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Perhaps I am a terrible general. I'd accept that, and attempt to learn from my mistakes. But in my experience with Flyrants, it generally doesn't go well. That is, me being the commander of said Flyrants.

It feels like they are too fragile without Iron Arm or Endurance.

It is a tough pill to swallow that if they fail their grounding test, they are pretty much auto wounded if they have no FnP from Endurance, effectively making them have 3 wounds.

It feels like their shooting, with TL Devourers is good, but without an AP value to the shot, that it isn't as effective as it should be.


So, ultimately, I feel like they are lacking. Maybe I play them wrong, perhaps I'm too aggressive with them. So, help me out!! How do you play your Flyrants to get the most bang for your buck? Assuming they have 2X TL devs and wings. Thanks!

I prefer the Swarmlord personally, but if 1 Flyrant isn't cutting it, try 2. You also need other threats to make them survive, such as Mawlocs, lots of Tervigons, Ymgarl Stealers, Doom, etc.

I typically field two Flyrants, or none at all. Most games they are accompanied by 2-3 tervigons, a trygon, ymgarls and a doom. I typically play at around 2k points. Once the flyrants are focused down, i feel quite weak in what my offensive abilities are. But the flyrant in and of itself feels weak.

There are always netlists that say, take 2 flyrants and profit!! But that isn't my experience. They are ALWAYS focused first, as soon as i move them out from LoS terrain, or cover, they are blasted away. I can't seem to keep these guys alive.

I played a game the other day against a competitive csm/necrons list, and lost both flyrants by the end of turn 2. That made me a sad panda.

Flyrants are tough without luck, but all you need s reserves to make them tough. Just hide them until your reserves come in, then swoop up for an overwhelming strike. If they go up alone, they'll die. But throw something else up there and it gets tough.

Flyrants take skill to use effectively, but once you figure it they're quite powerful. You need to play cautiously with them early game, stick to cover, strafe the opponent and attack targets on the flanks. You don't want to get aggressive with them until you can support them with other units.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/537502.page
This game is a good example of what happens to flyrants which overextend themselves in tandem with poor rolling.

My two flyrants also get killed most times but the still get the job done even as a very expensive bullet magnet. Their to fragile to just fly towards an enemy army, but imagine this:

You deploy your 2 tervigons(maybe outflank one if you can afford it), 2 flyrants and 3 mawlocs. Tervigons get their endurance or iron arm on, flyrants fly of the table and mawloc's burrow. Next turn you got 2 flyrants and 3 mawloc's coming unto the table and also a doom (pod) and 2 groups of ymgarl genestealer on a 2+ (Hive commander). I won a lot of games with first blood, a tervigon on my objective and a few mawlocs contesting and getting linebreaker. Who cares that the hive tyrants are dead!

But tyranids cannot afford a lot of mistakes...

1: You need to pick the right psychic powers (sum times its better to try to teleport a tervigon instead of making him tough, you need to get in their face!)
2: Deployment makes or breaks an tyranid army.
3: Reserves: First let the mawlocs do their thing and let them move units towards each other (doom) or wreck transport and use a "run" move to get them in cover. The can also clear a piece of terrain to make sure that those ymgarl genestealers can be placed. Always let the hive tyrants fly over terrain. If the drop the can still claim a 5+ coversave if not more.
4: Go for the mission!

And then you still got to play it smart:

- Against daemon flying circus I once made a big blob of my army with an extra amount of spawned guants to make sure that those flying MC's and helldrakes could not vector strike because their was no way to place the model behind my army.
- I once used "warp speed" (biomancy) to add a d3 Initiative to make sure that my tervigon survived a Jaws of the world wulf.
- I use "smash" with my mawloc's if i dont want the enemy unit to lose combat. Next turn I use all of my attacks and then use 'hit and run' if their still locked.
- Once made a conca line with ymgarl genestealers and assaulted true cover. First ymgarl genestealers got killed but the enemy needed to pile in towards the ymgarl in the back and got so close that my termaguants could assault next turn.
- faced a wave serpent list and gave him first turn with nightfight. I deployed waaaay back in a corner with 2 flying hives and 3 mawlocs and the two guant units behind a ruin(tervigons in reserve). With nightfight I got a 2+/3+ coversave and only a few wave serpents could shoot at them. My first turn I flew of the table and let those mawlocs burrow. I only got a few guants on the table and his second turn he could shoot at nothing!

Hope it helps!

Ive never faced nids as Tau because my friend left before i had enough to actually field them on their own.

But as an ork player Flyrants pissed me off. Unless i just spammed lootas or he was dumb enough to let Ghazzy get ahold of one i never, ever killed them. I hated it because i had to bring 30+ lootas and that makes me an orky gunline. WTF are orks doing in a GUNLINE!? lol

(Yes he always had ironarm i suspected him of being a douche because of other situations he tried to pull, but i didnt care because i figured i could use the practice to deal with the worse case scenario)