[1000] - Tyranid

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**optrgrow**

Looking for opinions on this "fun" list. List is actually 1010 but the other player is fine with me 10pnts over limit.

Going to play a game tonight against 30k Iron Hands and was looking for feedback.

I am still relatively new to the game (only 3 games under my belt) so looking for some feedback.

HQ:
- Hive Tyrant - Electroshock Grubs, Twin Linked Dev w/ BL Worm x2, Wings

Troops:
Children of Cryptus
- Spawn of Cryptus
- 8x Genestealer - Rending / Scything

Tyranid Warrior Brood
- 3 Warriors w/ Devourer/Rending

Heavy Support
- 3 Separate Carnifex Broods of 1 Carnifex ea w/ 2x Twin Linked Dev w/ BL Worms

Goal here is to infiltrate objectives / back line (depending on what game we play, will be decided tonight) and Dakka everything on the field. Really wanted to bring my Crone but was way over limit so I added the warriors instead. They are pretty good though for Synapse anyway on the carns.

Opinions / ideas?

**raekone**

The list looks light. I haven't played Tyranids so I might be speaking incorrectly but don't Tyranids do well when they overwhelm?

You have some strong units but I'm not sure they will ever get a chance to participate given the marines arsenal.

Again, pure question rather than statement but for nids don't you want to sprint down the table and overwhelm....

**Relentless136**

Stealers and warriors will not last long against shooting. You are better off getting some gaunts in there

Synapse should come courtesy of a couple of Zoe's I reckon. Also if you can, try to get a venom in there to help shroud the fex's as they get in range

**pinecone77**

Yeah, I think you'll be happier if you drop one Dakkafex, and add some Gaunts. I would use two x15 Broods of Hormagaunts, myself. One more Synapse would be real handy as well.

Without an additional Synapse you'll have to use the Tyrant a lot less aggressively, as you babysit your gribblies, don't forget you can use Dominate to expand your Synapse, and Broodlords can cast it as well for emergency use.

**optrgrow**

I actually don't own any gaunts yet, trying to get my hands on some come next pay and a terv. I do have another 24 genestealers with rending. They seems to do good when I get up close but the biggest problem i've had is sometimes they get blown away before they get where they're going.

**pinecone77**

optrgrow wrote:
I actually don't own any gaunts yet, trying to get my hands on some come next pay and a terv. I do have another 24 genestealers with rending. They seems to do good when I get up close but the biggest problem i've had is sometimes they get blown away before they get where they're going.

That's not a problem that will get better.

Infiltrate helps, or a screen (with Shrouding

) The Spawn of Cryptus has a Broodlord with Stealers who has PE, and Stealth. That should make them more survivable.

As you plan your purchases, think about running "pods" of your own Tyrannocytes are pretty nice.

And a Pod full of Carnifex, or other MC gives the foe some thing to shoot at that is not a Stealer.

**optrgrow**

The long term plan was to get 2-3 tyrannocytes 1-2 tervs and about 60-80 gaunts to deal with the swarm situation

**pinecone77**

optrgrow wrote:
The long term plan was to get 2-3 tyrannocytes 1-2 tervs and about 60-80 gaunts to deal with the swarm situation

Sounds like a plan.

Personally I find that I can't really find a use for more than two though (pods) it is just too risky to put so much into reserve (I also like Mawlocs) Currently Tervigon is a little over priced for what you get, I can see including one, but more than that gets kinda pricey....

When I do use a Tervigon, I try to always Outflank it using Hive Commander.

**optrgrow**

Just as a quick update.

Played this tonight and it went fairly well against White Scars (he ended up playing them instead). He went pretty much all bikes and 2 tanks (not sure their name, still kind of new)

We played Maelstrom (the one where you can steal the objective cards). I ended up losing only barely by 3. He got some extremely lucky shots on a jink on my flyrant, up until then it was in my favor. I think in the future I would bring another Flyrant and drop the Crone ( we ended up at 1250 instead of 1000). I think the Crone only put 2 wounds out the entire game with 5 turns.

For what it cost, I didn't find the Crone was really that useful (Took Fighter Ace / Regen) -- Also took regen on my flyrant which didn't help unfortunately due to getting an unlucky shot than grounding and just pummeled from there.

Revised list which definitely would of been more successful;

2x Flyrant - TW Devourer w/ BL Worms
Children Of Cryptus
2x Genestealer Brood W/ rending
3x Tyranid Warrior in Brood w/ Dev + Rending (These performed a lot better than expected to be honest).
2x Carnifex Brood (1 ea brood) w/ TW Devourer w/ BL Worms (He got both of these off the table first turn).

I definitely feel like if I had another flyrant or even one of the Carnifex's survived I would of taken it, but that's the breaks going second turn.

**Khaine's Wrath**

2 flyrants with TLBL Devs? Well that's completely different to anything else I've ever seen before......

**warren0110**

Crones are really only good for anti tank and flyer thanks largely to high ap haywire weapons. Dual Flyrant is undoubtedly unoriginal but hey it works so go for it

**optrgrow**

Khaine's Wrath wrote:2 flyrants with TLBL Devs? Well that's completely different to anything else I've ever seen before......

warren0110 wrote:Crones are really only good for anti tank and flyer thanks largely to high ap haywire weapons. Dual Flyrant is undoubtedly unoriginal but hey it works so go for it

I understand it's not the most unique, but I am just saying in this particular situation is where it would of improved my list (that or not losing the carifex's first turn before even using them). The crone got 1 wound on a tank and 1 wound on a flier with 4 mutalids and 3 vector strikes.

Definitely could of been attributed to my unlucky rolling but I just wanted to give an update/comments on where I felt the list failed a bit, I was unaware being "original" and not being allowed to comment on where I felt my list was a bit weak was required to post here.

**pinecone77**

optrgrow wrote:
Just as a quick update.

Played this tonight and it went fairly well against White Scars (he ended up playing them instead). He went pretty much all bikes and 2 tanks (not sure their name, still kind of new)

We played Maelstrom (the one where you can steal the objective cards). I ended up losing only barely by 3. He got some extremely lucky shots on a jink on my flyrant, up until then it was in my favor. I think in the future I would bring another Flyrant and drop the Crone ( we ended up at 1250 instead of 1000). I think the Crone only put 2 wounds out the entire game with 5 turns.

For what it cost, I didn't find the Crone was really that useful (Took Fighter Ace / Regen) -- Also took regen on my flyrant which didn't help unfortunately due to getting an unlucky shot than grounding and just pummeled from there.

Revised list which definitely would of been more successful;

2x Flyrant - TW Devourer w/ BL Worms
Children Of Cryptus
2x Genestealer Brood W/ rending
3x Tyranid Warrior in Brood w/ Dev + Rending (These performed a lot better than expected to be honest).
2x Carnifex Brood (1 ea brood) w/ TW Devourer w/ BL Worms (He got both of these off the table first turn).

I definitely feel like if I had another flyrant or even one of the Carnifex's survived I would of taken it, but that's the breaks going second turn. to be more durable, the simplest "fix" is to provide some "bubblewrap"
Looks pretty good, but don't forget to put a Thorax hive on each Tyrant, that Template is just too dang usefull not to take. Warriors are a lot better than many folks seem to realize, it may be because they never use them, so they don't get to see them in action. I like to put a Cannon in each Brood though, we Nids have so few long range options.

So for example, Warrior Brood, x3, Rending Claws x2, Strangle Cannon. 110 points That is a lot of capability, with Synapse for a fairly low cost.

To get the Dakkafexen to be more durable, the simplest "fix" is to "bubble wrap" them with some cheap gaunts, you could use the Stealers, but they are too dang expensive for the job.

I suggest trying to build a "Bug star" of say the Warriors, a Dakkafex, and some Hormagaunts, and practice using them as a team. Later you can add a Venothrope, or replace the Warriors with a Malanthrope.

The gaunts provide cover saves to the Big Bug, the Big Bug provides priority protection to the gaunts, and the Synapse makes them all Fearless. The Cannon can Pin, and provide extra fire power.

Gaunts are easy to pick up, and you can drop one Brood of Stealers to free up points. Biker armies are a tough foe, so you did pretty well. Did he run Grav, or Melta? If you can, try facing both, as they "fight" differently.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

optrgrow wrote:
Khaine's Wrath wrote:2 flyrants with TLBL Devs? Well that's completely different to anything else I've ever seen before......

warren0110 wrote:Crones are really only good for anti tank and flyer thanks largely to high ap haywire weapons. Dual Flyrant is undoubtedly unoriginal but hey it works so go for it

I understand it's not the most unique, but I am just saying in this particular situation is where it would of improved my list (that or not losing the carifex's first turn before even using them). The crone got 1 wound on a tank and 1 wound on a flier with 4 mutalids and 3 vector strikes.

Definitely could of been attributed to my unlucky rolling but I just wanted to give an update/comments on where I felt the list failed a bit, I was unaware being "original" and not being allowed to comment on where I felt my list was a bit weak was required to post here.

No problem, both Tyrants and Crones tend to work best in "pairs". Crones can be hit or miss, so if you just don't get much use from them, well try a different unit. I always have exelent results from Mawloc(s) but other folks get exactly zilch from them. Such is the mysterious ways of the dice gawds.

As for originality? there are no "style points" listed in the victory conditions that I know of. Certain builds are common because they are good. And in my book Being good, is more important than Looking good.

**Khaine's Wrath**

Personally I think carnifex need a lot of points invested to make the viable. Otherwise I also find they die far too easy. Relatively upsetting considering that it's our only hacked to higher than strength 9 in mellee.

Ive also not heard great things about the crone.... I'm currently working on building a list that includes one, but I have been considering dropping it. Especially considering I'd quite like a toxocrene....

**optrgrow**

optrgrow wrote:

No problem, both Tyrants and Crones tend to work best in "pairs". Crones can be hit or miss, so if you just don't get much use from them, well try a different unit. I always have exelent results from Mawloc(s) but other folks get exactly zilch from them. Such is the mysterious ways of the dice gawds.

As for originality? there are no "style points" listed in the victory conditions that I know of. Certain builds are common because they are good. And in my book Being good, is more important than Looking good.

Just going to snip so it's not a wall of text.

I like those suggestions, I too felt if I had 2 crones or two flyrants things would of gone much better. I have actually been eying some mawlocs to add in for that very reason.

As for the WS Bikers, he had a mix of meltas and gravs, the gravs are the ones that ended up taking out the flyrant. He also got lucky with his psyker and was able to get the one that allows him to reroll misses, that one really hurt me mid game.

Khaine's Wrath wrote:Personally I think carnifex need a lot of points invested to make the viable. Otherwise I also find they die far too easy. Relatively upsetting considering that it's our only hacked to higher than strength 9 in mellee.

Ive also not heard great things about the crone.... I'm currently working on building a list that includes one, but I have been considering dropping it. Especially considering I'd quite like a toxocrene....

I can definitely see the use of the Crone but the past 2 times i've used her/him it's been rough and did not feel worth the points. I could see if I was running pairs it might be much better (Especially Vector Striking off the table) That combo was quite lovely. Mutalids so far are a meh for me, the highlight is the vector strike off table and come back in next turn.

**pinecone77**

Ah, well a mix is a sub-optimal build, of the two Grav is far more terrible to face with MCs.

So it is good practice to face it.

I suggest you proxy a pair of Mawlocs.

You can mishap your own face off, so having two works well.

At low point totals Big Bugs are dominate, my personal favorite is Tyrannofex, Acid spray, Thorax hive, Adrenal Gland for 200 points, it is dang near unkillable.

Except vs Grav.

That is what the bubble wrap is for. It also protects from Drop Pods full of Melta.

But to get the full value, you need to add Shrouding. That is why Malathropes have so many fans, it provides Shrouding, and Synapse in a durable package.

Personally I strongly prefer Hormagaunts for screening because they are lightning fast, the worst thing a screen can do is blow the run roll, and delay the Big Bug.

Hormies are Fleet, and have +3" to running.

Because the priority target is the Big Bug, they are surprisingly durable. Once you get into charge range they can be very effective.