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I'd just like to ask what people think of the bonesword pair and the single sword and lash-whip as an option? What guns if any you would you run? I was thinking Deathspitter and Bonesword and Lash-whip, adrenal glands, and toxin sacs. 60 points a pop seems steep but they kick ass, take names and pump out 3 attack in the shooting and 4 on the charge each.....as well as being a scoring unit. Add Tyranid Primes and the stats just get better.

So what build do you use?

I tend to play them with double bonesword and Toxin sacks, suported by a prime with a Lash whip.

Adrenals+Toxin Sacks are against most foes ovekill, especialy if you are taking Lash whips, as Tox means you wound on 4 regardless of S, so Adrenals would then only benefit against T5.

Deathspitters are sweet, but mean that you will be primarily ranged, so you might want to play it chap in the Close Combat department.

Double Boneswords are cheaper than Lash Whips, and have an increased chance of killing Multi-Wound Models.

A Prime is definately worth getting, especialy for ranged warriors.

My friend runs dual bone swords, devourers, a strangler, and then a Prime with boneswords. It mangles whatever it charges OR shoots at.

I was all for the close combat warriors, but i realized that usually hormagaunts are in first anyways and the warriors generally twiddle their thumbs due to the lack of fleet. I also found that hormagaunts usually either win or lose combat by only a few and some guns may help turn the tide a bit.

My current loadout is:

x1 Heavy Venom Cannon w/ Scything Talons
x4 Deathspitters w/ Scything Talons
Adrenal Glands

=205 points.

It's my second most expensive unit, but the S5 Ap5 will help thing out hordes, kill a few marines, or wound a monstrous creature. It can also glance AV11/pen AV10 which is awesome for tyranids. When charging vehicles it will need 5's to glance, 6's to pen rear armour with 20 attacks. It's a pretty versatile unit. Not incredibly killy, but just decent at everything. Most importantly though, it flows with my list. This unit, like nearly everything else in the nid book, can be complete garbage if the list doesnt support them.

Tried using a cheap build - just Rending Claws, Poison, and Talons - they need to either use a Pod (maybe ok?) or outflank if you take a tyrant. SLOW to walk up the field.

I think keeping them cheap is the way to go - 60 pts per model is quite expensive.

Deathspitters and Twin Swords would only be 45 pts and a pretty solid build, especially running with a Prime.

washecon wrote:Deathspitters and Twin Swords would only be 45 pts and a pretty solid build, especially running with a Prime.

That is my view. Try to keep them around the cost of Terminators. I do think you want a heavy weapon though. I want to give them Whips, but just struggle with the cost...

I looked at going melee only with Swords, Talons and maybe whips but decided that all the other units do melee so much better. Deathspitters allow them to glance most tanks and ignore armour on Guard and, ironically, other Tyranids. Boneswords is the best option, especially with lots of FNP about.

Night Lords wrote:My current loadout is:

x1 Heavy Venom Cannon w/ Scything Talons
x4 Deathspitters w/ Scything Talons
Adrenal Glands

I run mine very similarly, although I ditch the VC (note -- not HVC) in favor of a DS or BS. Like you said, it's not a unit that bowls anyone over, but it's versatile, gets cover saves, has synapse and can hold an objective while engaging the enemy at range. Maybe I should try boneswords, but I just keep coming back to the idea that splurging on boneswords makes so much more sense on Shrikes than plodding Warriors. Been meaning to give Shrikes a thorough test, but then I have to build the right army around them...

starbomber109 wrote:My friend runs dual bone swords, devourers, a strangler, and then a Prime with boneswords. It mangles whatever it charges OR shoots at.

you forgot the toxin sacs on the warriors, and the scything talons on the prime.

lashwhips on the warriors are a waste, put it on just the prime, most enemies are going to pile in on him anyway.

though they are fragile, bonesword + talons or bonesword +deathspitters, both with adrenal to make sure they go first, anything without an invulnerable save you are going to HORRIBLY overkill.
The prime stays in front and tries to get as many opponents going at I1, a big downside is you cant assign power fist wounds to the prime in close combat so if you don't wipe the unit out you are probably losing 1-2 warriors.

the /real/ problem with warriors is that they are expensive, and very weak against certain weapons, you are pretty much going to obliterate anything in close combat with boneswords but then they will get cut down by the return fire.

A venomthrope picking up the rear in a friendly game, or flying some gargoyles between the warriors and the firing lines to save them from counter-fire/assaults is probably the way to go.

I agree with Night Lords' configuration, particularly the Venom Cannon, with one change: Adrenal Glands.

You would drop the adrenal glands?

Night Lords:

My mistake, I thought you hadn't included Adrenal Glands in the brood. [Reading comp.] = fail. :(

Has anyone had any success with a full load out of lashwhips and boneswords, accompanied by a prime with the same? Oh and rending claws instead of devourers or deathspitters. I'm curious. They are expensive, but should mince pretty much anything they touch.

As I said I'm curious, but I don't like spending over 500 pts on 1 unit.

I ran a unit of 5 warriors and prime with lashwhips, swords, adrenals, toxin, and talons. They're very killy. Scared my friend's nob bikers away. It was amusing. The only problem I had with them was difficult terrain. It wasn't just assaulting into cover, it was having any single model going through terrain as part of its assault move really screwed things up. There was also a wider list problem. They would end up being my only scoring unit left and I'd have to stick them on objective preventing them from making further assaults.

There's so much great stuff in the nid list for killing non-vehicle units in CC, including independent characters and Monstrous Creatures (basically, Implant Attacks are generally going to work out cheaper in effect for killing either -- use a Broodlord & stealers, or the Parasite & gargoyles), that I'd rather kit my Warriors out for shooting. Stick them on an objective under cover, and keep them there.

Lukus83 wrote:Has anyone had any success with a full load out of lashwhips and boneswords, accompanied by a prime with the same? Oh and rending claws instead of devourers or deathspitters. I'm curious. They are expensive, but should mince pretty much anything they touch.

As I said I'm curious, but I don't like spending over 500 pts on 1 unit.

the lashwhips are a waste, just give the prime the lashwhip, warriors are going to be I5 on the charge and are going to maul anything they attack, unless you are planning on assaulting cover so you can go at the same time, they aren't worth the points.

Grundz wrote:unless you are planning on assaulting cover so you can go at the same time, they aren't worth the points.

I find them necessary because at least on the tables I play on it's very hard to avoid cover. For one, my warriors need to be in cover so they have a chance of surviving krak missile fire. The warriors don't have move through cover so sometimes you can't get them out of their own cover on their move and lacking fleet they'll get stuck with another difficult terrain test when they charge so they go at I1. Lashwhips are the only thing that helps them overcome that handicap. If I could get fleshhooks I'd go for them everytime and leave the lashwhips at home, but thanks to Mr. Cruddace, that's not an option anymore.

Remember that units assaulting through difficult terrain don't have the I1 against units that have either gone to ground, or that are already engaged in combat.

Use a Lictor Brood to engage a unit in cover, and then follow up using a unit of Warriors. Use the Lictor's Hit and Run to disengage it from that combat, and to enter another in the next Tyranid turn.

I know about that trick. The problem with it is ensuring that the initial unit survives the two rounds of assault before your follow up unit gets in. I ran the math on it once. A full squad of 30 hormagaunts has a decent chance of sticking around long enough against a 10-man squad of grey hunters in cover to allow raveners or warriors to jump in and finish the combat in your favor.

If you're facing a 10-man squad of Grey Hunters, I think you'd be better off pounding them with pinning weaponry before engaging them with Hormagaunts. They only have Ld8, and in cover they'd be perfectly prepared to stack template and blast marker hits.

I think I'd only want to drown something in massed Hormagaunt attacks if I had it locked down first. Hormagaunts are Troops, after all, and I'm not inclined to waste them.

A unit of Plague Marines? A Screamer-Killer with Frag Spines, Adrenal Gland, and a Bio-Plasma would work best, pumping it up to I4 to beat their I3, Frag Spines to negate cover, Monstrous Creature to negate armour and Feel No Pain, and S10 to negate the actual models themselves.

2 questions for the group

1) What seems to be the most effective squad size? My gut tells me that 4 seems like a nice balance with a range of 3-6 being appropriate.

2) What about 2x Scy Talons + Adrenal Glands for tank hunting? Or are you just too slow to make it viable?

minigun762 wrote:2 questions for the group

1) What seems to be the most effective squad size? My gut tells me that 4 seems like a nice balance with a range of 3-6 being appropriate.

2) What about 2x Scy Talons + Adrenal Glands for tank hunting? Or are you just too slow to make it viable?

1) I think five with a prime is good
2) No they are too slow. It is an alright build on Shrikes, but I think you are better off with Deathspitters.

Lashwhips are very strong if you are worried about getting charged, and I don't think the ID from twin boneswords is all that widely useful. If you never worry about getting charged, a Prime with lashwhips is probably good enough.

The Grog wrote:Lashwhips are very strong if you are worried about getting charged, and I don't think the ID from twin boneswords is all that widely useful. If you never worry about getting charged, a Prime with lashwhips is probably good enough.

It sucks that there aren't any plastic Lash Whips or Boneswords, since they appear to be superior options.

You can simply make your own plastic boneswords out of scything talons. Its sooo easy and looks amazing. Gurka warriors ftw

Lash whips are pretty easy too -- bendable wire for the core, then Green Stuff around that.

Are you better off pairing a Deathspitter with the Scy Talons or Rending Claws?
Single Talons just seems so "meh" of an upgrade and even with the nerf to Rending, its something.

Ian Sturrock:

I've been using tentacles from the Chaos Spawn kit and a Devourer handle. Mind you, my "Bonesword" is a Carnifex Frag Spine glued to a Spinefist, glued to the end of a Deathspitter left arm. Kinda ghetto, but good enough for my purposes.

I run them either 5+ prime or 7+ prime in a pod depending on point level, scytals and deathspitters, one strangler, prime gets the whip and sword and deathspitter.

It keeps my warriors at 35 pts ea and i dont feel bad so bad about it, they usually perform amazingly, people say a lot qabout krak missiles and they can be a problem yea, but just allocate the first 2 onto the prime, t5 has its benefits afterall, and each missile being shot at a pack of warriors isnt going at a big t6 3+ sv mc

Ive been playtesting, and I think the 50 points to upgrade the 5 warriors to having boneswords is worth it. Ive also added a Prime to take some wounds. That's 45 pts/warrior with BS and Deathspitter, but theyre incredibly nasty.