Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Greetings all,

I am interested in creating a Hive fleet to call my own and was thinking of developing a theme for it. What I have developed is a Hive Fleet that for whatever reason has chosen to attack and consume only the most toxic and polluted environments. (Largely due to the main opponents I play being dirty Orks and over populated Guard). But I thought it would be cool to have a background where the bugs themselves now dripped with pollutants and toxins.

Therefore I am aiming for the creatures that can have Toxic Miasma, acid blood or any of the other biomorphs that fit with the theme. However, I also believe that this list should initially have a higher armour save as they would need it to survive the polluted environments they fight in so nothing with a soft outer shell. At least initially.......

So I have put together the following, but believe me I am nowhere near satisfied with it.

Hive Tyrant - Heavy Venom Cannon, Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Miasma, Armoured Shell. (A walking, dripping depository of polluted toxic mayhem)
Tervigon - Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Miasma, Catalyst. (The mommy to all the disposable Gants that will be forced into the toxic environment to die horribly)

Pyrovores - 3 (Ready Made acidic beasties)
Venomthropes - 3
Venomthropes - 3 (Can I go past these guys with the theme I propose? NO)

Termagants - 12, Toxin Sacs
Termagants - 12, Toxin Sacs (I propose the Tervigons dropped these guys off at the beginning of the game to minimise them being dissolved by bad pollution)
Termagants - 12, Toxin Sacs
Termagants - 12, Toxin Sacs
Tervigon - Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Miasma
Tervigon - Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Miasma, Onslaught

Tyrannofex - Rupture Cannon, Toxin Sacs

So that is what I am sitting on so far. I have a bunch of tough toxin covered beasties that can give birth to a heap of little disposable bugs. So I think I am fitting into the intended theme well, but I just dont feel comfortable with the list. The Tyrant seems alone and out of place unless he and the elite choices band together to poison everything in sight.

Feedback is most welcome, thanks for reading.
Archer.

I feel like you might be shooting yourself in the foot a bit with the Pyrovores.
I'd suggest using some hive guard instead.
you may wish to consider combining your squads of termaguants for better survivability and firepower.

I would definitely add a Hive Commander to the Tyrant to out flank one of the Troop Trevigon. Was going to recommend moving onslaught to Catalyst, but it might make the Pyrovores useful, getting them down field enough to trigger I.B. while still being a threat.

Having a theme is wonderful....but there is a difference between sticking to a theme and gimping yourself

First, I would completely ditch the pyrovores and the tyrannofex. I understand they have their places, but not that great, imho

I would DEF up the number of guants in your units and get hormies in there - Termagants can only go so far...or even GSs
If you want a vore, go with bio's - longer range and still fits the theme of the army

I am with ^^ on getting Hive Guard

Like the theme, only thing is you need to combine your squads of Termagaunts for survivability. Poison sacs work really well with hormogaunts. Get them, they're awesome.

Ok, Lots to think about, thankyou,

The next generation of the list I am thinking of something like this......
(Bear with me it is over points by 65 so need to prune it somewhere)

Hive Tyrant - Heavy Venom Cannon, Hive Commander, Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Misama (Made the cut and now can send a Tervigon to outflank, what a great idea thanks)
Tervigon - Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Miasma, Catalyst (Catalyst on closer reading has become the psychic power of choice)

Hive Guard - 3 (New addition, give the Hive tyrant some company, maybe fluff wise since they have no "venom" upgrades the Hive fleet needs them briefly to crack all the bunkers the soft squishy prey keep hiding in)
Venomthropes - 3
Venomthropes - 3 (Nobody said anything against these guys and they fit the theme too well so they are staying put)

Termagants - 20, Toxin Sacs
Termagants - 20, Toxin Sacs (Lot more staying power and dice now)
Tervigon - Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Miasma, Catalyst
Tervigon - Toxin Sacs, Acid Blood, Toxic Misama, Catalyst (No CC Biomorphs but I think that should be ok, fingers crossed)
Hormagaunts - 20, Toxin Sacs, Mycetic Spore with Venom Cannon
Hormagaunts - 20, Toxin Sacs, Mycetic Spore with Venom Cannon (Quick fire gaunts shot at the enemy to die quickly and with a lot of mess, not sure about arming the Spores but why not? Means the opponenet has to think they are a threat?)

So that is where I am at after all your advice. I would love to have thrown a couple of spore mine clusters in as an early game nuisance, but I am not sure where to find the points. Any opinions on this next generation of the list?

The only CC biomorph I use on a Trevigon is Talons for the re-roll just in case it gets nailed in assault, and for hammering those back field vehicles. The look a IG players face when you walk and MC in to his edge hugging Manticores is priceless.

6 models of walking cover that is effective in CC? tThe VT was most solid theme choice in your list.

Not sure the VC is your best spore weapon, you'll have to play that one to see. Remember spores come stock with a 6" S6 assault 6 weapon. I find it fun to drop one down right behind Mech and take those 6 s6 attack to the rear armor. Does a real good job of getting attention.

Though to clear points, save 40 and drop the VCs. Since 'nid pods don't get that "half in on first turn" rule, you might think about dropping one of the pods all together and just let the gribblies charge across the board, That frees 15 points to arm you flanking trevi if you want.

Thanks for the advice, I have decided to eliminate the venom cannons altogether and rely on the 6 S6 standard weapon to cause some havoc. Will target the pods at some stationary vehicles or dug in heavy weapon operators.

Really cool idea! I like it a lot. Although, venomthropes would work nicely with a more shooting oriented army. It may not be the best the Tyranids have to offer, but something like this comes to mind

Hive Tyrant w/ 2 twin-linked devourers, acid blood, toxic miasma 230
Hive Tyrant w/ 2 twin-linked devourers, acid blood, toxic miasma 230
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Venomthropes 165
3 Venomthropes 165
10 Termagants 50
10 Termagants 50
Tervigon w/ toxin sacs, acid blood, toxic miasma, Catalyst 215
Tervigon w/ toxin sacs, acid blood, toxic miasma, Catalyst 215
Tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon 265
Tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon 265
2000

I Like the idea of a load of monstours creatures, but the lack of distractions I feel opponents can pick the army to pieces too quickly, especially a guard army, so need to incorporate some mycetic spores as distractions I feel.

I would be surprised if anything short of 3 vendettas could kill those monsters. 38 toughness 6 wounds with a 5+ cover save blanket and FNP is pretty daunting. And between all those venomthropes, acid bloods and toxic miasmas, nobody will want to assault you. The army is pretty immobile though. If you choose mycetic spores, I'd suggest putting a bunch of termagants with devourers in them

Good luck!

Drop the toxin sacs from the monsterous creatures except the tervigons. U will wound on a 2 up vs a 4 poison most likely.

I do like the tfex but I always run him with acid cannon and adrenal glands. Most opponents leave him alone when they see no rupture cannon. Plant him board center and template things to death, and that all 3 guns he can shoot. Throw fnp on him and he becomes way hard to shift. The new model is .massive so he will give cover to a cc unit that you can use if he gets assaulted. Think genestealer or dethstar. All the time spawning gants and moving to objectives

Sleep debt wrote:Most opponents leave him alone when they see no rupture cannon. Plant him board center and template things to death, and that all 3 guns he can shoot.

IIRC, monstrous creatures can only fire 2 weapons each turn. It would be nice if the tyrannofex could fire all 3 though

speedo wrote:

Sleep debt wrote:Most opponents leave him alone when they see no rupture cannon. Plant him board center and template things to death, and that all 3 guns he can shoot.

IIRC, monstrous creatures can only fire 2 weapons each turn. It would be nice if the tyrannofex could fire all 3 though

Thorax weapon can be fired in addition to the other two weapons ... Real close range carnage, shame he's 250+ pts for a BS3 weapon platform though.

Yep he gets 3 as thorax swarm gets a pass. That's why the acid and the 2 others work well. 2 templates and a large blast. But I agree it is steep price to pay for no invulnerable save and super hard to find terrain cover.

Thanks for all the great advice, enjoyed the topic and the feedback.

So far the idea for a list has morphed into:

Hive Tyrant
Tervigon
(Been the static HQ choices throughout)

Venomthropes
Venomthropes
Hive Guard
(Again these have been fairly static)

Termagants
Termagants
Hormagaunts with Mycetic Spore
Hormagaunts with Mycetic Spore
Tervigon
Tervigon
(A full complement of troop choices)

Spore MInes
Spore MInes
(Just a little distraction at the beginning of the game)

So there it is. I know I havent included upgardes, but I figured they werent all that important to include. I would have loved to fit a Tyrranofex in but it just couldnt be done as well as including the hormagaunts with the spores.

If you are still interested let me know what you think.

ruminator wrote:Thorax weapon can be fired in addition to the other two weapons ... Real close range carnage, shame he's 250+ pts for a BS3 weapon platform though.

Awesome! I did not realize thorax swarms could do that. Thanks for informing me

Archer wrote:If you are still interested let me know what you think.

Looking good! My only gripe is that hormagaunts don't fair well in mycetic spores. That's really the termagants' role (as far as troops are concerned), and they'll only make an impact if they're equipped with devourers. Otherwise, I'm thinking that 2 full units of venomthropes is too many and they're crowding your elite slots. You don't gain much from having a second unit and you could really use an extra elite slot to squeeze in another hive guard. Also, I imagine 3 tervigons would be a pain since you'd need about 45 extra termagants to accommodate them. Here's a quick suggestion:

Hive Tyrant w/ 2 twin-linked devourers & armored shell 240
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
3 Venomthropes 165
20 Hormagaunts w/ toxin sacs 160
20 Hormagaunts w/ toxin sacs 160
15 Termagants w/ devourers & mycetic spore 190
15 Termagants w/ devourers & mycetic spore 190
Tervigon w/ toxin sacs, acid blood, toxic miasma, Catalyst 215
Tervigon w/ toxin sacs, acid blood, toxic miasma, Catalyst 215
Tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon 265
2000

Good luck with your army!