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jy2 wrote:Grav cents with Ignores Cover Hunter's Eye relic....hmmm....must've had bad experiences with a local player, huh?

Ironic how at one point, many Tyranid players were using Barbie because of Geoff's experiences. Nowadays, I don't see any in tournament play, at least not in our local meta.

iNcontroL wrote:
Hey thanks for asking and thanks Jim for directing me here.

I wish I could say otherwise but the Barbie is a huge liability at this point.. if it weren't for dropped d scythe units and hunters eye grav I would in earnest tell you he is a knight killer (at range, never up close) and a decent answer to the wraith knight. He made games really fun and gave Tyranids ranged punch with the option to murder in close combat if it was anything short of a D wielding something.

That all said though with the prevalence of the two things mentioned as well as Wraith knights that can become invisible you are fielding him at a cost that is severely outdated (565 is 35 points less than a Taunar...) with known weaknesses that are 100% death. A cent unit with grav./hunters eye will absolutely annihilate a barbed heirodule and there is nothing you can do other than roll an extraordinary number of 5+ FNP.

In fun games he is awesome.. I had a blast playing him. Taking him to a tourney though would be asking to be disappointed :(

yup scatterfree D scythes are as good as a reason anyone should need to put Barby on the shelf I guess... damn and mine is only just shiny.


Such a shame that there is no other options that can do what he can do... at his cost he is (or was) still only a good unit only because he is in Tyranids and smoothed over some holes while being pretty versatile, I'm really not sure what to take instead other than Carnifex spam

 jifel wrote:
I have not been on this thread in a very, very long time... Usually I keep track of new rules while I'm at school but I refrain from posting unless I'm playing. But, I have returned! Very excited to take my Nids to test in this crazy new meta we have. I should be hitting three GTs in the next four months (DakkaCon in Florida in May, ATC in July, WarGamesCon in August) but it's very interesting to see how the Tyranid "competitive list" has evolved in the current meta. They're pretty much extinct at the moment honestly, with very few players actually using them competitively. It seems though that the current "meta" nids list is Flyrants, lictors, rippers, mawlocs, and your choice of shrouded thrope. Honestly though, I am very much confused by this...

Right now, I have a limited scope on the meta, as I play in southern/central florida, as do my teammates. But, Tyranids have been actually doing fairly well lately. Besides myself, there is another good Nids player who managed to win a 50+ man GT in March. His list was essentially 5 flyrants and 3 crones with rippers/spores/venomthrope as support, and he did very well. I've also made the move to 5 flyrants, but I admittedly have been playing friendly games (with competitive players) rather than playing tournaments due to college.

Between us though, we've found that Crones are essential to a competitive Nid list. Supporting flyrants, they have been excellent at clearing objectives and providing overwhelming fliers that allow me to land late game for contesting/claiming objectives and linebreakers. I've been able to do just fine so far by using firepower to clear progressive objectives and occassionally landing crones to keep the progressive close, while rippers/lictors claim a few and I eventually catch up after shooting my opponent to pieces. I'll be back in my home turf in about three weeks, and so I'll give you feedback as soon as I do, but I think that flier heavy Nids can still do really well in todays meta.

Good to see you back in action. I'm starting the ITC tournament season off with my Daemons, but eventually, I will start playing my Tyranids again.

The last competitive Tyranid list that I brought was 5 flyrants, mucolids and 4 mawlocs but I might adjust that slightly. As a matter of fact, I am thinking about bringing back Skyblight. We'll see.

iNcontroL wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
Grav cents with Ignores Cover Hunter's Eye relic....hmmm....must've had bad experiences with a local player, huh?

Ironic how at one point, many Tyranid players were using Barbie because of Geoff's experiences. Nowadays, I don't see any in tournament play, at least not in our local meta.

Actually I never faced the hunters eye I just knew what it would do.. the no scatter d scythe combo was what did it for me and I DID face that a few times. Poor tyranids have no interceptor or anything of the like to perhaps give them a flighting chance. All we can do is bubble wrap and that is a band aid for one issue that opens up list problems vs others.. it's just a rough codex right now.

Honestly, D-scythe wraithguards and the Centstar aren't the biggest threats in the meta anymore. What you see more of are White Scars Battle Company or Skyhammer or the Wolfstar. Those are the bigger threats that a Barbie-led Tyranid army will face. Oh, and War Convocation with grav units in drop pods.

 SHUPPET wrote:
yup scatterfree D scythes are as good as a reason anyone should need to put Barby on the shelf I guess... damn and mine is only just shiny.

Such a shame that there is no other options that can do what he can do... at his cost he is (or was) still only a good unit only because he is in Tyranids and smoothed over some holes while being pretty versatile, I'm really not sure what to take instead other than Carnifex spam

If you have him, you might as well run him. He is still good depending on your meta. As a matter of fact, depending on your meta, he might be too good for some players to deal with. It all depends on how competitive the local meta is at.

One more reason why you won't see him in ITC tournaments. The ITC participants have voted to do away with the toe-in-cover for Gargantuans. Thus no more 2+ shrouded cover for Barbie just for touching some ruins.

In terms of the D-Sycthes since they can't even deathblow, they will need some really really hot rolls in ITC to just wipe out Barbie.

Roll of 1-2 nothing, 3-6 d3 wounds.

 jy2 wrote:

 jifel wrote:
*snip snip*

Good to see you back in action. I'm starting the ITC tournament season off with my Daemons, but eventually, I will start playing my Tyranids again.

The last competitive Tyranid list that I brought was 5 flyrants, mucolids and 4 mawlocs but I might adjust that slightly. As a matter of fact, I am thinking about bringing back Skyblight. We'll see.

iNcontroL wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
*snip*

Honestly, D-scythe wraithguards and the Centstar aren't the biggest threats in the meta anymore. What you see more of are White Scars Battle Company or Skyhammer or the Wolfstar. Those are the bigger threats that a Barbie-led Tyranid army will face. Oh, and War Convocation with grav units in drop pods.

 SHUPPET wrote:
*snip*

If you have him, you might as well run him. He is still good depending on your meta. As a matter of fact, depending on your meta, he might be too good for some players to deal with. It all depends on how competitive the local meta is at.

One more reason why you won't see him in ITC tournaments. The ITC participants have voted to do away with the toe-in-cover for Gargantuans. Thus no more 2+ shrouded cover for Barbie just for touching some ruins.

I really just dont see the Barby being viable. Grav, ignores cover, 2+ saves on SM/SW and triptides all just ignore the barby while blowing him off the table. Eldar d weapons roast him. He's so, so pricey. I like the idea but the points just dont fit the bill anymore, and he isnt as tough as a cheaper stormsurge with better guns and a 4++. A lot of the popular builds in my meta are Eldar (seer soucils, scattebikes, WK, and WS) Tau (triptide, stormsurges, occasional ghostkeels) and Space Marines (battleCo, and sometimes SW/DA). Throw in an occasional Crons, daemons, or admech and there's a lot net lists here. I've added a VSG to my list and its been mind blowingly useful. VSGs are real hard to drop when every single thing inside it is flying. Hiding behind the shield for a turn hides me from markers and grav, as well as soaking up tons of firepower for their points. Its honestly a great buy for fending off most of the current power builds. Since turn 2 is so valuable, Ive been able to go second with no fear of losing a flyrant turn 1. Fluff be damned, its been really useful for me. Very few armies can both drop a VSG and follow it up with tons of ignore cover, and so a VSG with venomthrope hiding behind it has served me very well.

 jy2 wrote:

If you have him, you might as well run him. He is still good depending on your meta. As a matter of fact, depending on your meta, he might be too good for some players to deal with. It all depends on how competitive the local meta is at.

One more reason why you won't see him in ITC tournaments. The ITC participants have voted to do away with the toe-in-cover for Gargantuans. Thus no more 2+ shrouded cover for Barbie just for touching some ruins.

I'm more of a "learn by doing" type player, I'm very good at recognising what is worthwhile and what has potential during the course of a game, but I suck at checking off the different things theoretically, and often theoretical opinions crumble in practice, so I don't even bother. I've had a couple of games with Barby and he was vitally good vs Crons for example, but you guys raise very good points that he is just a flat out liability, and thats not theorycraft, thats a pretty straight forward interaction. I wish there was something that performed similar to replace it with, unfortunately there really isnt






So anyway - how do you guys feel about the new SM powers? I feel like we see amazing benefits from CTA SM allies now, possibly more than anybody else does. We are the army that is slow and close range, but high damage and assaulty. Turn one assaults with Geokinesis shenanigans and a Carnifex brood, or a Dimae, or a melee Flyrant with a Guard entourage, or a SWARMLORD, perhaps move a full Bastion full of stealers in the the middle of your opponents army, god knows what else... tell me I'm missing something here and this doesn't work? I haven't had time to read much about this new power but the way it seems to read to me is that this is all very possible... in which case, wtfff


edit: its not going to be allowed in ITC because of CTA allie restrictions at least

I can say that the new SM powers have somehow managed to make me want to play 40k, with my Tyranids or not, even less. : /

 Iechine wrote:
I can say that the new SM powers have somehow managed to make me want to play 40k, with my Tyranids or not, even less. : /

i fully agree, although at least worldscape is WC3 right... i mean, doesn't make it better, but makes it hurt less at least



ITC rules also make it pretty punishing to not play SM or Eldar or someone who can ally with either of them, at this point. Maybe they'll get changed.



Still, its a stupid power to have even in regular 40k, I mean its ridiculous as far as i can tell

 Grizzyzz wrote:
In terms of the D-Sycthes since they can't even deathblow, they will need some really really hot rolls in ITC to just wipe out Barbie.

Roll of 1-2 nothing, 3-6 d3 wounds.

No, they will kill him with just average rolls.

5x shots x 2/3 wounds x 2W average = 6.7W on average

Barbie only survives if they roll below-average.

 jifel wrote:
I really just dont see the Barby being viable. Grav, ignores cover, 2+ saves on SM/SW and triptides all just ignore the barby while blowing him off the table. Eldar d weapons roast him. He's so, so pricey. I like the idea but the points just dont fit the bill anymore, and he isnt as tough as a cheaper stormsurge with better guns and a 4++. A lot of the popular builds in my meta are Eldar (seer soucils, scattebikes, WK, and WS) Tau (triptide, stormsurges, occasional ghostkeels) and Space Marines (battleCo, and sometimes SW/DA). Throw in an occasional Crons, daemons, or admech and there's a lot net lists here. I've added a VSG to my list and its been mind blowingly useful. VSGs are real hard to drop when every single thing inside it is flying. Hiding behind the shield for a turn hides me from markers and grav, as well as soaking up tons of firepower for their points. Its honestly a great buy for fending off most of the current power builds. Since turn 2 is so valuable, Ive been able to go second with no fear of losing a flyrant turn 1. Fluff be damned, its been really useful for me. Very few armies can both drop a VSG and follow it up with tons of ignore cover, and so a VSG with venomthrope hiding behind it has served me very well.

He can work if you don't go up against one of his hard-counters. It really depends what is dominant in each local meta. However, he isn't great as a Take-All-Comer's unit if you were to take him to a larger tourney (like a GT) because the chances of him encountering a counter is higher. Like Geoff said, I'd take him to smaller tourneys for fun but at a larger, more serious tournament, sorry, Barbie, but you're staying home.

VSG should be standard in almost any list unless you are playing a null-deployment style list where units are either very easy to hide from the enemy or they have a way to come in from Reserves on Turn 1.

 SHUPPET wrote:

So anyway - how do you guys feel about the new SM powers? I feel like we see amazing benefits from CTA SM allies now, possibly more than anybody else does. We are the army that is slow and close range, but high damage and assaulty. Turn one assaults with Geokinesis shenanigans and a Carnifex brood, or a Dimae, or a melee Flyrant with a Guard entourage, or a SWARMLORD, perhaps move a full Bastion full of stealers in the the middle of your opponents army, god knows what else... tell me I'm missing something here and this doesn't work? I haven't had time to read much about this new power but the way it seems to read to me is that this is all very possible... in which case, wtfff


edit: its not going to be allowed in ITC because of CTA allie restrictions at least

I wouldn't based my strategy on it. Anytime you formulate a strategy based on a variable, you run into potential disaster when that variable does not go your way. In this case, the variable is the 1 in 6 chance to get the psychic power that you want. It's fun and super-cool when it works, but chances are, you'd be more disappointed than not. Run it in casual games at your local LGS, but please do not rely on that one-trick-pony shenanigan in competitive play.

And yeah, not doable in the ITC due to no CtA allies.

But say the format does allow CtA allies, then your best bet is to get Tigurius into the list. He has the best chances of getting any single power (around 75%).

 Iechine wrote:
I can say that the new SM powers have somehow managed to make me want to play 40k, with my Tyranids or not, even less. : /

DO IT! You know you want to.

 jy2 wrote:
I wouldn't based my strategy on it. Anytime you formulate a strategy based on a variable, you run into potential disaster when that variable does not go your way. In this case, the variable is the 1 in 6 chance to get the psychic power that you want. It's fun and super-cool when it works, but chances are, you'd be more disappointed than not. Run it in casual games at your local LGS, but please do not rely on that one-trick-pony shenanigan in competitive play.

1/6 chance? I mean you take Tiggy , thats 75% chance, as you said... and you can take another detachment, or a conclave, or anything... the entirety of 40k is based on variables, and this one isnt based on 1/6 at all, just like any Psyker list built around rolling a power you dont just take 1 point of mastery and hope you roll Invis or Gate or whatever, and its not a one trick pony, you can literally do it every turn or second to that, do a bunch of other stuff as well since you rolled multiple times on a neutral table! 75% chance for a FIRST TURN CHARGE WITH MULTIPLE CARNIFEXES, after shooting 24x S6 shots each of course, on top of what your Flyrants put out... and thats literally just from taking Tigurius alone? and thats assuming you want Carnifexes, that was just an example ... you could literally pick anything! I really think you are underestimating this power mate and I think in coming weeks you are going to see how powerful this new table really is

 jy2 wrote:

No, they will kill him with just average rolls.

5x shots x 2/3 wounds x 2W average = 6.7W on average

Barbie only survives if they roll below-average.

True. I keep thinking he has 8 wounds for some reason =/

Nova is coming up and with their missions tyranids do much better by being able to chose to play end game, much harder to do with ITC with malestroms, bringing 5 flyrants to nova is good cuz they can land last turn to claim objectives.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nova open also allows cta allies and very little in the form of outright rule changes.

 jifel wrote:

 jy2 wrote:

 jifel wrote:
*snip snip*

Good to see you back in action. I'm starting the ITC tournament season off with my Daemons, but eventually, I will start playing my Tyranids again.

The last competitive Tyranid list that I brought was 5 flyrants, mucolids and 4 mawlocs but I might adjust that slightly. As a matter of fact, I am thinking about bringing back Skyblight. We'll see.

iNcontroL wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
*snip*

Honestly, D-scythe wraithguards and the Centstar aren't the biggest threats in the meta anymore. What you see more of are White Scars Battle Company or Skyhammer or the Wolfstar. Those are the bigger threats that a Barbie-led Tyranid army will face. Oh, and War Convocation with grav units in drop pods.

 SHUPPET wrote:
*snip*

If you have him, you might as well run him. He is still good depending on your meta. As a matter of fact, depending on your meta, he might be too good for some players to deal with. It all depends on how competitive the local meta is at.

One more reason why you won't see him in ITC tournaments. The ITC participants have voted to do away with the toe-in-cover for Gargantuans. Thus no more 2+ shrouded cover for Barbie just for touching some ruins.

I really just dont see the Barby being viable. Grav, ignores cover, 2+ saves on SM/SW and triptides all just ignore the barby while blowing him off the table. Eldar d weapons roast him. He's so, so pricey. I like the idea but the points just dont fit the bill anymore, and he isnt as tough as a cheaper stormsurge with better guns and a 4++. A lot of the popular builds in my meta are Eldar (seer soucils, scattebikes, WK, and WS) Tau (triptide, stormsurges, occasional ghostkeels) and Space Marines (battleCo, and sometimes SW/DA). Throw in an occasional Crons, daemons, or admech and there's a lot net lists here. I've added a VSG to my list and its been mind blowingly useful. VSGs are real hard to drop when every single thing inside it is flying. Hiding behind the shield for a turn hides me from markers and grav, as well as soaking up tons of firepower for their points. Its honestly a great buy for fending off most of the current power builds. Since turn 2 is so valuable, Ive been able to go second with no fear of losing a flyrant turn 1. Fluff be damned, its been really useful for me. Very few armies can both drop a VSG and follow it up with tons of ignore cover, and so a VSG with venomthrope hiding behind it has served me very well.

VSG is amazing. I'm using a pretty poor counts as at the moment, anyone got any suggestions for a Tyranid Bio conversion?!

 SHUPPET wrote:

 jy2 wrote:
I wouldn't based my strategy on it. Anytime you formulate a strategy based on a variable, you run into potential disaster when that variable does not go your way. In this case, the variable is the 1 in 6 chance to get the psychic power that you want. It's fun and super-cool when it works, but chances are, you'd be more disappointed than not. Run it in casual games at your local LGS, but please do not rely on that one-trick-pony shenanigan in competitive play.

1/6 chance? I mean you take Tiggy , thats 75% chance, as you said... and you can take another detachment, or a conclave, or anything... the entirety of 40k is based on variables, and this one isnt based on 1/6 at all, just like any Psyker list built around rolling a power you dont just take 1 point of mastery and hope you roll Invis or Gate or whatever, and its not a one trick pony, you can literally do it every turn or second to that, do a bunch of other stuff as well since you rolled multiple times on a neutral table! 75% chance for a FIRST TURN CHARGE WITH MULTIPLE CARNIFEXES, after shooting 24x S6 shots each of course, on top of what your Flyrants put out... and thats literally just from taking Tigurius alone? and thats assuming you want Carnifexes, that was just an example ... you could literally pick anything! I really think you are underestimating this power mate and I think in coming weeks you are going to see how powerful this new table really is

There are other variables to consider besides the having-to-get the power first.

1. What if you go up against pure MSU such as Battle Company. Fine, you get the power off and the carnifexes shoot and charge a free rhino, killing it. Next turn, those 2 fexes die a horrible death to massed Grav. The same tactic can be used by your opponent with any cheap screening units. You kill off their cheap, sacrificial unit and then they kill your more expensive and more deadly unit.

2. You go up against an alpha-strike team (i.e. Skyhammer, drop pod marines, etc.). Tiggy is either with a unit of 5 marines or a conclave with 2 other librarians. Alpha-strike team goes 1st (or 2nd since they are in Reserves), come in and kill off the marines. You could reserve them, but then, what's the point of trying to get a 1st turn charge?

3. You play against a Null-Deployment army (like drop pods or some other formations). Who are you going to charge? Then on their turn, they come in and still alpha-strike your librarians or whatever nasty unit you have.

4. Tactic can be nullified in Vanguard Strike or H&A deployment simply because your opponent can put his units far enough away.

5. Playing against a flyer-heavy army (Daemons, another Tyranid army) and you don't get 1st turn. They then take off into the air.

6. Playing against a super-deathstar. Do you really want to charge your army into a 1200-pt super Wolfstar or Imperial Knight with D-weapons striking 1st?


The build is just too situational and relies on a number of factors for it to work. If you play against the wrong army, if you don't get 1st turn (or 2nd turn against Null-Deployment armies), if you even get the power....there's just too many conditions for it to work properly. Moreover, you're taking the Space Marines just for this trick. They can't do anything else for the army like they can for Imperial armies. That is why this is a 1-trick-pony tactic. You are putting almost all of your eggs into 1 basket and other than that, your marine allies have no other synergy with the rest of your list.

Let me tell you the importance of getting the power in competitive play. Yes, Tiggy has a good chance to get the power. However, if you take this to a GT where there are usually 5-7 games, chances are that you won't get the power in at least one of your games. In tournament play, it only takes 1 game where your cornerstone tactic fails and then you are knocked out of the tournament.

For fun, yes, go for it. But if you are seriously considering this tactic for a larger tournament like a GT, forget about it. The unreliability of this tactic will drive you nuts and knock you out of the tournament.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 gdzilla wrote:
Nova is coming up and with their missions tyranids do much better by being able to chose to play end game, much harder to do with ITC with malestroms, bringing 5 flyrants to nova is good cuz they can land last turn to claim objectives.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nova open also allows cta allies and very little in the form of outright rule changes.

One guy at Nova (krootman here on dakka) took a 6-Flyrant + Daemon summoning allies list to NOVA last year. He did very well with them. He was 6-0 after 2 days and the #1 player going into the championship tournament on Day #3, where he finally got knocked out.

BTW, I believe NOVA uses Progressive objectives as well (scored at the beginning of your next turn). You can either choose to score progressively or at the end of the game.

VSG is amazing. I'm using a pretty poor counts as at the moment, anyone got any suggestions for a Tyranid Bio conversion?!

@SHUPPET

I honestly didn't convert a Tyranid one, I slapped a plasma ball on top of an imperial Bastion and put a few GS cultist models inside it... The lazy converters way of using Imperial technology!

With a list using Broodkin doing well in a decent sized tournament, it's inspired me to try and come up with one of my own. Here is my initial take.

Hive Fleet Detachment
HQ
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Troops
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
Elites
Lictor

Broodkin Formation
Full formation

Sporefield Formation
Minimum squad

Total: 1850

High pressure, with Broodkin in their face, infiltrating broodlords within Horrify distance, and either infiltrating or deepstriking spore minds. Three hive tyrants, because they are mandatory. Lictor is there as I had 50 points, and can be a nice objective holder back field.There are things I like in this list. Lots of alternative deployment options. Synapse isn't an issue, and it has thirteen warp charges. With all the upfield pressure the tyrants should be able to catch up quickly. I like the idea of Brood lords working in tandem with the Broodkin. Pinning units to stop the overwatch for the princelings and patriarch to get charges off, and cutting down on the return fire at the Broodkin.

Thoughts?

iNcontroL wrote:
Hey thanks for asking and thanks Jim for directing me here.

I wish I could say otherwise but the Barbie is a huge liability at this point.. if it weren't for dropped d scythe units and hunters eye grav I would in earnest tell you he is a knight killer (at range, never up close) and a decent answer to the wraith knight. He made games really fun and gave Tyranids ranged punch with the option to murder in close combat if it was anything short of a D wielding something.

That all said though with the prevalence of the two things mentioned as well as Wraith knights that can become invisible you are fielding him at a cost that is severely outdated (565 is 35 points less than a Taunar...) with known weaknesses that are 100% death. A cent unit with grav./hunters eye will absolutely annihilate a barbed heirodule and there is nothing you can do other than roll an extraordinary number of 5+ FNP.

In fun games he is awesome.. I had a blast playing him. Taking him to a tourney though would be asking to be disappointed :(

hey mate, I searched your tag on FLG but couldn't see anything from after October last year... would I be able to ask you how you are running lists now? What does your list look like now that you've had to replace the Barby due to meta concerns?

SHUPPET for my Void Shield Generator, I flipped a Tyrannocyte upside down (no tentacles) and stuck it upon the Bastion's three point hold for the gun.

Looks bad, II admit, but I was strapped for time. I'm trying to think of ways too build one (provided I don't get rid of my Tyranids, currently no joy playing them).

I have a Nid VSG scratchbuild currently being painted up. Some pics here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-91574-51154_Tyranid%20Vsg.html

Sorry, not the best as I'm not home this weekend so can't take any better ones. But the plan is, once its painted up, to stick crinkled orange papier mache into the "windows" near the base and stick an electric tealight under the thing so it pulses. Will be sure to share more pics once its done.

The thing is obviously much shorter and less LoS blocking than the actual model, but its got the same footprint and at least that way people cant complain about it! Its made out of part of a fan that I accidentally didnt assemble, with the maw inside a shaving foam cap and the base just a wood disc.

I'm using 4 of the tallest forge world spore chimneys to make mine. They are actually pretty spot-on for the height of the 4 columns and the width, but I don't have anything for the BLOS base or the battlements on the top (yet) as they're just separate at this point. Tough to find nowadays but they work great as a baseline.

Hey look Tyranid Codex is out of stock... *Starts rumor mill*

 Zach wrote:
Hey look Tyranid Codex is out of stock... *Starts rumor mill*

"Don't go breakin' my heart"

Benlisted wrote:I have a Nid VSG scratchbuild currently being painted up. Some pics here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-91574-51154_Tyranid%20Vsg.html

Sorry, not the best as I'm not home this weekend so can't take any better ones. But the plan is, once its painted up, to stick crinkled orange papier mache into the "windows" near the base and stick an electric tealight under the thing so it pulses. Will be sure to share more pics once its done.

The thing is obviously much shorter and less LoS blocking than the actual model, but its got the same footprint and at least that way people cant complain about it! Its made out of part of a fan that I accidentally didnt assemble, with the maw inside a shaving foam cap and the base just a wood disc.

Looks really cool man!

luke1705 wrote:I'm using 4 of the tallest forge world spore chimneys to make mine. They are actually pretty spot-on for the height of the 4 columns and the width, but I don't have anything for the BLOS base or the battlements on the top (yet) as they're just separate at this point. Tough to find nowadays but they work great as a baseline.

Sounds really cool!!

Frozocrone wrote:SHUPPET for my Void Shield Generator, I flipped a Tyrannocyte upside down (no tentacles) and stuck it upon the Bastion's three point hold for the gun.

Looks bad, II admit, but I was strapped for time. I'm trying to think of ways too build one (provided I don't get rid of my Tyranids, currently no joy playing them).

Sounds... interesting! Haha I can't envision it, but keep us updated. I guess it only has to be decent enough to counts-as anyway, I think people are pretty understanding about this 1000 units in production ever model




I'm thinking of using a Necron Tesseract Vault half sunken into the snow (I use a sunken Monolith as my bastion), except I will replace the C'Tan inside with the old metal Broodlord since they are in a very similar pose.

Here's an image of both, let me know what you guys think.




The one thing I need to do first is conjure a SOMEWHAT plausible (emphasis on somewhat, this is 40k lore after all) background to explain why my Bugs have all this Necron gak on their homeplanet. Especially since someone told me that Eldar use Nids to identify Tomb Worlds because Nids specifically avoid and go around Necron planets due to the fact that all the biomatter is already all dead... any suggestions why my Bastion is a Monolith and my VSG is an Obelisk (if I go through with this)?! Gotta make it fit somehow, all suggestions appreciated!

Bonzai wrote:
With a list using Broodkin doing well in a decent sized tournament, it's inspired me to try and come up with one of my own. Here is my initial take.

Hive Fleet Detachment
HQ
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Troops
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
Elites
Lictor

Broodkin Formation
Full formation

Sporefield Formation
Minimum squad

Total: 1850

High pressure, with Broodkin in their face, infiltrating broodlords within Horrify distance, and either infiltrating or deepstriking spore minds. Three hive tyrants, because they are mandatory. Lictor is there as I had 50 points, and can be a nice objective holder back field.There are things I like in this list. Lots of alternative deployment options. Synapse isn't an issue, and it has thirteen warp charges. With all the upfield pressure the tyrants should be able to catch up quickly. I like the idea of Brood lords working in tandem with the Broodkin. Pinning units to stop the overwatch for the princelings and patriarch to get charges off, and cutting down on the return fire at the Broodkin.

Thoughts?

Looks interesting. This type of list, either it works if your opponent cannot deal with MSU or it doesn't if your opponent can. That, plus you want to go 1st almost every time.

One suggestion is to drop the lictor for a venomthrope instead. You already have enough infiltrating units for board control. You really don't need the lictor for that purpose. Instead, I'd go with the venom to give your units some protection against enemy alpha-strike armies.

 jy2 wrote:

Bonzai wrote:
With a list using Broodkin doing well in a decent sized tournament, it's inspired me to try and come up with one of my own. Here is my initial take.

Hive Fleet Detachment
HQ
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Troops
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
Elites
Lictor

Broodkin Formation
Full formation

Sporefield Formation
Minimum squad

Total: 1850

High pressure, with Broodkin in their face, infiltrating broodlords within Horrify distance, and either infiltrating or deepstriking spore minds. Three hive tyrants, because they are mandatory. Lictor is there as I had 50 points, and can be a nice objective holder back field.There are things I like in this list. Lots of alternative deployment options. Synapse isn't an issue, and it has thirteen warp charges. With all the upfield pressure the tyrants should be able to catch up quickly. I like the idea of Brood lords working in tandem with the Broodkin. Pinning units to stop the overwatch for the princelings and patriarch to get charges off, and cutting down on the return fire at the Broodkin.

Thoughts?

Looks interesting. This type of list, either it works if your opponent cannot deal with MSU or it doesn't if your opponent can. That, plus you want to go 1st almost every time.

One suggestion is to drop the lictor for a venomthrope instead. You already have enough infiltrating units for board control. You really don't need the lictor for that purpose. Instead, I'd go with the venom to give your units some protection against enemy alpha-strike armies.

 jy2 wrote:

Bonzai wrote:
With a list using Broodkin doing well in a decent sized tournament, it's inspired me to try and come up with one of my own. Here is my initial take.

Hive Fleet Detachment
HQ
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Troops
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
Elites
Lictor

Broodkin Formation
Full formation

Sporefield Formation
Minimum squad

Total: 1850

High pressure, with Broodkin in their face, infiltrating broodlords within Horrify distance, and either infiltrating or deepstriking spore minds. Three hive tyrants, because they are mandatory. Lictor is there as I had 50 points, and can be a nice objective holder back field.There are things I like in this list. Lots of alternative deployment options. Synapse isn't an issue, and it has thirteen warp charges. With all the upfield pressure the tyrants should be able to catch up quickly. I like the idea of Brood lords working in tandem with the Broodkin. Pinning units to stop the overwatch for the princelings and patriarch to get charges off, and cutting down on the return fire at the Broodkin.

Thoughts?

Looks interesting. This type of list, either it works if your opponent cannot deal with MSU or it doesn't if your opponent can. That, plus you want to go 1st almost every time.

One suggestion is to drop the lictor for a venomthrope instead. You already have enough infiltrating units for board control. You really don't need the lictor for that purpose. Instead, I'd go with the venom to give your units some protection against enemy alpha-strike armies.

I appreciate your feedback. I had considered one. In fact, an earlier draft had a Malanthrope instead of the Sporefield. Here is my reasoning for not taking one, and going with a lictor. First, it can't infiltrate, so it would have to hang back with the flyrants. The rest of my list will be up in my opponents grill. While there is value in protecting the Flyrants, it won't be helping the rest of the army. Second, a venothrope would be the only synapse defendant unit on the table. After the first turn it will have to run up the board to catch up with the rest of the army, and the flyrants synapse. Lastly, the Broodkin will have stealth and shrouded turn 1, so the venothrope won't help there. I had 50 points left, and a lictor seemed the best bang fore my buck. Though know that I think about it, a single Zoanthrope might provide more. It could still sit on objectives, and would add 2 more warp charges. Hmm. I'll have to think on that.

Hey guys - whats the minimum amount of points to make a Void Shield worthwhile? Like, if I in an 1850 pt game and I am running 3 Mawloc's, I only have like 1350 pts left to build my army, is 100 pts spent protecting it worthwhile?

 SHUPPET wrote:
yup scatterfree D scythes are as good as a reason anyone should need to put Barby on the shelf I guess... damn and mine is only just shiny.

What about gants? I mean, bubble wrap it to keep the DS out of range. Gants are otherwise useful if they don't bring the hard counters. Also not theoretical, but a clear and known interaction displayed by guard players for several melinia.
Harder for grav cents

 SHUPPET wrote:

I'm thinking of using a Necron Tesseract Vault half sunken into the snow (I use a sunken Monolith as my bastion), except I will replace the C'Tan inside with the old metal Broodlord since they are in a very similar pose.

Having a Vault sitting on my shelf, I think the old Broodlord is a bit too small for the cage. I'd probably use a Zoanthrope instead, as it is closer in size to the C'Tan so it will fit better and as an added bonus one could argue the void shield is the result of the broken vault amplifying the Zoey's Warp Field.

 SHUPPET wrote:

The one thing I need to do first is conjure a SOMEWHAT plausible (emphasis on somewhat, this is 40k lore after all) background to explain why my Bugs have all this Necron gak on their homeplanet. Especially since someone told me that Eldar use Nids to identify Tomb Worlds because Nids specifically avoid and go around Necron planets due to the fact that all the biomatter is already all dead... any suggestions why my Bastion is a Monolith and my VSG is an Obelisk (if I go through with this)?! Gotta make it fit somehow, all suggestions appreciated!

In the 5th edition book it mentioned a tendril of Behemoth avoiding the world of Solemnace, but given the planet in question is Trazyn's museum the avoidance may have had less to do with Necrons and more to do with the weird things the nutty overlord has stashed there... Apart from that one tidbit, both of the newer Necron books have Tyranids cited as one of the biggest threats to their power, with the Charnovokh Dynasty being described as a mere shadow of what it once was after losing several holdings to the predations of the Tyranids.

Bonzai wrote:
With a list using Broodkin doing well in a decent sized tournament, it's inspired me to try and come up with one of my own. Here is my initial take.

Hive Fleet Detachment
HQ
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Troops
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
Elites
Lictor

Broodkin Formation
Full formation

Sporefield Formation
Minimum squad

Total: 1850

High pressure, with Broodkin in their face, infiltrating broodlords within Horrify distance, and either infiltrating or deepstriking spore minds. Three hive tyrants, because they are mandatory. Lictor is there as I had 50 points, and can be a nice objective holder back field.There are things I like in this list. Lots of alternative deployment options. Synapse isn't an issue, and it has thirteen warp charges. With all the upfield pressure the tyrants should be able to catch up quickly. I like the idea of Brood lords working in tandem with the Broodkin. Pinning units to stop the overwatch for the princelings and patriarch to get charges off, and cutting down on the return fire at the Broodkin.

Thoughts?

I really like this list. I kinda wish it were possible to get a few more bodies on the table, but otherwise looks good.

 Strat_N8 wrote:

 SHUPPET wrote:

I'm thinking of using a Necron Tesseract Vault half sunken into the snow (I use a sunken Monolith as my bastion), except I will replace the C'Tan inside with the old metal Broodlord since they are in a very similar pose.

Having a Vault sitting on my shelf, I think the old Broodlord is a bit too small for the cage. I'd probably use a Zoanthrope instead, as it is closer in size to the C'Tan so it will fit better and as an added bonus one could argue the void shield is the result of the broken vault amplifying the Zoey's Warp Field.

 SHUPPET wrote:

The one thing I need to do first is conjure a SOMEWHAT plausible (emphasis on somewhat, this is 40k lore after all) background to explain why my Bugs have all this Necron gak on their homeplanet. Especially since someone told me that Eldar use Nids to identify Tomb Worlds because Nids specifically avoid and go around Necron planets due to the fact that all the biomatter is already all dead... any suggestions why my Bastion is a Monolith and my VSG is an Obelisk (if I go through with this)?! Gotta make it fit somehow, all suggestions appreciated!

In the 5th edition book it mentioned a tendril of Behemoth avoiding the world of Solemnace, but given the planet in question is Trazyn's museum the avoidance may have had less to do with Necrons and more to do with the weird things the nutty overlord has stashed there... Apart from that one tidbit, both of the newer Necron books have Tyranids cited as one of the biggest threats to their power, with the Charnovokh Dynasty being described as a mere shadow of what it once was after losing several holdings to the predations of the Tyranids.

Bonzai wrote:
With a list using Broodkin doing well in a decent sized tournament, it's inspired me to try and come up with one of my own. Here is my initial take.

Hive Fleet Detachment
HQ
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Hive tyrant w/ wings, 2 tl devourers, electroshock grubs
Troops
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
5 genestealers w/ Broodlord
Elites
Lictor

Broodkin Formation
Full formation

Sporefield Formation
Minimum squad

Total: 1850

High pressure, with Broodkin in their face, infiltrating broodlords within Horrify distance, and either infiltrating or deepstriking spore minds. Three hive tyrants, because they are mandatory. Lictor is there as I had 50 points, and can be a nice objective holder back field.There are things I like in this list. Lots of alternative deployment options. Synapse isn't an issue, and it has thirteen warp charges. With all the upfield pressure the tyrants should be able to catch up quickly. I like the idea of Brood lords working in tandem with the Broodkin. Pinning units to stop the overwatch for the princelings and patriarch to get charges off, and cutting down on the return fire at the Broodkin.

Thoughts?

I really like this list. I kinda wish it were possible to get a few more bodies on the table, but otherwise looks good.

Awesome man, thats great to know it can work in the lore, and thanks heaps for the heads up on the size!

Zope's fit more thematically as well like you said, thanks for the great advice mate!

I'm thinking of a circle of zoanthropes round a tyrannocyte... they're projecting some kind of mental force shield outwards.

Dislike the necron/nid fluff in the cron codex... that makes no sense whatsoever.

zerosignal wrote:
I'm thinking of a circle of zoanthropes round a tyrannocyte... they're projecting some kind of mental force shield outwards.

Dislike the necron/nid fluff in the cron codex... that makes no sense whatsoever.

thats a great idea as well, and much cheaper. And my 6 Zoanthropes are kinda dust collectors for any time in the near forseeable future and there is no reason to believe that will change in the next dex, GW seems to think they are quite competitive as they are so meh, and if they do change, meh I can always buy more for cheaper than a Tesseract so its still money saved, and more thematic. Maybe I'll create a chanting circle for some Zopes around a raised verticle column of Nid Biomass