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Would you think it might be worth going 2nd so you can counter play his maneuverability to get those objectives. Maybe try and bait out the Vect stratagem with something, like bait out the advance one, but then use swarmy on the shooting phase, still get in range and you can still use shoot 2x. Anything you would have done differently? List changes? Tactics?

Going 2nd against Dark Eldar can be really bad. They typically have 2 or 3 flyers that can reach anything hiding behind a building or hill (unless it's completely obscured inside a building) and they have so much fast firepower that anything not hiding will be severely hurt. Hive Guard are usually pretty high on their kill list.

 Dynas wrote:


If you know you are facing them take Hive Guard, lots of antitank, and lock them uncombat with cheap units like Hormies with toxin sacs and RIPPERS. THey cannot fall back from rippers, so if you get 3 rippers to surround the base they are stuck. Sure they will stomp you next turn, but you are sacrificing 33 points for a round of shooting.

For a moment I totally forgot Rippers were SWARM not INFANTRY. So dumb lol

But use it.

Is there anything keeping us from taking the various fortifications? I'm considering putting an impaler Hive Guard unit in an Imperial Bunker.

100 points to give 5 Hive Guard 12 extra T8 wounds isn't a bad deal, and it would let me put them in the very front of the deployment zone to get the most value out of the 36" range.

<edit> wounds has a w in it

babelfish wrote:
Is there anything keeping us from taking the various fortifications? I'm considering putting an impaler Hive Guard unit in an Imperial Bunker.

100 points to give 5 Hive Guard 12 extra T8 wounds isn't a bad deal, and it would let me put them in the very front of the deployment zone to get the most value out of the 36" range.

<edit> wounds has a w in it

The imperial fortifications are faction:unaligned. So you can take and use them as you like.

I used a Voidshield Generator with my Carnifex spam list, and it upsets my opponent every time i do.
The Skyshield Landing Platform was usefull as long the flying hive tyrants had not inbuild 4++ and harpy/crone were not flyers.

6 hiveguard inside a Plasma Obliterator is expensive, but it’s not gonna die. Stick 3 more hiveguard out of LOS behind it too!

Can you use stratagems on units inside vehicles? I dunno if they’re considered on the table for the purposes of them. That might make it a little less palatable if you were planning on double shooting.

Lemondish wrote:

 Dynas wrote:


If you know you are facing them take Hive Guard, lots of antitank, and lock them uncombat with cheap units like Hormies with toxin sacs and RIPPERS. THey cannot fall back from rippers, so if you get 3 rippers to surround the base they are stuck. Sure they will stomp you next turn, but you are sacrificing 33 points for a round of shooting.

For a moment I totally forgot Rippers were SWARM not INFANTRY. So dumb lol

But use it.

Knights can fall back and walk over infantry and swarms.

 Eldarain wrote:

Lemondish wrote:

 Dynas wrote:


If you know you are facing them take Hive Guard, lots of antitank, and lock them uncombat with cheap units like Hormies with toxin sacs and RIPPERS. THey cannot fall back from rippers, so if you get 3 rippers to surround the base they are stuck. Sure they will stomp you next turn, but you are sacrificing 33 points for a round of shooting.

For a moment I totally forgot Rippers were SWARM not INFANTRY. So dumb lol

But use it.

Knights can fall back and walk over infantry and swarms.

Yes, now they can with the new codex.

 Badablack wrote:
6 hiveguard inside a Plasma Obliterator is expensive, but it’s not gonna die. Stick 3 more hiveguard out of LOS behind it too!

Can you use stratagems on units inside vehicles? I dunno if they’re considered on the table for the purposes of them. That might make it a little less palatable if you were planning on double shooting.

Seems to be resolved at a ‘no’

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/750449.page

Vetsgt-Jeff wrote:

Dynas -> Yes that was the venom spam list that I just couldn't break, i had to overstretch to score recon T1 but I couldn't get recon For rest of game and I didn't even manage a kill in first turn with him rolling so hot for FNP which continued on for the entire game. He vected my double advance which would have gotten into his venoms T1. I'd hit his -2 fliers from the stratagem or venoms with a couple 6's on my fexes and he'd roll 2 6's right back at me was insane lol I fought it out as best as I could but he just kept gaining on me scoring almost full points every
Turn. game ended 32- 14

I'm far from an expert with nids, but I can tell you some of the things that concern me when I'm playing DE against them:

- Hive Guard. I can't out-range them and often can't even see them, whilst their shots just shred my vehicles.
- Biovores. My vehicles rely on invulnerable saves for protection, which Biovores ignore outright. Against vehicles or flying infantry, you probably want them to hit rather than miss (since otherwise they can just hop right over any spore mines).
- Psychic powers. Aside from a single artefact, DE have no counter to psykers.
- Massed T3. Our weapons suck against T3 targets. Simple as that.
- Monstrous Devourers/Deathspitters. These things shred DE vehicles and infantry alike.


Hope this might be of some help.

Do you guys paint your Hive Fleets differently? Ala the rules for the new 1750 GT? Or just in general?

 SHUPPET wrote:
Do you guys paint your Hive Fleets differently? Ala the rules for the new 1750 GT? Or just in general?

I have not- I keep the same scheme across my whole fleet.

I don't play multiple hive fleets in one army, so I only got one color scheme.
But I already learned from the experience that my previously purely fluff Iron Warrios now have bad rules, so I am avoiding any GW paint schemes.

 SHUPPET wrote:
Do you guys paint your Hive Fleets differently? Ala the rules for the new 1750 GT? Or just in general?

I have my own non-GW paint scheme. For casual games I just make sure that it is clear which units are in which Hive Fleet. For tournaments, I paint the rims of the bases different for each Hive Fleet.

Inspired by the success of the London GT list, I broke my Carnifexes out yesterday. I played a 2k game against a Blood Angels/IG list that was ran by one of our better local players. We did an ITC mission (5 objectives, in a cross shape, with one in the middle, one in the center of each deployment zone, and one on each flank on the midline. Dawn of War deployment. Terrain was solid, with plenty of ruins on the table.

His list was standard BA: Death Company + Sanguinary Guard with Scouts and characters, supported by deep striking melta and plasma IG and some infantry squads with mortars.

I ran 3 Neurothropes, 2x3 Rippers, 11 Termagants, 2 Exocrines, 5 Impaler Hive Guard, 6 Shock Cannon Hive Guard, 3 Raveners, an Acid T-fex, and 2x2 Carnifexes with double devourer, enhanced senses, and spore cysts. I had the T and C Fexes, Raveners, and shock Guard in a Jorgmundr Spearhead with the rest being a Kronos Battalion. My warlord was the Jorgmundr Neurothrope. with the ignores cover warlord trait. I stuck the Norn Crown on one of my Kronos Neurothropes.

He deployed his mortar squads and Death Company behind walls and his scouts on midfield objectives and out of line of sight. I lined my big bugs up symmetrically, with Imp. Hive Guard in the middle, a C-Fex unit and Exocrine on each side, the T-fex on one side and the Shock Guard on the other, and the 'gaunts +1 Ripper unit screening, with the other in reserve. The Raveners also started on the table, on my left flank, looking to munch a Scout squad. I finished deploying first, won the roll off, he failed to seize, and off we went.

He was well enough hidden that only the Impaler Guard had viable shooting, so I shuffled my units to make his drop charges more difficult, and moved my Raveners forward. I also brought in my remaining Ripper squad on my far right, to further limit deep strike options. My 'gaunts and center Ripper squad moved forward to claim the center and left side objectives. Double shooting the Hive Guard and decent charge roll netted me the 3 Scout squads. I pushed a Neurothrope foward to claim the right flank objective and keep deep strikers away from that side of the table.

He responded by hopping the Death Company into my left flank backfield, behind a ruin. He also advanced a squad to challenge the middle objective. He then charged and murdering my shock Guard as well as tagging some Carnifexes, an Exocrine, and a Neuro. Stupid 3d6 charge range. He dropped a small IG squad (Scions, I think, but I forget) to shoot at the Raveners, and moved forward with a mortar squad as well, but their shooting managed to do all of 2 wounds. They finished off the wounded Ravener on the charge at the cost of half the Scions.

He had surrounded a Carnifex and killed the other one, so I couldn't fall back, but I was able to Smite, Shriek, and punch the Death Company to, well, death. He had moved a character forward to claim the right flank objective, killing the Neurothrope, so I deleted him with the Acid Spray (so good). The Raveners and guardsmen traded a few wounds. I got the charge with the Termagants and Rippers into the center objective guard squad, but the Termagants were spread out in a long line to claim the left flank objective, so not much happened in that combat for either of us.

His turn the Sanguinary Guard, the plasma, and the melta, as well as some officers for the IG came down. He also brought a character (I forget which one was on which side) in to help the Scions with the Raveners. The Sanguinary Guard and plasma were on the same left flank as the Death Company had been. The melta landed on the right flank midfield objective. A squad of Scions came in on my far right. They plinked at my Rippers, got the charge, and both those units spent the rest of the game doing anything.

The two melta squads killed the Tyranofex. The plasma squads ticked some damage onto the left flank Exocrine, and put some wounds on one of my Neuros. I made the mistake of spending my last command point to keep that Neurothrope alive. If I had let him die, the Sanguinary Guard would not have been in range to charge anything that turn. That mistake cost me said Neurothrope, the remaining left flank Carnifex, and shooting from my Impaler Hive Guard and Exocrine. He also killed the Raveners, but they had done enough damage that I wasn't bothered by it.

I fell back out of the big fight with the Sanguinary Guard my turn 3. Smite and Shriek killed some Sanguinary Guard, then one Carnifex killed 1.5 units of melta. The other Carnifex killed .5 units of melta and a few more Sanguinary Guard. If I had saved the command point I could have bumped up the damage on the devouers and gotten more of them. The other Exocrine had planned on shooting Sanguinary Guard, but he removed casualties from the smite in such a way that I didn't have a shot, so it went into the squads that had been fighting the Raveners.

This opened up a rules question: when you shoot twice with the Exocrine, if the first volley kills enough models that the target unit is no longer in range, do you get to shoot the second volley? Neither of us knew for certain, so we rolled it off to keep the game moving.

His turn 3 he killed the wounded Exocrine, moved what was left of the Sanguinary Guard into my center terrain, and did some damage to the Impaler Hive Guard. He also brought the guy who killed the Raveners in to fight the Termagants, killing most of the squad but leaving me still on the objective.

My turn 4 I killed the Sanguinary Guard with Carnifex shooting. Then my boss called to ask if I could come in that night, so we ended the game there, as a draw. When the game ended he had a handful of characters, his mortar units, and his plasma guardsmen left. I had a Neurothrope, two Carnifexes, an Exocrine, most of a unit of Impaler Hive Guard, and some Rippers. He was up one point, with a score of 14-15. I feel like I had a solid advantage but that he still had counter play.

My opponent was very good at using terrain and the charge rules to get maximum value out of his power units. He was able to keep me from shooting at his important units for most of the game, which was frustrating. I don't have a lot of games vs Blood Angels and I didn't screen as well as I should have. I think I could have positioned my units much more efficiently, trading single units in order to stop him from using double fight and consolidation to tag my guns. Other than that, I was happy with how things played out. I really liked how the Carnifexes worked when they finally got to shoot. The threat saturation aspect of the list worked well. He defiantly had difficulty picking the best target. When he killed the Tyrannofex he was in a no win situation-he had four different targets, all of which he needed to kill, and not enough guns to do it with.

I also need to spend more time thinking about use of my spells. I failed to use Horror properly, and I think I could have used Onslaught to get a Carnifex shooting into his Death Company first turn IF I had thought of it and deployed in order to enable it.

I'll be taking this build to local events for the next month, and will put up more battle reports as I get in games.

babelfish wrote:

This opened up a rules question: when you shoot twice with the Exocrine, if the first volley kills enough models that the target unit is no longer in range, do you get to shoot the second volley? Neither of us knew for certain, so we rolled it off to keep the game moving.

At our shop it has generally been played as each being a completely separate shooting attack resolved one after the other, so we go through the entire sequence for each volley. The primary justification has been that other instances where an action is done twice has each action resolved separately (Khorne Berserkers with their fight twice for example). Weapon Beast also does not require both attacks be made against the same target (unlike the Russ or Fire Prism equivalent rules), so if one target is out of range it can just select a different target during the declare targets step if it had not already declared them as the target for the second volly.

Very nice battle report as well. Nice to see a different archetype than the Kraken rush lists.

 SHUPPET wrote:
Do you guys paint your Hive Fleets differently? Ala the rules for the new 1750 GT? Or just in general?

All of mine are painted in a personal color scheme that originated in the Dawn of War II army painter. For the most part I haven't really mixed Adaptations as it makes keeping track of synapse coverage annoying and most are self-sufficient enough, though of the adaptations Kronos has been the easiest to justify as a small auxiliary due to their stratagem and exclusive focus on shooting. In such cases the units benefiting from Kronos are generally gunbeasts so it isn't too hard to keep them separate from whatever other fleet is being used.

 vipoid wrote:

Vetsgt-Jeff wrote:

Dynas -> Yes that was the venom spam list that I just couldn't break, i had to overstretch to score recon T1 but I couldn't get recon For rest of game and I didn't even manage a kill in first turn with him rolling so hot for FNP which continued on for the entire game. He vected my double advance which would have gotten into his venoms T1. I'd hit his -2 fliers from the stratagem or venoms with a couple 6's on my fexes and he'd roll 2 6's right back at me was insane lol I fought it out as best as I could but he just kept gaining on me scoring almost full points every
Turn. game ended 32- 14

I'm far from an expert with nids, but I can tell you some of the things that concern me when I'm playing DE against them:

- Hive Guard. I can't out-range them and often can't even see them, whilst their shots just shred my vehicles.
- Biovores. My vehicles rely on invulnerable saves for protection, which Biovores ignore outright. Against vehicles or flying infantry, you probably want them to hit rather than miss (since otherwise they can just hop right over any spore mines).
- Psychic powers. Aside from a single artefact, DE have no counter to psykers.
- Massed T3. Our weapons suck against T3 targets. Simple as that.
- Monstrous Devourers/Deathspitters. These things shred DE vehicles and infantry alike.


Hope this might be of some help.

Awesome thanks. I have all this except the Biovores in my list. 50 pts for a mortal wound, give me a break. I do have a swarm of T3 Hormies and Termies though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 SHUPPET wrote:
Do you guys paint your Hive Fleets differently? Ala the rules for the new 1750 GT? Or just in general?

No. But i do have little tokens I use on the units to designate which unit belongs to which hive fleet.

Normally I only do 2 fleets, say kraken/kronos, kraken gets red, kronos gets white.

Recently I have been using Swarmlord to catapult 30 hormagaunts across the board with Hive commander and onslaught.

You ensure that your Swarmlord is outside of 24 inches so that he can cast onslaught unopposed and then you get into position to charge one unit and spread your unit out so that the consolidate move pushes you within an inch of a couple other heavy hitting units.

I had an opponent ask how do I counter this if you go first. My response was deploy as far back as possible with your valuable units and deploy at least 2 scout units to block movement. If you go first shoot out at least 15 of the homagaunts sand then its just not worth it because so many will die in the charge and fight phase. Was this good advice?

Ive been crushing it lately with this tactic but everyone on the forums seems to use Hive commander on Genestealers.

Resipsa131 wrote:
Recently I have been using Swarmlord to catapult 30 hormagaunts across the board with Hive commander and onslaught.

You ensure that your Swarmlord is outside of 24 inches so that he can cast onslaught unopposed and then you get into position to charge one unit and spread your unit out so that the consolidate move pushes you within an inch of a couple other heavy hitting units.

I had an opponent ask how do I counter this if you go first. My response was deploy as far back as possible with your valuable units and deploy at least 2 scout units to block movement. If you go first shoot out at least 15 of the homagaunts sand then its just not worth it because so many will die in the charge and fight phase. Was this good advice?

Ive been crushing it lately with this tactic but everyone on the forums seems to use Hive commander on Genestealers.

I do this, but you get more killing power with 20x Genestealers. YOu are getting 80 attacks with rending, and an 5++ invul save, and if you fail the onslaught or its denied they can still move. 30 hormies is 60 attacks rerolling 1's to hit and wound, also good, but not as damaging, and they die, so you need to also give them Catalyst, which you can give to your GS as well. The only benefit is that you have 10 more guys assuming over watch doesn't get them, and you get an extra 3" pile in and 3" consolidate so you can really tie up stuff. It really comes down to what i am facing, but 9/10 i find having the more killy more survivable GS get in is far more beneficial. Sometimes with kraken, you can double advance the GS and charge, and use Hive commander on the 2nd unit and get 2 charges.

 Strat_N8 wrote:

babelfish wrote:

This opened up a rules question: when you shoot twice with the Exocrine, if the first volley kills enough models that the target unit is no longer in range, do you get to shoot the second volley? Neither of us knew for certain, so we rolled it off to keep the game moving.

At our shop it has generally been played as each being a completely separate shooting attack resolved one after the other, so we go through the entire sequence for each volley. The primary justification has been that other instances where an action is done twice has each action resolved separately (Khorne Berserkers with their fight twice for example). Weapon Beast also does not require both attacks be made against the same target (unlike the Russ or Fire Prism equivalent rules), so if one target is out of range it can just select a different target during the declare targets step if it had not already declared them as the target for the second volly.

Very nice battle report as well. Nice to see a different archetype than the Kraken rush lists.

Thank you! I enjoyed writing it. I need to make sure to take good notes and some photos at my next event so I can do more reports.

I'm inclined to agree with you on that interpretation of the Exocrine shooting, and will use it going forward.

I have been running a Kraken rush, using 40 'stealers, and found it meh. I'm at about 50% with it vs competitive lists, maybe 75% if I include the lucky match ups and occasional fluff/casual/experimental list. I'm working my way toward 80 of them, which will be fun, but I don't see 'Stealer rush lists being consistent event winners. I've seen some very solid Warrior and Carnifex based shooting lists. I think the way forward lies in that direction.

 Dynas wrote:

Resipsa131 wrote:
Recently I have been using Swarmlord to catapult 30 hormagaunts across the board with Hive commander and onslaught.

You ensure that your Swarmlord is outside of 24 inches so that he can cast onslaught unopposed and then you get into position to charge one unit and spread your unit out so that the consolidate move pushes you within an inch of a couple other heavy hitting units.

I had an opponent ask how do I counter this if you go first. My response was deploy as far back as possible with your valuable units and deploy at least 2 scout units to block movement. If you go first shoot out at least 15 of the homagaunts sand then its just not worth it because so many will die in the charge and fight phase. Was this good advice?

Ive been crushing it lately with this tactic but everyone on the forums seems to use Hive commander on Genestealers.

I do this, but you get more killing power with 20x Genestealers. YOu are getting 80 attacks with rending, and an 5++ invul save, and if you fail the onslaught or its denied they can still move. 30 hormies is 60 attacks rerolling 1's to hit and wound, also good, but not as damaging, and they die, so you need to also give them Catalyst, which you can give to your GS as well. The only benefit is that you have 10 more guys assuming over watch doesn't get them, and you get an extra 3" pile in and 3" consolidate so you can really tie up stuff. It really comes down to what i am facing, but 9/10 i find having the more killy more survivable GS get in is far more beneficial. Sometimes with kraken, you can double advance the GS and charge, and use Hive commander on the 2nd unit and get 2 charges.

usually I only get to roll 4-6 dice because I’ve piled into units I didn’t charge or I’ve left a daisy chain for synapse. But you’re right everyone is using it on a max stack of GS rather than hormies

Just to clarify what I was talking about. I think most understood me but maybe a couple misunderstood (or maybe not).

If you have used different keywords between Detachments, there must be a clear visual difference between each Detachment. For example, if you have a Tyranid army with Detachments from both Hive Fleet Kraken and Kronos, the models in each Detachment must be clearly distinguishable from one to another such as a different coloured carapace. Contact us if you are unsure whether something is clearly distinguishable.

I think it's a good thing to shoot for in general, so Im thinking of either painting bases differently which was an excellent suggestion, or painting my usual whitegrey carapace a black color. Only real detachment I mix in is Kronos, and it's pretty obvious which units want to be in that Hivefleet. My Tyrannofexes are already a hardened black carapace to represent their terminator armour, which they no longer have, so I might go this route. Not sure I want to layer another coat of paint on top of already painted carapace though, so might just stick with the bases.

 SHUPPET wrote:
Just to clarify what I was talking about. I think most understood me but maybe a couple misunderstood (or maybe not).

Spoiler:

If you have used different keywords between Detachments, there must be a clear visual difference between each Detachment. For example, if you have a Tyranid army with Detachments from both Hive Fleet Kraken and Kronos, the models in each Detachment must be clearly distinguishable from one to another such as a different coloured carapace. Contact us if you are unsure whether something is clearly distinguishable.

I think it's a good thing to shoot for in general, so Im thinking of either painting bases differently which was an excellent suggestion, or painting my usual whitegrey carapace a black color. Only real detachment I mix in is Kronos, and it's pretty obvious which units want to be in that Hivefleet. My Tyrannofexes are already a hardened black carapace to represent their terminator armour, which they no longer have, so I might go this route. Not sure I want to layer another coat of paint on top of already painted carapace though, so might just stick with the bases.

I figured that’s what you were getting at. My playgroup already gives me grief for Tyranids being too good, so I’ve never bothered trying to mix detachments to begin with.

Why did they decide to enact that rule? Players cheating with what units got which bonuses?

 Sinful Hero wrote:

 SHUPPET wrote:
Just to clarify what I was talking about. I think most understood me but maybe a couple misunderstood (or maybe not).

Spoiler:

If you have used different keywords between Detachments, there must be a clear visual difference between each Detachment. For example, if you have a Tyranid army with Detachments from both Hive Fleet Kraken and Kronos, the models in each Detachment must be clearly distinguishable from one to another such as a different coloured carapace. Contact us if you are unsure whether something is clearly distinguishable.

I think it's a good thing to shoot for in general, so Im thinking of either painting bases differently which was an excellent suggestion, or painting my usual whitegrey carapace a black color. Only real detachment I mix in is Kronos, and it's pretty obvious which units want to be in that Hivefleet. My Tyrannofexes are already a hardened black carapace to represent their terminator armour, which they no longer have, so I might go this route. Not sure I want to layer another coat of paint on top of already painted carapace though, so might just stick with the bases.

I figured that’s what you were getting at. My playgroup already gives me grief for Tyranids being too good, so I’ve never bothered trying to mix detachments to begin with.

Why did they decide to enact that rule? Players cheating with what units got which bonuses?

No nothing like that. No reason given, we can only speculate. I think it's one of two reasons (or both). The fact that it's their big event and they see it also as advertisement for their range, and for narrative purposes they likely want their official colors to be representative of the corresponding armies, which is also another form of WYSIWYG, especially with subfactions giving different bonuses, so that it's easily distinguishable for opponents. The other possibility is that they are trying to set a standard that they hope picks up, both for the above reasons, and to lure even a small base of people into rebuying the same models for a new paint scheme.

Spoletta wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Surprised no one’s talking about the “Poverty Tyranids” list that went undefeated at London-


The cheap Neophyte squads threw me for a loop. I’ve been finding out that Venom cannons are fun myself.

An high placing list featuring no flyrants and a single walkrant...I thought this day would never come

I have to ask - what's the benefits of Neophytes over Termagants?

 SHUPPET wrote:

Spoiler:

Spoletta wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Surprised no one’s talking about the “Poverty Tyranids” list that went undefeated at London-


The cheap Neophyte squads threw me for a loop. I’ve been finding out that Venom cannons are fun myself.

An high placing list featuring no flyrants and a single walkrant...I thought this day would never come

I have to ask - what's the benefits of Neophytes over Termagants?

Cult Ambush basically, from what I’ve read. Gets them onto far objectives when you need it. Plus access to Purestrains.

Oh I'm guessing the relocate stratagem too. Great for scoring

 SHUPPET wrote:

I have to ask - what's the benefits of Neophytes over Termagants?

Neophytes are really good at holding out-of-the-way objectives. Cult Ambush and Return to Shadows allows them to deploy and redeploy where required and they sport a 5+ save vs the Termagant's 6+ save. They also have Ld. 8 so they don't really need a babysitter for moral purposes (though they can get rerolls from an Iconward or complete immunity from a Patriarch which is a Brood Lord "+1" for 12 points cheaper).

While the tournament list didn't feature them, Neophytes also have access to some fairly nice heavy weapon options and can take two special weapons at 10-strong.

Battalion
Hive Fleet Leviathan

Neurothrope, The Horror
Neurothrope, Psychic Scream

3x Ripper
3x Ripper
10x Termagant
10x Termagant
10x Termagant

1x Mucolid Spore (Warlord)

2x Dakkafex, Enhanced Senses, Spore Cysts
2x Dakkafex, Enhanced Senses, Spore Cysts
2x Dakkafex, Enhanced Senses, Spore Cysts



Vanguard Detachment
Hive Fleet Kronos

Neurothrope, Onslaught

6x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard



Fortification Detachment
Hive Fleet Kronos

Sporocyst
Sporocyst
Sporocyst










Alright so that's what I'm playing at the moment. The reason I enquired about Neophytes, is because I am considering these changes, starting by dropping:

* half the Hive Guards and moving the 6 into the main Hive Fleet (full unit of HG)
* their Neurothrope babysitter
* two of the units of Termagants
* Spore Cysts on the Dakkafex


and replacing it with a Patrol detachment of GSC (Primus, Magus, 20x Purestrain, 10x Neophyte).



The significant changes here are a slightly less resilient Dakkafex squadron, one less unit of 10x troops (might be cutting it short with just 2x 10), and no Kronos buffs on the Hive Guard. Also, probably not gonna babysit the HG and just take Dominion on one Neurothrope and Norn Crown on the other while moving them up behind the Leviathan Fexes, which is actually hopefully a more points efficient way of doing that in general.

but in return for these trade offs, it gives me something to cause backfield havoc when the Sporocysts deploy offensively, a much greater CC presence in general if needed, and an improved troop that can be relocated with CP.

I'm also considering dropping down to 5x Dakkafex to just shore up up these holes, grabbing another unit or two of Neophytes, or a unit of Neophytes and putting Spore Cysts back on the remaining 5x Fexes if I feel they are constantly a priority target (which I don't think that Leviathan Fexes ever will be, on a field with 3x Sporocysts and a max size Purestrain squad). In fact, on that note I'm considering even changing the Leviathan Hive Fleet to either Kraken to get the Fexes up the board faster, or Kronos to benefit the last remaining unit of HG.





I'm heavily leaning towards doing this, but I don't own the GSC models yet though. So I just wanted to put it past you guys first before I go out and make the purchase. Thoughts? How important do you guys value second and third squad of HG after the first? How gimmicky or reliable is the Purestrain unit with the way people are screening these days? Or less so after the FAQ? How important are those screens of my own? I have my own soft opinions here but I'd like to hear first from people more experienced in this edition especially with the GSC detachment.

I don’t see why you wouldn’t go with your latter choice(the GSC allies), but go ahead and drop all the Termagants and get a battalion of GSC for the CP. Neophytes will screen just as well as Termagants, and give you the option to Ambush them onto farther objectives.