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.

A friend and I pored over the contents of the codex tonight as he is a veteran of many Tyrannic campaigns.

We dissected the units for about three hours before committing anything to paper. here was our thought after that:

Tyranids...noooooooo

I would never spend that many points on a Hive Tyrant and thenn not give him guns.

Swarmlord feels out of place a large part of the army is going in deep no sense having a 285 beast yust slowly walking around.

Why Skyslashers? you can get a lot of Gargoyles for the same points more models is better for a tarpit unit.

Tervigon weapon layout seems pointed at different things, You want to fire cluster spines at infantry but the grubs at vehicles, probaly best to focus both weapons on one job.

That list HAS to be a joke. Flying rippers, two minimum GS broods. Solo Swarm Lord.

Amoras wrote:
I would never spend that many points on a Hive Tyrant and thenn not give him guns.

Swarmlord feels out of place a large part of the army is going in deep no sense having a 285 beast yust slowly walking around.

Why Skyslashers? you can get a lot of Gargoyles for the same points more models is better for a tarpit unit.

Tervigon weapon layout seems pointed at different things, You want to fire cluster spines at infantry but the grubs at vehicles, probaly best to focus both weapons on one job.

We discussed the Gargoyles. The fast that the Skyslashers are fearless and not really worried about anything but disruption for a round while everything advances, we decided on the Skyslashers. However, you're not wrong and I think Gargoyles would 100% go fine in this force.

I have no particular objection to giving the Tyrant a Devourer with Brainleech etc... But ultimately we decided his mortality was so pronounced... yet his utility so good, that we had to make a choice: load him down with many more points or accept that mortality and use him where and when we can. He is not a centerpiece of the strategu at all, other than insofar as his Psyker powers and his Hive Commander ability go. his Psyker powers can seerve as a "gun" depending on what he gets.

Its an unproven list. So as i mentioned we will stress test the bad boy and report back.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kwosge wrote:
That list HAS to be a joke. Flying rippers, two minimum GS broods. Solo Swarm Lord.

UNtested, but no joke. Like all armies it will see changes as it expresses its strengths against tougher things. We'll put it through its paces.

You mention the "solo SwarmLord". I am curious why you ask. The Swarmlord is not inexpensive and beleive me, my eyes went wide when i saw the price. Took some time to really digest the idea of using him.

That list HAS to be a joke. Flying rippers, two minimum GS broods. Solo Swarm Lord.

Agreed looks a bit like a joke deliberately bad list. The explanations of the choices show almost no insight and appear to be trying to get a reaction.

Its 2k and not taking advantage of that at all. It looks just like a random collection of mostly bad units. I was almost surprised not to see a Haruspex in there.

They talk about Flyrant vs Crone and don't even mention the 4+ save and how 90% of AA is Ap4 and that is the reason the Flyrant is a no brained over a Crone and they don't even give him guns so he can actually achieve something. Whilst claiming he's the AA...

A 285 point Swarmlord walking slowly up the board with no protection is just a laughably bad option. No ADL or even Bastion to dovetail with the Venomthrope.

All those things cost points. They arent free. And I dont know what you man about the Crone. The Crones 4+ was decidedly why we chose to go Tyrant over Crone.

I see where you're coming from with this list... but I think it is a bit confused. First off, I would drop the Swarmlord completely. He won't do anything in most games. Everyone knows how scary he is in combat, so no one will let him get close. And since he is walking, there really isn't anything you can do about it. A much better option for helping reserves is an ageis with a comms relay. I think it's only 75 points or something like that and 3+ w/ re-roll is better than 2+

Second, those sky slashers... the won't work. Being multi wound models at T3, the will just die to scatter lasers, or auto cannons, or assault cannons... etc... you can almost afford a max unit of gargoyles for that price. And there is no job that gargoyles won't do better.

And last for now, redundancy. A lot of stuff in this codex is a little to fragile. IMO the best solution is to have more of it. Not spamming, but just having an extra of everything.

Yeah I see the argument for Gargoyles as i said. No problem with that solution at all. They are Synapse-tastic though...

Im thinking of moving a Zo to a Tyrant guard. But we will see how it goes. More battles upcoming.

Just a quick update on its first test game.

The Hive Tyrant Vector struck a couple of units and caused some damage before going down. Overall, not any surprises there.

Swarmlord allowed the army to forage a lot more forward that some of the battle reports are showing others try. Mephiston ended up killing him but then... It's mephiston. Dan didn't enforce the Shadows in the Warp on him when he tried to pin him and so they rolled erroneously on LD 7 for the Horror. This liklely would have saved the Swarmlord but.... what can ya do. Swarmlord survived til turn 4.

Skyslashers got mephiston'd after being torrented. Dan charged mephiston instead of just blockling him which was a mistake. it gave him free kills and movement which in the end led to the Swarmlords demise. Key tactical error.

Tervigons got pretty unlucky and didn't do much more than tie up an Assault unit for a long while.

Venomthroped for the win of course. They did their thing, but the Tyranids were in combat fairly quickly because the enemy was fielding 30 Assault marines and Mephiston. if not for the Genestealers, those assault Marines would have been there even sooner.

Zoanthropes didn't do much from what i understand. neither did Hive guard, given their accuracy and the enemies lack of armor.

Biovores got taken out Mephiston style. So all in all, Mephiston on his OWN killed the Swarmlord, the Biovores, and Skyslashers. Once again proving he has a big nerf bat coming one of these days and not soon enough for my liking!

The Mawloc killed an entire Squad. Ate the whole thing. Awesome.

So to review: Mephiston. Nothing else in the army was scary. his Assault marines kept the Tyranids from reaching the IG blob and though the Mawloc took out a heavy weapons squad on its own (good times) and would have taken out another... Mephiston. he's the ultimate denial unit and he's the biggest Beatstick there is against anything short of Terminators. Even against them he may prevail out of sheer spite.

Good first test.