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I'm interested in trying out the new Skytyrant Swarm so put this list together.

The focus is on a turn two strike from the Toxicrene/Carnifex drop in the opponent backfield combined with the flyrant rush from the front. The venom throne stays in bastion to give early cover to the tyrants and to operate the comma relay for a greater chance of dropping everything turn two.

Hive Tyrant: twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; wings; electroshock grubs 240
Hive Tyrant: twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; wings; electroshock grubs 240

1 Mucolid Spore 15
1 Mucolid Spore 15

1 Venomthrope 45

Toxicrene 160
Toxicrene 160
Carnifex Brood
• Carnifex: twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms; twin-linked devourer with brainleech worms 150
Tyrannocyte: Five Venom Cannons 100
Tyrannocyte: Five Barbed Stranglers 100
Tyrannocyte: Five Barbed Stranglers 100

Hive Tyrant: The Reaper of Obliterax; wings; adrenal glands; electroshock grubs 270

13 Gargoyles 78
12 Gargoyles 72

Imperial Bastion: Comms Relay 100

1,845 points

I like it, the Toxicrenes could be exchanged for dakkafexes and it would be as good but I figure its more of a style thing. if you like the toxicrene then go for it, they definitely have their place in a tyranocid.

maybe consider a malanthrope in the bastion (if you accept FW) since any penetrating hit on the bastion (which would definitely be the wise thing to attack if you can crack AV14 early) will result in many Str6 autohits on the venomthrope and he often wont last as long as the bastion itself then you lose your shrouding, he ignores the empty bastion and you also lose your comm relay for deepstrikers. a Malanthrope can easilly outlive his bastion and then do his thing,

I think that the bastion with comm relay is 95pts, I might be wrong on that though.

losing 5 guargoyles would allow for the malanthrope upgrade

 fartherthanfar wrote:
I like it, the Toxicrenes could be exchanged for dakkafexes and it would be as good but I figure its more of a style thing. if you like the toxicrene then go for it, they definitely have their place in a tyranocid.

maybe consider a malanthrope in the bastion (if you accept FW) since any penetrating hit on the bastion (which would definitely be the wise thing to attack if you can crack AV14 early) will result in many Str6 autohits on the venomthrope and he often wont last as long as the bastion itself then you lose your shrouding, he ignores the empty bastion and you also lose your comm relay for deepstrikers. a Malanthrope can easilly outlive his bastion and then do his thing,

I think that the bastion with comm relay is 95pts, I might be wrong on that though.

losing 5 guargoyles would allow for the malanthrope upgrade

Thanks for the thoughts!

While I certainly don't have an issue with playing FW, it's enough of an occasional issue in my area that I try to avoid it. I will probably pick up a malanthrope at some point because they are definitely awesome sauce.

That is a good point on the Bastion, though. Given my non-FW restriction, would you change the setup at all?

Because this list is so dependant on the Bastion to function correctly, I suggest finding enough points to bubble wrap it...a dozen Termagants would be a very good thing. The only thing that jumps out as trimmable is the upgrades on the pods...drop two down to base and you have the points for a bubblewrap.

Late entry: What you need to protect against is Flamers, and Meltas, so just set the Termagants aprox 6" from the Fort, and it should work fine...only one Termagant needs to be in the Shroud for the unit to benefit.

pinecone77 wrote:
Because this list is so dependant on the Bastion to function correctly, I suggest finding enough points to bubble wrap it...a dozen Termagants would be a very good thing. The only thing that jumps out as trimmable is the upgrades on the pods...drop two down to base and you have the points for a bubblewrap.

Late entry: What you need to protect against is Flamers, and Meltas, so just set the Termagants aprox 6" from the Fort, and it should work fine...only one Termagant needs to be in the Shroud for the unit to benefit.

Well, my only issue with going that route is that the upgrades on the Tyrannocytes actually account for a decent amount of my backfield anti-infantry firepower. Dropping then to base wouldn't be too terrible, but then again I question how necessary it really is. Ultimately the Bastion only needs to survive one turn to have done it's job, so I don't know if it's worth it to lessen my anti-infantry to take care of that.

Actually, my real question at this point is: how dependent is this list in that bastion, exactly? Obviously it's an investment, but to me it was more about early game insurance rather than a critical component. So, I suppose I'd like to know if there is some consensus that the bastion is or is not critical, and how to Mae it not be as critical if indeed it is, because I don't want to be crippled by the loss of a bastion even if I do bubble wrap.

themadlbb wrote:

pinecone77 wrote:
Because this list is so dependant on the Bastion to function correctly, I suggest finding enough points to bubble wrap it...a dozen Termagants would be a very good thing. The only thing that jumps out as trimmable is the upgrades on the pods...drop two down to base and you have the points for a bubblewrap.

Late entry: What you need to protect against is Flamers, and Meltas, so just set the Termagants aprox 6" from the Fort, and it should work fine...only one Termagant needs to be in the Shroud for the unit to benefit.

Well, my only issue with going that route is that the upgrades on the Tyrannocytes actually account for a decent amount of my backfield anti-infantry firepower. Dropping then to base wouldn't be too terrible, but then again I question how necessary it really is. Ultimately the Bastion only needs to survive one turn to have done it's job, so I don't know if it's worth it to lessen my anti-infantry to take care of that.

Actually, my real question at this point is: how dependent is this list in that bastion, exactly? Obviously it's an investment, but to me it was more about early game insurance rather than a critical component. So, I suppose I'd like to know if there is some consensus that the bastion is or is not critical, and how to Mae it not be as critical if indeed it is, because I don't want to be crippled by the loss of a bastion even if I do bubble wrap.

Well, it does depend on your local "meta". What I see when I look at your list is ..."Foe goes first, Drop Pod Lands near Bastion, Melta, Multi Melta, etc...Bastion falls, Veno Dies (Pens and collapse of building) Comms relay never provides any benefit...Second Pod lands near Synapse Sternguard hose it down with acid/poison rounds, First Blood, Warlord (possible) one or two Objectives secured, and a major chunk of the army is gone...OK your T1...

But it depends on what you're likely to see... In that scenario, I don't see how much value your anti infantry firepower will be able to add...

I would swap the weapons on the Tyrannocytes. Take Venom Canons on the Toxicrene spods so they can provide a little AT to supplement the AI of the Toxicerene. Whilst Barbed Stranglers add more AI to support the AT nature of the Dakkafex.

I'm not convinced making your Tyrant T3 is amazing and I'd want target saturation to help him which you lack on turn 1. The Reaper is massively overcosted, I know you're dovetailing with Adrenal to get to S8, but you're paying 40 points for that combo. In general the only multiwound T4 units (other than against Nid Warriors) are Characters which your Tyrant should murder with ease without needing ID. Yes S8 helps against other MCs but Toxin and Adrenal gives a better wound ratio vs T6 for 15 points less and works out the same against Wraithknights but works in rounds where you haven't charged.

Otherwise looks fairly solid.

Yeah I don't much like the Reaper (or any of the artifacts really) But I used to use a Winged Assassin quite a bit, and it did very well with Twin Bone, Toxic, Thorax Hive...Adding a Lash whip does boost your Init, but very few things are faster than a Tyrant anyway....You may not get many IDs off of S, but every 6 to Wound is IK, and vs many Toxic will give you a re-roll.

The only artifact that might be a good purchase is MawClaws (IMHO) mostly because they are Cheap. And PE would help the Gorgoyle Screen be a little bit scarier...

Off the top of my head, I think a Winged Tyrant, MawClaw, Toxic, Thorax Hive, with Scything Talons is around 230? And would be pretty "Boss". No IK, but it does Rend...

If you are fighting a drop pod list then you can just start with the guargoyles bubblewarpping the bastion, they can also jink on a 2+ with the shrouding. Maybe adding some mucolids and the other flyrants there too and the droppod list wont be able to do much on the drop, then he gets charged by a bunch of flyrant/guargoyles, and mucolids explode on his face too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And then the opponents backfield receives a lovely gift of 6 MC in his A$$

 fartherthanfar wrote:
If you are fighting a drop pod list then you can just start with the guargoyles bubblewarpping the bastion, they can also jink on a 2+ with the shrouding. Maybe adding some mucolids and the other flyrants there too and the droppod list wont be able to do much on the drop, then he gets charged by a bunch of flyrant/guargoyles, and mucolids explode on his face too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And then the opponents backfield receives a lovely gift of 6 MC in his A$$

Good point on using the SkyTyrant to screen the bastion.

I also want to mention that even though its true that the skytyrant formation lowers the tyrants to T3, you can just use the Gargoyles to take the hits, it really is their job (maybe keeping you tyrant in the front with his 3+ArSv and maybe even Regeneration could be an idea), if your in close combat then you can always challenge and your Tyrant keeps his T6.
I feel the real advantage of this list formation though is giving the screening guargoyles the jinking ability, only 6pts for a jumppack unit with a 2+ coversave, protecting your whole army, why yes thank you very much.
Im seeing Shrikes making a comeback with this formation.

Agreed on the Shrikes:


http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/624031.page

 fartherthanfar wrote:
I also want to mention that even though its true that the skytyrant formation lowers the tyrants to T3, you can just use the Gargoyles to take the hits, it really is their job (maybe keeping you tyrant in the front with his 3+ArSv and maybe even Regeneration could be an idea), if your in close combat then you can always challenge and your Tyrant keeps his T6.
I feel the real advantage of this list formation though is giving the screening guargoyles the jinking ability, only 6pts for a jumppack unit with a 2+ coversave, protecting your whole army, why yes thank you very much.
Im seeing Shrikes making a comeback with this formation.

I'm not sure that they can. The whole unit declares that it's jinking, but I'm pretty sure the jink rule says only the model with jink gets the cover save.

The only thing that jumps out as trimmable is the upgrades on the pods.

Why do you see Shrikes coming back? Just curious. I love them to death, especially how you can convert them, but they didn't get any stronger with this formation. Unless of course I am missing something xD

Field 2 Skytyrant Swarms and you have 2 fast and hard hitting CC units. Shrikes keep up with the STS but offer a lower threat level which means their big weakness of survivability is largely nullified.

also the formation allows you to have a fast screen which with the malanthrope can have a 2+ jink which will be a moveable coversave allowing a 3+ cover save on the shrikes who tended to get shot down the second they werent in cover but now the cover will move with this unit, and this moveable cover doesnt need to have cover itself as it can jink so can be in plain view

If the unit Jinks only the Flyrant gets the cover save so be careful with that tactic.