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 tetrisphreak wrote:
Please say you magnetized swarmlords arm sockets so you can run him as a standard hive tyrant with 2+ armor sometimes...

sadly nope :( didnt even dawn on me to do it when i was building him, cause i got him before i posted on this forum. and swarmlord just looked so BA on paper, i couldnt not make him. my next model will be fully magnatized for weapons, and wing swaps as a Hive Tyrant. plus now i have 2 cannons so when i go to make my hive tyrant i can actually field him duel wielding

He is BA. I really enjoy using him and ever since the firestorm redoubt came out I haven't taken dual flyrants at all.

The Swarmlord is one of my favorite models because I know without a doubt that everything he fights he WILL kill. Every time. It's a guarantee.

Now, shooty armies certainly are a threat to him. However, they typically are comprised of models that gargoyles, gaunts and other creatures can kill. In those games, the Swarmlord charges up the middle and takes fire all game because, in the end, no one model is critical to a Tyranid force.

If your opponent isn't bringing flyers or DE, then you don't need the Firestorm redoubt and the Swarmlord will be a powerful addition. If your opponent does bring DE or Flyers, then he'll be a little less useful but, in the end, I don't think you should feel like you wasted your money at all.

now how does the firestorm redoubt work with tryanids i didnt think they could use fortifications?

We can't manually fire any of the weapons... but the redoubt fires itself. No one can manually fire the weapons. There is a order of operations for what it targets (it fires at flyers first, then the closest enemy unit) and it has 4 TL BS 2 icarus lascannons on it. If you intercept with it, obviously you choose what it intercepts. It's really been effective for me.

It also is an AV 14 building with a firepoint. Now, it's a big long window but because it's just a single firepoint only two models can fire out of it. I like to hide my biovores in it personally.

I've also placed it backwards so the doors face my opponent, deployed hive guard in it, disembarked 6", cast onslaught, ran D6" and surprised my opponent with a 31" to 36" salvo with my hive guard.

It's fun. People aren't used to playing against it so often times they'll play the whole game trying to destroy it when, in all actuality, it's just a piece of terrain with a biovore in it.

so had a good weekend got to play nids, lost both my games but given a couple more turns i would have won from tabling! lol purge the alien is realllly hard for nids to win.

My question now is, does swarmlords attack have any AP? or is that what smash is for? had a hard time killing space marine bike squads with him and the lack of AP to quantity of hits, first game tho i attacked a ork bike squad and inflicted 7 wounds and he failed all his invuls (thanks to rerolls! haha)

While the Swarmlord's Bonesabres are AP -, the Smash special rule makes all of his close combat attacks (not just Smash attacks, which is a mistake I see way too often) AP 2.

 PrinceRaven wrote:
While the Swarmlord's Bonesabres are AP -, the Smash special rule makes all of his close combat attacks (not just Smash attacks, which is a mistake I see way too often) AP 2.

Exactly, this is very important to remember. MC have Smash, all attacks with units that have the smash rule are resolved at AP2. You don't necessary have to use SMASH S10 (half your attacks) just any attack you do has the smash rule.

 PrinceRaven wrote:
While the Swarmlord's Bonesabres are AP -, the Smash special rule makes all of his close combat attacks (not just Smash attacks, which is a mistake I see way too often) AP 2.

No, IIRC Swarmlord's Bonesabers Ignore armor. It should say that right in the entry. Bonesabers and Boneswords have never been given an AP value. They just simply ignore armor.

The bone sabre entry doesn't mention anything about ignoring armour. They do ignore armour based on the fact they are AP2 due to smash and that is the best armour save out there.

roxor08 wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
While the Swarmlord's Bonesabres are AP -, the Smash special rule makes all of his close combat attacks (not just Smash attacks, which is a mistake I see way too often) AP 2.

No, IIRC Swarmlord's Bonesabers Ignore armor. It should say that right in the entry. Bonesabers and Boneswords have never been given an AP value. They just simply ignore armor.

Yes, Boneswords ignore armour, but they're still AP -. Bonesabres, interestingly, don't have this rule. My guess is because the Swarmlord is the only unit with Bonesabres and the opponent will never be able to get an armour save against the Swarmlord's attacks anyway Cruddace decided not to put it in.

stormoffires wrote:
So picked me up a swarmlord and a battleforce.

So I have no idea yet if i want a swarmy army or meganids. honest a nice inbetween seems cool.

I have a hard time figuring out what i am going to use in the army to crack open AV14... let alone armour in general.

lots of people seem to say dont take Carnifex with cannons, but that 48" str 10 AP 4 assault 2 cannon seems really good for cracking AV14.

Tervigons seem awesome, but if i am going that way i will want atleast 2-3 of them... and if i do that i need more Termagants.. which will burn a serious hole in my wallet.. lol so what are your guys thoughts?

(my background right now is a 5k pts necron and 10k pts wolves armies)

Bear in mind that you will have a new codex in three months.

Smash
All of the close combat attacks, except
Hammer of Wrath Attacks, of a model
with this special rule are resolved at AP 2
(unless it's attacking with an AP I weapon).
Additionally, when it makes its close
combat attacks, it can choose to instead
make a Smash Attack. If it does so, roll
To Hit as normal, but halve its Attacks
characteristic. A Smash Attack also doubles
the model's Strength (to a maximum
of 10) for the purposes of that Attack.
Furthermore, a model making a Smash
Attack can re-roll its Armour penetration
rolls, but must abide by the second result.

so if i understand this right, because swarmlord has Smash special rule all of his attacks minus hammer of wrath are resolved at AP2, and if i wanted i can half my attacks for double str?

 PrinceRaven wrote:

roxor08 wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
While the Swarmlord's Bonesabres are AP -, the Smash special rule makes all of his close combat attacks (not just Smash attacks, which is a mistake I see way too often) AP 2.

No, IIRC Swarmlord's Bonesabers Ignore armor. It should say that right in the entry. Bonesabers and Boneswords have never been given an AP value. They just simply ignore armor.

Yes, Boneswords ignore armour, but they're still AP -. Bonesabres, interestingly, don't have this rule. My guess is because the Swarmlord is the only unit with Bonesabres and the opponent will never be able to get an armour save against the Swarmlord's attacks anyway Cruddace decided not to put it in.

Oh! That's right. The AP - must be so they don't have a bonus against anything with an AV.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

stormoffires wrote:

Smash
All of the close combat attacks, except
Hammer of Wrath Attacks, of a model
with this special rule are resolved at AP 2
(unless it's attacking with an AP I weapon).
Additionally, when it makes its close
combat attacks, it can choose to instead
make a Smash Attack. If it does so, roll
To Hit as normal, but halve its Attacks
characteristic. A Smash Attack also doubles
the model's Strength (to a maximum
of 10) for the purposes of that Attack.
Furthermore, a model making a Smash
Attack can re-roll its Armour penetration
rolls, but must abide by the second result.

so if i understand this right, because swarmlord has Smash special rule all of his attacks minus hammer of wrath are resolved at AP2, and if i wanted i can half my attacks for double str?

And yes. That is correct. That is because he's a Monstrous Creature.

Sweet mother of pearl i fought all my battles wrong! lol let everyone take their armour saves when i didnt smash. oh well great to know now.

How do yall feel about Tyrannofex? I was thinking of having the fleshborer hive on him and march him with my swarms of termagants up the middle, makes for a great T6 distraction and infantry killer. (i only ask because i have a magnatized Tervigon so i could run the Tyrannofex)

stormoffires wrote:
Sweet mother of pearl i fought all my battles wrong! lol let everyone take their armour saves when i didnt smash. oh well great to know now.

How do yall feel about Tyrannofex? I was thinking of having the fleshborer hive on him and march him with my swarms of termagants up the middle, makes for a great T6 distraction and infantry killer. (i only ask because i have a magnatized Tervigon so i could run the Tyrannofex)

Killing infantry isn't our problem, its dealing wit multitudes of vehicles. He also cost a ton of points, is excruciatingly slow, and has no delivery system avaliable to him. I still use a DakkaFex to fill this roll. Putting a Fex somewhere it doesn't belong in your opponents backfield is still a threat he MUST deal with, or suffer from his awesome 12 S6 TL shots, and base S9.

 g0atsticks wrote:

stormoffires wrote:
Sweet mother of pearl i fought all my battles wrong! lol let everyone take their armour saves when i didnt smash. oh well great to know now.

How do yall feel about Tyrannofex? I was thinking of having the fleshborer hive on him and march him with my swarms of termagants up the middle, makes for a great T6 distraction and infantry killer. (i only ask because i have a magnatized Tervigon so i could run the Tyrannofex)

Killing infantry isn't our problem, its dealing wit multitudes of vehicles. He also cost a ton of points, is excruciatingly slow, and has no delivery system avaliable to him. I still use a DakkaFex to fill this roll. Putting a Fex somewhere it doesn't belong in your opponents backfield is still a threat he MUST deal with, or suffer from his awesome S9 base.

fair enough, i dont own any fexs yet, but did enjoy watching my Trygon prime unleash hell in the back with some termigants jumping out of his hole haha. and my ygmarl geanstealers ive got lots of back field mayhem.

stormoffires wrote:

 g0atsticks wrote:

stormoffires wrote:
Sweet mother of pearl i fought all my battles wrong! lol let everyone take their armour saves when i didnt smash. oh well great to know now.

How do yall feel about Tyrannofex? I was thinking of having the fleshborer hive on him and march him with my swarms of termagants up the middle, makes for a great T6 distraction and infantry killer. (i only ask because i have a magnatized Tervigon so i could run the Tyrannofex)

Killing infantry isn't our problem, its dealing wit multitudes of vehicles. He also cost a ton of points, is excruciatingly slow, and has no delivery system avaliable to him. I still use a DakkaFex to fill this roll. Putting a Fex somewhere it doesn't belong in your opponents backfield is still a threat he MUST deal with, or suffer from his awesome S9 base.

fair enough, i dont own any fexs yet, but did enjoy watching my Trygon prime unleash hell in the back with some termigants jumping out of his hole haha. and my ygmarl geanstealers ive got lots of back field mayhem.

T-Fex is practically unkillable versus some opponents. I am by no means saying he isn't good or even GREAT under the right circumstances, only that we have better options for what the T-Fex excels at. But who am I to say not to play it if you think its good or cool?

 g0atsticks wrote:


T-Fex is practically unkillable versus some opponents. I am by no means saying he isn't good or even GREAT under the right circumstances, only that we have better options for what the T-Fex excels at. But who am I to say not to play it if you think its good or cool?

atm im not worried about cool or good but what has proven effective. good and cool will come with the new codex :-p

stormoffires wrote:

 g0atsticks wrote:


T-Fex is practically unkillable versus some opponents. I am by no means saying he isn't good or even GREAT under the right circumstances, only that we have better options for what the T-Fex excels at. But who am I to say not to play it if you think its good or cool?

atm im not worried about cool or good but what has proven effective. good and cool will come with the new codex :-p

Not to derail the thread further, but the game won't be fun for long if rule of cool isn't the first rule you play by.

 g0atsticks wrote:


Not to derail the thread further, but the game won't be fun for long if rule of cool isn't the first rule you play by.

haha you miss understand me, rule of cool applies to my space wolves, i love them and they are freaking awesome! plus the amount of time i pour into their paint scheme haha i have to love them to put 19-21 colors on 1 marine.

necrons are my win at all costs army right now.

and nids well so far there isnt a model that i dont think is awesome looking so for the purposes of my wallet which is already crying with the tervigons and termagants lol i am looking for effective units. i cant go out and buy every unit like i have with my wolves and necrons, i have to be picky and if i am going to be picky i would like to hear what others have found effective and enjoy playing with.

like the DoM i played him the other day, and so did another nids player, his was destroyed first turn mine lived on for 2 turns before a rocket to the face insta killed him. personally i dont find much fun in doom, hes a very large gamble for a meh result and for lack of a model i probably wont field him again. I have greatly enjoyed my swarmlord he has yet to die, also i love seeing swarms of dudes running around. biovvores concept seems cool but application is meh so i may not field them again till i get a full squad of them. hive gaurd rocks! love my ygmarl geanstealers and gargolyes are fun. the volume i put on the table is awesome.

with my current set up i have roughly 300 points of play room to figure out what to fill it with i have open slots on all my FO so i was either gonna bring another tervigon or somthing big and mean. I'm wanting a large wound pool to fill this last 300 points thats not easy to kill but isnt cannon fodder. cool factor really shines for me in what is effective and produces good numbers. i am very much a numbers guy so everything comes into factor for me. ive been playing since 1998 just feel off the band wagon for a bit when i moved and no one played it. back on it now over the last year.

If you think the DoM is a meh model you haven't played him enough. He is hands down one of the most broken units in the game. I have had games where the DoM has sucked well over 500pts of units in a single phase. Some games he won't do much but he will always draw a lot of fire to distract from the other creatures coming their way. Most of the time he is at 10 wounds first turn forcing S8 weapons to come his way. Sure you can get unlucky but youwill quickly realize after more than a single time of using him he is not meh.

Doom should always be in a Pod to get him reliably into soul sucking range.

stormoffires wrote:

 g0atsticks wrote:


Not to derail the thread further, but the game won't be fun for long if rule of cool isn't the first rule you play by.

haha you miss understand me, rule of cool applies to my space wolves, i love them and they are freaking awesome! plus the amount of time i pour into their paint scheme haha i have to love them to put 19-21 colors on 1 marine.

necrons are my win at all costs army right now.

and nids well so far there isnt a model that i dont think is awesome looking so for the purposes of my wallet which is already crying with the tervigons and termagants lol i am looking for effective units. i cant go out and buy every unit like i have with my wolves and necrons, i have to be picky and if i am going to be picky i would like to hear what others have found effective and enjoy playing with.

like the DoM i played him the other day, and so did another nids player, his was destroyed first turn mine lived on for 2 turns before a rocket to the face insta killed him. personally i dont find much fun in doom, hes a very large gamble for a meh result and for lack of a model i probably wont field him again. I have greatly enjoyed my swarmlord he has yet to die, also i love seeing swarms of dudes running around. biovvores concept seems cool but application is meh so i may not field them again till i get a full squad of them. hive gaurd rocks! love my ygmarl geanstealers and gargolyes are fun. the volume i put on the table is awesome.

with my current set up i have roughly 300 points of play room to figure out what to fill it with i have open slots on all my FO so i was either gonna bring another tervigon or somthing big and mean. I'm wanting a large wound pool to fill this last 300 points thats not easy to kill but isnt cannon fodder. cool factor really shines for me in what is effective and produces good numbers. i am very much a numbers guy so everything comes into factor for me. ive been playing since 1998 just feel off the band wagon for a bit when i moved and no one played it. back on it now over the last year.

I personally like a squad of Zoanthropes to grant synapse with a stupid 3+ invuln, S10 Ap1 Lance, and 2W. Yeah they are T4, but if they are shooting their S8 at the Zoans, then they aren't at your MC. Zoans easily deal with what could one of your worst problems, AV14.

Devilgaunts are pretty good, they have durability and toughness because of synapse. They put out an ample amount of shots for their price. Delivered by a Spore somewhere dumb could be an effective asset.

Biovores I consider meh. I always choose boys over toys, but what other model rewards you for missing? I personally don't use them, I prefer hive guard; light infantry shouldn't be a problem for ANY nids list.

 g0atsticks wrote:

Devilgaunts are pretty good, they have durability and toughness because of synapse. They put out an ample amount of shots for their price. Delivered by a Spore somewhere dumb could be an effective asset.

what are devilgaunts?

Termagants with devourers.

Tyrannofex: For 250 points you could get a Trygon Prime with Toxin Sacs or a Tervigon with 3 powers and Toxin Sacs plus a unit of Termagants to make it a Troops choice, or a unit of 20 devilgants in a Mycetic Spore with a T/L Deathspitter or any other number of things that are vastly superior to a Tyrannofex.
Doom of Malaysia: Drops in, eats a couple of souls, gets blown to bits "Oh, well it sucks, it barely killed anything". The point of the Doom isn't killing things, though occasionally it will do a lot of damage, the point is disruption and distraction. All those shots being directed at the Doom weren't being directed at your MCs plus your opponent was probably forced to move units out of position to avoid more casualties on their shooting phase.

 PrinceRaven wrote:
a Tervigon with 3 powers .

how do you get a Tervigon with 3 powers O.o they only get 1

stormoffires wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
a Tervigon with 3 powers .

how do you get a Tervigon with 3 powers O.o they only get 1

You buy Catalyst and Onslaught...

 PrinceRaven wrote:

stormoffires wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
a Tervigon with 3 powers .

how do you get a Tervigon with 3 powers O.o they only get 1

You buy Catalyst and Onslaught...

And I find both the powers to massively under rated. To bad nids' will be going the random power way in a month or so.

barnowl wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:

stormoffires wrote:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
a Tervigon with 3 powers .

how do you get a Tervigon with 3 powers O.o they only get 1

You buy Catalyst and Onslaught...

And I find both the powers to massively under rated. To bad nids' will be going the random power way in a month or so.

I think we all know how the Hive Mind feels about rolls on the Biomancy Table. Favorably.