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I'm going to be playing in a local tournament on the 25 and another in a different city in March. Just curious what my fellow 'Nid players thought of this 1700 points of rending Tyranid pain . The tactics behind this list are simple. Engage the enemy on turn 2 if possible, using the Zoanthropes to destroy armour/Daemon Princes, and the Lictors ability to get the Raveners into the thick of it. And force my opponents to make critical decisions on which broods to fire on. And as a side note, there is tons of synapse on the table.

 

Hive Fleet Hydra 1700 Points:

Hive Tyrant 197 Points

-Adrenal Glands +1 Init/WS

-Toxin Sacs

-Winged

-Scything Talons (x2)

-Warp Field

Lictors (2) 160 Points

Warrior Brood (4) 172 Points

-Adrenal Glands +1 Init

-Extended Carapace

-Flesh Hooks

-Toxin Sacs

-Leaping

-Rending Claws

-Scything Talons

Warrior Brood (4) 172 Points

-Adrenal Glands +1 Init

-Extended Carapace

-Flesh Hooks

-Toxin Sacs

-Leaping

-Rending Claws

-Scything Talons

Hormagaunt Brood (16) 160 Points

Hormagaunt Brood (16) 160 Points

Hormagaunt Brood (16) 160 Points

Hormagaunt Brood (16) 160 Points

Ravener Brood (4) 160 Points

-Scything Talons & Rending Claws

Zoanthrope (3) 195 Points  

-Warp Blast

-Synapse

1696/1700 Points

102 Wounds, 82 Models

Not a big fan of antitank I see.

S10 ap2 sounds great but when you take into account the range its pretty bad really. Not to mention you are averaging only 1.4 hits a turn.

Now taking into account the effective range of 18" (not 24" as tanks move back atleast if not faster than zoans move forward) This basically means you will not be shooting tanks with the Zoans unless they are stunned first for the first 3-5 turns.

Also the Zoans are pretty bad against fast skimmers.

As is ANY mech list will give you trouble, be it IG, tau, eldar, DE, ork.

Leaving out antitank is a risky business.

That said I did used to run a list back in 3rd ed with just 2 warp blasts and 3 biovores, it never really killed much armour but tried to take on all else, worked ok but not great.

When the enemy starts coming at you with things like vypers and land speeders that do ALOT of dmg yet die easily you want to have some guns to shoot them down. a single land speeder puts out a good 24 rending and 18 HB shots within 1 game. that is 42 shots with good S and ap, most of which rend!

You just CANNOT let these things have free raign!

You need more antitank

You also need something that will take rear objectives
Biovore or Fex, they also fill the first need.

Course the problem here is as is your army has no real targets for lascannons (assuming the winged tyrant can keep away from their los)

Taking a fex will give them this target, not much you can do about that though.

My 3rd edition 'Nid list had only 1 warp blast from my flying Tyrant and no guns at all. That said, I lost 2 games in 3 years and did fight alot of land speeders (6 to be exact in my buds Ultramarine army), and IG with 3 tanks (leman russ, demolisher, hellhound) on a regular basis. My one loss was to Alpha Legion and the other to Ork Speedfreaks. I basically covered my anti-tank with rending. And my 3 Lictors were unstoppable. They killed HQ squads, tanks, speeders, Daemon Princes, etc... Damn new secret deployment rules and loss of 1 wound.

That said, I do agree with you. In the future I would like to have more Gunfexs like I do for my Genestealer army. And a venom cannon for another Hive Tyrant. Probably even some devourer/deathspitter/venom cannon armed warriors. I'm just hoping that a mass of fast rending bugs will put an end to any armour the Zoats don't.

I basically covered my anti-tank with rending

Rending won't do much against skimmers, as you need 6's to hit and then 6's again to rend. Skimmer tanks have become far more popular than ground-pounders, as people have noticed they are more survivable and more manueverable. Without a couple of big bugs with venom cannons, your going to struggle against the ubiquitous hammerheads/tornadoes/vypers/falcons/monoliths etc.

The other slight problem with warp blast is that almost every marine player now uses a librarian, whose psychic hood can spoil your zoanthropes' day.

I'm not a fan of gun-armed warriors. They are too fragile, and basically your limited to 2 shots at bs3 s7 plus a couple of weaker shots from the deathspitters. In the good old days, the brood of heavy support warriors where every member had a venom cannon was probably cost-effective. I think the gun toting tyrant/fex is now the best bet - they're tougher, shoot better and cost about the same.

Yes, cursed libraians. You do see lots of them now. I would definitly like to get some venom cannon action in my list, but I'm pressed for points and time. I guess I could lose a brood of Hormagaunts or something and add a Carni with a barbed strangler, venom cannon, and enhanced senses. But once again, with the whole lack of time to assemble/paint, it's not very likely in the immediate future. I'll just hope the Hive Mind convinces my opponents to leave their fast skimmers at home.

I basically covered my anti-tank with rending.[/

That is like saying you assume bad players as opponents, great if it works in your area but your talking about a tournament list here. Needing 12 stealers to assualt a single landspeeder JUST to cause 1 glance on average which does not even kill the speeder is not tactically wise! esp considering said speeder will kill its cost in stealers in just 1 turn of fire!

The other slight problem with warp blast is that almost every marine player now uses a librarian, whose psychic hood can spoil your zoanthropes' day.

Ah very good point! your down to about 0.7 blast hits a turn! hoorah for the antitank.

Not much you can do if you dont have the time to biuld a fex or tyrant, own a biovore?
1 with toxin would be nice for your list.

i dig that list, how do you find that it works now?