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Biovores, their one of the many nerft tyranid units, but is their a way to properly use them? Or are the hopelessly flawed? And if any, what are some strategies to use them?

First off, they are amazing, cheap, and useful in any army that includes infantry. They drop 3 Large blast templates a turn in a full squad. With barrage rules, they have their place, and I try to fit 3 in with ANY list.

Simply put, they provide some very useful anti-infantry fire, at our longest range, at a relatively low cost. Only problem is, they NEED some synapse next to them. Usually 3 Tyranid Warriors, in cover, or out of LoS. With rending claws for DS units...

I usually have 3-6, but have run 9 before... More or less a good idea, but some of our valuable AT and those precious Trygons are here, soo... its up to you. Yet I suggest 3 for most lists.

I am pretty shure that you can win even if you meet up with 90 points less then your oponent. Then you shure can winn if you meet up with 90 points in biovores as well.

Honestly, this post is bad, a lott like the warrior post you started about the same time, however that one is more rellevant as it is a core unit and an icon for tyranids. It makes me sad that they underperform. But the bioweore is just fine. 2 wounds, 4+ save, assault weapon and the large template. It is a good deal. However it is very easy for a nid player to get large templates these days.

How about 9 hive guard, 1 tyranofex with cannon and 2 squads of 3 biovores. shoot open the transports and just land a LOTT of spore mines next to them.

I personally take 3 zoeys in a mycetic for the heavy armor. Then 4-6 Hive Guard. Tyranofex CAN be decent, but I just think he should be cheaper... 2 Squads of three biovores is nice. BUT if you want to include a trygon, it should be done in pairs. Thus meaning, 3 Biovores, 2 Trygons...

A nid list can live with only 2 units of hive guard.

Depending on the game Biovores will often underpeform or completely rock, and rarely put out an average performance.

I'm getting a pair of Pyrovores for Xmas. The figs are Awesome and I want to field them. Would you rather field them as Pyrovores or Biovores?

Brood Lord wrote:Biovores, their one of the many nerft tyranid units, but is their a way to properly use them? Or are the hopelessly flawed? And if any, what are some strategies to use them?

Use them in apocalypse. Run three or four broods, supported by a small unit of warriors for the synapse. This formation effectively solves and horde problem you'll face.

Nerf is a strong word regarding biovores. They actually got quite a bit better overall (their gun being an assault weapon being the biggest, becoming a large blast even more so). The loss of the other mine options is a blow but its not like those were amazing either.

You take biovores as your 3rd heavy in a shooty tervigon farm list at about 2k. Any other build is probably not gonna want those blasts and spores raining down around them.

Is the new tyranid thing to post up "random unit" how do i use them without being tabled?

you can use anything and not be tabled by not being an aweful player.

and biovores themselves, are pretty awesome. it's barrage ord that /cannot/ miss, since missed spawn spore mines that you can blow things up with anyway.

IMO, the main buff they received is subtle but very important. They can now fire on the move, meaning they can stay nestled within a formation instead of being left behind in the rear areas. (Edit: just saw winterman already addressed this.)

Biovores are a very solid unit -- if a bit specialized -- and the fact that almost one year later some people still think they're terrible seems to underline how many bad players there really are out there.

Aduro wrote:I'm getting a pair of Pyrovores for Xmas. The figs are Awesome and I want to field them. Would you rather field them as Pyrovores or Biovores?

Use them as Biovores, the general consensus is that Pyrovores were a good idea, poorly executed... Or just a bad idea with even worse execution...

I am dearly sory for saying that biovores where bad, its just what every other tyranid player I've met says, the reason I made this post was to get a good idea of how to use them for the first time as a still newbie tyranid player, sorry for any offence.

Biovores are terrible. There I said it.

They're only terrible because of the codex they are in though. On their own they would be a pretty solid unit. Look at it this way, 'what does a biovore bring to the table?'. The answer is long range anti-light-infantry pie plates. There's multiple levels of terrible in that. For starters, exactly what part of this codex overall needs help with anti-light-infantry? Everyone knows the problem the codex has, it's armor. An Imperial Guard blob squad is not at all frightening because gaunts/gants alone are going to tear them apart left, right and center much less the whole rest of the codex.

Right off the bat the fundamental target of a Biovore offers you nothing you need help with. 'But it's at range!' you say. Sure, if you give them a Synapse baby sitter off in some corner where you would actually WANT your artillery-type units. If not you get to run them with the rest of your guys. Either you don't get the range advantage, or you have to pay for it with a synapse baby sitter. Suddenly their strengths don't seem so strong.

'But it's a whole LOT of pieplates, at range, against anti-light-infantry!'. And that's a very valid point for about a turn. After turn two if you aren't closing with your enemy you're not playing Tyranids. Everything is short range and the codex is built around assault. Once your army engages the other guy those pie plates are gonna start a-scatterin', and guess what they're going to scatter INTO? Your very own light infantry guys who, by the definition of the codex, you're going to have lots and lots of. So great, past turn two you're as much of a threat to your own guys as you are the enemy, unless the enemy just happens to be the oh-so-rarely played Space Marines where they still get to armor save away the majority of anything you do to them with a Biovore while you're armor-piercing your own guys into wobbling piles of giblets every time you roll for scatter.

The one single thing this unit needs to make it useful is what they had in 2nd edition, which was the ability to fire at a point instead of a model. Don't want your opponent running through a valley unhindered? Drown it in Spore Mines by electing to shoot more than six inches away from the target. With the current set up you have to miss BY SIX INCHES, not just miss the center hole must be six inches away, to create spore mines and become what the Biovore used to be, a terrain denial specialist unparalleled in effectiveness. What we have in this edition of the model? He's terrible.

Tyranids aren't necessarily always about getting into CC right away. I've not used biovores yet, but I will quite often spend several turns maneuvering for position before getting anything significant into CC, especially if I'm going up against another CC-heavy army. I could see the point of biovores in some lists -- if you get your AT from the elite slot, and plan to have a small Warrior brood sitting on a back objective in cover anyway, basically.

SumYungGui wrote:, unless the enemy just happens to be the oh-so-rarely played Space Marines where they still get to armor save away the majority of anything you do to them with a Biovore while you're armor-piercing your own guys into wobbling piles of giblets every time you roll for scatter.

The point of biovores is not to kill everything all the time forever, it is to reach out and touch units that are screened or otherwise unreachable by assault elements.

and you cannot hit yourself with a scatter, because if an enemy isnt within 3" you spawn a spore mine, not an explosion, like I said, they are awesome because they /cannot/ miss, a spore mine has a reasonable chance to be able to find a target or otherwise effect the game, and its the only thing in the game you can roll into close combat blobs and explode with

Lack of Synapse isn't a problem. Put them in cover, and if they fail a leadership test and lurk they still get to shoot. Once they are deployed in cover it's not like the nid player would ever want them to leave it anyways.

Biovores are not bad, its just that all the other HS gives you the ability to deal with Nids greatest threat: Armor.

I tried biovores for the first time yesterday, and they did very well, destroyung all but 2 ork lootas (out of 12) my first round of shooting, i simply put an 80 pt tyranid prime in the unit, compaired to how much dammage they did, the unit (including the prime) did more than 3 times their points cost in damage to my oponnents army. Mean while the prime was giving synapse to hive guard, who where not part of my main hoard of nids, who themselves did a lot of damage on my first round of shooting as well (killing 4 ork war-bikers). I like this combination of prime, biovores, and hive guard going solo as they can deal with both heavy armor, and lots of infantry, while destracting my oponent from my main mass of tyranids.