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I'm still having some difficulty deciding on if I should keep the regular powers or use the book powers for most of my Tyranid psykers and if I do go with the book powers, which of the three options is the best for each one. Yesterday I went Telekinesis on my Swarmlord for Gate and OM and it worked some, my swarmlord felt faster and I destroyed a Landraider, but I got chewed up by my opponents 2 groups of long fangs. Telekinetic dome and 2 Tyrant guards kept me alive for a few turns but at the end I felt if I went all biomancy I would have been a lot more survivable. I've also had my broodlord roll 2 witchfires before, even on the biomancy table which isn't fun. I usually run my Zoanthropes with their standard powers but I keep hearing people suggest taking book powers but I'm not sure which would be best.

Let me know what you run on your Tyranid psykers and how it has worked out. Or if you know what is best for each one, feel free to share your knowledge.
Thank you

 shamroll wrote:
I usually run my Zoanthropes with their standard powers but I keep hearing people suggest taking book powers but I'm not sure which would be best.

Zoanthropes' default powers are pretty good if you drop them in a spod, because otherwise they're really high priority targets for your enemy and they will most likely be killed before you can make it into range. This is probably why people say that rolling is better.

Broodlords are really risky to roll for, for the exact reason you stated.

Otherwise, I find biomancy to be a much more offensive class of powers than TK, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's more useful. Mostly I make my decision to roll/not roll and which list to roll in based on how I want my particular psyker to perform that game, either as a utility unit or a stompy unit.

Zoans should not really keep thier book power. It was hard to kill AV14 in the first place and now they get a DtW save on top of it. Right now I am usually running mine with 1 roll for Telepathy (and defaulting) and one roll on TK. Still keep them in the pod because it turns the unit into 3 Dooms (without getting health of course).

Broodlords are situational. Generally it is better to trade in their powers unless the opponent has some really nasty characters in his units. As for getting powers that they cant use, how often did you use their powers in 5th and did it really make a difference? I generally go TK, but Bio is not bad.

Biomance on the Swarmlord is not that good. Iron Arm is great, but the rest are sort of "Meh". If you want Enfeeble, just keep Parox. Also don't forget to have other units buff him. TK give him much more tactical options.

Definitly look at your opponent and decide then.

Got to go with GloomFang on this.

My Zoanthropes now normally go 1 with codex power becuase people just don't like that Warp Lance, and 2 with TK. I almost always end up with one of them getting Gate.

I know alot of people really really want the Biomancy, but i just have not found it that useful. TP on the other hand has been very very nice with Puppet Master and Domination.

Enfeeble is strictly better than Paroxysm. Maledictions are better than PSAs (you can cast them while in cc iirc) and changing the toughness a model IDs at is huge IMO.

Also, Endurance is pretty boss.

barnowl wrote:
Got to go with GloomFang on this.

My Zoanthropes now normally go 1 with codex power becuase people just don't like that Warp Lance, and 2 with TK. I almost always end up with one of them getting Gate.

I know alot of people really really want the Biomancy, but i just have not found it that useful. TP on the other hand has been very very nice with Puppet Master and Domination.

The problem with Biomancy is that it is 1/2 is basically what Nids have now and if you want them then just keep them:

Endurance: Catalyst with a little boost from IWND.
Leech Essence: Life Leech with better Strength. Broodlords can't use it though. D3 vs 2 attacks is the other big diffrence.

So that leaves the good powers (and neither of these powers count as shooting so that is ++Good)
Enfeeble: Nice power and it lets ID T4 with S6 weapons. Not game breaking, but at least its useful.
Iron Arm: This is the want to get power. EW and Improved Str and Toughness? Helps keep big bugs alive longer and Broodlords take out mech a little better.

And the bad powers:
Hemorrhage: Might be good against hordes of T3 or T2, but other than that not really useful. Broodlords can't use it.
Warp Speed: People drool over this power, but except for Tervigons and maybe Broodlords its not that great. Fleet doesn't matter to Broodlords(they already have it), Zoans (the brood doesn't get it so its useless), or Tyrants (because they can fly or guards that don't have Fleet).
Tevifex do great with the power though because of Smash and their claws and they can actually use the Fleet rule. Otherwise your just getting (on average) an extra 2 attacks with one model. You can do more damage and at least get health from Leech.

Assail: I only take it if I get Hemorrhage, all the other powers are better.

So, what I'm getting is:
Tervigons get Biomancy
Zoanthropes get a variety of options. TK for support role, Telepathy for anti-infantry, regular powers for Anti-tank.
Broodlords are either Biomancy or TK.
Still a little fuzzy on what is best for the Swarmlord and the Hive Tyrant.

 shamroll wrote:
So, what I'm getting is:
Tervigons get Biomancy
Zoanthropes get a variety of options. TK for support role, Telepathy for anti-infantry, regular powers for Anti-tank.
Broodlords are either Biomancy or TK.
Still a little fuzzy on what is best for the Swarmlord and the Hive Tyrant.

Take TK on the Tervigon if there are flyers. OM is one of our best options. Tervions are also pretty good when you just buy Catalyst and leave it alone. Its that good of a power.

As for Tyrants, it depends on who you are fighting. Against hordes take TK and at least one roll on Telepathy (for at least Shriek). Against Mech take TK (they are going to Smash and wreck mech anyway and they might as well get some support powers). Against Elite armys like GK take Biomancy for the edge as every extra attack means more points dead.

I don't typically roll for powers on my tervigons. Some people like buying up all the powers they can but that just eats away a lot of pts on a gamble. Plus you can only use one power at a time anyways. I stick with Catalsyt only as it is so good already and why mess with a good thing.
Tyrants I usually go on the Biomancy. I love Iron Arm. The added toughness and strength is fantastic. Endurance is also a great power. YMMV

I take TK on my swarmlord, he already will destroy everything in CC so why waste time on Bio... TK dome and Gate give your army mobility and a 5+ invun save which makes him an offensive threat as well as a strong support.

I normally roll Biomancy for 2 powers on the Swarmlord in hopes for Iron Arm and Endurance if I get it than roll on TK for the other 2 powers.
For Hive Tyrants I normally just stick them to Biomancy.
Tervigons depending on how much points I have to play with and how lucky I feel I would roll on TK.
My Broodlords are exclusively TK since there is really nothing bad in there that they can get if they can use it. Since for me I normally have them running as a cheap multi-role psyker-support/assault unit
Objuration Mechanicum is great for hitting a squad before assaulting them since it causes them to reroll all 6's on the to hit and the to wound and seeing as how Tyranids dont exactly have the most cost effective answers for fliers OM can do a good job at glancing them to death.
As for Zoanthropes when I run them in the brood of 3 I normally have 2 go with codex powers cuz str 10 ap 1 lance is friggin awesome and the third one would depend on what kind of army Im playing against.

It all depends on the total army setup and the current enemies army setup.

* facing 3 separate vendetta's, I dont "pick" OM, but I will when facing a Squadron of 3.
* Swarmlord thats teleports is useless when its likely he will be shot to death. He can cast "iron arm" and "endurance" and still run every turn. 50% change he will have a good coversave (nightfight) first turn.
* etc. etc..

 skycapt44 wrote:
I don't typically roll for powers on my tervigons. Some people like buying up all the powers they can but that just eats away a lot of pts on a gamble. Plus you can only use one power at a time anyways. I stick with Catalsyt only as it is so good already and why mess with a good thing.
Tyrants I usually go on the Biomancy. I love Iron Arm. The added toughness and strength is fantastic. Endurance is also a great power. YMMV

you have to choose along the way. After every psyker got their powers you can adjust your next choice. A swarmlord with 2 or 3 tyrant guards can use them to pick one wound (look out sir) after that you can use "endurance" to give all models a "it will not die" chance. Endurance works way better for this unit than catalyst.

shogun wrote:
It all depends on the total army setup and the current enemies army setup.

* facing 3 separate vendetta's, I dont "pick" OM, but I will when facing a Squadron of 3.
* Swarmlord thats teleports is useless when its likely he will be shot to death. He can cast "iron arm" and "endurance" and still run every turn. 50% change he will have a good coversave (nightfight) first turn.
* etc. etc..

With 3 flyers I would always go full TK. Granted against a squadron it is much better (first game in 6th I dropped a full squadron the turn it showed up with 3 OMs), but what else are you going to take to kill them (if your not just going to ignore them)?

A Gating Swarmlord is no more likely to be shot to death then one that is footslogging across the board. Add in the TK Dome or Catalyst/End his unit will probably have and it's not really an issue.

 Gloomfang wrote:

shogun wrote:
It all depends on the total army setup and the current enemies army setup.

* facing 3 separate vendetta's, I dont "pick" OM, but I will when facing a Squadron of 3.
* Swarmlord thats teleports is useless when its likely he will be shot to death. He can cast "iron arm" and "endurance" and still run every turn. 50% change he will have a good coversave (nightfight) first turn.
* etc. etc..

With 3 flyers I would always go full TK. Granted against a squadron it is much better (first game in 6th I dropped a full squadron the turn it showed up with 3 OMs), but what else are you going to take to kill them (if your not just going to ignore them)?

A Gating Swarmlord is no more likely to be shot to death then one that is footslogging across the board. Add in the TK Dome or Catalyst/End his unit will probably have and it's not really an issue.

to bring down 3 separate flyers you need a lot of OM because most times you only get a glancing hit. But like I said, it depends on your army setup. If you got a swarmlord with 3 tyrantgaurd and a attached Prime, you can take a punch and dont really need "iron arm". Instead of a Prime I got a flying Hive with twin devourers and only one Tyrantgaurd with my swarmlord (I play a lot of 1750 point games). Zoantropes are the best way to get a lot of OM But also a lot of Hivegaurd will kill sum flyers. Swarmlord can also give a hivegaurd "preferred enemy" for extra reroll's.

I do think a Teleport Swarmlord with toughness 6 will be dead sooner then a +d3 toughness Swarmlord walking, but its all about the synergy between the other tyranid units. A swarmlord teleporting first turn all alone OR teleporting second turn with a flying Hive and 3 deepstriking trygons makes a lot of difference.

I don't teleport SL alone, I have a Prime and guard with him. I also don't PE my HG either with my SL as that requires me moving them upfield as my SL has to be in CC to be effective.

Honeslt I don't take HG anymore. I would rather take DL or zoans.

But it is all about synergies.