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I might use the Tyrant node simply because I have a wingless Tyrant that I have no intention of converting to winged.

 xttz wrote:
Well that's... largely disappointing if true.

Bio-Blast is pretty limited as you have to use the Carnifex Ld7 for the test, meaning it will fail 50% of the time. I expect you'd also want 1 Fex with a different weapon loadout to make the most of this, meaning you're building your list around a 50% chance.

LD test on 2D6 is passing 58% of the time so fails 42% of the time, slight difference but still.. and your forgetting the biggest bonus which is Fex's outside of the FOC allowing you to maximize for other HS options. Why do I want a Fex with a different weapon option? dakka fexes all the way baby!! haha

bodazoka wrote:

 xttz wrote:
Well that's... largely disappointing if true.

Bio-Blast is pretty limited as you have to use the Carnifex Ld7 for the test, meaning it will fail 50% of the time. I expect you'd also want 1 Fex with a different weapon loadout to make the most of this, meaning you're building your list around a 50% chance.

LD test on 2D6 is passing 58% of the time so fails 42% of the time, slight difference but still.. and your forgetting the biggest bonus which is Fex's outside of the FOC allowing you to maximize for other HS options. Why do I want a Fex with a different weapon option? dakka fexes all the way baby!! haha

I'm still hoping you can use the Warrior leadership for the test, as even 58% isn't great.

The reason for taking a different weapon option is to not over-saturate a target. Say you have 3 Fexes with Barbed Stranglers, it would be overkill to shoot them all at the same thing. Even 36 double-devourer shots is overkill sometimes. So to make your ~450pt unit more flexible you throw in an HVC to split fire with. This would be worth doing on LD9/10 units, not so much on Ld7.

Ignoring the FOC is nice, but if your formation costs 500+ pts it can be tough to make the most of the other HS slots.

I thought the fexes in the formation were 3 separate broods, and just splitting their own fire- I.e. firing their 2 weapons at 2 different targets. Is that incorrect?

It's not clear from that leak if the formation is 3 Carnifex broods (up to 9 of them) or 3 Fexes in a single brood. There's so many typos in there it's hard to be sure until we see the real thing.
The latter would be far more likely, though.

Split Fire allows a single model in a unit to fire all its weapons at a different target, after passing a leadership test. So you can have 1 dakkafex shooting seperately while 2 HVC fexes target a vehicle.
You can't have 3 fexes with HVC + devourer splitting off all weapons of the same type at different targets.

THis is pretty much a report of the same info from the Tyranid Hive, but a couple of points are clearer.

In summary, this is more like the first dataslate; some more usable, but not that exciting, options, if you have the models already. Subterrannean Swarm does give a good option for placing lots of raveners alongside your Prime.... but otherwise, a Comms Relay is nearly as useful.

[quote author="@zookie" source="/post/784134/thread" timestamp="1395968453"] As was promised this is what the dataslate has to offer. Like last time I am going to hold off any judgment until I have some time to think it over.

We have some new fluff ending the story with a handful of pages in all.

We got the 5 new promised formations
A Bioblast Node consists of the following units:
• 1 Tyranid Warrior Brood
• 3 Carnifex Broods
• 1 Tyrannofex
Special Rules: Bio-deluge: All units in this Formation have the Split Fire special rule. In addition, models in this Formation that are within 12" of this Formation’s Tyranid Warrior Brood can re-roll failed To Wound rolls of 1 in the Shooting phase.

A Wrecker Node consists of the following units:
• 1 Tyranid Warrior Brood
• 3 Carnifex Broods
Special Rules: Rampage of Destruction: Carnifexes in this Formation inflict D3+1 Hammer of Wrath hits instead of the usual D3. In addition, models in this Formation that are within 12" of this Formation’s Tyranid Warrior Brood can re-roll failed To Wound rolls of 1 in the Assault phase.

A Tyrant Node consists of the following units:

• 1 Hive Tyrant
• 1 Tyrant Guard Brood
• 1 Venomthrope Brood

Special Rules: Command Node: The Hive Tyrant in this Formation adds 6" to its synapse range.


A Subterranean Swarm consists of the following units:

• 1 Trygon Prime
• 1 Trygon
• 1 Mawloc
• 3 Ravener Broods
Special Rules: They Came From Below…: All units in this Formation must be placed in Reserve. Make a single Reserve Roll for the entire Formation. When the Formation arrives from Reserve, deploy the Trygon Prime first, by Deep Strike, using its Subterranean Assault special rule. Once the Trygon Prime’s final position has been established, the Formation’s three Ravener Broods immediately enter play.
Place the Ravener units so that all of their models are wholly within 6” of the Trygon Prime’s base and in unit coherency. These models cannot be placed within 1” of enemy models or within impassable terrain; if any models cannot be placed, these excess models are removed as casualties. The Formation’s Ravener Broods cannot move in the Movement phase or charge on the same turn they arrive, but can shoot or Run.
The Formation’s Trygon and Mawloc enter play via Deep Strike as usual.

A Living Tide consists of the following units:

• 1 Tyrant Node
• 1 Synaptic Swarm (see Tyranid Invasion - Rising Leviathan II)
• 3 Endless Swarms (see Tyranid Invasion - Rising Leviathan II)
• 1 Wrecker Node
• 1 Skyblight Swarm (see Tyranid Invasion - Rising Leviathan II)

Special Rules:
Fear

Synaptic Command Network: As long as the Hive Tyrant from the Tyrant Node Formation has not been removed as a casualty, then all other Synapse Creatures from this Formation that are within its synapse range add 6" to their own synapse range.
The Swarm Unleashed: As long as the Hive Tyrant from the Tyrant Node Formation has not been removed as a casualty, you can re-roll failed results when rolling to see if a Termagant, Hormagaunt or Gargoyle Brood from this Formation that has been completely destroyed is replaced (see the Endless Swarm or Skyswarm special rules in Tyranid Invasion - Rising Leviathan II).






We also got 2 new mission one is a massive 10 turn game the other is a big last stand mission
As far as art work goes it looks like nothing really new.
And that's that!

If the Fex formations actually are 3 broods rather than 3 models in a single brood, the Wrecker Node will be decent. You can send out units of 1-2 Fexes without it being overkill.

Could you explain why you don't think it will be overkill, xttz?

If it was one brood of 3 fexes, that's overkill in a lot of situations. You're looking at between 6 and 12 HoW hits at S9 before the combat even starts. That's followed up by a bunch more S9/10 hits.
Very few vehicles need more than 1-2 Fexes to destroy, with 3 you'd often be wasting attacks. It's also a ~500pt 'deathstar' unit that's fairly easy for opponents to avoid most of the time.

Having 3 broods of 1-3 Fexes is far more flexible. They can be spread out to threaten more of the board, and there's an element of target saturation with multiple units. You can also choose how strong each brood needs to be according to your opponent - I'd be more inclined toward single Fexes against Chimera variants, but 2-3 against Land Raiders or Monoliths.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Walking Nidzilla, baby

List: 2000 pts

----- HQ -------------------------------
1. Hive Tyrant* (245pts)
- 1x Hive Tyrant
- 2x Devourer with Brainleech Worms - Twin-linked
- 1x Tyrant Guard

----- Troop ----------------------------
1. Termagant Brood (120pts)
- 30x Termagant
2. Tervigon* (195pts)
- 1x Tervigon

----- Elite ----------------------------
1. Venomthrope Brood (45pts)
- 1x Venomthrope

----- Formation ------------------------
1. Tyrant Node (390pts)
- 1x Hive Tyrant
- 2x Devourer with Brainleech Worms - Twin-linked
- 3x Tyrant Guard
- 1x Venomthrope
2. Bio-blast Node (1005pts)
- 3x Tyranid Warrior
- 1x Barbed Strangler
- 1x Carnifex
- 2x Devourer with Brainleech Worms - Twin-linked
- 2x Carnifex
- 4x Devourer with Brainleech Worms - Twin-linked
- 2x Carnifex
- 4x Devourer with Brainleech Worms - Twin-linked
- 1x Tyrannofex
- 1x Thorax Swarm - Electroshock Grubs

9 MCs, with 48 T6 wounds (inc. Guards)
84 twin-linked S6 shots a turn (mostly either BS4 or re-rolling wounds)

Might be worth dropping a Fex for more Venoms or Zoans for synapse, though.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here's a (probably fairly niche) use for the Bioblast split fire bonus:

Stick a Prime in a big Dakkafex brood. Use Split Fire with the Primes' Ld10 to fire a few pot shots at something nearby. Then fire the Fexes at something else they're likely to ruin.

Your brood can now charge the closer unit because the Prime shot at it, letting you wipe out 2 targets a turn.

 xttz wrote:
Here's a (probably fairly niche) use for the Bioblast split fire bonus:

Stick a Prime in a big Dakkafex brood. Use Split Fire with the Primes' Ld10 to fire a few pot shots at something nearby. Then fire the Fexes at something else they're likely to ruin.

Your brood can now charge the closer unit because the Prime shot at it, letting you wipe out 2 targets a turn.

Yep, that's cool although corner case, of course, in that you probably aren't wanting to put your Prime out there... but still cool

Does the Hive Tyrant of the Tyrant Node must be walking?

 Tyran wrote:
Does the Hive Tyrant of the Tyrant Node must be walking?

yes according to the rules posted on the 'hive

I think the walkrant should have had such a buff to begin with so there was actually some point in taking him instead of just giving him wings.

I'm tempted to use Tyrant node simply because I have all the options, it makes the walkrant slightly better and means I can fit in another elite choice.

Overall I dislike the dataslates, they should have just frakked off the FOC to begin with for Tyranids (maybe let them take +1 of each compared to a normal army) and some of the boosts probably should have been standard.

Walking tyrant should have had 2+ armor and possibly one more wound. Then it would not have been auto pick on the flyrant every time

Bioblast looks good, but the others look kinda underwhelming.

The bioblast lets you bring dakkafexes outside the FOC, and a Tyrranofex and gives them rerolls.

Even with the split fire feature sucking, the overall benefits make it worthwhile

Interesting... so to run a Bioblast Node, you'd be looking at something like the following minimum:

3 Warriors, Venom Cannon - 100
Carnifex w/ 2 x TL Devourers with Brainleech Worms - 150
Carnifex w/ 2 x TL Devourers with Brainleech Worms - 150
Carnifex w/ 2 x TL Devourers with Brainleech Worms - 150
Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon - 205

Total - 755

That is interesting because, while it's a lot more expensive the the Living Artillery Node (which clocks in at only 390 iirc for 3 Biovores, 3 Warriors with a cannon, and an Exocrine) it's another way to get heavy support selections outside of the FOC.

I can only see myself considering it if I wanted to take Mawlocs or the like. If I want to take Carnifexes with Exocrines or Biovores, obviously I can just go with the Living Artillery Node.

Still, interesting

I see that xttz listed a Tyrannofex above without a Rupture Cannon. Do people not generally upgrade to the cannon? I had thought that was the main reason to take a Tfex.

Using him aggressively with the torrent flamer is seen as the superior option.

Ah, got it. Well, in that case the minimum to run it effectively is "only" 735

Here's a quick list with both a BioBlast Node and a Living Artillery Node:

Tyranid Prime - 125

20 Termagaunts - 80
10 Termagaunts - 40
10 Termagaunts - 40
3 Warriors, Barbed Strangler - 100
3 Warriors, Barbed Strangler - 100

Crone - 155

Mawloc - 140
Mawloc - 140

Carnifex w/ 2 x TL Brainleech Devourers - 150
Carnifex w/ 2 x TL Brainleech Devourers - 150
Carnifex w/ 2 x TL Brainleech Devourers - 150
Tyrannofex w/ Electroshock Grubs - 185

3 Biovores - 120
Exocrine - 170

Total - 1845

You could swap the Crone for another Carnifex or Mawloc, of course, for a full 9 heavy support choices . I like the possibility of this formation, personally- it doesn't seem overpowered, but it does unlock a greater variety of Nidzilla than just cramming 9 Carnifexes into 3 heavy support slots.

Edit: While I'm at it, here's another with just the BioBlast Node... still gives a whopping 7 heavy support slots. Not bad!

I'd go with Bioblast Node with 5 Fexes plus Living Artillery, 2 Flyrants and the rest termagants for 2K

 RiTides wrote:
I see that xttz listed a Tyrannofex above without a Rupture Cannon. Do people not generally upgrade to the cannon? I had thought that was the main reason to take a Tfex.

The Rupture Cannon is really poor thanks to a terrible AP value and only getting 2 shots at BS3. It would be worth taking if it was AP1/2, had more shots, or there was some To Hit bonus like Twin-linked / PE. Instead the Tyrannofex is better off used as a relatively cheap linebreaker. For 185pts you get a pretty tough unit with a 2+ save and two template weapons, one of which has Torrent. Who needs assault grenades when you can just flush entrenched units out with multiple flamers? It's also a threat your opponent cannot ignore, so it's a great place to stack Venomthrope / Catalyst bonuses to as a fire magnet while everything else advances behind it.

Even without the bonuses, Bio-blast is going to be pretty useful for just letting you ignore the FOC and spam heavy support MCs all over the board, most of which are pretty effective. About ~1300pts will get you a HT, Exocrine, T-Fex and 5 Carnifexes plus Warriors and Biovores. Spend your other ~500pts on troops, upgrades and venoms and you'll have a very flexible list.

 xttz wrote:
Even without the bonuses, Bio-blast is going to be pretty useful for just letting you ignore the FOC and spam heavy support MCs all over the board, most of which are pretty effective. About ~1300pts will get you a HT, Exocrine, T-Fex and 5 Carnifexes plus Warriors and Biovores. Spend your other ~500pts on troops, upgrades and venoms and you'll have a very flexible list.

Are you using both a Bio-blast and Living Artillery formation, or just putting all the fexes into the Bioblast formation? I'm not seeing 1300 for all that though

Still, this is a very promising formation at least for fun monster mash lists, so I'm happy about it

1035 for Bioblast with 5 fexes, 230 for Flyrant and 390 for Living artillery means you got about 1655 if you go 1850 you have 195 pts to go, if you go for 2K you have about 345 pts left.

Either way you will end up fielding a pretty powerful force

Congrats GW, you have successfully sold the old Scything Talons to Carnifexes for $14.99.

HQ) Walkrant with double devs
Troops) Vanilla Termagant + Tervigon
Elites) Venoms x 2
[Bio-blast + Living Artillery
Warrior Broods with stranglers x 2
Biovores x 3
Exocrine
T-Fex
Double-devourer Fexes x 2
HVC Fex x 1
SC Fex x 1

1850pts

8 MCs, 41 T6 wounds