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I'm very new to using tyranid special characters and an thinking of running the swarmlord and need some help with how to use him.
Is he a normal tyrant or do you use him very differently.

Although i would love to hear from tyranid players, i would prefer to hear from people who have faced him and what they found easy and difficult to cope with about him.

thx

A Very tough customer, but alot of points to sink into a single model.

Although he is a MC, he is also a big effin' target.

He's a good HQ choice compared to some, but, I haven't really had much trouble as a DH/SM player taking him out with a few well placed LR shots.

Good luck.

he becomes much more durable if you add tyrant guard. Unfortunately, that brings him to about 400+ points.

he scares me in close combat. Good luck.

Lol i love the way you all wish me good luck when using him.
What ways have people found useful though?

A buddy of mine runs him with a guard for cover saves, and then runs them both behind a guant screen. It's pretty tough to stop him before he gets to you because of the cover save. If I can manage to loop around the cover screen, he or his guard goes down pretty quick. Once the guard is down, your heavy weapons can finish the job.

Sometimes you can't get that clear shot though, and he rampages through everything

This could help your problems, with the Swarmlord and in general.

As someone who doesn't play Tyranids, his main threat is his sheer power and strength in close combat. Whilst he's a good unit buff, he's incredible in close combat. Luckily he's slow however so I'd pour all my fire into him or out-manoeuvre him. However, if you use fast MC's such as Trygons, that could hopefully tie the opposition up whilst the LordSward closes...

As soon as he hits combat, whatever he's fighting is doomed unless it's a HQ with ET. Even then it's likely to get utterly destroyed.

Whats even worse is the abilities he can give all around. Swarm leader can be just as devastating as he is if there is a decent sized swarm near him. Alien cunning is gold if you already run outflanking genestealers.

Run him straight up the middle with a unit of 3 tyrant guard, behind a full unit of 30 Hormuguants. At worst, he draw twice his points in fire. If he hits CC, stuff dies.

Try using a unit of ymgarls combined with the swarmlord. The turn they come out of terrain they can get either:

1. Preferred enemy when fighting infantry. Add in the instability +1A and that's 40 re-rollable attacks.

2. Furious charge against vehicles. Add their +1S and they are hitting at S6.

Both options are very powerful, and they can be tailored in game to suit your needs. When taking option number 2 try to get 1 genestealer into contact with an infantry model so you are locked in combat and can't be shot at though. Hopefully 1 stealer won't win the combat.

Lukus - thats great insight - I recommend you put it in the Tyranid Tactica threas on here.

Cheers for all the imput anymore ideas?

He can make your regular gaunts an effective CC unit especially if you use tervigons with him. He uses paroxysm on a unit so they are WS 1 and then gives the gaunts preferred enemy and the gaunts hit on 3s reroll misses and have toi be hit on 5s. If you have a tervigon to give them adrenals and toxins they will also wound on 4s, reroll failed wounds, and strike first against MEQs

...but I guess a regular HT could do that too.

I think he's pretty much required in a assault mc heavy list. Tyranids have no ther good answer to dedicated assault troops with a decent invuln save. When your entire army is focused towards charging the other guy and wiping face in CC, the inability to deal with TWC, TH/SS termies or bloodleters is a problem. Yes you can tarpit them with gants, but unless you intentionally bring some gant swarms with you, relying on 8-15 strong broods to hold those units...is not such a great idea.