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You know the units in the tyranid codex nobody likes, but you want to use them anyways. Maybe you like pain,maybe you love being the under dog,maybe you are just stark raving mad. It doesn't matter friend all are welcomed here.

HQ

Winged Tyrant

First off let's start with the Hive tyrant nobody likes any more. The flying one. The wings are costly, as much as for a DP from codex daemons. If you are going to take wings, take an VC for shooting and no other upgrades.

Use this guy to snipe side armor or lower BS/WS. Keep him surrounded by other flyers like Shrikes and gargoyles. Use harpies as decoys, nobody can resist shooting at harpies.

Tactics. It's all about playing team ball and not being a glory hog. A 4/5+ cover is nothing to sneeze at the (Gargoylecover/Venemthope) It can do a good enough number on transports, and can gimp a unit's shooting and fighting. Jump out for the kill when the moment is right, too soon and you are dead. Only assault with it if the game depends on it.

Other input: The all DS/outflank army is great with 2 Hive Comander flyrants leading it. Give them old adversary and 2x TL Devourers and have them throw out 12 TL S6 shots on the turn they arrive. (thanks Flingitnow)


Dual bone-sword regenerating Prime,
You know he is cheap, you know he is good, but you know what he does best? Stop things from being instakilled and taking hits on his 3+ save. For instance that missle launcher hit that would smoke a venomthrope gets put on the Prime, and he gets the 5+ cover, or that heavy bolter that would wound a warrior hits his 3+, yeah it's a real boner....

Tactics. As an IC he can move from unit to unit as needed. The ability to stand erect when lesser tyranids would fall limp and lifeless removes the "weakness" of mid-sized Tyranids. Regeneration makes sure he can take it even more. Althought you can take two primes with bone-swords in one unit, this is overkill, and it's just not cool to cross bone-swords.


Elites

Lictors.
These guys get such a bad rap. They cant assaul when they come out anymore, but they pretty much go where they want. Take 3, put them out of sight for a next turn charge. Or put them by a dev squad and brazenly fly that poor old harpy over, now they can shoot your 3+save lictors or 4+harpy, they are about the same points so you don't care. If you are too harpy (I mean chicken) to do that just deep strike them into your own lines to make an already strong advance even more powerful. Contest an objective while gone to ground or just draw fire from the real threat.

Y.Genestealers.

They get the ability to assault the turn they pop up, can boost STR, attacks, or T. Also they come with a nifty 4+ save. They rock at coming out and rending a dev squad or a small troop choice sitting back on an Objective. They also eat whirlwinds and the like with STR 5 rending hits. An interesting combo I stumbled on is the fact that they can deploy normal style with the rest of your army. So if the table isn't looking to terrain friendly you arn't screwed.

Tactics. Deploy them with the rest of your army, Give them FnP (from a tervagon). Now watch small arms fire bounce off of a T4 4+,FnP, 5++. Who else can do something like that Plague marines and nob bikers. One is slow and the other cost about twice as much. With +1 attacks you double your base attack on the turn you charge, and with STR 5 you can pen dreads and glance a raider. All this for under x2 the cost of a normal genestealer (before any upgrades). Without the worry of bolter fire or outflanking on the wrong side of the battle.

Other imput: You can also take some spore mine clusters to protect their terrain piece and have the added effect of screwing up DoW deployment. Also, the Swarmlord loves them as he can give them Furious Charge and suddenly they have the option of str. 6 rending attacks on vehicles. (thanks Mahu)

Pyrovore. Look at me I'm a flamer of tzeench, use me like one, my flamer isn't as cool though....get it


Troops.

Hormagaunts: these little guys are gold mines waiting to be unleashed. 15-20 in a spore pod will hold an objective. Drop them and bounding leap them to spred them out, or hide as many as you can behind the spore pod. 19 and a prime in a pod can be a hoot.

Termagants in a pod. Simple and fun. Spore pod+strangleweb+t3+pinning=fun


Genestealers....in a pod. Take 18 including a broodlord and a prime or two. Run to spread out. Take bolter hits on the prime(s) and brood lord and heavy weapons on the normal stealers. assault with whatever you have left. try to land somewhere where blast templates may land on friendly troops as well, or try to run into cover.

Tip. Model the spore pod as a basket with all your eggs in it. It wins big or putters out.


FA and Heavies and Army builds later. Input welcome.

Totally disagree with the Flyrant. I think they are still good but with a different load out and in a totallyy different army. The all DS/outflank army is great with 2 Hive Comander flyrants leading it. Give them old adversary and 2x TL Devourers and have them throw out 12 TL S6 shots on the turn they arrive! Hvae 2 flyrants and 2 Trygons landing in the enemies face on turn 2 whilst stealers and Hormagaunts pour on from the flanks is the stuff of nightmares! Particulatly for yus Tau players :(

Suiciding Lictors still doesn;t make them good enough to take them over Hive Guard and Zoanthropes. That is the problem with them and Ymgarl stealers and even the Provore. one of them are rubbish but the other options plug the biggest gap in the 'nids force so are always the best option.

I don;t think anyone has disliked any o fthe troops choices mentioned. they are all ace in many different ways. One thing you failed to mention was that the stealers ALWAYS need toxin sacs ALWAYS!!!

I am going to agree and disagree with your assesments.

The Tyranid book is all about synergies between units. Some units are lackluster in a list but switch things about a bit and you have an extremely competitive list with those units in it. The more games you play with the codex, the more you understand this.

Let's go over the units you mentioned:

Winged Hive Tyrant - Think less shooty with the Hive Tyrant and think more assault. Consider this, a wing of Gargoyles giving cover saves to Tyranid Shrikes, giving cover saves to a winged Hive Tyrant. You can play with the different Biomorphs from there, but most often all of the Tyranids have Preferred enemy from the Tyrant and more then likely re-rolling their wounds because they have poison. I would give the Tyrant himself 2 sets of scything talons so he can be a tank hunter.

Bonesword Prime - Good for all the reasons you mentioned. Don't forget he can join units like Tyrant Guard and Hive Guard to provide additional wounds and decent anti-assault.

Lictors - still have their place. It's called, put them on the table before a spore pod shows up and have a guaranteed placement. And before people jump on me, realize that you are getting the placement because Spore Pods can't scatter on friendly models.

Y.Genestealers - I am trying these tomorrow. You make some excellent points. Also remember that you don't have to tell your opponent which terrain piece they are in. You can also take some spore mine clusters to protect their terrain piece and have the added effect of screwing up DoW deployment. Also, the Swarmlord loves them as he can give them Furious Charge and suddenly they have the option of str. 6 rending attacks on vehicles.

Pyrovore - these are suicide troops. The come in, flame something, and hope to take a lot of wounds in close combat. Remember, Acid Blood is every wound caused, not suffered.

Hormagaunts - behind a gaunt screen they are great to. You can FNP them from a Tervigon or just rely on the cover from your cheap screen. You can really reach out and touch somebody with them and you can catch your opponent unawares when they have a fair number of these guys rushing out from behind the screen to hit you.

Genestealers - never take a pod

sexiest_hero wrote:Y.Genestealers.

They get the ability to assault the turn they pop up, can boost STR, attacks, or T. Also they come with a nifty 4+ save. They rock at coming out and rending a dev squad or a small troop choice sitting back on an Objective. They also eat whirlwinds and the like with STR 5 rending hits. An interesting combo I stumbled on is the fact that they can deploy normal style with the rest of your army. So if the table isn't looking to terrain friendly you arn't screwed.

Tactics. Deploy them with the rest of your army, Give them T5 and FnP (from a tervagon). Now watch small arms fire bounce off of a T5 4+,FnP, 5++. Who else can do something like that Plague marines and nob bikers. One is slow and the other cost about twice as much. With +1 attacks you double your base attack on the turn you charge, and with STR 5 you can pen dreads and glance a raider. All this for under x2 the cost of a normal genestealer (before any upgrades). Without the worry of bolter fire or outflanking on the wrong side of the battle.

Sorry but Alter form only works in Assault phase.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mahu wrote:
Winged Hive Tyrant - Think less shooty with the Hive Tyrant and think more assault. Consider this, a wing of Gargoyles giving cover saves to Tyranid Shrikes, giving cover saves to a winged Hive Tyrant. You can play with the different Biomorphs from there, but most often all of the Tyranids have Preferred enemy from the Tyrant and more then likely re-rolling their wounds because they have poison. I would give the Tyrant himself 2 sets of scything talons so he can be a tank hunter.

Agree, Fly tyrant will be better with 2sets of ST for anti tank

Mahu wrote:
Y.Genestealers - I am trying these tomorrow. You make some excellent points. Also remember that you don't have to tell your opponent which terrain piece they are in. You can also take some spore mine clusters to protect their terrain piece and have the added effect of screwing up DoW deployment. Also, the Swarmlord loves them as he can give them Furious Charge and suddenly they have the option of str. 6 rending attacks on vehicles.

Nice combo there, can choose dormant or not is a great tactic advantage to this unit.

Mahu wrote:
Hormagaunts - behind a gaunt screen they are great to. You can FNP them from a Tervigon or just rely on the cover from your cheap screen. You can really reach out and touch somebody with them and you can catch your opponent unawares when they have a fair number of these guys rushing out from behind the screen to hit you.

The draw back is terma in front will slow down the horma.

Mahu wrote:
Genestealers - never take a pod

QFT

@Flingitnow, the issue with those flyrants (in my mind) is that they cost way too much, like almost swarmlord points, and when they cost that much just take him instead, I'll add what you said in. As far as the zoans and Hive guard, I find the Zoan to be not as effective when factoring in smoke, anti-psyker, failing the test, missing the shot, or rolling ones to pen or on the chart. (it is fun to onslaught them though) and Hive Guard just dual-wield fancy ork rocket launchers with nifty rules and better bs.

@Mahu
Don't you fear losing the hive tyrant to counter attacks? I tend to use mines to stun tanks and just finish off something after staying safe in my lines.

You make great points with the Y.stealers, I'll add in what you said.

Remember if you don't want to put your stealers in the pod, it can come in empty, May be helpful if you want a stealer-shock army


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ack alter form does oly last for one assault phase, not until the next.

the issue with those flyrants (in my mind) is that they cost way too much, like almost swarmlord points, and when they cost that much just take him instead,

Big difference is they come with a delivery system (mass Ds turn 2) the Swarmlord does not. In fact if you're taking a Swarmlord you need to take something like a unit of Carnifexes or a Flyrant to act as a distraction to enable him to reach combat alive.

Yes Zoans have their probelms but they are the only serious ranged AT in the list. Hive Guard are ace and are pretty much the best anti-Wave Serpent unit in the game.

On stealers why on earth would you take a pod? You can just inflitrate them into position easier and more effectively. The they can assault turn 1 potentially (compared to turn 3 at best) and can wait that turn before they charge in cover rather than out in the open that they are likely to be forced into with the spod. Just a waste of 40 points. Plus I'm pretty sure spods can't be deployed empty the squad must be droped with the spore they are not like DPs in that way.

Ok, I'm no super tactician but there are a few of these units that I use (and I really don' think they suck), so I will just let you guys know how I use them.

Flyrant: Deepstrikes in to support trygons. Give him hive commander to help ensure more MC's arrive together. In KP missions maybe also allow that tervigon to outflank. Support the trygons by reducing devastator/loota/IG blob down to BS1. Takes a bit of pressure off.

Ymgarl Stealers: Again, best used with Hive tyrant to tie up a unit that you really don't want firing, or want to remove from an objective. Remember that you choose their terrain piece AFTER deployment making them even more viable.

Gaunts in a pod: The only time I would ever do this is if they had devourers and/or block assault lanes to the larger creatures from hidden PF's/rock hard units. No-one will shoot the gaunts unless they percieve them as a threat. A fleshborer is not a threat. A devourer is.

@Mahu No, Acid Blood is definitely just for wounds the model suffered. Tyranid Codex, p. 84, 2nd paragraph

doak22 wrote:@Mahu No, Acid Blood is definitely just for wounds the model suffered. Tyranid Codex, p. 84, 2nd paragraph

That paragraph says specifically for each unsaved wound.. nothing about wounds suffered.

Sraosa wrote:

doak22 wrote:@Mahu No, Acid Blood is definitely just for wounds the model suffered. Tyranid Codex, p. 84, 2nd paragraph

That paragraph says specifically for each unsaved wound.. nothing about wounds suffered.

It specifically says "suffered" in the Acid Blood entry. What you're TRYING to say is that wounds suffered are not equivalent to wounds lost from the model's profile, which is true.

sexiest_hero wrote:
Y.Genestealers.

They get the ability to assault the turn they pop up, can boost STR, attacks, or T. Also they come with a nifty 4+ save. They rock at coming out and rending a dev squad or a small troop choice sitting back on an Objective. They also eat whirlwinds and the like with STR 5 rending hits. An interesting combo I stumbled on is the fact that they can deploy normal style with the rest of your army. So if the table isn't looking to terrain friendly you arn't screwed.

Deploying on the board is not a combo. It would be a combo if they couldn't, another unit let them do it, and you gained something because of it. As you can see there is a difference.

WC_Brian wrote:

sexiest_hero wrote:
Y.Genestealers.

They get the ability to assault the turn they pop up, can boost STR, attacks, or T. Also they come with a nifty 4+ save. They rock at coming out and rending a dev squad or a small troop choice sitting back on an Objective. They also eat whirlwinds and the like with STR 5 rending hits. An interesting combo I stumbled on is the fact that they can deploy normal style with the rest of your army. So if the table isn't looking to terrain friendly you arn't screwed.

Deploying on the board is not a combo. It would be a combo if they couldn't, another unit let them do it, and you gained something because of it. As you can see there is a difference.

Did you really think someone missunderstood him, or did you just want to be annoying?
If it was the first: People are not as stupid you think.
If it was the second: Being annoying is mostly a bad thing.