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Oh, so you have used this monster before. At what points level did you field this 4K+ beastie? How much stuff did it kill? I take it he was killed by a whole bunch of vortex grenades, right?

20000 point game and three warlords 3 hounds and 4 reavers took it down by turn 4 or it might have been a 30000 point game either way it was killed. it's a minor thing compared to my buddies bioassult ship

Wow. So it took 15,550pts worth of firepower over 4 turns. That's 62K+ worth of firepower to take down that 4K+ bad girl!

On the flipside, she probably didn't destroy her points-worth of enemies either.

eh, it did sink an eldar reavent, a scorpion and a tempest and a bush of eldar troops and some guardsmen. still makes me kinda wanna post my buddies planetary bioassault ship, that thing is more over powered but hey Morty of my preheresy death guard killied that with his instant death rule so maybe not

Time for a new formation.

Remember the old 4th edition psychic choir? That was one of the great combos about the older codex. But now it's gone....or is it? Here is my updated and better version of the older psychic choir.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Psychic Choir Formation

Points: 200 + models

Broods of zoanthropes have been known to work together at times. When they do, it is usually with devastating consequences to the unlucky few who happen to witness this. The broods work together to form a network of psychic energy, linking their minds together in psychic coordination. Each brood amplifies and is amplified by another brood. When this psychic harmony is achieved, then comes the scream terrifying enough to shatter minds and reduce men to cowering husks. This cacophony may well be the very last thing their prey may ever hear.


Formation:
3+ broods of 3 Zoanthropes


Special Rules:
Strike Force: Each brood of zoanthropes in this formation must be deployed within 6" of another brood. If coming in from reserves, each zoanthrope brood must come in within 6" of another brood (though scattering may take them out if deepstriking).


Psionic Amplification: The range of Synapse, Shadows in the Warp and all psychic powers of all units in the formation is augmented as follows: range is increased by +6" per zoanthrope brood in the formation after the 1st. For example, if there are 5 broods of zoanthropes in the formation, then Synapse and Shadows become 36" in range whereas the range for Warp Blast becomes 48" and Warp Lance 42" for the zoanthropes in the formation.

Furthermore, any enemy unit attempting to nullify any psychic powers and who are within range of Shadows of the Warp of any unit in this formation receives a -1 modifier on their dispel attempts. This include attempts to dispel via Psychic Hoods, Runic Weapons, Wolftail Talismans, the Aegis, Unguents of Warding and Shield of Faith. Against Runes of Warding or another Tyranid's Shadows in the Warp, any unit belonging to this formation gets a modifier of -1 on its Psychic Tests (i.e. 3D6-1).

For each brood in the formation that is killed, the range of each unit in the formation is reduced by 6". Thus, if 1 of the 5 broods in the above example is killed, the range of Synapse and Shadows in the Warp drop to an effective range of 30", Warp Blast to 42" and Warp Lance to 36".

This formation is not cumulative with the Indomitable Hive Mind formation. If both formations are chosen for the same broods, use the higher of the 2.

Psychic Choir: In lieu of using their shooting attacks, each brood of zoanthropes may instead combine to perform the Psychic Choir. The brood has to be within 6" of another brood in order to contribute to the choir. Each brood that participates adds +12" to the range of the Psychic Choir, measured from any model that is contributing to the choir. All non-vehicular enemy units within range of the Psychic Choir suffer a -1 penalty to their Leadership per zoanthrope brood performing the choir. The Psychic Choir lasts until the beginning of their next turn.

Thus, if 5 broods of zoanthropes perform the Psychic Choir, then the range of the choir is 60" measured from any of the models participating in the choir, and every enemy unit with a Leadership characteristic within range suffers a -5 penalty to their LD.

The Psychic Choir is cumulative with the Broodlord's Aura of Despair.

Warp Shield: The Warp Shield is a weaker version of the zoanthrope Warp Field. The zoanthropes in this formation may project their Warp Shield to benefit friendly units around them. At the beginning of their shooting phase, any brood in the formation may project a Warp Shield. This shield provides a 5++ Invulnerable save against all shooting attacks to any friendly units within 6" of the brood. This power lasts until the beginning of their next turn, and any brood that projects a Warp Shield may not participate in the Psychic Choir the turn they use their Warp Shield.

just for the of it, rules for my buddies tyraind ship thingy
Tyranid Bioship 10000 points
WS 4 BS 2 S D T 10 W 50 I 1 A 30 LD 10 SV 1+ (note roll of 1 is still a failure)
Unit: 1 Bioship
Unit Type: gargantuan flyer
Weapons an Biomorphs: 4 Titan sized scything talons
Deathspitter cannon
Giant Flamespurt
10 Bio-plasma
Huge Spore Cloud
4+ regeneration
Special Rules: Supreme Synapse
Shadows in the warp - range 72” enemy psychic tests taken on 4D6
Spawn Gaunts
Spawn Rippers
Spawn Warriors
Psychic Powers: catalyst
Warp Lance
Synaptic Lance
Paroxysm
Transport capacity: 6000 points of tyranids
Special Rules
Supreme Synapse: all tyranid units within 410” are under the effects of synapse
Huge Spore Cloud: the bioship and all units within 36” of it can claim a 4+ cover save and count as being armed with defensive grenades.
Giant Flamespurt: Range: Hailstorm STR: 7 AP: 3 Type: Heavy 1, causes pinning
Deathspitter cannon: Range: 48” STR: 6 AP: 4 Type: Assault 15, small blast

Wow, I actually have never seen anything so blown out of proportion. A 1+ save but a 1 is still a failure, how is that different from a 2+ save?

ap2 doesn't remove the save

@TyraelVladinhurst:

Wow. Just wow. Can't imagine the type of Apoc games you guys play with a 10K unit. And you say this monster was insta-killed? Hmmmm....

yeah it was a pain, but eh

I've got one:
Ripper Queen
Points-130
Unit type-Infantry
Unit Size-1
Ws 3
Bs 2
Str 4
T 4
W 3
I 4
A 3
Ld 10
Save 4+/5++

Wargear-Chitin
-Sything Talons
-Rending claws
-Ripper Scout - may re-roll all 'to hit' and 'to wound' rolls. Can re-roll failled 'to see' rolls when night fighting rules are used
-Poisoned Ripper Cannon - Str X+3 Range 12 inch Assualt 2, blast, Poisoned 2+, Live Rippers (Where X is, replace with units strength then add modifier) (live rippers-if misses, place 1 ripper swarm base where the shot lands. These rippers have a Poisoned 2+ attack in close combat, otherwise they follow the normal ripper rules.

Abilities-Inderpendent Character
-Psyker- The ripper Queen has the following psychic power: Catalysm
-Ripper mother - if the ripper queen doesn't fire her ripper cannon, she can make 2 ripper bases. These bases are placed next to her and do not interfer with the inderpendent character rule
-Synapse. The ripper queen has a Synapse range of 12inch Please note that this only affects ripper swarms.

Can I suggest that these formations be collected into an article? The wiki format would make it a lot easier to fix errant 4E vestigial rules and balance issues than relying on everybody who posts a formation remaining an active forum user, reading subsequent posts, and editing their post. It'd also mean there'd be a table of contents with instant links to all formations.

I'd further suggest that this thread could link to that article and be closed, and discussion relocated to the 'discuss this article' forum topic that is automatically generated when an article is started.

Also, RE Psychic Choir/Indomitable Hive Mind overlap - I'm reasonably certain that Apoc formations cannot 'share' units (ie, taking five Space Marine Battle Companies would not let you count the ten Devastator Squads as members of a Devastator Support Company formation) unless explicitly stated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've taken the liberty of making an article with all the formations and one of my own in it. Acknowledged the authors of all the formations, done a minor tidy here and there where I could see a broken or unclear rule, reference to a dead rule, or omission.

Only significant changes I've made are:

- jy2's Biovore Bombardment gets Rending instead of auto glance on a 6 (seemed to fit the fluff and was more KISS).

- Had to drop a number of rules from TyraelVladinhurst's units that referred to 4E Codex or had no explanation beyond a rule name.

- Slightly adjusted Trygon Alpha Strike so that Lictors arrive first, then Trygons, both for fluff reasons and also to be consistent with existing Lictor rules.

- Tinkered with Ripper Queen to make it more in line with Tervigon. Didn't understand where it's 5++ was coming from, or why a fragile unit with no regenerative ability had Cataclysm, but left both in. Removed re-roll rules as it's already got them from Scything Talons and Poison. (Aside: I LOVE this unit, I'm likely going to make a bunch of these to go in my Parasite/Malanthrope list!)

- Typed some fluff for formations that had none.

I hope nobody sees any of this as treading on their toes, if anybody's not happy with how I've collated their creations please don't hesitate to edit them as you see fit.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Warhammer_40%2C000_Apocalypse_Datasheets_-_Tyranids

Just added Doom of Ma'lantai - Apoc version by Lindsay40k. Check it out.

@Lindsay40k:

Sure, that's a great idea.

For future Tyranid Apoc units, please post at: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Warhammer_40%2C000_Apocalypse_Datasheets_-_Tyranids

@ lindsay40k: I knew I forgot something! Regeneration! I'll edit the article to give that as an option. Do you think 10pts is enough? or do you think 15?

Difficult to say, TBH. Prime has 10pt Regen, which is underpriced IMO. 15 sounds OK, I guess, for something that's presently going to get ID'd by powerfists.

It's presently worded so that spawned Rippers 'inherit' the biomorphs of the Queen; make sure you don't accidentally make her able to spawn Regenerating Rippers

I've got 2 new Tyranid formations here. One is a redux of the older, out-dated Behemoth Crusher Brood formation. The Behemoth Crusher Brood formation was written for the 4th edition Tyranids codex. It is now obsolete as there is no longer the Extended Carapace biomorph. Also crushing claws work differently now than it used to. This revised formation is to put it more in line with 5th edition Tyranids.

The other is a completely new formation involving Ymgarl genestealers, which I will post later.


Lindsay40k, please feel free to modify/reformat it and add it to your tyranid apoc thread.


---------------------------------------------------------------------


Behemoth Crusher Brood Formation

Points: 100 + models (I've raised to cost to reflect the fact that now you can take carnifexes in broods)

The infamous "Crusher" Broods of Hive Fleet Behemoth were legendary for one thing above all - sheer brute force. Each Crusher Brood consists of several heavily armoured Carnifexes that attack in the manner of a living battering ram.

- Apocalypse Reload


Formation:
3+ Carnifex broods. Each brood must take 1 set of Crushing Claws for each of the carnifex in the brood. (May use Old One Eye for 1 of the broods.)
0-2 Scythed Hierodules

Strike Force: Each model from a Crusher Brood must be deployed within 6" of another model from a Crusher Brood. If coming in from reserves, they must enter the table within 6" of another model from a Crusher Brood.

Crusher Carnifexes: Unlike normal carnifexes, any carnifex in a Crusher Brood have 2 sets of Crushing Claws, giving it +2D3 extra attacks in close combat in addition to its base attacks (rolled for at the beginning of each round of combat), striking at Initiative 1.

Hyperactive Assault: All carnifexes in the formation has the Fleet USR.

No option to add 0-1 Old One Eye? He was originally part of Behemoth...

lindsay40k wrote:No option to add 0-1 Old One Eye? He was originally part of Behemoth...

Actually, he wasn't in the Apocalypse Reload version, but I'll add him in there.

Here's a new formation which I quite like myself. It is a lot of fun. Whether it will work on necrons or daemons is entirely up to the players involved.


Ymgarl Infiltration Cult Formation

Points: 100 + models


These genestealers are not actually ymgarls but rather, a mutated strain of stealers similar to the ymgarls. However, unlike their ymgarl cousins, this strain of genestealers were manipulated by the Hive Mind to rapidly infect their host with a highly virulent, xenoic virus.

So virulent is this virus that the gestation period is usually measured in the hours. The host will metamorphasize completely after infection usually in about 8-12 hours. During this time, a psychic link is created between the host and the ymgarl that infected him where the ymgarl can sense what the host senses. The ymgarl can also command the host.

Usually, these ymgarls are from the hive fleet that is about to absorb a planet and sent to the host planet just days before a tyranid invasion. The reason they don't infect their victims sooner is because the virus is so fast-acting that to do so would lead to discovery of the infiltration. Instead, they wait until the hive fleet gives them the signal to act.


Formation:
1 unit of Ymgarl Genestealers

Special Rules:
Traitors in Our Midst: The Ymgarls in this formation always start off in reserves. When they come in, instead of deploying normally, the owner of the formation must assign 1 ymgarl model to each enemy non-vehicular unit that is currently on the board. This special rule does not affect vehicles, Monstrous Creatures, Independent Characters or any unit consisting of just 1 model. If there are more ymgarls than there are available units for them to deploy in, then the owner of this formation may then "wrap around" and assign a second ymgarl to each unit until there are no more ymgarls. If there are still ymgarls remaining, then the owner may wrap them around again and so on until all ymgarls are uniformally distributed among enemy units.

After all ymgarls have been allocated, roll 1D6 for each Ymgarl in an enemy unit and distribute them as per shooting attack. These are the number of models in that unit that must take a Toughness test. Any model that fails its Toughness test is removed and replaced with a regular genestealer without any upgrades. Place all genestealers coming from the same enemy unit 1" away from any enemy models and within coherency of each other. These genestealers now form a new unit. If the enemy unit is inside a transport, place the genestealers outside of the transport (and 1" away from the transport) as if they had just disembarked from that transport. Note that if the access point of the transport is blocked, then the newly spawned genestealers must perform an emergency disembarkation.

The enemy unit may be in close combat. Genestealers spawned from units in assault are placed 1" away from the combat, in coherency and closest to the unit where they came from. They are not involved in the assault.

If any genestealer models may not be placed legally (i.e. the unit is surrounded), then that model is removed from play along with the enemy model that failed its Toughness test. In any case, there may not be more genestealers spawned than there are legal models in the unit which spawned them (i.e. may only spawn at most 5 genestealers if the original unit consisted of 5 members) and any Independent Characters attached to the unit do not count towards this total. All ymgarls are removed from play, whether or not they have successfully "converted" any enemy models to genestealers or not.

Genestealers spawned this way may not assault on the turn they come in, though they may run in the shooting phase.

I struggle to understand the fluff of this formation. What exactly is happening? Are the Ymgarls pouncing on enemy units and injecting a load of prey with embryos, Parasite-style? And these embryos are maturing into adult purestrain Genestealers in a matter of moments?

Name: Hive Defenders

Points: 100 + Models

Formation: 1+ Tyranid Prime accompanied by 2 Prime Guard (Warrior Models using the Tyrant Guard Stats just with T5 and W3, and are 60 points each, taking any none shooting Weapon Biomorph, and may only take Adrenal Glands as a Biomorph.)

4+ Broods of 3 Hive Guard

Special Rules:

Strike Force: All broods must be placed within 18" of the Prime model. If arriving from Reserves, then the Prime is to be placed first with the Hive Guard arriving within 12" of him.

Synaptic Link: If the Prime is able to draw LOS to the target, then the Hive Guard may reroll to hit with their shots.

Hail of Spines - Each shooting phase the Tyranid Player may elect to fire a Hail of Spines using the profile below. Should The hive guard fire the Hail, then none of the Hive Guard may fire next turn. So long as the Prime can draw LOS to it, then the Target may be chosen. Otherwise choose a different target!

Weapon: R:Unlimited Str: 8 AP: 3 Type: Apocalyptic Barrage X

X = to the number of broods.

5 Broods, 5 Barrages

(I assume thats how it works, as i never use a Barrge Weapon...)

Interesting formation, I can see the fluff idea behind it. Feedback:

Why limit the Prime Guard to only AG in their Biomorphs?

Most Apocalypse formations are based on using the maximum possible number of models you could take in a standard force org list (ie, 3x a particular HS choice); perhaps make it 3+ units of 3 Hive Guard? Very few people will invest in 12 Hive Guard, three of which will never see the light of day in most games.

Perhaps limit the Hail of Spines to firing at a unit in LOS and within a certain distance of the Prime? This would make the formation consistent with other 'barrage + spotter' formations (see the Whirlwinds + Land Speeder formation).

1. The Prime guard are there to defend the Prime, and to if needs be, charge along side the prime.

2. so only 3x3 Guard?

3. Fair enough, within 36" of the Prime and LOS

1 - Don't see how that this means it's be inappropriate/unbalanced to let them take Toxin Sacs?

Also, given that Warriors come with Devourers as standard, perhaps a more KISS wording for their 'must have a gun' stipulation might be 'may not exchange their Devourers for Rending Claws or Scything Talons (but may take other options as normal)'.

2 - Fits in with other formations

3 - Fits in with other formations

Name: Hive Defenders

Points: 100 + Models

Formation: 1+ Tyranid Prime accompanied by 2 Prime Guard (Warrior Models using the Tyrant Guard Stats just with T5 and W3, and are 60 points each, taking only, Rending Claws, Sycthing Talons, Boneswords or Lash whips, in any combonation, and may only take Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs as a Biomorph.)

3 Broods of 3 Hive Guard

Special Rules:

Strike Force: All broods must be placed within 18" of the Prime model. If arriving from Reserves, then the Prime is to be placed first with the Hive Guard arriving within 12" of him.

Synaptic Link: If the Prime is able to draw LOS to the target, then the Hive Guard may reroll to hit with their shots.

Hail of Spines - Each shooting phase the Tyranid Player may elect to fire a Hail of Spines using the profile below. Should The hive guard fire the Hail, then none of the Hive Guard may fire next turn. So long as the Prime can draw LOS to it, then the Target may be chosen. Otherwise choose a different target!

Weapon: R:36" Str: 8 AP: 3 Type: Apocalyptic Barrage X

X = to the number of broods.

Oh, I get it, I misunderstood your initial post. So the Warriors have to trade their Devourers for a non-ranged weapon, gotcha.

There are no biomorphs other than TS/AG for Warriors, so if they're both available it's redundant to state that they are.

ah fair play...

my codex is upstairs, and i'm too bone idle to move >.<


And yes, i want the Guard to be Close Combat Orintated.>

lindsay40k wrote:I struggle to understand the fluff of this formation. What exactly is happening? Are the Ymgarls pouncing on enemy units and injecting a load of prey with embryos, Parasite-style? And these embryos are maturing into adult purestrain Genestealers in a matter of moments?

I envision this strain of genestealers as not exactly ymgarls, but a mutated version of the ymgarls. After all, the tyranid race is constantly evolving and adapting to their environments. These genestealers are different from regular stealers just like the ymgarls. At the same time, they are different from the ymgarls as well.

The way these "ymgarls" work is different from a genestealer cult. Basically, a cult will infiltrate into society and discreetly infect its hosts. However, this is a slow process and takes a long time, usually in the years.

However, these "ymgarls" are mutated to quickly infect their hosts with a highly virulent xenoic virus. So virulent is this virus that the gestation period is usually measured in the hours. The host will metamorphasize completely after infection usually in about 8-12 hours after infection. During this time, a psychic link is created between the host and the ymgarl that infected him where the ymgarl can sense what the host senses and can command the host.

Usually, these ymgarls are from the hive fleet that is about to absorb a planet and sent to the host planet just days before a tyranid invasion. The reason they don't infect their victims sooner is because the virus is so fast-acting that to do so would lead to discovery of the infiltration. Instead, they wait until the hive fleet gives them the signal to act.


I hope this explanation is acceptable for its fluff. I will change the original fluff to reflect this new fluff.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bloodhorror wrote:Name: Hive Defenders

Points: 100 + Models

Formation: 1+ Tyranid Prime accompanied by 2 Prime Guard (Warrior Models using the Tyrant Guard Stats just with T5 and W3, and are 60 points each, taking only, Rending Claws, Sycthing Talons, Boneswords or Lash whips, in any combonation, and may only take Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs as a Biomorph.)

3 Broods of 3 Hive Guard

Special Rules:

Strike Force: All broods must be placed within 18" of the Prime model. If arriving from Reserves, then the Prime is to be placed first with the Hive Guard arriving within 12" of him.

Synaptic Link: If the Prime is able to draw LOS to the target, then the Hive Guard may reroll to hit with their shots.

Hail of Spines - Each shooting phase the Tyranid Player may elect to fire a Hail of Spines using the profile below. Should The hive guard fire the Hail, then none of the Hive Guard may fire next turn. So long as the Prime can draw LOS to it, then the Target may be chosen. Otherwise choose a different target!

Weapon: R:36" Str: 8 AP: 3 Type: Apocalyptic Barrage X

X = to the number of broods.

I like this formation. Just a few suggestions:

Make for formation 3+ broods of 3 hive guards. Many of the apoc formations have a minimum number of units but no maximum. I don't see why you should limit the formation to just 3 broods. That'll also nerf the Hail of Spines rule. The more broods you have in it, the more the barrage becomes, the better the formation overall.

The rules for the Prime Guards need to be developed more. Are they using the rules for tyrant guards, tyranid warriors or neither? Can the Tyranid Prime leave the unit? Are they buffed by the Prime's Alpha Warrior? Are they synapse and do they have Shadows? Why the limit of 2 guards? Why not make them 1-3 like tyrant guards or 3-9 like tyranid warriors?

Another thing to consider. The Prime's synapse is only 12" away, yet the guards can be deployed up to 18" away. So what if the brood fails its IB test? Can it still benefit from the re-rolls? Can it still contribute to the Hail of Spines? Consider reducing the Strike Force deployment range to 12" in order to avoid this issue.

Synaptic Link: Do all the hive guards have to fire at the same target or can they choose separate targets (as long as the Prime has LOS to their target)?

Hail of Spines: 36" is way too short. In Apoc where tables are easily twice the size of regular tables, such a short range really doesn't do anything. All the more so because usually hive guards are near the back of the tyranid army. What I recommend is to make it at least 48" or a variable range. For example:

Range: 12" base + 12" per brood in the formation. Thus, 3 broods = 48" range. 5 broods = 72" range.