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In my planned tyranid army, I will not be using any termagaunts as I hate the models and envision my nids with loads of scything talons and rending claws. But fluff wise I love the tervigon. Here is a planned monster of my own creation - a monsterous creature able to spawn hormagaunts , thoughts appreciated.

Heres a rough outline of what I have so far...

HQ Choice or Troops if Hive Tyrant is present

Hormagon: 200 points

WS BS S T W I A LD Sv
3 3 5 6 6 2 3 10 3+

Weapons and Biomorphs:
Bonded Exoskeleton, Scything Talons

Special Rules:
Synapse Creature. Brood Progenitor, Fleet, Psyker, Shadow in the warp, Spawns Hormagaunts

Additional Options:

Replace Scything talons for:
Crushing Claws... 25 points
Take any of the following:
Adrenal Glands... 10 points
Toxin Sacs.......... 10 points
Acid Blood........... 15 points
Implant attack.... 15 points
Toxic miasma...... 15 points
Regeneration...... 30 points
Take any additional psychic powers:
Catalyst.............. 15 points
Onslaught........... 15 points

Would you guys mind if I used this monster in a friendly? Is it too overpowered? overpriced? What add ons shouldn't it be allowed?

Thanks.

This is something that is just...missing.. from the current dex, and should have been an option for Tervigons all along.

First off, you should just use the Tervigon's stat line, so drop back to initiative 1.

Points wise? 160 for Tervigon, it will spawn on average 21(?) termigants, so this guy should cost the difference between a termi and hormi times that numbers. So, about ~20 points more, putting him at ~180ish. The real catch is upgrades. Poison and adrenal glands are FAR FAR more effective on hormagants then termigants. I wanna say 3+ times more effective. So the adrenal and toxin sacs will have to be adjusted WAY up in points. Say 25 for adrenal and 25 for toxin sacs?

Generally agree with Carnage43. Fleet might be a bit OTT on a MC, especially one that is going to be modelled with a big pregnant belly or bloated egg sac or such. Query - no Stinger Salvo (exchangeable for Cluster Spines) or Dominion?

kevandthingy wrote:
Would you guys mind if I used this monster in a friendly? Is it too overpowered? overpriced? What add ons shouldn't it be allowed?

Yes. Yes. No. All of them.

Taking the best thing in your codex, and combining it with something different in your codex is the first step towards failing to come up with a balanced rule.

I like it. Lower its I to 1. 200pts is about right, but raise toxin sacs and adrenals glands to 20pts each (since hormagant toxin and glands are double the cost of termies) and it'll be good.

It is not overpowered. One thing people need to keep in mind is that hormagants are very fast units. When they assault, there is a very good chance that they will be out of the hormagon's toxin sacs/adrenal glands range and that's what balances them out. Short-ranged buffs vs a very fast unit.

P.S. - Get rid of fleet on the hormagon. He should not be a fast unit, not at I1 and not when he needs constantly stop to poop out gants.

jy2 wrote:
It is not overpowered. One thing people need to keep in mind is that hormagants are very fast units. When they assault, there is a very good chance that they will be out of the hormagon's toxin sacs/adrenal glands range and that's what balances them out. Short-ranged buffs vs a very fast unit.

It's not exactly difficult to keep a 'tendril' of Hormagaunts within Synapse range, hardly going to be a chore to slightly extend the rearguard of the brood to reach Hormagon range.

Hormagaunts not only cost twice as much as Termas to buff, they're also likely to take fewer turns to reach combat, making pricing of this difficult. A predeployed Termablob can probably be shot for a turn more than a Hormablob, meaning even more payoff from the Hormagon.

While it's true you can trail the hormagants so that they receive the buffs still, but that will mean possibly 3-5 hormagants that won't be able to participate in the battle, depending on how far away it is.

And yes, while they are far likely to make it into assault, they are still gants after all. What are the chances of 10 hormagants (average) doing much in combat, especially if 2-4 of them cannot fight because they are trailing to give the unit the hormagon buffs.

Finally, there is a downside to spawning aggressive units. The main reason for spawning termagants is to protect your own units from assault, add some offense with shooting and also to provide cover to your various units. What happens when that unit goes into assault? You lose the protection to the rest of the army. Your hive guards and tervigons may be assaulted. Your hive guards may find themselves without cover. Etc.

So yes, the hormagon is not overpowered in the least. It is an offensive unit, that's for sure. But because of that, you lose the defense and durability that tervigon/termagants provide, and that's what balances out this unit.

DarknessEternal wrote:

kevandthingy wrote:
Would you guys mind if I used this monster in a friendly? Is it too overpowered? overpriced? What add ons shouldn't it be allowed?

Yes. Yes. No. All of them.

Taking the best thing in your codex, and combining it with something different in your codex is the first step towards failing to come up with a balanced rule.

While I don't really disagree with your statement in that I wouldn't allow my opponent to use this either (I'm a tourny gamer, so I try to keep my games by the book), this is something that should have been in the book from the start. The existence of the Tervigon is SO effective point for point that it's basically a must have unit. Since it's must have, it makes termigants a must have to make it a troop choice. The whole selling point of the tyranid codex is synergy, and hormagants don't have nearly as much as termigants and it causes them to be side lined really.