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I'm looking to revamp/improve my tyranid list, and so I've got several questions:

1. I've seen several people discussing Warriors w/ TL Deathspitters. I'd never really considered this option in the past, as I hadn't really examined the interaction of the Twin-Linked weapon rules wording and the fact that warriors are only allowed to fire one weapon, and so had assumed it would be against the rules. Currently, I'm running Warriors w/ Toxin Sacs, Deathspitters, and Scything Talons. Is the increased hit percentage worth the 6-pt-per-model price increase along with the decreased close combat ability?

2. Is a twin-linked VC on a fex worth the cost (versus VC+BS or other similar load-outs)?

3. What kind of luck have people had with WoN gaunts being able to get back on the table and recapture/contest objectives?

4. I'm trying to decide if my Zoats would be better off with Psychic scream or Synapse as their second psychic power. I usually give my HT psychic scream, but if I also give the Zoats Psychic scream for cumulative goodness, then my army only has 3 sources of synapse control. I really think giving the Zoats Warp Blast as their other psychic ability is mandatory due to the vehicle damage chart in 5th).

5. I tend to run a ton of spinegaunts for the weight of my troops. I've been very tempted to add flesh hooks to them to increase their effectiveness when events dictate that they need to charge an enemy unit. Doing so would wast 64-80 points that could be spent elsewhere, but when I'm forced to charge with them (due to not charging being an even worse option...) it seems that their weight of numbers would be more effective against most armies (I4 and lower). Any opinions?

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

Balzac wrote:I'm looking to revamp/improve my tyranid list, and so I've got several questions:

1. I've seen several people discussing Warriors w/ TL Deathspitters. I'd never really considered this option in the past, as I hadn't really examined the interaction of the Twin-Linked weapon rules wording and the fact that warriors are only allowed to fire one weapon, and so had assumed it would be against the rules. Currently, I'm running Warriors w/ Toxin Sacs, Deathspitters, and Scything Talons. Is the increased hit percentage worth the 6-pt-per-model price increase along with the decreased close combat ability?

2. Is a twin-linked VC on a fex worth the cost (versus VC+BS or other similar load-outs)?

3. What kind of luck have people had with WoN gaunts being able to get back on the table and recapture/contest objectives?

4. I'm trying to decide if my Zoats would be better off with Psychic scream or Synapse as their second psychic power. I usually give my HT psychic scream, but if I also give the Zoats Psychic scream for cumulative goodness, then my army only has 3 sources of synapse control. I really think giving the Zoats Warp Blast as their other psychic ability is mandatory due to the vehicle damage chart in 5th).

5. I tend to run a ton of spinegaunts for the weight of my troops. I've been very tempted to add flesh hooks to them to increase their effectiveness when events dictate that they need to charge an enemy unit. Doing so would wast 64-80 points that could be spent elsewhere, but when I'm forced to charge with them (due to not charging being an even worse option...) it seems that their weight of numbers would be more effective against most armies (I4 and lower). Any opinions?

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

Just my opinions...but here goes:

1) I don't think it's worth it.

2) Not a chance. Personally, I just use 1 BS, but BC + VS definitely beats TL VC).

3) Some, but imo not worth it for the point cost, and the fact that if I have a cheap gaunt unit go to ground, they can usually hold a remotely placed objective anyway.

4) Depends on your metagame. Where I play, it's all fearless armies, and psy scream isn't worth a damn. But it owns so hard against armies that actually CARE about leadership.

5) I run a ton of spinegaunts too, and I don't consider flesh hooks worth it for them. Other troops, sure.....not spinegaunts.

1) Yes a Warrior can fire a twin-linked weapon and doing so only counts as firing one weapon (the rules for twin-linked weapons on page 31 of the rulebook states they count as firing only a single weapon). I do think it is worth it to take the twin-linked Deathspitter on Warriors as it allows you not pay for the BS upgrade and just rely on the re-roll to go for a 'hit' result.

Obviously if you army your unit this way you are dedicating them to a firing roll so you'd have to compliment them with some CC units in the army to support them. In other words, you wouldn't be looking to get them into combat and you'd have other units around that would be protecting them from being charged. It really comes down to a choice on how you want your army to work, but if you're looking to get effective anti-infantry shooting from your warriors then twin-linking them is absolutely the most effective way to do so.


2) No way. Especially not with the nerf to Venom Cannons vs. closed-topped vehicles as you pay double the cost for the twin-linked ability.


3) I used to be a skeptic, but you can count me in amongst the converted now. Having WoN Gaunts in a capture & control mission (and to a lesser degree in 'Seize Ground') is pretty amazing as you can just run almost all your army forward, get the gaunts slaughtered and have them come right back on top of your objective. It really is very freeing and it isn't that hard to keep a Zoanthrope far enough back to stay within 12" of your back objective (and provide synapse to the returning gaunts) but still in range to shoot the enemy.

If I was going with a major horde army I'd probably skip it and stick with straight-up numbers of models, but in most other builds having one unit of recycling gaunts can be very annoying for your opponent.


4) There's no doubt that in some cases the psychic choir can be devastating, even more so now that basic SMs are losing 'rites of battle' in the new codex. However, you NEED warp blast in most cases and if you're playing a gaunt-heavy army (as you say you are) then you NEED Synapse more than you need psychic scream.

The fact is, you don't really need psychic scream anymore at all for the most part in CC. So it really comes down to whether your army is built to shoot or not. If I was playing a Carnifex/Warrior Strangler/Deathspitter shooty army I would definitely want to include as many psychic screams as I could. But in a general gaunt horde army Synapse is more important. You might be able to get away with taking one of the 3 Zoanthropes with Warp Blast/Scream, but obviously you'd have to keep him nearby another Synapse creature to keep him from getting insta-killed.


5) I don't think it is ever worth it to give spinegaunts flesh hooks. The whole point of the unit is to be cheap numbers. The more upgrades you pile on the, the less effective they become in that role.

I'd echo two of Yak's points...

Psychic Scream is fairly useless, IMO. It'd be most useful in combat, and in my experience, combats come in two flavors: Ones you totally dominate with Genestealers, and don't need help for them to fail their test, and ones where Guants are losing more than their enemy, but are Fearless. You don't need to lower leadership in either.

As far as the Gaunts go, WoN isn't something I've tried yet, but I will agree the point of them is to be cheap. That's not really enough to understand what Gaunts do though, because I'd heard that a million times and still didn't get how to use them. The trick is, they don't really even have to kill anything. If they kill something it's a bonus (or a Guardsman). What they do is look more dangerous than they are, and take up space. They can fill areas so that the enemy can't drive up and unload troops, or move through, or whatever.

I finally figured oot Gaunts when my opponent shot his entire army at a brood of mine, blew them off the table in droves, and then I realized at the end of the turn, that he'd killed 120 points. By all means, do that every turn, you can't kill even half the points in a 1500 point list that way.

One last point: VC+BS is the only option for a Gunfex, IMO. The VC is certainly weaker since 4th, but the BS is significantly better. It used to just miss. Now it scatters, and with a big template, against the enemy that's likely packed against their edge trying to to get assaulted, it very often scatters into something else.

In my last game, I think I must have killed 5-10 Chaos Marines with shots that scattered off of tanks and caught them.

Venom Cannons are still very solid. They just really blow against vehicles that ignore Shaken and Stunned (Chaos, for example). In those cases, don't forget that your Fex can assault a tank, and any hits are virtually assured pens on almost anything. Even with the base S9, you'll Pen a Landraider the majority of the time on a hit.