, and although they don't have Objective Secured they still score and can helpfully keep any small Termagant units spawned by the Tervigon in line (allowing me to take the Termagants away from the Tervigon, in case it explodes).

My other Troops choices are just a Tervigon with Egrubs and 30 regular Termagants. It works fine for 1k games. At 1850, you'll probably need something a little more.

Baktru wrote:
That is the chance of getting Warp Blast on one of the Flyrants but not both.

The Chance for Warp Blast on one HT is 1-(5/6*4/6) which is 44.44%.
Chance for getting it on at least one Flyrant is 1-(.55*.55) which is about 69% chance.

That also sows there's a 14% chance that both will have it, as getting it on exactly one was 55.56%.

Actually it's 1-(5/6*4/5), because there are only 5 possible outcomes for the second roll, results of the same power are always rerolled.
There is no way the chance of getting it on both Tyrants is higher than the 66.67% chance of getting it on a theoretical 4 power Hive Tyrant.

 PrinceRaven wrote:

Baktru wrote:
That is the chance of getting Warp Blast on one of the Flyrants but not both.

The Chance for Warp Blast on one HT is 1-(5/6*4/6) which is 44.44%.
Chance for getting it on at least one Flyrant is 1-(.55*.55) which is about 69% chance.

That also sows there's a 14% chance that both will have it, as getting it on exactly one was 55.56%.

Actually it's 1-(5/6*4/5), because there are only 5 possible outcomes for the second roll, results of the same power are always rerolled.
There is no way the chance of getting it on both Tyrants is higher than the 66.67% chance of getting it on a theoretical 4 power Hive Tyrant.

Yes you're right, I only realised that after I posted.

Getting it for a single tyrant is indeed 1-(.83*.8) for one chance in three.
Getting it on at least one Tyrant is then: 1-(.66*.66) which is about 55.55%.

So with two Flyrants, in nearly half the games there still won't be any Warp Lance on them..

Xyptc wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

I've been using a brood of 3 Warriors in my Living Artillery formation and they've been really surprising.

They never leave cover, they snipe with a Barbed Strangler (which is pretty decent for such a cheap weapon, especially since you can re-roll the scatter thanks to the formation), and they are surprisingly hard to kill.

They are now my preferred back-field Synapse unit, and although they don't have Objective Secured they still score and can helpfully keep any small Termagant units spawned by the Tervigon in line (allowing me to take the Termagants away from the Tervigon, in case it explodes).



My other Troops choices are just a Tervigon with Egrubs and 30 regular Termagants. It works fine for 1k games. At 1850, you'll probably need something a little more.

Why don't you get objective secured?

Xyptc wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

I've been using a brood of 3 Warriors in my Living Artillery formation and they've been really surprising.

They never leave cover, they snipe with a Barbed Strangler (which is pretty decent for such a cheap weapon, especially since you can re-roll the scatter thanks to the formation), and they are surprisingly hard to kill.

They are now my preferred back-field Synapse unit, and although they don't have Objective Secured they still score and can helpfully keep any small Termagant units spawned by the Tervigon in line (allowing me to take the Termagants away from the Tervigon, in case it explodes).

My other Troops choices are just a Tervigon with Egrubs and 30 regular Termagants. It works fine for 1k games. At 1850, you'll probably need something a little more.

I too take three for the exocrine formation. They generally do something worthwhile and are like terminators to small arms fire (you are focusing high strength weaponry down anyway) as far as troops go they are decent.

However in context to the rest of the army is rather spend as little points as possible on troops (personal choice). I just take min size squads of what's needed for FOC / formations. I.e while a squad of 4 warriors might put in work if you play them well, a dakkafex is doing more every single game

2 FHT + 9 Zoans= D6+22 warp charge turn 1...



Automatically Appended Next Post:
No lack of synapse there...

Spam 6 squads of min size genestealers w/ broodlords as well

Or just two term squads and combined arms more and more throes :p

Aernt a unit of 3 x Zoans still only 1 x ML2 psyker?

major_payne wrote:
2 FHT + 9 Zoans= D6+22 warp charge turn 1...

16+D6 in double detachment
10+D6 in a single detachment

In my trying out of the Necrons in 7e, I found that Kutlakh on a CCB is pretty much unstoppable to a Tyranid army unless you can shoot him apart before he gets into assault or have crushing claws on hand.

Otherwise his instant death AP2 sword with sufficient strength to threaten a wound on most MCs will reap some heads, and the other Dark Harvest IC can get IWND on his CCB.

How bad was it?

I killed the Swarmlord and a Tyrant guard unit without taking a single wound or penetrating hit for one thing in one of the several assaults Kutlakh partook in.

The CCB lord may be coming back with a vengeance and ground pounding assault Tyranid armies look like they're going to be having unfun times trying to stop them.

Kutlakh on a CCB is death to most armies!

bodazoka wrote:
Kutlakh on a CCB is death to most armies!

Over the course of our 9 turn apoc game Kutlakh had killed a pair of trygons, an entire Lash whip and BS tyrant guard unit, the Swarmlord, a warrior brood with a Prime (to be fair I did get quite lucky with the HoW and Sweep attack), and the Deathleaper.

The Tyranid superheavies were quickly swept off the board by necron pylon and Transcendant C'tan fire and by the end of the game, I had 3/4ths of my Army left and the Tyranids were wiped out to the last ripper.

^^ That is freakin terrible! haha

My main pain with shooting Tyranids at Necrons is the fact Necron vehicles are just that 1 x point higher than my mass Str6 can handle.. if they were AV12 weight of fire could do something.

Necrons can also spam AV13 really effectively AND have very good counters to our FMC spam in there cheap flyers.

My non-formation list:

Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template
Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template
Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template
Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template

Venomthrope
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope

10 Gants
10 Gants
10 Gants
10 Gants

12 Gargoyles
Hive Crone
Hive Crone

Dakkafex
Dakkafex

1992pts

Works fine, 2 detachments is what I suspect most tournaments will run.

No point in squeezing in more lousy troops just for Obective Secured, just make it cheap and concentrate on killing the enemy army and land scoring monsters on the objectives in the 5th turn.

If you're going for absolute minimum troops I'd recommend Rippers instead of gants. Easier to hide and they don't run away outside Synapse.

 N.I.B. wrote:
My non-formation list:

Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template
Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template
Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template
Flyrant, 2 TL Devourers + Electro template

Venomthrope
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope

10 Gants
10 Gants
10 Gants
10 Gants

12 Gargoyles
Hive Crone
Hive Crone

Dakkafex
Dakkafex

1992pts

Works fine, 2 detachments is what I suspect most tournaments will run.

No point in squeezing in more lousy troops just for Obective Secured, just make it cheap and concentrate on killing the enemy army and land scoring monsters on the objectives in the 5th turn.

This is very similar to my 1800 point list....I think individual Zoeys are now going to be the way forward. I just can't see broods being effective for what we're actually using them as (backline Synapse/buffers/ML dice). The Tyranid way has always been cheap and plentiful so why spend more points on something we can get for minimal points?

Eldercaveman wrote:

Xyptc wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

I've been using a brood of 3 Warriors in my Living Artillery formation and they've been really surprising.

They never leave cover, they snipe with a Barbed Strangler (which is pretty decent for such a cheap weapon, especially since you can re-roll the scatter thanks to the formation), and they are surprisingly hard to kill.

They are now my preferred back-field Synapse unit, and although they don't have Objective Secured they still score and can helpfully keep any small Termagant units spawned by the Tervigon in line (allowing me to take the Termagants away from the Tervigon, in case it explodes).



My other Troops choices are just a Tervigon with Egrubs and 30 regular Termagants. It works fine for 1k games. At 1850, you'll probably need something a little more.

Why don't you get objective secured?

I read the force selection part of the new book as giving OS to your Combined Arms detachments and your Allied detachment, but I didn't see anything in there about Formations benefiting from it. Have I got this wrong?

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

Played my first 7th edition game last night, and I'll say this:

Warp Blast might be worse then ever, but I really love everything else Zoeys do.

 N.I.B. wrote:
2 detachments is what I suspect most tournaments will run.

You don't think they will do 1 Combine Arms Primary and 1 Allied or Formation? That would be more in keeping with the way many of them handle the broken FOC from 6th, either that or ignore it.

tag8833 wrote:

 N.I.B. wrote:
2 detachments is what I suspect most tournaments will run.

You don't think they will do 1 Combine Arms Primary and 1 Allied or Formation? That would be more in keeping with the way many of them handle the broken FOC from 6th, either that or ignore it.

Every 6th Ed tournament I played was just 2 detachments...at the end anyways. And we should expect a max warp charge point limit.

tag8833 wrote:

 N.I.B. wrote:
2 detachments is what I suspect most tournaments will run.

You don't think they will do 1 Combine Arms Primary and 1 Allied or Formation? That would be more in keeping with the way many of them handle the broken FOC from 6th, either that or ignore it.

The ATC is doing 1 combined arms and one allies. No lords of war or formations.

 ductvader wrote:

tag8833 wrote:
Every 6th Ed tournament I played was just 2 detachments...at the end anyways. And we should expect a max warp charge point limit.

God I hope not..

Are people planning to run multiple CAB's in pick up games? I am unsure as to the level my group is going to take this.. I assume because we are all super cool guys it will naturally head towards something like 2 x CABs and 1 x Allies with maybe 1 x LOW and/or 1 x Fort. I personally wouldn't want to make a list more abusive than this and would feel kind of cheated if an opponent did.

Xyptc wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:

Xyptc wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

I've been using a brood of 3 Warriors in my Living Artillery formation and they've been really surprising.

They never leave cover, they snipe with a Barbed Strangler (which is pretty decent for such a cheap weapon, especially since you can re-roll the scatter thanks to the formation), and they are surprisingly hard to kill.

They are now my preferred back-field Synapse unit, and although they don't have Objective Secured they still score and can helpfully keep any small Termagant units spawned by the Tervigon in line (allowing me to take the Termagants away from the Tervigon, in case it explodes).



My other Troops choices are just a Tervigon with Egrubs and 30 regular Termagants. It works fine for 1k games. At 1850, you'll probably need something a little more.

Why don't you get objective secured?

I read the force selection part of the new book as giving OS to your Combined Arms detachments and your Allied detachment, but I didn't see anything in there about Formations benefiting from it. Have I got this wrong?

I'll check again later but I believe the bit about formations say that units are considered to be from whatever section of the FOC the are from for rules purposes.

Eldercaveman wrote:

Xyptc wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:

Xyptc wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

luke1705 wrote:
On an unrelated note, why do people feel that warriors are less durable than zoanthropes? I know about the strength 8+ weaponry, but they'll usually be getting cover and there are 3 of them vs just 1 zoan. Also, they super-score on their own, which is nice. They also can hold their own in combat for a few turns and can put out more reliable shooting. Sure, they're more expensive, but what else are you filling up your troop slots with if not warriors? Tervigons are too expensive (points-wise) to me.

Warriors are generally more survivable than Zoeys. But Zoeys are such great Warp Charge batteries, and psychic support units, Plus you can have 2 broods of Zoenthropes for the cost of 1 Brood of warriors.

I've been using a brood of 3 Warriors in my Living Artillery formation and they've been really surprising.

They never leave cover, they snipe with a Barbed Strangler (which is pretty decent for such a cheap weapon, especially since you can re-roll the scatter thanks to the formation), and they are surprisingly hard to kill.

They are now my preferred back-field Synapse unit, and although they don't have Objective Secured they still score and can helpfully keep any small Termagant units spawned by the Tervigon in line (allowing me to take the Termagants away from the Tervigon, in case it explodes).



My other Troops choices are just a Tervigon with Egrubs and 30 regular Termagants. It works fine for 1k games. At 1850, you'll probably need something a little more.

Why don't you get objective secured?

I read the force selection part of the new book as giving OS to your Combined Arms detachments and your Allied detachment, but I didn't see anything in there about Formations benefiting from it. Have I got this wrong?

I'll check again later but I believe the bit about formations say that units are considered to be from whatever section of the FOC the are from for rules purposes.

They do count as troops/elites/etc however "objective secured" applies only to combined arms or allied detachments. As formations are a completely segregated detachment of their own they do not get objective secured - instead the formation bonus is what buffs them in the game.

Jy2's Tyranid Lord of War Tactica


This is a mini tactica on Tyranid Lord of War (LoW) units, or Tyranid Gargantuan Creatures (GC's). I will start off with a grading system and then a tactica on how best to use Tyranid LoW units.


Barbed Hierodule: B-



For its points, the Barbed Hierodule isn't very survivable. It is just as easy to kill as a wraithknight, but costs more than 2x the wraithknight's price. The best feature of the BH is its shooting. 12 S10 shots makes it a reliable ranged anti-tank unit. However, the lack of skyfire means it isn't as reliable in killing flyers and AP3 means that it isn't reliable in exploding tanks (at least not with shooting). Overall, the BH isn't really a competitive Tyranid LoW unit. I would recommend using him in a more casual game with Lords of War allowed or because you like the model.


Scythed Hierodule: C



As with it's barbed cousin, the Scythed Hierodule isn't very survivable either. And just like its cousin, it is only as resilient as a wraithknight but at over 2x its cost. The lack of shooting hurts it. However, it is very fast and it is great against infantry due to its huge AP3 template weapon. Too bad it isn't torrent. Again, only recommended in casual games. The SH is not a competitive Tyranid LoW unit.


Harridan: A-



Ah....now we are getting to the good stuff. The Harridan is one of the very few Flying Gargantuan Creatures (FGC's) in the game today. Due to the changes to the FMC rules, it's gotten both better and worse. At 8W and T8, the Harridan is really durable, especially now with the new rules for Grounding. What got worse is now flyers cannot assault right away. They must spend (or should I say, waste) 1 turn going into Hover mode before they can assault the following turn. However, the Harridan is packing 12 S10 shots. That makes it a great gunboat who is highly mobile. Because the Harridan is a flyer, that makes it also one the the Tyranid's greatest weapons against other flyers as well.

The Harridan has a somewhat useful special rule. It can act as a transport for other gargoyles. This will give your gargoyles some protection as well as almost unlimited mobility. This can also save your Harridan as well when he's ready to assault. For example, he's about to assault some enemy broadsides. Normally, he would need to go into Hover mode and endure 1 turn of shooting from the broadsides. But with gargoyles as his transportees, on the turn he goes into Hover mode, the gargoyles can actually disembark and assault first! Now the broadsides will be tied up by the gargoyles and will not have a chance to shoot at the Harridan. Better yet, spread out those gargoyles and now you can multi-assault several units.

If you are running a competitive Tyranid army, then the Harridan is a good choice to build a list around. I can especially see myself running the Harridan in conjunction with the Skyblight formation. At 2K, it would go something like this:


Tyranid List #1 - Harridan

Flyrant - Wings, 2x TL-Brainleech Devourers, Electroshock Grubs

3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike

Harridan

Skyblight Formation

Flyrant - Wings, 2x TL-Brainleech Devourers, Electroshock Grubs

Harpy
Harpy
Hive Crone

17x Gargoyles (embarks onto Harridan)
10x Gargoyles
10x Gargoyles


Hierophant Bio-titan: A



Finally, we have the Big Daddy himself, the king of kings, the ultimate Tyranid badass....the dreaded Hierophant Bio-titan (HBT)! I just love this guy. He is my favorite Tyranid LoW, especially now with the new Destroyer weapons being toned down in 7th. This guy is ultra-resilient, especially for a unit which isn't a flyer. At T9 with 10W, 2+ save and Regeneration, he isn't going to be easily taken down in a normal game unless you break out the big 'D' units (i.e. Warhound Titan, Revenant Titan and Reaver Titan). He's fast, he spits out 12 S10 shots a turn, he's scary in combat and he's BIG. But he isn't just an offensive, killing machine. Now with the HBT Biomorph Upgrades (found in the newest Imperial Armour Apocalypse), he's become a force-multiplication unit as well!

What makes the HBT so good is that he is a HUGE area-of-denial unit. You use him to control the movement phase and more importantly your opponent's movements. Wherever he goes, you can bet most units are going to be running away unless your opponent leaves them there to be sacrificed. Just make sure you put your objectives close to one another and then dare your opponent to get near them with the HBT around.

Now I know that there are some concern with getting the HBT into combat with the likes of Imperial Knights or other Super-heavy with close-combat Destroyer weapons. I am telling you that he will kill most of them without much of a problem. With lash whips, the HBT will normally be striking at I6 unless he charges through terrain. That means that he will usually be striking before other super-heavy walkers. Now with 8 S10 attacks (9 on the charge), he'll most likely do some damage. Finally, one of his upgrades that the HBT can take is called Incendiary Ichor and let me tell you, it is a truly nasty upgrade. Any time the HBT suffers an unsaved wound in combat, you center a large 5" blast over the model that caused it. All units underneath the blast takes 1W each, with no armor saves allowed!!! Vehicles instead take D3 glancing hits!!! It is almost suicidal for super-heavy walkers to fight the HBT in combat. For every wound they cause, they take D3 glancing hits in return!!!

The following is a sample, competitive 2K list using the HBT:


Tyranid List #2 - Hierophant Biot-titan

Flyrant - Wings, 2x TL-Brainleech Devourers, Electroshock Grubs
Flyrant - Wings, 2x TL-Brainleech Devourers, Electroshock Grubs

1x Venomthrope
1x Zoanthrope

3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3x Ripper Swarms - Deepstrike
3x Ripper Swarms

Hive Crone

Hierophant Bio-titan - Swarm Incubation Chamber


Hierophant Bio-titan Upgrades:

Incendiary Ichor: A+

This upgrade makes an already fearsome HBT in combat even more scary. Any model that causes an unsaved wound to the HBT in combat, you center the 5" large blast around it. Then all models underneath the blast (except for the HBT) takes a wound with no armor saves allowed. Vehicles automatically take D3 glancing hits. Wow. Just wow. DO NOT engage a HBT with this upgrade in combat. The only unit with any chance of killing it in combat would be one of the Daemonlords.


Swarm Incubation Chamber A+

This upgrade lets the HBT transport 20 models. Why is the ability to transport so good? Because the HBT is a huge model and will increase the range of any special rules by units embarked on it. Transport a venomthrope and now you have Shrouding that is measured from the huge base that the HBT takes up! Run your flyrants and flyers nearby and now they are jinking with 2+ cover!!! Put a zoanthrope with Dominion in there and then the HBT will have a HUGE Synapse footprint (something like an effective 24" range). Casting Psychic Scream from within the HBT gives you more like a 12" radius....and you can do it while the HBT is locked in combat for even more carnage! Or you could just protect your troops inside the HBT to later disembark and go grab/contest an objective. With the transport capability, the HBT now becomes a huge force-multiplier unit as well as near unstoppable offensive force.


Spine-cloud Spray B

This upgrade gives the HBT 6 twin-linked, skyfiring S7 shots. Quite handy to have if you don't have enough skyfire in your army. However, the nerf to the Skyfire USR means that it can only snap-shoot at units on the ground. Otherwise, I'd have graded this upgrade as a B+.


Bio-plasma Torrent B

This S5 AP3 weapon, which uses the Hellstorm template, is great at clearing away ground forces. However, it isn't so good against mechanized armies. Unfortunately for Tyranids, with the improvements to transports in this edition, you are going to see more and more transports.


Spore Mine Swarm Spitter A-

This weapon is super-nasty against infantry. It fires 8 large blast barrage templates. Yes, that's EIGHT 5" barrages!!! It'll clear out infantry in no time. Also, with the buff now to barrage weapons in 7th, there is no where you can hide from this weapon. One of the problem units that we have against is the Astra Militarum blob squad with a zillion priests and bajillion Primaris Psykers. Well, this weapon is the best and fastest way to get rid of them. Infantry will learn to fear the Spore Mine Swarm Spitter.



HOW TO RUN GARGANTUANS

A Tyranid army with a LoW unit is very much like a deathstar army. The LoW unit is basically the deathstar. And as with all deathstar armies, you are somewhat limited in terms of resources. The larger the deathstar (i.e. the more points in the army that the deathstar takes up), the more limited the army becomes. However, the mistake that most people normally will make is to lavish more and more wargear/upgrades/etc. on their deathstars. You really need to balance out your deathstar LoW unit with enough supporting units. For while it is the LoW which will be the focal point of your offense, it is actually the supporting units who will win you the game.

As an example, one combo I hear a lot about are 20 genestealers embarked inside a Hierophant Bio-titan with the Swarm Incubation Chamber upgrade. While the genestealers are a good offensive unit as well as a scoring unit, they are also a sacrificial unit that will disembark, kill 1 or 2 units, and then most likely get shot down. You are spending 1330-pts for this combo. It is a risky investment indeed as you will most likely lose those genestealers after they disembark.

My general rule-of-thumb is that no deathstar should be more than 50% of your army, plus-or-minus 10%. Otherwise, the army starts to become unbalanced. So to run a Hierophant Bio-titan and still retain somewhat of a balanced list, I don't recommend using him unless you are running at least 2000-pts. For a Harridan, you should at the very minimum run at 1750. The Hierodules (both Barbed and Scythed) shouldn't be in any list less than 1500-pts.

As with any Tyranid list, even when running a Tyranid LoW unit, you need to take into account several factors. That will determine what type of support units you will need. If you can handle the majority of these factors, then your list will be balanced.

Synapse

Scoring

Dealing with Mech

Dealing with Heavy Infantry

Dealing with Flyers

Dealing with Deathstar Armies

Dealing with Psychic-heavy Armies

For this, I will take as examples my 2 lists from above, List #1 with the Harridan and List #2 with the Hierophant Bio-titan.

Synapse

List #1 is somewhat light on Synapse with just 2 flyrants. List #2 is much better with 2 flyrants and a very mobile and welly protected zoanthrope embarked on the HBT. However, both lists are built to not really rely on Synapse. Both lists run Fearless ripper swarms as troops and mainly LD 10 monstrous creatures.

Scoring

List #1 has excellent scoring thanks to the Skyblight formation. Large block of gargoyles are very well protected in the Harridan and ripper swarms will mainly start off in reserves. List #2 is somewhat weaker in scoring, but makes up for it by embarking ripper swarms onto the HBT for protection.

Most importantly, all the scoring here are highly mobile. Ripper swarms can deepstrike onto objectives and gargoyles are jump infantry.

Dealing with Mech

Both lists rely on the flyrants to take out light vehicles and the LoW's to take out the heavier vehicles. The crones will also help out here. Unfortunately, the buffs to vehicles and the nerfs to monstrous creatures in this edition will make mech a problem for Tyranids. Tyranid LoW armies will still have problems against mech as normal Tyranid armies will. However, the Tyranid GC's will make them slightly better against heavy mech then normal Tyranid armies.

Dealing with Heavy Infantry

Heavy infantry will remain a problem for Tyranid LoW army builds, unless you give the HBT the Bio-plasma Torrent or the Spore Mine Swarm Spitter upgrades. Of my 2 lists, List #1 with the Harridan and Skyblight will be more capable of dealing with infantry-heavy lists due to having much more units (and more respawning units) than List #2 with the HBT.

Dealing with Flyers

List #1 can easily handle enemy flyers due to the high number of flying MC's that it has. List #2 is not as strong, but with 2 flyrants and the hive crone, it is still above-average in dealing with most enemy flyer builds. And if necessary, you can always give the HBT the Spine-cloud Spray upgrade to be able to better handle enemy flyers.

Dealing with Deathstar Armies

LoW versus deathstar is essentially deathstar versus deathstar. Now some of the deathstars may give even Tyranid LoW problems, but overall, the army who will win out will most likely be the one with the better support units. With that said, List #1 is better against enemy deathstar armies due to the fact that most of its offense is flying and most of its troops are recyclable. List #2 is slightly more vulnerable to some of the more extreme deathstars, but otherwise, it can handle most of the deathstars out there. If you really want to be nasty to those deathstars, then you can upgrade the HBT in List #2 with Incendiary Ichor upgrade.

Dealing with Psychic-heavy Armies

It's quite unfortunate that Shadows in the Warp took a hit in this new edition. List #1 is not really equipped to deal with a psychic-heavy opponent, but with 2 Level 2 psykers, at least you've got a slightly better chance try to deny important enemy powers than most of the other armies. List #2, with 3 Level 2 psykers, is marginally better, but still not great against a psychic-heavy army. At least you've got the flyrants to try to take out important enemy psyker units, like Tzeentch Heralds in a Daemon army.


Overall, running a Tyranid LoW army doesn't necessarily make it better or more competitive than a regular Battle-forged Tyranid army. As a matter of fact, it could actually be made worse if you don't build the LoW army properly. The way to build it properly is to make it balanced. And the way to make it balanced is in how you select the rest of the army (in other words, the support units). The better the support units that you complement your LoW with, the better your army becomes. Do not think of the support units as just a footnote in your army. They are as essential to the army as the Tyranid LoW unit itself.

Happy hunting. Nom nom nom....