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coredump wrote:

tag8833 wrote:
Termagants can participate in the game beyond deep striking and scoring objectives. Termagants are survivable than Rippers. The advantage isn't as clear as you indicate. I would give termagants the advantage 80/20, but most people (especially those still playing Eternal War missions) go the other way.

Termagants can do a slightly better job acting as a funnel or bubblewrap. But taking broods of 10 doesn't make for much of a tarpit or bubblewrap.
And termagants can't do anything 'beyond' deepstriking, because they can't do that. Anything they do they do in place of the mobility provided by DS.
But the harshest problem, is you can't take 'just' gaunts, they have to have a synapse babysitter, so the comparison is between 2 broods of rippers, or 2 broods of gaunts *and* enough synapse to keep them under control.

Thanks to the Malanthrope you are always going to have a babysitter for Gants. You also get a survivability bump from him, and an ability to tarpit. Your MC's wonder off and do their thing, but the gants always stay with the Malanthrope for a mutually beneficial synergy.

ETA. I phrased this a little reductively. There are situations where a Malanthrope moves away from gaunts, but usually not very far.

coredump wrote:

The biggest downside is Assault 2, BS 3, AP 4. So each Hive guard hits once on average and does 2/3 of a hull point to a rhino, or 1/2 of a hull point to a Wave Serpent with 0% chance of exploding it. How eager are you to spend 165 points on a unit that can kill at most 120 points of Rhinos in a game?

That is horrible comparison. A flyrant is 230pts, and will only take out 210pts of rhinos in a game.
And you have skipped over cover saves. That same flyrant will only get .6 HP from the wave serpent once you account for the cover save. Those 3 Hive Guard will do 1.5 HP to that same wave serpent, since they ignore cover saves.
Plus hive guard can ID T4 models, and deal damage to units relying on their cover saves for protection.

How many T4 models are there with multiple wounds and a 4+ armor?

Hive guard should definitely kill 1/2 of a wave serpent a turn. They don't in my experience because the wave serpent can kill them easily, and can stay out of range if it chooses, but it is possible. A flyrant can indeed kill rhinos. It can kill wave serpents. Where it separates itself from hive guard is that it can kill other things too. It can kill the fire dragons that got out of the wave serpent (3+ dead per turn vs 0.8 for hive guard). Hive Guard are a unitasker. They kill light armor. They don't do it as well as Flyrants, but are roughly on par with Carnfexes, and Crones, and a little better than Exocrines. However, if you opponent doesn't have light armor, or if you kill it all, the Hive Guard become pretty minor contributors. Hive Guard have one job, and they aren't very good at it.

coredump wrote:

Shrikes do everything warriors do better. So if you like Warriors, you should love Shrikes.

Except provide Objective Secured, fulfill a troop requirement, have a better save, and unlock various formations.
Granted, I have switched one of my MSU warrior broods for an MSU shrike brood, but there are some downsides also.

Shrikes are going to score you more points than warriors. Loss of O.S. is more than compensated for by the increased mobility. I also argue that the increased mobility allows you to get cover more often giving them roughly equal survivability in the open field. However, the increased mobility also gives them the ability to hide in combat which warriors can't really do because they can't get there.

 Iechine wrote:
Personally Id work it to two units of two Carnifexes and not add any more bodies to the table such as gargoyles. Im not a fan of that many gants on the table especially in a tournament setting for time considerations. Two flyrants, 4 fexes and something like a Tyranofex to tank bullets
and youve got a tough list. Your current one just doesnt have a lot of punch in my opinion, so maybe a large Biovore brood has a place.

Thanks for the input The Biovores take up 120 points so leave 180 points left, how would you flesh out the rest of the points if I were to replace a Carnifex Brood?

I wouldnt replace carnifexes, Id replace gants. If I was running 1850 single CAD it'd be

2x Flyrants with devs/electro
2x Malanthrope
4x Rippers w/DS
20 Gargoyles
Crone
2x Carnifex with Devs
2x Carnifex with Devs
Mawloc (Or 3x Biovore)

Im pretty done with termagants and the like for this edition.

 Iechine wrote:
I wouldnt replace carnifexes, Id replace gants. If I was running 1850 single CAD it'd be

2x Flyrants with devs/electro
2x Malanthrope
4x Rippers w/DS
20 Gargoyles
Crone
2x Carnifex with Devs
2x Carnifex with Devs
Mawloc (Or 3x Biovore)

Im pretty done with termagants and the like for this edition.

Looks pretty good from where I am sitting. Can I ask why you don't like Termagants in 7th?

rollawaythestone wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

 SHUPPET wrote:
Hey tag how useful do you find blind? I've never even bothered experimenting with it, do you blind with every attack? I just sink a few gargs into something and let it play it outself out generally, might have to start taking blind rolls

You have to announce you are using blind. If you use blind on the charge, you give up your charge bonus, but otherwise it is the same attack (S3 ap:-). If you hit while using blind (no need to wound), then the opponent has to take an initiative test. If they fail then they are WS1 aka hitting on 5's. It is wonderful against a Riptide who is init 2. Also good against things that have init 1 because of unwieldy. For instance Thunder Hammer Space wolves.

It doesn't work so hot against higher init models like Wraith Knights, but I'm pretty sure it works on walkers, though I've never pulled it off.

Blind is pretty good. It was brutal in 6th Ed. when you had to make an Inititative check for each Blind hit. But now it's a single Initative check. What is nice, though, is that single models trade their attacks in for Blind attacks. So on the charge, you don't have to give up the whole unit's charge attacks. Instead, have 2 or 3 Gargoyles use their Blinding Venom in order to guarantee a hit and force at least one Initiative check, while the rest of the unit strikes with full attacks from the charge. The Blinding Venom is also Poison 6+ so you can kill things like Wraithknights or GUO's. Walkers are immune to Blind. Also, you mention Riptides - they are also immune to Blind due to their Black Sun Filters.

Also, i'm pretty positive that's not how it works with the Thunder Hammer / Unwieldy. Models strike at I1 - they aren't I1 for purposes of Initiative tests. For example, Typhus is I5, can deploy his Destroyer Hive at I5, or strike at I1 - he and his unit must fail their Initiative check on a 6.

I was going to mention this, and you are right, it's a characteristic test, unwieldy just affects it's combat priority not its actual Iniative.

I hadn't even payed attention to those 7th blind changes! Looks really much more usable. The way tag described them (the way it worked in 6th) came across very meh to me.

 SHUPPET wrote:

rollawaythestone wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

 SHUPPET wrote:
Hey tag how useful do you find blind? I've never even bothered experimenting with it, do you blind with every attack? I just sink a few gargs into something and let it play it outself out generally, might have to start taking blind rolls

You have to announce you are using blind. If you use blind on the charge, you give up your charge bonus, but otherwise it is the same attack (S3 ap:-). If you hit while using blind (no need to wound), then the opponent has to take an initiative test. If they fail then they are WS1 aka hitting on 5's. It is wonderful against a Riptide who is init 2. Also good against things that have init 1 because of unwieldy. For instance Thunder Hammer Space wolves.

It doesn't work so hot against higher init models like Wraith Knights, but I'm pretty sure it works on walkers, though I've never pulled it off.

Blind is pretty good. It was brutal in 6th Ed. when you had to make an Inititative check for each Blind hit. But now it's a single Initative check. What is nice, though, is that single models trade their attacks in for Blind attacks. So on the charge, you don't have to give up the whole unit's charge attacks. Instead, have 2 or 3 Gargoyles use their Blinding Venom in order to guarantee a hit and force at least one Initiative check, while the rest of the unit strikes with full attacks from the charge. The Blinding Venom is also Poison 6+ so you can kill things like Wraithknights or GUO's. Walkers are immune to Blind. Also, you mention Riptides - they are also immune to Blind due to their Black Sun Filters.

Also, i'm pretty positive that's not how it works with the Thunder Hammer / Unwieldy. Models strike at I1 - they aren't I1 for purposes of Initiative tests. For example, Typhus is I5, can deploy his Destroyer Hive at I5, or strike at I1 - he and his unit must fail their Initiative check on a 6.

I was going to mention this, and you are right, it's a characteristic test, unwieldy just affects it's combat priority not its actual Iniative.

I hadn't even payed attention to those 7th blind changes! Looks really much more usable. The way tag described them (the way it worked in 6th) came across very meh to me.

Yep my bad. I've used it on Warbosses with PKs. The only time I tried to use it on thunder cav, he made all of his init tests, so i must have played it right, because he was in that multi assault for 4 of 4 rounds.

 SHUPPET wrote:

rollawaythestone wrote:

tag8833 wrote:

 SHUPPET wrote:
Hey tag how useful do you find blind? I've never even bothered experimenting with it, do you blind with every attack? I just sink a few gargs into something and let it play it outself out generally, might have to start taking blind rolls

You have to announce you are using blind. If you use blind on the charge, you give up your charge bonus, but otherwise it is the same attack (S3 ap:-). If you hit while using blind (no need to wound), then the opponent has to take an initiative test. If they fail then they are WS1 aka hitting on 5's. It is wonderful against a Riptide who is init 2. Also good against things that have init 1 because of unwieldy. For instance Thunder Hammer Space wolves.

It doesn't work so hot against higher init models like Wraith Knights, but I'm pretty sure it works on walkers, though I've never pulled it off.

Blind is pretty good. It was brutal in 6th Ed. when you had to make an Inititative check for each Blind hit. But now it's a single Initative check. What is nice, though, is that single models trade their attacks in for Blind attacks. So on the charge, you don't have to give up the whole unit's charge attacks. Instead, have 2 or 3 Gargoyles use their Blinding Venom in order to guarantee a hit and force at least one Initiative check, while the rest of the unit strikes with full attacks from the charge. The Blinding Venom is also Poison 6+ so you can kill things like Wraithknights or GUO's. Walkers are immune to Blind. Also, you mention Riptides - they are also immune to Blind due to their Black Sun Filters.

Also, i'm pretty positive that's not how it works with the Thunder Hammer / Unwieldy. Models strike at I1 - they aren't I1 for purposes of Initiative tests. For example, Typhus is I5, can deploy his Destroyer Hive at I5, or strike at I1 - he and his unit must fail their Initiative check on a 6.

I was going to mention this, and you are right, it's a characteristic test, unwieldy just affects it's combat priority not its actual Iniative.

I hadn't even payed attention to those 7th blind changes! Looks really much more usable. The way tag described them (the way it worked in 6th) came across very meh to me.

Blind is demonstrably worse in 7th. In 6th, you could force a Initiative check for each successful Hit made by one of the Gargoyles. Thus a unit of Gargoyles using their blind could virtually guarantee the target was blinded. Now, it's only a single Initiative check no matter how many Hits occur.

Blind is basically the same, just clarified to only be one test now. As much as garg lovers everywhere wanted it to be per hit, I don't really know anyone that played it like that. It was just really poorly written.

Here's a few shots of my own custom-made Harpy. Still need to touch up the paint job, gloss the wings and some of the carapace, and flock the base (call me oldschool, I love white snow flock!). But here's what I'm looking at for now:
I apologise for the dreadful lighting!! All I have is an iPhone and nowhere in my house i can set up decent shots.

My paintwork isn't anywhere near on the level of some of the posters in this thread, hopefully my conversion perks some interest tho!

I love those wings. I have a greater daemon/mutalith voidbeast/thing I made that uses those.

Just though I would share this light report on an OOE lead nid list. I got a nice little 500pt game sunday against necrons, and ran OOE for fun. He turned out to be quite the beast.

Nid's:
HQ:
OOE 220

Elite
Zoe 50
Zoe 50

Troops
10 Hormie 50
10 Hormie 50
10 Termigaunts
10 Termiguants


Necrons: (actually may have have a point advantage)

HQ:
Obyron

Troops
6 Warriors
8 immortals

HVY
Annilation barge


We played Purge the Alien, used a 4x4 board do to the small point level. I got Catalyst and Horror on the Zoes. First Turn was night fighting. Nid's when First

I deploy OOE in the middle with a clear charge line, on both flanks went 1 Zoe and a brood of Termis and Hormies with good cover on the right side.

Turn 1: Nids charged down field using the cover of night fighting. Zoes each got off Dominion and the one got off Catalyst on itself and OOE. Every one ran, with both Hormies getting a 6 inch run and OOE a nice 4" run. Necrons held ground and poured fire in too OOE from the immortals and warriors. only netted one wound which was FNPed a way. The barge fired in to the hormies hoping to arc in to both the guants and Zoe. Lost 4 Hormies but not much else.

Turn 2: Nids close to charge range on the left and crest the right flank cover to prepare for a turn 3 charge. OOE closes on the Barge. Hormie guants close on the Immortalls and Obyron. Zoe 1 perils on Warp lance taking a wound, and passes Dominon. Zoe 2 fails catalyst and gets dominon. OOE charges the barge and gets 1 HoW glance, then 8 hits and pens in assault. Barge goes boom. Hormigants attempt the charge, come up short and loose 2 to overwatch. Imortals in turn attempt to ghost walk away but scatter next to OOE, inflict 2 wounds in the shooting phase. Warriors kill left Zoanthrope.

Turn 3: OOE regens 1 wound, passes IB, and Adaptive mutation kicks in. Left Hormiganst out of Synapse fail IB and eat each other killing 1. Left Termigaunts just in range of right Zoe dominion. Move everyone closer to necrons. Here I make a mistake and drop catalyst on the right Termigants instead of the hormigants, and kick off dominion. Termigants fire at immortals and wiff, right ones fire at warriors and wiff. Left Termigants charge immortals, and opponent makes the mistake of overwatching them. they come up short on the charge do to losing 3. OOE however makes the charge unmolested. Gets 3 HoW to wound 3 Immortals but make all saves, then gets a total of 9 attacks on the Immortals with 3 misses. 4 immortals fall. Oberyon wiffs, the immortals hit but fail to wound. Necrons fail moral check and are swept by OOE. On the right, the warriors mange to overwatch the hormigants down to 3, which manage to get killed in the assault after doing nothing. Warriors fall back and gun down lead element of termigaunt advance.

Turn 4: Nids turn full force on remaining Warriors. Zoanthrope warp blasts one done, termigaunts fell 2 more. The remains 4 overwatch the Termies out of charge distance. 2 Warriors get back up and fall back killing more guants.

Turn 5: We called the game as there was now way the warriors would survive turn 5, and we both had to get home.

Nids win 6-2

OOE was as always fun to play, did the most killing in the game with the Barge, 8 immortals, and Obyron. Had the opponent focused down on OOE, he probably would have won the game as I had nothing else to reliably threaten the Barge.

Out of curiosity, can we use the apocalypse formations for 'Nids from the Valedor book in standard 40k, much like escalation? I would like to hear the opinion on the Eater Swarm.

 Unyielding Hunger wrote:
Out of curiosity, can we use the apocalypse formations for 'Nids from the Valedor book in standard 40k, much like escalation? I would like to hear the opinion on the Eater Swarm.

No. Apoc formations are not like normal 40k Formations. They can only be used in Apoc games.

 SHUPPET wrote:
Here's a few shots of my own custom-made Harpy. Still need to touch up the paint job, gloss the wings and some of the carapace, and flock the base (call me oldschool, I love white snow flock!). But here's what I'm looking at for now:
I apologise for the dreadful lighting!! All I have is an iPhone and nowhere in my house i can set up decent shots.

My paintwork isn't anywhere near on the level of some of the posters in this thread, hopefully my conversion perks some interest tho!

Very nice!

 Wilson wrote:

NOTE: I know that the key to playing skyblight for many players is to "forget" about instinctive behavior and hope your opponent doesn't call you on it, but I would never advocate that, nor would I do it intentionally.

Is that a well known thing? and I thought I was alone! haha RATS! MOD delete these posts! The other players are on to us!!!

WTF, this is total bull.
You can be fairly relaxed regarding Instinctive Behaviour if most of your Units are LD10, you don't just throw Instinctive behaviour out the window though nor have I come across anyone that does.

Now I have forgotten my rippers before...and so has everyone else at the table. But it was never maliciously. All they do is backfield objective camp for me.

Can't help it if my basecoat is dark gray and everything on the table is dark gray too...

 SHUPPET wrote:
Here's a few shots of my own custom-made Harpy. Still need to touch up the paint job, gloss the wings and some of the carapace, and flock the base (call me oldschool, I love white snow flock!). But here's what I'm looking at for now:
I apologise for the dreadful lighting!! All I have is an iPhone and nowhere in my house i can set up decent shots.

My paintwork isn't anywhere near on the level of some of the posters in this thread, hopefully my conversion perks some interest tho!

I really like the pose and base combo. Good stuff, Shuppet!

 L0rdF1end wrote:

 Wilson wrote:

NOTE: I know that the key to playing skyblight for many players is to "forget" about instinctive behavior and hope your opponent doesn't call you on it, but I would never advocate that, nor would I do it intentionally.

Is that a well known thing? and I thought I was alone! haha RATS! MOD delete these posts! The other players are on to us!!!

WTF, this is total bull.
You can be fairly relaxed regarding Instinctive Behaviour if most of your Units are LD10, you don't just throw Instinctive behaviour out the window though nor have I come across anyone that does.

I think its a joke broseph. ( at least I was joking!)

barnowl wrote:
Just though I would share this light report on an OOE lead nid list. I got a nice little 500pt game sunday against necrons, and ran OOE for fun. He turned out to be quite the beast.

Nid's:
HQ:
OOE 220

Elite
Zoe 50
Zoe 50

Troops
10 Hormie 50
10 Hormie 50
10 Termigaunts
10 Termiguants


Necrons: (actually may have have a point advantage)

HQ:
Obyron

Troops
6 Warriors
8 immortals

HVY
Annilation barge


We played Purge the Alien, used a 4x4 board do to the small point level. I got Catalyst and Horror on the Zoes. First Turn was night fighting. Nid's when First

I deploy OOE in the middle with a clear charge line, on both flanks went 1 Zoe and a brood of Termis and Hormies with good cover on the right side.

Turn 1: Nids charged down field using the cover of night fighting. Zoes each got off Dominion and the one got off Catalyst on itself and OOE. Every one ran, with both Hormies getting a 6 inch run and OOE a nice 4" run. Necrons held ground and poured fire in too OOE from the immortals and warriors. only netted one wound which was FNPed a way. The barge fired in to the hormies hoping to arc in to both the guants and Zoe. Lost 4 Hormies but not much else.

Turn 2: Nids close to charge range on the left and crest the right flank cover to prepare for a turn 3 charge. OOE closes on the Barge. Hormie guants close on the Immortalls and Obyron. Zoe 1 perils on Warp lance taking a wound, and passes Dominon. Zoe 2 fails catalyst and gets dominon. OOE charges the barge and gets 1 HoW glance, then 8 hits and pens in assault. Barge goes boom. Hormigants attempt the charge, come up short and loose 2 to overwatch. Imortals in turn attempt to ghost walk away but scatter next to OOE, inflict 2 wounds in the shooting phase. Warriors kill left Zoanthrope.

Turn 3: OOE regens 1 wound, passes IB, and Adaptive mutation kicks in. Left Hormiganst out of Synapse fail IB and eat each other killing 1. Left Termigaunts just in range of right Zoe dominion. Move everyone closer to necrons. Here I make a mistake and drop catalyst on the right Termigants instead of the hormigants, and kick off dominion. Termigants fire at immortals and wiff, right ones fire at warriors and wiff. Left Termigants charge immortals, and opponent makes the mistake of overwatching them. they come up short on the charge do to losing 3. OOE however makes the charge unmolested. Gets 3 HoW to wound 3 Immortals but make all saves, then gets a total of 9 attacks on the Immortals with 3 misses. 4 immortals fall. Oberyon wiffs, the immortals hit but fail to wound. Necrons fail moral check and are swept by OOE. On the right, the warriors mange to overwatch the hormigants down to 3, which manage to get killed in the assault after doing nothing. Warriors fall back and gun down lead element of termigaunt advance.

Turn 4: Nids turn full force on remaining Warriors. Zoanthrope warp blasts one done, termigaunts fell 2 more. The remains 4 overwatch the Termies out of charge distance. 2 Warriors get back up and fall back killing more guants.

Turn 5: We called the game as there was now way the warriors would survive turn 5, and we both had to get home.

Nids win 6-2

OOE was as always fun to play, did the most killing in the game with the Barge, 8 immortals, and Obyron. Had the opponent focused down on OOE, he probably would have won the game as I had nothing else to reliably threaten the Barge.

Nice, I hadn't realised you can fit in that many models at 500!! How well did the Zoanthropes perform with their Psychic Powers?

General question for all, are Harpy's worth taking if you take some Biovores? Are Hive Crones worth taking by themselves (I am running Two Flyrants and two units of Gargoyles, but can condense them to find room for another Crone).

 SHUPPET wrote:
Here's a few shots of my own custom-made Harpy. Still need to touch up the paint job, gloss the wings and some of the carapace, and flock the base (call me oldschool, I love white snow flock!). But here's what I'm looking at for now:
I apologise for the dreadful lighting!! All I have is an iPhone and nowhere in my house i can set up decent shots.

My paintwork isn't anywhere near on the level of some of the posters in this thread, hopefully my conversion perks some interest tho!


]

Okay dude... that is cool. Can you give the low-down on what models/bits you used for it? (if already in a thread, a link would suffice.)

SHUPPET that is so awesome !!!

Nice conversion.

I'm wondering if a tyrant's head would be more appropriate to the body due to the size. In the neck area with the carnifexes head joins with the dragon body looks somewhat unproportional. Maybe some green stuff will help with that?

Otherwise, a stellar job!

You might be right on that one jy2, I hadn't noticed that actually. Might just be the bad photo, I was really disappointed with how little of the Harpy itself I could catch in that actual photo, I'll have a look when I get home and see what it needs, thanks for pointing that out. I'll also give an in depth explanation of how i made him for you too coredump. The conversion was actually super easy (if I can do it anyone can ), and made up entirely of GW parts, costing about the same or a bit less than the official model, and that's including the fact that I had to pay multiple eBay sellers international shipping (being Australian), so Euros and Americans may find this even cheaper than I did.

I'm very anti-supportive of the new Nid release, and although I bought an Exocrine, I just couldn't justify buying that horrible new FMC dual kit they released.

The Harpy was intended to be a somewhat dynamic pose of him gliding down and Sonic Screeching. When I've finished basing and highlighting him, adding his Venom Cannons, and take some better shots I'm sure he'll look a lot better and a lot less like "generic Tyranid FMC". I know this because I've already done it once with my Crone who is fully finished and I'll also share some pics of. He looks a lot better, and I'll share the process of making (also super simple). Expect it up within the hour.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


So I'm home now - Jy2 I looked at the model first hand, and slightly out of proportion might be correct, but far less than that photo would make it seem. Heres one from a different angle that might give you a better perspective:


The neck may be a little fat, but I'm planning on highlighting some blue fleshy bits ala gills or possibly adding some frills ala komodo dragon, to fit with the theme of them flaring up with the Sonic Screech. In a few weeks when parts arrive I'll share a finished shot at taken with a proper camera on a proper setting and get further feedback.

For now, here's some shots of my Hive Crone:

Base and Gloss unfinished, but worth sharing for the clarity I achieved with the shot:




Heres a Finished shot, with Tentaclids:



Fuzzy shot of them all together with one of my Flyrants, for sizing reference if you were curious.


Following this post up with a quick reference build, shouldn't take a minute.

First thing I started with for both models was a WHFB Terrorgheist. Won't take you long to spot the similarities

These things sell for 10 pound less than the Crone model on the English Games Workshop, not sure about U.S. but I'm sure it's still a save. I'd recommend checking eBay, where I found them even cheaper and ordered both mine at once off the one seller.

From there, the important bits are:

- your Heads - I used Tyrannofex head for my Harpy as it's what I had laying around and I personally really like it for the theme of the screeching Harpy, but as mentioned by Jy2, a Hive Tyrants head may look a little more in proportion. As for the Hive Crone you could try to jam that Drool Cannon down the throat of a Hive Tyrant head, I just used the standard Crone head for it. You can just use what you have left over from kits by all means, the important thing is putting it together on the top of the Terrorgheist body. This requires a little bit of judging and holding parts against each other for sizing, but I basically just used a modelling knife to drill a hole in the base of the neck where the top of the Terrorgheist spine can slide through, than cut the terrogheist spine/further hollowed out the head as I saw fit to make it look natural. I was pretty rough with it, someone with ANY amount of patience or modelling skill could easily do a lot better than me (because past creativity, I really am pretty impatient and very average at the modelling side of this hobby lol)

- your ScyTals - for this I just took small Claws from the Mawloc kit, and stuck them just before the ribcarapace starts. These you will not have lying around, but luckily there is usually an abundance of them on eBay: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/40K-Tyranid-Trygon-Mawloc-Mawloc-Scything-Talons-Small-Bits-/380947633655?pt=Games_US&hash=item58b23f95f7&_uhb=1 You could I guess try the medium ones if you wanted them to be more prominent and, I just went with the small ones to keep it fairly lowkey, personal choice, did consider both. Wouldn't do the large ones (these ones are the standard MC size Scything Talons) but it might work if you mount your guy on a flying stand.


As for the tail on my Hive Crone (to represent Vektor Strike) which I just now realise I didn't really provide a clear shot of, although you can see it from the third photo in my last post, all the bits are actually from a Haruspex tongue believe it or not. This is what I had lying around and I felt looked really cool, you'll also have a bunch of cool spiky/Tyranidfleshy bits left over from it. I can't really do much further explanation than that, if you have the pieces you'll be able to recognise what I did if you want to cut a tail up to emulate me, and I'm sure if you wanted to do it differently you could easily find multiple ways with all those bits http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WARHAMMER-40K-BITS-TYRANID-EXOCRINE-HARUSPEX-HEAD-MOUTH-OF-HARUSPEX-/131174198098?pt=Games_US&hash=item1e8a976b52&_uhb=1 . I had them lying around from my Exocrine kit as I imagine a lot of others do.

On the back of the Harpy, I just carved out the inside of the saddle with a modelling knife and flattened the edges, then painted it the standard colour of my tyranid fleshy bits and nobody would suspect a thing, just looks like fleshy protusions/tenctacle/membrane. I'm planning to mount the Venom Cannons from the Harpy kit on there (turned upside down) but I'm still waiting for them to arrive. The Harpy's Tongue is merely just the horn from one of the demons or whatever it is, inside the Terrorgheist kit.


The zombie dragon and the Terrorgheist each have two different spinal poses (as you can see by my two flyers), the rest however is pretty dynamic. The only things I really did different from the kit instructions was not add the fleshmuscle attachment bits that go between the wings and the side carapace, this allows for much more control over the wing posing, but you may not need it if you prefer to pose how the kit suggests, and I put the wings on opposite arms so the membrane curve is facing the same way that the rest our FMC wings do while in the flight position.


As for the basing, well, you probably have your own ideas in mind, if not, look up a basing tutorial lol, trust me you don't want my advice on it. I just scoured eBay for fishtank ornaments with sensible enough dimentions to fit on a flying stand LOL, sprayed them black, and then just drybrushed them a bunch of shades of grey and threw some PVA Glue + White flock on it. My best skill at modelling miniatures is creatively disguising the fact that I actually have very little skill, lol.




But anyway, as I said, it's all fairly simple stuff and mostly made capable by the awesome Terrorgheist model looking so naturally Nid-esque. I recommend anyone not impressed with the poorly conceived, bland, stupid looking Tyranid FMC kit released this year give this a go. It will also only cost you around about the same amount or less anyway. It will look great on a flying stand trust me, especially if you use Hive Tyrant legs, I just prefer to give my Flyers dynamic flying bases rather than the clear plastic spear of the heavens provided for flyer kits.

A little Hive Guard update from a game yesterday.

I played 2K vs Eldar and Necrons who both had 1K I brought 3 Hive guard as primary anti-tank. Thank god I threw in a Dakkafex as well.
Turn 1: only 1 hive guard makes it into range of anything (Anhillation barge AV13). 1 hit, 0 glances / pens
Turn 2: all three hive guard get back armor on a Ghost Ark (AV 11), 2 hits, 1 Pen. The pen took down the shield, so a dakkafex could fire at side armor 11. 4 Pens none saved by Jink.
Turn 3: all three hive guard fire at the Anhillation Barge (AV 13), 4 hits, 0 glances / pens.
Turn 4: no vehicles in range. Shot at some Necron warriors, 2 hits, 1 wounds, make the resurrections. Ended on 4 because store was closing.

Final comparison:
Hive Guard: 1 hull point
Dakkafex: 4 hull points, 4 Necron warriors (sweeping a unit of 20 with an attached lord).

Hive Guard who should (on paper) have a chance to kill 50% of a vehicle a turn managed instead averaged 8.3% of a vehicle per turn. They just aren't near as good in game as they are on paper.

It is the same issue as Zoenthrope's anti tank. With so few shots (not TL), the chance of them having 0 effect is much, much higher than a Dakkafex, Dakkaflyrant, or even a Crone. You can't use averages to judge their effectiveness because they are too likely to do nothing at all. They might work well 1 game, and then leaving you hanging the next.

tag8833 wrote:
A little Hive Guard update from a game yesterday.

I played 2K vs Eldar and Necrons who both had 1K I brought 3 Hive guard as primary anti-tank. Thank god I threw in a Dakkafex as well.
Turn 1: only 1 hive guard makes it into range of anything (Anhillation barge AV13). 1 hit, 0 glances / pens
Turn 2: all three hive guard get back armor on a Ghost Ark (AV 11), 2 hits, 1 Pen. The pen took down the shield, so a dakkafex could fire at side armor 11. 4 Pens none saved by Jink.
Turn 3: all three hive guard fire at the Anhillation Barge (AV 13), 4 hits, 0 glances / pens.
Turn 4: no vehicles in range. Shot at some Necron warriors, 2 hits, 1 wounds, make the resurrections. Ended on 4 because store was closing.

Final comparison:
Hive Guard: 1 hull point
Dakkafex: 4 hull points, 4 Necron warriors (sweeping a unit of 20 with an attached lord).

Hive Guard who should (on paper) have a chance to kill 50% of a vehicle a turn managed instead averaged 8.3% of a vehicle per turn. They just aren't near as good in game as they are on paper.

It is the same issue as Zoenthrope's anti tank. With so few shots (not TL), the chance of them having 0 effect is much, much higher than a Dakkafex, Dakkaflyrant, or even a Crone. You can't use averages to judge their effectiveness because they are too likely to do nothing at all. They might work well 1 game, and then leaving you hanging the next.

That's pretty much my experience with Hive Guard. Some games great, some games it's as if I didn't even have them. I want them to be a solid choice, but they just aren't. 6 BS3 shots (not twin-linked) is very unreliable, like you said. I do like being able to shoot through walls though

I tend to only take them when I am building for TAC with Swarmy.

I've seen that preferred enemy on them gives their odds much more favor...not to mention Onslaught.

tag8833 wrote:
A little Hive Guard update from a game yesterday.

I played 2K vs Eldar and Necrons who both had 1K I brought 3 Hive guard as primary anti-tank. Thank god I threw in a Dakkafex as well.
Turn 1: only 1 hive guard makes it into range of anything (Anhillation barge AV13). 1 hit, 0 glances / pens
Turn 2: all three hive guard get back armor on a Ghost Ark (AV 11), 2 hits, 1 Pen. The pen took down the shield, so a dakkafex could fire at side armor 11. 4 Pens none saved by Jink.
Turn 3: all three hive guard fire at the Anhillation Barge (AV 13), 4 hits, 0 glances / pens.
Turn 4: no vehicles in range. Shot at some Necron warriors, 2 hits, 1 wounds, make the resurrections. Ended on 4 because store was closing.

Final comparison:
Hive Guard: 1 hull point
Dakkafex: 4 hull points, 4 Necron warriors (sweeping a unit of 20 with an attached lord).

Hive Guard who should (on paper) have a chance to kill 50% of a vehicle a turn managed instead averaged 8.3% of a vehicle per turn. They just aren't near as good in game as they are on paper.

It is the same issue as Zoenthrope's anti tank. With so few shots (not TL), the chance of them having 0 effect is much, much higher than a Dakkafex, Dakkaflyrant, or even a Crone. You can't use averages to judge their effectiveness because they are too likely to do nothing at all. They might work well 1 game, and then leaving you hanging the next.

Yeah, I've pretty consistently recommended replacing Hive Guard with Zoeys. Not because Zoeys replace the HG shooting, but because they can do useful things without providing any shooting. The fact that you save points is just icing on the cake.

But no need to read too much into one game though. I do agree with the basic principle, the more dice you roll, the more "average" the out comes ...

Law of Large Numbers...got to love it

What are your thoughts of Exocrine instead of 3 Hive Guards?

BS4 standing, 6x S7 Ap2? Against AV12 I think it's better than the Hive Guard.