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HQ:
Swarmlord
3x Tyrant Guard w/ Crushing claws

Elites:
3x Pyrovores

3x Zoanthropes w/ Neurothrope upgrade

Troops:
3x Warriors w/ Barbed strangler

3x Warriors w/ Barbed strangler

20x Hormagaunts

20x Hormagaunts

20x Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

20x Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

Heavy Support:
Sporocyte w/ Venom cannons

Tyrannofex w/ Rupture cannon

Carnifex w/ Heavy venom cannon, Twin-link Devourers

 Aurelian wrote:
HQ:
Swarmlord
3x Tyrant Guard w/ Crushing claws

Elites:
3x Pyrovores

3x Zoanthropes w/ Neurothrope upgrade

Troops:
3x Warriors w/ Barbed strangler

3x Warriors w/ Barbed strangler

20x Hormagaunts

20x Hormagaunts

20x Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

20x Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

Heavy Support:
Sporocyte w/ Venom cannons

Tyrannofex w/ Rupture cannon

Carnifex w/ Heavy venom cannon, Twin-link Devourers

With Swarmy you should be trying to DS as much as possible....

I am Not a fan of Rupture Cannon...I prefer my Tyranofex with Acid, Thorax Hive, and Adrenal for 200.

I think I'd only run two Guard, and spend the points elsewhere, I don't know if the Venoms are justifiable... I think my strongest suggestion is to add a second (Flying) Tyrant.

Would three Tyrant Guard to soak wounds be a sufficient alternative to a Tyrannocyte? The Swarmlord may be foot-slogging, but running across the table and can force the opponent to maneuver rather than mid-game assault from DS.

Thorax Hive? Is that one of the Thorax upgrades?

Yes, a thorax hive is the thorax upgrade. Usually people go for electroshock grubs for anti tank. You have an interesting build which actually supports the walk across the board. Your choice on your big guys supports this too, with long range firepower. However, your pyrovores seem out of place. Tyrannocytes totally make these guys playable, but they struggle achieving anything if they are lumbering across the board. I would drop them for some more little gribblies or try to find a way to buy a tyrannocyte for them. I like the former option, just because it seems to follow your theme with swarmy in there.

The Pyrovores provide counter-Alpha strike support while they advance in the back end of the swarm where they will humbly sacrifice themselves. Since the MCs, Zoanthropes, and Synapse will be priority targets, I anticipate the Pyrovores will be mostly ignored and arrive relatively intact.

Ok. I understand how they could be effective against deep strikers and drop pods. Is that common in your meta? I dont come up against it much, but if you do, then i get you including them.

 Aurelian wrote:
Would three Tyrant Guard to soak wounds be a sufficient alternative to a Tyrannocyte? The Swarmlord may be foot-slogging, but running across the table and can force the opponent to maneuver rather than mid-game assault from DS.

Thorax Hive? Is that one of the Thorax upgrades?

Yes several Big Bugs can get it, 10 points for a Template of S5 AP5 Haywire, or a Shredding, Rending s3, or a poison 2+...You'll almost always want the Electrogrubs.

Swarmy gives a +1 for reserve rolls so you should use that as much as you can If you take a Swamy. Otherwise you might just as well take a "normal" walk'rant and save a bunch of points.

HQ:
Old One Eye

Elites:
3x Zoanthropes w/ Neurothrope

Troops:
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20 Termagants w/ 5x Devourers
20 Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

Fast Attack:
N/A

Heavy Support:
Sporocyte w/ Venom cannons
Tyrannofex w/ Rupture, Electroshock
3x Carnifexen: All with T-L Devourers; 2x Heavy venom cannons, 1x Crushing claws

Three units of Synapse. Understanding the risk with either the Synapse units get targeted for priority and/or Old One Eye. The entire army advances and begs for good Ld rolls when Synapse fades, and hopefully still hits like a hammer.

What are your thoughts for Old One Eye? All his extra points for not much more in survivability than a basic carnifex, slightly more offense, and not much in the form of army support. His LD 8 for IB is not substantial enough to justify the points hike.

I would break up your carnifexen into two separate units. Keep the two with the VCs together and separate the one with the claws into his own squad. This negates the negative effects of IB on the lone fex, and you have the room currently. I normally do not like VCs on fexes, but your army is very slow and lacks any ranged threat to vehicles whatsoever.

I think you are going to have a problem applying pressure to any gunline army. You lack the speed to run across the field with your foot-based army, and I do not think you have the durability to make it across the board with your swarm. Your only weapons to reach out and inflict damage early are your VCs, which honestly are not going to do too much on BS 2 and 3 platforms, a few Warp Blasts/Lances, and a DSing Tyrannofex. I like the Tyrannofex a lot, but I think he needs more help applying early pressure or your army is going to get separated off and destroyed before you can reach them. Replacing Old One Eye with a Flyrant will help with applying early pressure, but having only one runs the risk of him getting focused down. So replacing him with a walking Tyrant would be better. It is a tougher Synapse provider that can contribute ranged pressure with a BS 4 VC, provide additional warp charges, and fits with your theme too.

Lastly, with this build, you NEED a Venomthrope. Adding at least one will increase your survivability exponentially. Maybe drop a few Horms for them. I have had some success with a gribbly swarm build using venom support for the Shrouded.

The problem with both builds is that they are very slow. You have very few serious ranged threats, and very little in the way of first turn firepower. The T-Fex with a Rupture Cannon is a huge points sink that will maybe kill a Rhino over the course of an entire game with its shooting (keep in mind T-Fex is BS3, so it misses with half its shots. This is why everyone puts Acid Spray on it - BS3 doesn't matter for templates).

Plus, you are going to get picked apart before you are in range. Smart opponents will kill the warriors first (they are easy targets, being large models and therefore hard to hide in terrain, and also only T4 and thus bait for anything S8 or greater). Once they fall, which could happen on turn 1, you will only have the Zoans, which will force you to cluster your troops around them - negating the Horms movement advantage. If you are serious about running this list, you need a Venomthrope in there (or better yet, a Malanthrope) in order to mitigate the first turn damage.

The Carnifexen also suffer from lack of focus. They should go all in with their weapon choices - either CC focused or double devourers. I know the kit only comes with one set of devourers, but it is not that hard to make more using the extra devourers from the Warrior kits - that's what I did. If you are running CC Fexen, keep them cheap and put them in a brood, with one equipped with Crushing Claws that hangs out in the back, with two cheap fexes (all with Adrenal Glands for the Fleet bonus) in the front to tank wounds. Honestly, though, double devourers is the way to go, as a Dakkafex is almost as much of a threat to vehicles as a CC fex just from the D3 Hammer of Wrath hits at S9.

If you want more specific tactica, you may want to look for Bigpig's article on playing the Trapdoor Spider, which you can find on the Tactics page at the Tyranid Hive (it was also posted on BOLS a few weeks ago if you want to sort through a few pages looking for it).

Let me know if you have any questions. Tyranids is my main army, I'll be happy to help.

Not much to add...I would lose one Brood of Termagants, and spend the points elsewhere...If you have the figs of course.

Two Venothropes/Malanthropes would be a huge increase in durability. I think you should specialize with the Carnifexen, either CC, or Dakka....a second Pod would also be real useful...

Is the Tyranofex glued? Because if not, I've never been happy with the rupture, I normally run Acid, it is cheap, and effective. You have the Warriors to run Formations, The BioBlast(?) and the Wrecker Nodes seem like good ones to look at...

I think a "Bugstar" of Wrecker Node, Hormagaunts, and a Veno would make a terrifying center, add in a Pod of Tyranofex, and a Neuthrope Pod, and you have a pretty good "Tsunami"...

With only one Pod, the Tyranofex can form a second "Star" with Hormies, a Veno, and a Warrior Brood. Slower, but more dependable, and it forces the foe to choose which targets to try to slow down...

My lists were using a Sporocyte, not a Tyrannocyte. Not a DS pod, but a Synapse node to provide a wider spread. I don't currently have the formations such as Wrecker, Bio-blast, or those in Leviathan other than what was leaked. The following brings the list to 1625:

HQ:
Hive Tyrant w/ Maw-claws, Stranglethorn, Electroshock, Adrenal
3x Hive Guard w/ Adrenal

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Electro, Twin-linked Devourers x2

Elites:
1x Venomthrope
1x Venomthrope

Troops:
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20 Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex w/ Acid spray, Electroshock
Carnifex w/ Twin-linked Devourers x2

One of the Leviathan formations, such as Hypertoxic or Skytyrant would certainly fit.

 Aurelian wrote:
My lists were using a Sporocyte, not a Tyrannocyte. Not a DS pod, but a Synapse node to provide a wider spread. I don't currently have the formations such as Wrecker, Bio-blast, or those in Leviathan other than what was leaked. The following brings the list to 1625:

HQ:
Hive Tyrant w/ Maw-claws, Stranglethorn, Electroshock, Adrenal
3x Hive Guard w/ Adrenal

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Electro, Twin-linked Devourers x2

Elites:
1x Venomthrope
1x Venomthrope

Troops:
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20 Termagants w/ 5x Devourers

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex w/ Acid spray, Electroshock
Carnifex w/ Twin-linked Devourers x2

One of the Leviathan formations, such as Hypertoxic or Skytyrant would certainly fit.

Looks pretty good! You can form up a couple of "Bugstars" and use the Walking Tyrant with a screen as your center. That leaves the Winged Tyrant to go wild. You can probably tune it a little here and there, but the best way to do that is from play.

Down the road, one of the Formation is (if I recall) a "Tyrant Node" of a Tyrant (must walk) 3 Tyrant Guard, and a Veno. Special rule: +6" Synapse, can't remember anything else... Just one more thing to consider...

I believe the "Wrecker Node" is Warrior Brood (no Cannon) x3 Carnifexen (no cannon), Special Rule +1 HOW and re-roll ones...maybe to Wound/Pen? this was on a Dataslate...number 2 or 3 I think...

"Bio-Blast" was Warrior Brood (Cannon), x3 Carnifexen (Cannon) and a Tyranofex (cannon) re-rolls to hit, and wound pen I think (likely re-roll ones) as long as within the Warrior's Synapse. Expensive, but you have all the parts for this anyway.

Bioblast actually grants split fire to the carnifex and warriors broods. Not that exciting, but it does grant the re-roll to wound rolls of 1 (not for penetration, unfortunately). Split fire is kind of handy if you are bringing Dakkafexes, though, as they have a tendency to overkill things, so being able to pick a second target is nice.

 Asmodas wrote:
Bioblast actually grants split fire to the carnifex and warriors broods. Not that exciting, but it does grant the re-roll to wound rolls of 1 (not for penetration, unfortunately). Split fire is kind of handy if you are bringing Dakkafexes, though, as they have a tendency to overkill things, so being able to pick a second target is nice.

Thanx for the assist.

Are these Formations still considered usable for Apocalypse only? (like taking units from the Campaign Supplement books such as Valedor, Damocles, etc.)

I may just stick with non-Dataslate formations and play casually with them until a new Codex is released years from now...

You can use the formations in regular games now.

Army list updated to 1,850 pts. Lictor will prepare fresh cookies for the arrival of the Devilgants in their "soccer van" along with the "soccer mom" Flyrant.

HQ:
Hive Tyrant w/ Maw-claws, Stranglethorn, Electroshock, Adrenal
3x Hive Guard w/ Adrenal

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Electro, Twin-linked Devourers x2

Elites:
1x Venomthrope
1x Venomthrope
1x Lictor

Troops:
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20 Termagants w/ 20x Devourers and Tyrannocyte w/ Venom cannons

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex w/ Acid spray, Electroshock
Carnifex w/ Twin-linked Devourers x2, Adrenal

The problem i see with your idea is you have just one lictor. One lone lictor is going to be killed pretty easily, especially since he will be so far forward on your first turn. Lictors need redundancy to be used properly, because a few are invariably going to be picked off. That being said, i dont think you need one. If all you want is for him to help bring down the tyrannocyte, there is no need really. The tyrannocyte is only mishapping off the table and you should be able to mitigate the effects of any scatter with your six inch movement and gun range. The only thing i see your lictor doing consistently is giving up first blood. Id take him out and use the points to get some more gaunts or some upgrades on the tyrant guard.

That was a consideration. I don't think dropping the Venom cannons off the Tyrannocyte or dropping Adrenal glands would be worth getting a Sporocyte.

graywater wrote:
The problem i see with your idea is you have just one lictor. One lone lictor is going to be killed pretty easily, especially since he will be so far forward on your first turn. Lictors need redundancy to be used properly, because a few are invariably going to be picked off. That being said, i dont think you need one. If all you want is for him to help bring down the tyrannocyte, there is no need really. The tyrannocyte is only mishapping off the table and you should be able to mitigate the effects of any scatter with your six inch movement and gun range. The only thing i see your lictor doing consistently is giving up first blood. Id take him out and use the points to get some more gaunts or some upgrades on the tyrant guard.

Good advice. I would take the points and buy a Zoey.

What about dropping the lictor and the adrenals from one hormagaunt squad for 2 biovores? Losing the adrenals isnt awesome, but it would give you some more ranged blast action. Or you could go as pinecone said and just exchange the lictor for a zoan. Synapse, psychic powers, and a guaranteed lance attack is good too. Also, i would exchange the venom cannons on your tyrannocyte for barbed stranglers for the same reason as the biovores, regardless of whatever you decide. The large blast does a lot to negate the bs2 of the cyte.

I could see that an opponent would choose to kill the Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands first to remove the higher strength (and more expensive) brood. Granted, I could place the cheaper ones in front as a screen to still cause target selection priority. Perhaps Gargoyles would be a good screen to rush forward ahead of the Gaunts with an onion formation...

While Barbed stranglers are nice, I think the overwhelming firepower from the Termagants would inflict damage onto one squishy target, and the Venom cannons would have the opportunity to hit larger/tougher targets after everything is done with.

On a side note, I recall seeing this discussed when the pods first came out but don't know the answer. Do the weapons fire accordingly to their limited fire arcs (and as such fire at different targets that are within shooting restrictions), or is it possible to fire all five guns at the same target? (limited to two?)

No idea on your last point. I never saw the resolution to that discussion either and just decided not to run them. Too confusing for me to bother with. Did you check YMDC?

I think my strategy has gone full circle again to include the Swarmlord. Considering most deployments have a 2' separation, the Swarmlord could provide Preferred Enemy to the Devilgants on Turn 2 when they arrive via Tyrannocyte at the edge of the opponent's deployment zone; while the deployment of the Sporocyte near the center of the table would also give the unit Synapse early on to allow the Flyrant the ability to advance elsewhere. Meanwhile, the rest of the army advances alongside the twin Tyrannofexen (I chose a second one over taking a Biovore brood to provide more utility and durability, and dropped the Carnifex).

HQ:
Swarmlord
3x Hive Guard

Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, Electro, Twin-linked Devourers x2

Elites:
1x Venomthrope
1x Venomthrope

Troops:
3x Tyranid Warriors w/ Barbed strangler
20x Hormagaunts w/ Adrenal glands
20x Hormagaunts
20 Termagants w/ 20x Devourers and Tyrannocyte w/ Venom cannons
1x Mucolid

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex w/ Acid spray, Electroshock
Tyrannofex w/ Acid spray, Electroshock
Sporocyst w/ Barbed stranglers

Two tyrannofexes is a really cool sledgehammer to ram down the enemy's throat. Your new list looks pretty solid. The sporocyst is the only thing that seems a little out of place.

If the Sporocyst is more or less centered around the bulk of objectives in the center of the table (hopefully protected by terrain as well) then it will provide additional firepower (I didn't mention that it has Barbed stranglers) to help clear units and force Pinning tests, as well as boosting Synapse (24-30" for Swarmlord with Dominion).

Ok gotcha. Its a cool list then. Seems fairly strong and it is unique. Try it out for sure.