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Hi folks, new to the board so be gentle...

New 40k has dragged me back from WHFB, I played Dark Angels through 2nd and 3rd E. but missed out 4th completely, I've decided to do something completely different for 5th and Nids is about as different as it gets from SM.

So i bought the Assault force, a Tyrant and 2 guard and an extra gaunt box, giving me the following models available:

1 Tyrant + 2 Guards

3 Carnifex

24 Hormogaunts

24 Gaunts

16 'Stealers

6 Warriors.

For this list I'll need to buy another gaunt box but that ain't an issue.

The plan:

Spine gaunts screen the Hormies and leaping warriors, which are support by the Tyrant and his lads.

Termagaunts and shooty warriors stay home to secure that objective, with the heavy carnifexes venom cannoning tanks to stop em firing / knocking weapons off.

'Stealers turn up somewhere painful and hack things to pieces.

Concerns

Are the gaunt / hormy units too small?

Should the tyrant be choppy or shooty or a bit of both? At the moment i've gone for a bit of both. Also i may have mixed deathspitter and devourer up...

Do I even need a stay at home gaunt unit? If not I'll remove them, make their warriors CC focused and send them to the fray, and have 2 scuttling stealer units of around 6-8 models each.


Comments or abuse welcome...

HQ

1 Hive Tyrant @ 262 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Bio-plasma; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Flesh Hooks; Toxic Miasma; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons (x1); Twin-linked Deathspitter (x1); Catalyst; Synapse Creature; The Horror

2 Tyrant Guard @ [90] Pts
Rending Claws; Scything Talons


TROOPS

10 Gaunt Brood @ 50 Pts
Spinefists

10 Gaunt Brood @ 50 Pts
Spinefists

10 Gaunt Brood @ 60 Pts
Fleshborer

10 Hormagaunts @ 120 Pts
Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons

10 Hormagaunts @ 120 Pts
Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons

10 Genestealers @ 270 Pts
Acid Maw; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Scuttlers; Rending Claws

ELITE

2 Warriors @ 125 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Twin-linked Deathspitter; Synapse Creature
1 Warriors @ [41] Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons (x1); Barbed Strangler; Synapse Creature


3 Warriors @ 117 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Flesh Hooks; Leaping; Rending Claws (x1); Scything Talons (x1); Synapse Creature


HEAVY SUPPORT

1 Carnifex @ 163 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Reinforced Chitin; Barbed Strangler; Venom Cannon


1 Carnifex @ 163 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Reinforced Chitin; Barbed Strangler; Venom Cannon

Total Roster Cost: 1500

The tyrant wants devourer's not deathspitter. There are a few configs you can run.
2 twin linked devourer's for troop killing shooty fun,
2x scything talons for cc/character/mc killing fun,
lash whip/bonesword + anything for some defense,
Or Venom cannon + twin linked devourer for jack of all trades shooty fun.

Most people swear by the 2 devourer tyrant, i personally prefer the VC/twin dev tyrant. What you want him to do will influence the layout.

you can probably drop the Enhanced sense's from the deathspitter warriors as 1 inch on a scatter isnt going to be that much, especially with them twin linked.

Carapace might not be needed with the warriors havign a decent gaunt screen for 4+ cover saves. I'd give the rending warriors +1 initiative as well.

Cheers for the Warrior tips, +1 I is a good call. Removing the +1 BS for the shooty ones will pay for that.

I think i'll go with the Devourer tyrant, his main role will be to minimise counter chargers when my gaunts / nids are stuck in the open by providing some close fire support - Devourer is the best troup killer as far as I can tell.

What about the gaunts? Are these units too small? And the stay-at-homers, they just seem a bit fragile to sit around for 5 turns on an objective, even with some warrior fire support.

Would i be better off buying one of the screening spinegaunt units WON to secure home later in the game and beefing the initial guant unit sizes up so I can be more aggressive?

it will come up to playstyle with the gaunts. I've seen people using a single small brood of without number gaunts as just objective holders/grabbers. I'm personally using 2 broods of 20 spinegaunts for now in my 1850 list.

I like the list quite a bit! I just worry that in annihilation games those smallish troop units could just let your opponent rack up kill points. Maybe using those Fexes as shield for your troops would be in order for those games?

Yeah, i'm seriously considering tossing the sniper fexes away and goin all assault. I'm gonna buy another box this weekend so I'll have 4 fexes in total. I'll build two snipers and two all assault ones and see what works better.

Not so worried about the hormo's dying they are pretty tough and will be supported with Warriors / HT, I think i'll go one big gaunt with WON to tie up something scary for a couple of turns, meanwhile the rest can chop stuff up, when the gaunts come back they can claim a home objective.

VC on a fex will stop nasty tank stuff shooting, only problem with assault fexes for anti-tank is that the smart tank will just run away. On the other hand, if it's running, it ain't shooting main armament right?

Those small gaunt units will render alot of KPs to the enemies. You better bunch them up some to have harder units and less KPs in total in the army. That way you can have the warriors in one unit also and run them with the hormagaunts, so they still get synapse all the time, while keeping the small gaunts with the hive tyrant.
Also, 2x twin devourers on the tyrant really is one of the best options since he will be walking and need some way to be useful during that time.

Do you not see a problem with only having 4 troops choices instead of six?

I might compromise and go with 2 stealer units, 1 hormo unit, 1 big spinegaunt unit and 1 small WON spinegaunt unit.

After some thought, Dakkafex > Sniperfex (and more dice = more fun)...

So...

HIVE MIND

Hive Tyrant (3#, 226 Pts)
1 Hive Tyrant @ 226 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Extended Carapace +1 Save; Twin-linked Devourer (x2); Catalyst; Synapse Creature; The Horror
2 Tyrant Guard @ [90] Pts
Rending Claws; Scything Talons

TROOPS

Gaunt Brood (18#, 90 Pts)
18 Gaunt Brood @ 90 Pts
Spinefists

Gaunt Brood (8#, 64 Pts)
8 Gaunt Brood @ 64 Pts
Spinefists; Without Number

Hormagaunts (24#, 288 Pts)
24 Hormagaunts @ 288 Pts
Toxin Sacs +1 St; Scything Talons

Genestealers (7#, 168 Pts)
7 Genestealers @ 168 Pts
Extended Carapace +1 Save; Feeder Tendrils; Scuttlers; Rending Claws

Genestealers (7#, 168 Pts)
7 Genestealers @ 168 Pts
Extended Carapace +1 Save; Feeder Tendrils; Scuttlers; Rending Claws

ELITES

Warriors (3#, 120 Pts)
3 Warriors @ 120 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 In; Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Leaping; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Rending Claws (x1); Scything Talons (x1); Synapse Creature

Warriors (3#, 120 Pts)
3 Warriors @ 120 Pts
Adrenal Glands +1 In; Adrenal Glands +1 WS; Leaping; Toxin Sacs +1 St; Rending Claws (x1); Scything Talons (x1); Synapse Creature


HVY SUPPORT

Carnifex (1#, 128 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 128 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Reinforced Chitin; Twin-linked Devourer (x2)

Carnifex (1#, 128 Pts)
1 Carnifex @ 128 Pts
Enhanced Senses +1 BS; Reinforced Chitin; Twin-linked Devourer (x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1500

Other option is to take a 'stealer off each squad and give them scything talons instead, but I think more models is a better option.