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Who has two scything talons and just got the Tyranid Datacards:

This guy!


Shame it doesn't have the Blood of Baal stuff in there...

Forces of the Hive Mind is to Tyranids what Imperial is to Astra Bisque.

It's just a flavour of soup.

I played a local ITC RTT yesterday. I have been out of the game for six months, so I made a lot of mistakes and ended up losing all three games, but I had a lot of fun and am happy to be back playing again.

I ran a Kronos gunline supported by a Jorgm warrior block:

Kronos Battalion
Malanthrope
Neurothrope
3x3 Ripper
2x6 Impaler Hive Guard
2 Exocrine

Jorgm Battalion
2x Prime (boneswords)
Broodlord
2x9 Warriors (deathspitters, stranglethorns, boneswords)
1x3 Ripper
1x3 Venomthropes

I gave the warriors adaptive physiology to improve their cover save save. I wanted to run dual Malanthropes and a third Exocrines, but I don't have the models yet, so I ended up using the Venoms and plugging in the Broodlord cause he fit.

I played against Blood Angels, Grey Knights, and Sisters. The Blood Angels chewed me up. The other two were close games that swung on a handful of late game rolls.

The Warriors did exactly what I wanted them to do. They are durable, punchy, decently shooty, and have a huge board presence. The Venomthropes absorbed considerable attention that would have otherwise gone to the Warriors, and losing three bubble didn't hurt that badly due to the sheer number of wounded the Warriors have. I still thing the Mal is better, but I'm much more sympathetic till the argument for Venoms than i was 24 hours ago.

Exocrines are a huge target. I need the third one, i think, just because going second will cost me one of them. On the up side, Exocrine + spell + boosted damage strat = stupid amounts of damage. Using it on double tapping Hive Hive Guard is also....nice.

The Broodlord was surprisingly useful. He hung out with the Warriors, then rushed forward to nuke something and be a diaphragm Carnifex. He is fast, punchy, and helps give snipers target priority issues.

Edit: i should fix diaphragm Carnifex to distraction Carnifex, but it is way to funny to change

babelfish wrote:
Edit: i should fix diaphragm Carnifex to distraction Carnifex, but it is way to funny to change

I was about to say, don't change it it's too funny.

I have 2 more Exocrines on the way. I own one currently. I'm still in two minds about building the third one as a Haruspex.

Yes, yes, I know. The Haruspex is awful. But I like the mini...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Yes, yes, I know. The Haruspex is awful. But I like the mini...

To be fair, if they keep dropping its price eventually it will reach a point of being so cost efficient relative its statline that its rules don't matter (see Admech).

I have a soft spot for the model too. I still have fond memories back in 7th where my plucky Haruspex demolished an Imperial Knight all by his lonesome (absurdly good rolling and absurdly bad rolling - no merit involved but it was memorable). They are pretty easy to magnetize if you want to have the option to run one while keeping the Exocrine available for more serious games. The only difference between the two is the head and arms.

I suppose on a tactical level, it might have a home in a T8 spam list once you have maxed out on Exocrines and Tyrannofexes. Maybe run it with the +1 to hit for monsters on the charge custom trait with some Tervigons to provide T8 saturation and pick something that helps the Termgants for the second trait (pack hunters might be worth looking at since Tervigons can keep them topped off).

 Strat_N8 wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Yes, yes, I know. The Haruspex is awful. But I like the mini...

To be fair, if they keep dropping its price eventually it will reach a point of being so cost efficient relative its statline that its rules don't matter (see Admech).

I have a soft spot for the model too. I still have fond memories back in 7th where my plucky Haruspex demolished an Imperial Knight all by his lonesome (absurdly good rolling and absurdly bad rolling - no merit involved but it was memorable). They are pretty easy to magnetize if you want to have the option to run one while keeping the Exocrine available for more serious games. The only difference between the two is the head and arms.

I suppose on a tactical level, it might have a home in a T8 spam list once you have maxed out on Exocrines and Tyrannofexes. Maybe run it with the +1 to hit for monsters on the charge custom trait with some Tervigons to provide T8 saturation and pick something that helps the Termgants for the second trait (pack hunters might be worth looking at since Tervigons can keep them topped off).

.

Mine are both magnetized. Magnetizing them is simple, and there are only a few extra bits you need to paint up to have both units be options. I've got them in a block of foam that holds both models with all of the options. Unlike certain models, it doesn't take ten extra sheets of foam and a month of painting for the spare bits. I just never run them as anything but Exocrines because the Exocrine actually gets gak done.

I adjusted my build a bit.

Kronos Battalion

Malanthrope
Neurothrope

3x3 rippers

2x5 Impaler Hive Guard

3x Exocrine

Jorgm. Battalion
Broodlord (Yrgmal Factor)
Prime (boneswords, deathspitter)

3x ripper
2x9 Warrior (Adaptive: camo, boneswords, deathspitters, barbed stranglers)

3x Venomthrope

Exocrines and Hive Guard shoot things. Rippers screen. Warriors push to midfield and control space. Broodlord runs around punching things to death and grabbing attention.

I'll get the Exocrine together next week, play the list that weekend, and post an update.

I have a new list up https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/785452.page for your viewing pleasure.

You could just get rid of the 2 horm units for more ripper units and take a kelermorph instead of the sanctus if that's your cup of tea as well.

babelfish wrote:
Rippers screen.

Could you perhaps elaborate on this part? I'd be very curious to hear how you are using the Rippers in this functionality, since normally a screen involves a unit with a large footprint while individual Ripper broods have a relatively small one. Also are the Rippers starting on the table or are they dropping in turn 2?

Eihnlazer wrote:I have a new list up https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/785452.page] for your viewing pleasure.

The link appears broken at my end. I can't access the post for some reason.

he put a ] on the end. This works.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/785452.page

thanks

Quick query.

What is better:

2x3 Venomthropes -OR- 1x6 Venomthropes

Assume they're sitting at the back of a Kronos gunline that has an Exocrine and a pair of Tyrannofexes.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Quick query.

What is better:

2x3 Venomthropes -OR- 1x6 Venomthropes

Assume they're sitting at the back of a Kronos gunline that has an Exocrine and a pair of Tyrannofexes.

I would assume 1x6. Just by virtue of the opponent needing to kill 4 venomthropes from one unit in order to drop the -1 hit buff to your MC shooting line, instead of 2 between the two units.

That's a good point.

1x6, you can hide monsters, and its a harder kill point.

Really though, i would take a malanthrope.

For the purpose of babysitting backline artillery, the malanthrope is better.

So per new ITC Missions Tyranid Warriors no longer give up gang busters since they are troops, but do give up reaper for purposes of 20 Wounds (rather than models). I think this is a win for us, as getting the Physiological Adaptations to ignore AP and possibility to get -1 to hit, -1 str, and 5++ or 6+ FnP makes them very resilient.

Also the manuever secondaries seem to be much better as well, and enables us to make use of our speed to get Behind Enemy lines, recon, and the other objectives based ones like Engineers/Postman.

Anyone tried these new missions. Curious to hear how it went.

It helps yes, since most opponents were taking reaper already againgst us.

Don't think that a squad of warriors will tank longer than 2 turns though. It just means we have more options to play other than straight stealer bomb in a competitive setting.

Am I seeing double or next WD issue will feature new GSC/Tyranids formations?

Traditionally the Tale of Four warlords is an article covering army building/painting between four staff members and battle reports involving the armies.

It should still be a fun read, but don’t expect anything rules related.

Gonne teat Blood of Baal this sunday. I might even try a walking tyrant!

I am a fan of warriors, even though they are so so. I like the point decrease.

I will not ally with GSC, because I have notbplayed for quite a while!

Hey everyone just starting a new army(old army was crons) and I've decided to go with nids. Was thinking of picking up a couple getting started boxes, carnifex and some termagaunts.

In total this would give me;
2 broodlords
16 genestealers
2 trygon/mawlocs
36 guants
3 rippers
2 carnifexes(or whatever else you can make out of their box)

Just wondering about the competitiveness of these for making a list. Don't want to start a new army and already be in a hole with poor unit choices.

Additionally I am a little confused about the massive scything talons on the Trygon/mawloc and how many attacks in CC that unit gets, does each talon get to make an additional attack since there are more than 1?

 Punisher wrote:
Hey everyone just starting a new army(old army was crons) and I've decided to go with nids. Was thinking of picking up a couple getting started boxes, carnifex and some termagaunts.

In total this would give me;
2 broodlords
16 genestealers
2 trygon/mawlocs
36 guants
3 rippers
2 carnifexes(or whatever else you can make out of their box)

Just wondering about the competitiveness of these for making a list. Don't want to start a new army and already be in a hole with poor unit choices.

Additionally I am a little confused about the massive scything talons on the Trygon/mawloc and how many attacks in CC that unit gets, does each talon get to make an additional attack since there are more than 1?

Those units are all good choices for what Tyranids have available. Your success will be dependent on your local meta and whether you play ITC rules or just play real 40k. In the past, ITC has had a major impact on the viability of a variety of Nid units. The biggest issue was that everything gave up secondary points far too easily, so even if you had the ability to hold objectives and kill targets, you were always fighting an uphill battle.

Granted, without having played enough with the new ITC rules, I can't comment on if that has changed.

 Punisher wrote:

Additionally I am a little confused about the massive scything talons on the Trygon/mawloc and how many attacks in CC that unit gets, does each talon get to make an additional attack since there are more than 1?

They only get 1 additional attack, at least that's what was ruled when the question arose after the Index releases. I can't recall if they carried that FAQ response into the Tyranid Codex FAQ.

Edit: They did indeed.

One of the many reasons Talons need a re-write.

Marine with 2 Chainswords gets an extra attack with each Chainsword.

Mawloc with 6 Scything talons gets 1 extra attack. What?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
One of the many reasons Talons need a re-write.

Marine with 2 Chainswords gets an extra attack with each Chainsword.

Mawloc with 6 Scything talons gets 1 extra attack. What?

The difference is that a marine usually has 2 base attacks while a Trygon has 6.

Many of our melee weapons require a rewrite, but not the talons.

I disagree.

Talons provide an extremely limited amount of use. A small percentage reroll and before I get a single extra attack I have to have four of the fething things.

If it were +1A per pair of talons (starting with the first), then it might make them worthwhile, especially on high-attack/low damage things like the Mawloc.

My problem with monstrous/massive talons has less to do with the weapon profile and more to do with the Strength of the units that you usually find them on. I also take issue with the fact that monstrous crushing claws are equivalent to DCCWs except they have -1 to hit, inexplicably.

Scything talons should be +1 attack for every pair after the first. Crushing claws have always been -1/initiative 1 to hit so it never surprised me that they are now.

Horms should be 4 points apiece though, and genestealers/broodlord should get a 4++ againgst shooting attacks. Carnifex should have a 2+ save. Trygon Prime should have 14 wounds. Tervigon should have 16 and give gaunts full rerolls to hit or give one squad of gaunts +1 to wound.

This is with no points changes just to make us catch up with the rest of the armies.

Test some games with the above changes and you'll certainly feel slightly more balanced.

I'd say +1 attack per pair. They have to be good.

Hormagaunts do need to come down. Right now there has to be a reason to take them and there isn't one.