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ballzonya wrote:
So a question to all I bought 1 box of tervigon/tyrannofex and 1 spoecyst/tranicyte which one of each is more recommend and with what load out. I'm liking tyrannofex a lot

I've always liked and used Tyrannofen. I think both the Acid Spray, and the big gun (Rupture) are usable builds. The Rupture wants to sit and shoot, the Spray wants to advance then camp...so "style", and Hive Fleet will make a diff...I suggest Magnets.

A few test games under my belt with the new codex.

#1: If using ITC Champs missions, don't run max squads. There is a secondary that gives opponents a bonus for killing a unit that starts with 20+ and double bonus for 30+ models. So run 19 Stealers, and 29 Gants.

#2: Acid Spray TFex is weird. I killed a stormraven with it, and lots of primaris marines. In all 3 games I was able to double shoot most of the game. Still, I feel like a 2nd Exocrine would be better.

#3: Genestealers staying in their nodes is really cool. I was able to null deploy by putting a few T8 beasties and a bunch of Chars behind them giving my opponent no good targets. I was Jormungandr, so I was really tanky against my opponent's alpha strike.

#4: Dakka Flyrant? I spent all 3 games charging him into combats that he failed to do much in. If feels like Keeping a set of MRC's is probably going to be worth it for me.

#5: Using Ravenors to deliver gribbles worked pretty well, but 30 Gants take up more space than you'd think. I thought I'd be able to do it with 3 Ravernors, but I strongly recommend 4 or 5.

#6: Genestealer Acid Maw mainly slowed down rolling. Didn't have a huge impact. Leaning towards skipping it in the future.

#7: I really like Neurothope with Catalyst. He rarely fails. He delivers a fair amount of mortal wounds via smite thanks to his reroll 1's. If you've got a Free HQ, take a Neurothrope.

Mr. Funktastic wrote:
What are the Nids best options against vehicles in CC if you didn't want to play a gunline and wanted to go all in on assault? Is going pure assault a mistake overall?

A full assault army is not bad per se, but 'nids don't really support that, there are factions that can beat you at that game. The 'nids concept of assault army integrates a lot of cheap shooting and as many tricky deployments as you can get. If you want pure frontal violence then you must look toward Khorne.

For CC options against vehicle you have many, with fexes being the obvious ones (the stratagem for wound rerolling is the key here). Haruspices also at the new cost are a good option, but he really shines if you can multiassault a tank and a troop at the same time. Trygons bring the hurt on almost everything with Str 7 and all those massive scythe attacks. Tyrant guards with crushing claws are an hidden gem, they cost a bit more than a terminator with powerfist, but have more attacks, more Strenght, are faster, harder and can be mixed with cheaper guards to get some ablative wounds. Take toxin sacs, at 1 point they are always worth it. If you play behemoth an hyve tyrant with the relic talon is a given, but taking a second melee weapon is useless, so you can give him a ranged option.

Hey, all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding Tyranids. I used to play them in 4th/5th, but I couldn't afford to invest hugely in them. Hence, I don't have a lot of the big, new monsters (Trygon, Tervigon, Exocrine etc,). Nor do I have that many little bugs.

Basically, I'm curious as to whether I can make a remotely viable army out of what I have.

How does this look:



I wasn't sure about which Hive Fleet to use - I was torn between Leviathan and Jormungandr.

I can change the loadouts on the Hive Tyrant, Carnifexes etc., but this is basically all the models I own (aside from a Hive Guard and Venomthrope which I'm unable to use).

Does this list look viable? If not, would it be possible to make a decent list with these models?

If the answer is 'no', that's fine. I can always swarm people with my Imperial Guard instead.

Nids are one of the best, if not the best, pure assault armies in the game.

But what every pure assault army suffers from is the dreaded screening unit. You could obliterate 100 conscripts in one turn (and I’ve seen this happen), but that’s only a small portion of the enemy’s army, at which point all of your stuff is literally hanging in the wind and you usually lose if your opponent brings a competitive list.

So as long as you can reliably kill the screening units and then assault the stuff behind them on the same turn, or hold your stuff in reserves for a turn longer so that you get the drop on them, your assault list is going to do great.

If you can’t do that, it’s a problem.

Of course, if your opponents refuse to bring screening units, you’re golden!

Ran my first game with the new dex. Was against Harlequins, so not the best metric to measure against.

My list;
Battalion - Kraken
Flyrant - 2x Devourers, MRC - Psychic Scream, Paroxysm (Warlord, -1 to hit relic, never suffers penalty to hit trait)
Flyrant - 2x Devourers, MRC - Catalyst, The Horror
Malanthrope

30x Hormagaunts
30x Hormagaunts
3x Rippers

Battalion - Kraken

Neurothrope - Catalyst
Neutothrope - Onslaught

20x Genestealers - 5x Acid Maw, 20x ST
20x Genestealers - 5x Acid Maw, 20x ST
30x Termagants - 30x Devourers

Trygon - Adrenal Glands
Trygon - Adrenal Glands

I took two catalysts because I wanted to make sure I could put it anywhere on the board I needed. Kept what I consider the most important powers (Catalyst, Onslaught) off the warlord because I figure he'll be the first major target and I want to keep those powers available.

Harlequin list was roughly
3x Troupe Master
2x Shadowseer

1x Solitaire

5 Troupe - 5x fusion pistols
5 Troupe - 5x fusion pistols
5 Troupe

3x Shadow weaver (The transport

6x Jetbikes - Shuriken cannons, zephyr blades

5x Rangers

3x Voidweaver artillery

Was Vanguard (The corner to corner) deployment. Maelstrom, with a fair spread of objectives. He had first turn. He deployed to make sure I didn't have anywhere behind him to deep strike. I set up both flyrants, 20 stealers, 20 devourers and both trygons in reserve. 20 stealers in the center, 30 horms on either side. Mal in the middle, 1 neurothrope behind each horm squad.

Turn 1 he moved the bikes/solitaire more towards my right flank, around 22-24" or so from my right hormagaunts, with the solitaire up in a building. 1 star weaver about 23" from my stealers, and the rest kinda shuffled to ensure I couldn't get behind him. His shooting picked up 5 and 6 horms respectively, and 2 stealers.

My turn 1, thanks to 3d6 for advance I got 6 with my stealers and doubled it, putting me 20" up the board. Both horm squads advanced, but the right squad only 3". I managed to fit both flyrants and the devourer gants on the right flank, I kept the stealers off the board. Between psychic phase and shooting phase I removed all 6 bikes and the solitaire, and put catalyst on the stealers. The stealers only got a 5" charge on the star weaver (Even after I rerolled a 2 with a CP), so I couldn't surround it. I did manage to make 1" with pile ins into 2 of the arty pieces, and just barely killed the vehicle. My whole reason for charging was to surround the vehicle and wipe the squad, and even 7" of movement would have been enough to get me around the fins on the vehicle and guarantee death for everyone inside. Sadly, I settled for locking out 2 arty pieces and the dead transport.

His turn 2 he gets 2 squads out, flys one transport past my horms to go for a far objective and get line breaker. Shooting and psychic phase brought the stealers down to 7 models. He charged 1 troupe+master into the left horms, and a troupe+master+shadowseer into the GS. He activated the master first and picked up 2 more, which ended up pulling his shadowseer out of 1". I opted to interrupt and go for the troupe. 15 attacks should have gotten me ~3 dead, but I only managed to pick up one. In turn the stealers made 10/10 5++/5+++ so I couldn't really complain. I forgot to use caustic blood, and the troupe+master killed 22 hormagaunts on the left. In return I picked up 1 or 2 players. I was down to 3 CP by this point and had a tough choice. I had let the stealers fall out of synapse because I didn't think they'd survive to a morale check. I blew 2 to keep them alive, I figured charging them in should be enough to wipe a shadowseer or the remnants of a troupe.

My turn 2 I advance up my warlord flyrant and normally move the other (Neither had realistic charge ranges) towards a transport. Devourers move up but a giant LOS blocking terrain piece is going to keep them from shooting most of their shots. Trygon goes towards my far left corner to box in that transport that jumped over my lines. Right hormagaunt squad advances (Intend to onslaught it) right up infront of what he has left of infantry on my right. Left horms fall back to charge back in. I bring up the other trygon+GS in the center of the board. I fail every buff/debuff in psychic, but between smites, scream and shooting I pick up a transport, most of his troupes are wiped out, and he loses some wounds here and there from characters. I can't charge with right horms, but the 5 stealers go for a single shadowseer, and the left horms charge back in on whats left of his troupe on the left. Left side all he has left is his master, right side I roll terribly and the seer only takes a little damage.

His turn 3 the transport on my left goes into the corner, up in a building. Master jumps past my horms and charges the malanthrope+neurothrope. Right side he charges into the 5 man stealer squad and the hormagaunts. The neuro/mal/master combat is a wash. Like 11 hormagaunts and the last of the stealers die.

My turn 3 I get the new Trygon up to his left troupe master. Right horms fall back past his lines towards his big guns. GS get a 6 advance and surround what's left of his infantry. Both flyrants swoop right into the middle of his chars. psychic and shooting wipes out or weakens most of his stuff, including popping the left master. Charges wipe out the rest of his infantry, and I manage to keep 1 horm alive holding 2 arty pieces.

We call it there. I've lost 29+27 horms, 20 genestealers, and 1 devourer gaunt. He has 5 rangers, 1 transport and 3 arty pieces left.

He made a few mistakes, namely underestimating the GS distance and not being more careful with his solitaire placement. However, the 20" move on GS meant that if he didn't have a unit within their charge range, I was going to drop the other 20 stealers right beside them. For the solitaire, I did most of the damage in psychic, and so wiping the bikes with the dev gaunts and 1 flyrant meant I still would have had 1 more flyrant to finish the solitaire off.

For me, caustic blood would have likely been a massive deal. The 3-4 extra wounds would have finished the left troupe+master off a turn earlier. I held off using pathogenic slime because I didn't want to use D2 on W3 models (Wasting every other +1D) when I was already going to spend 2 CP to double tap the devourer gants, which ended up being the right call. If I had been more cognizant of synapse I may have been able to save 2 CP.

In general, I think nids are going to be way too fast for most armies. I was looking at situations and realized that if you charge a screening unit turn 1, there are two possible outcomes that are amazing. First, you surround it but don't kill it. It can't fall back, you got a ton of free movement and are immune to shooting. The second is much more insidious. This works best with GS or horms that have had onslaught cast on them. You charge, wipe the unit, activate overrun (1 CP), move+advance AGAIN (so 8+ 3d6 pick the highest), then spend 3 CP to activate them to fight again (They charged, they are eligible to activate), allowing you to pile in to units WELL within the enemy deployment zone. You should, pretty easily, be able to wrap up something to prevent enemy shooting you, and hopefully shut down a large amount of enemy firepower. I recognize that it is expensive at 4CP, and you're giving up the ability to swing on anything you pile into the second time, but, particularly with Horms, you could be spending 4 CP to give a huge portion of your army a full turn to avoid being shot. If you were facing IG for example, and you made a 24" charge with GS into a conscript screen... you could easily wipe out a 20 man squad, then get a full move into their lines and another set of pile in+consolidates.

I was a big fan of the flyrants, though I think that may be very different vs shooty armies. With 2 casts each I can smite and still use a buff/debuff/scream, and while I would have liked 24 shots each, I like how hard they hit in combat while being super mobile. I'm pretty sure they'll be great for hunting down characters and fire support units. With the speed of kraken, I'm not 100% sold on needing the Trygon for the stealers, and may elect instead to drop a trygon+rippers and run 3x19 on the board. Should I really feel the need I can still do infestation to semi-null deploy. I could also drop 1 GS from each unit and have enough points to take a single lictor, giving me the option to pheromone trail. Not sure yet. I think 57 stealers at -1 to hit will be hard for most armies to remove, and if they are focusing down the stealers I can lock them down with hormagaunts and yadda yadda yadda.

tag8833 wrote:
#6: Genestealer Acid Maw mainly slowed down rolling. Didn't have a huge impact. Leaning towards skipping it in the future.

#7: I really like Neurothope with Catalyst. He rarely fails. He delivers a fair amount of mortal wounds via smite thanks to his reroll 1's. If you've got a Free HQ, take a Neurothrope.

#6 Acid Maw doesn't replace ST or RC, so it just gives you a free extra weapon. Absolutely worth using vs T3/4 units with 4+ or better, but if you're wounding on 5s it's barely a buff, and wounding on 6s rending claws are better.

#7 Neurothropes are amazing. They can cast a nid power and still smite. So clutch.

Played my first codex game today. 50 Power Level vs Orks (he was 55 PL)

I played:
Leviathan Battalion detachment
Swarmlord
tyranid Prime

20 loaded Hormagants
20 fleshborer termagants
3 Tyranid Warriors 2 deathspitter/scytal 1 strangler scytal. Adrenal glands

3 Tyrant Guard 2 scytal/rending 1 scytal/crushing claws adrenal glands

1 carnifex double monstrous scytal plasma shot adrenal glands spore cysts tusks

He played Orks with a deffdred, Mech, named painboy, battle wagon, big unit of boys, big unit is nobs, everything he had had max upgrades


We played standard dawn of war with 4 objectives with random values. He ended up with the 4 and the 1 while I had two 2's. though in the long run it didn't end up mattering as He conceded on turn 4 before he could be tabled.

My takeaways:

Swarmlord with new toughness and3+\ 4+ teamed with psychic support and tyrant guard is a pretty beefy death star vs other melee armies. I cast catalyst and the horror on whatever was scary and proceeded to only lose one wound for the rest of the game.

One carnifex isn't enough. I felt he didn't do much this game except catch bullets while I chased around targets.

I am not sure what strategy Leviathan is building towards, other hive fleets seem to have a much clearer unifying theory and
lend themselves to certain strategic advantages. My gut tells me that Leviathan will/would be one of the few lists that you would only have it as a single fleet. This seems like it would be the only way to get any efficiency out of the trait and get a return on points. Still not sure of how to win the game with it other than try to play like old battle company. MSU warriors screened by cheap gants on objectives. With DS genestealers/swarmlord kamikazee'd into the enemy as distractions.

As for Orks, obviously neither list was hyper competitive but I felts if he had just gone with 90 boys and some buffing characters I would have been in trouble.

Everyone else's thoughts?




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anyone else notice Tyranid prime doesn't have the Tyranid warrior keyword? The only character in this vein in our book not to buff themselves.

 Xenomancers wrote:
My issue is that kronos is worthless for infantry. Well more specifically - troop options.

Says you. I'm have a list of Warrior spam army under Kronos I want to try. 12 Deathspitter Warriors (plus 4 venom cannons) divided into two unit backed by a Primes hitting on 2s rerolling 1s sounds like a fun time to me.

I also just realised that the Shoot Again stratagem would work on them, so there's that.

Cauthon wrote:
Am I reading this right? Tyrants and carnifex' can have two different bio cannons?

Says you can change one or both their kit with items from the bio cannons list and on the page that lists the bio cannons it just says you can't have multiples of the same one, so...yes?

Is that new?

This isnt a new option. Been a thing.

Hi all,

Brand new Tyranid player here. I'm looking to get into 8th with Nids. I've picked up the codex and a variety of boxes. However, I'm overwhelemed at all of the options. I will primarily be up against Necrons, and a little bit of AM, orks and Tau. I heavily favour close combat over shooting so would be looking to build a list focused on getting up close and personal. I've just finised painting 2k points of orks so wouldn't mind leaning away from a horde heavy army if possible. I'm not worried about building a super competitive list either. Mostly for fun social games.

So far a I have: start collecting box (2016) 10 genestealers, tyrgon box x2, broodlord, hormagaunt box, venomthrope box.

I would also love to add a few carnifexs as I love the models.

Any tips on how to build what I have and what to grab next would be much appreciated! I

 vipoid wrote:
Hey, all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding Tyranids. I used to play them in 4th/5th, but I couldn't afford to invest hugely in them. Hence, I don't have a lot of the big, new monsters (Trygon, Tervigon, Exocrine etc,). Nor do I have that many little bugs.

Basically, I'm curious as to whether I can make a remotely viable army out of what I have.

How does this look:

Spoiler:

Battalion (+3CP)
Broodlord – 162
Neurothrope – 70
10 Genestealers – 120
14 Termagants w/ Fleshborer – 56
14 Termagants w/ Fleshborer – 56
Lictor – 45
Lictor – 45
10 Gargoyles – 60
Carnifex w/ 2x Devourers w/ Brainleech Worms, Enhanced Senses

Battalion (+3CP)
Hive Tyrant w/ Heavy Venom Cannon, Monstrous Scything Talons – 183
Tyranid Prime w/ Twin Boneswords, Deathspitter, Toxin Sacs – 112
4 Tyranid Warriors w/ 4x Rending Claws, 3x Deathspitter, Venom Cannon – 123
3 Tyranid Warriors w/ 3x Rending Claws, 2x Deathspitter, Venom Cannon – 96
3 Tyranid Warriors w/ 3x Rending Claws, 2x Deathspitter, Venom Cannon – 96
Carnifex w/ Heavy Venom Cannon, Monstrous Scything Talons, Enhanced Senses – 116

1500pts (9CP)

I wasn't sure about which Hive Fleet to use - I was torn between Leviathan and Jormungandr.

I can change the loadouts on the Hive Tyrant, Carnifexes etc., but this is basically all the models I own (aside from a Hive Guard and Venomthrope which I'm unable to use).

Does this list look viable? If not, would it be possible to make a decent list with these models?

If the answer is 'no', that's fine. I can always swarm people with my Imperial Guard instead.

With all those Warriors Leviathan looks like a good choice, If you have a bunch of Guard, you might run GSC+ Nids with only a few new models, and GSC can run GSC+Nids+Guard.

If you find you like Nids you can fill in the gribblies numbers pretty easily. Good luck! And good hunting!

 Sim-Life wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
My issue is that kronos is worthless for infantry. Well more specifically - troop options.

Says you. I'm have a list of Warrior spam army under Kronos I want to try. 12 Deathspitter Warriors (plus 4 venom cannons) divided into two unit backed by a Primes hitting on 2s rerolling 1s sounds like a fun time to me.

I also just realised that the Shoot Again stratagem would work on them, so there's that.

I was thinking about this. How big were your warrior squads? Did you use them to synapse backfield artillery?

Ok, I'm a little confused fused on the tails now. For the trygons it's base 7 attacks with 3 Mon sytals. If you take more than 1 pair you get an extra attack. Also the tail reads like an extra attack that you can choose to use or not. So is the 7 attacks including all that or would it be 7+1+1 ; base +talons + tail ( of which 1 attack may be made with the tail bit doesn't have to.) Is this correct?

 Dynas wrote:
Ok, I'm a little confused fused on the tails now. For the trygons it's base 7 attacks with 3 Mon sytals. If you take more than 1 pair you get an extra attack. Also the tail reads like an extra attack that you can choose to use or not. So is the 7 attacks including all that or would it be 7+1+1 ; base +talons + tail ( of which 1 attack may be made with the tail bit doesn't have to.) Is this correct?

I believe thats how it currently works...the tail is extra now.

It is extra and it is optional, but you don’t get the extra attack if you don’t use the tail weapon. So it no longer “takes away” one of your base attacks, but it also doesn’t give you a free attack using your normal strength, AP and damage profile

Edit: just to clarify, the Trygon is base 6 attacks. So you get 7 because of the scything talons bonus, and the 8th dice you roll MUST be for your tail attack. I guess you could choose not to make that 8th attack, but I mean you’re not getting anything else. It’s not like the 8th attack can be with your scything talons

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Sim-Life wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
My issue is that kronos is worthless for infantry. Well more specifically - troop options.

Says you. I'm have a list of Warrior spam army under Kronos I want to try. 12 Deathspitter Warriors (plus 4 venom cannons) divided into two unit backed by a Primes hitting on 2s rerolling 1s sounds like a fun time to me.

I also just realised that the Shoot Again stratagem would work on them, so there's that.

I was thinking about this. How big were your warrior squads? Did you use them to synapse backfield artillery?

I have 16 warriors so two squads of 8. Traditionally my warrior squads have been mid-field synapse support, hovering somewhere just forward of the deployment area to spread the synapse web around where it needs to be.

Taking at least a few of them has been a habit since 4th and my lists feel weird without them. I didn't bring them last game I played and I didn't like it. I've not tested the list I have for them yet so it remains to be seen if it works.

CDShaddock wrote:


1 carnifex double monstrous scytal plasma shot adrenal glands spore cysts tusks

Fex can't have tusks and plasma at the same time.

 Sim-Life wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
My issue is that kronos is worthless for infantry. Well more specifically - troop options.

Says you. I'm have a list of Warrior spam army under Kronos I want to try. 12 Deathspitter Warriors (plus 4 venom cannons) divided into two unit backed by a Primes hitting on 2s rerolling 1s sounds like a fun time to me.

BS4+ says they hit on 3s with +1. In combat it's 2+ but I assume you meant shooting.

 Traceoftoxin wrote:
In general, I think nids are going to be way too fast for most armies. I was looking at situations and realized that if you charge a screening unit turn 1, there are two possible outcomes that are amazing. First, you surround it but don't kill it. It can't fall back, you got a ton of free movement and are immune to shooting. The second is much more insidious. This works best with GS or horms that have had onslaught cast on them. You charge, wipe the unit, activate overrun (1 CP), move+advance AGAIN (so 8+ 3d6 pick the highest), then spend 3 CP to activate them to fight again (They charged, they are eligible to activate), allowing you to pile in to units WELL within the enemy deployment zone. You should, pretty easily, be able to wrap up something to prevent enemy shooting you, and hopefully shut down a large amount of enemy firepower. I recognize that it is expensive at 4CP, and you're giving up the ability to swing on anything you pile into the second time, but, particularly with Horms, you could be spending 4 CP to give a huge portion of your army a full turn to avoid being shot. If you were facing IG for example, and you made a 24" charge with GS into a conscript screen... you could easily wipe out a 20 man squad, then get a full move into their lines and another set of pile in+consolidates.

Dear god, I think I just threw up a little. That's amazing if it actually works though. It does feel like it goes against the intended use of the stratagem though, given it explicitly states you can't get within 1".

 N.I.B. wrote:

 Sim-Life wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
My issue is that kronos is worthless for infantry. Well more specifically - troop options.

Says you. I'm have a list of Warrior spam army under Kronos I want to try. 12 Deathspitter Warriors (plus 4 venom cannons) divided into two unit backed by a Primes hitting on 2s rerolling 1s sounds like a fun time to me.

BS4+ says they hit on 3s with +1. In combat it's 2+ but I assume you meant shooting.

Nah, I thought they were BS3+ because I keep thinking GW would do the sensible thing an use the stat that comes first in a turn in the profile.

Still gonna use them though.

C4790M wrote:

 Traceoftoxin wrote:
In general, I think nids are going to be way too fast for most armies. I was looking at situations and realized that if you charge a screening unit turn 1, there are two possible outcomes that are amazing. First, you surround it but don't kill it. It can't fall back, you got a ton of free movement and are immune to shooting. The second is much more insidious. This works best with GS or horms that have had onslaught cast on them. You charge, wipe the unit, activate overrun (1 CP), move+advance AGAIN (so 8+ 3d6 pick the highest), then spend 3 CP to activate them to fight again (They charged, they are eligible to activate), allowing you to pile in to units WELL within the enemy deployment zone. You should, pretty easily, be able to wrap up something to prevent enemy shooting you, and hopefully shut down a large amount of enemy firepower. I recognize that it is expensive at 4CP, and you're giving up the ability to swing on anything you pile into the second time, but, particularly with Horms, you could be spending 4 CP to give a huge portion of your army a full turn to avoid being shot. If you were facing IG for example, and you made a 24" charge with GS into a conscript screen... you could easily wipe out a 20 man squad, then get a full move into their lines and another set of pile in+consolidates.

Dear god, I think I just threw up a little. That's amazing if it actually works though. It does feel like it goes against the intended use of the stratagem though, given it explicitly states you can't get within 1".

It works and it isn't really that strecthed. That 1 cp stratagem has a limit, and to overcome it you are paying 3 more CPs.

pinecone77 wrote:
With all those Warriors Leviathan looks like a good choice

Okay, that's fine.

Any suggestions regarding Warlord Traits and Relics? I was thinking that the Neurothrope would make the best Warlord (simple because it's likely to be the furthest from the action).

pinecone77 wrote:
If you have a bunch of Guard, you might run GSC+ Nids with only a few new models, and GSC can run GSC+Nids+Guard.

Yeah, I might give that a go sometime. Especially since, a while back now, I got fed up with my potato-faced guardsmen and started giving some of them genestealer heads.

pinecone77 wrote:
Good luck! And good hunting!

Thanks.

Does the list look okay though? I mean, I haven't played nids since 5th so I'm a little behind on list building and general tactics for their stuff.

Im really glad to see people are having success with Leviathan and Kraken. I was personally looking at those two fleets and think they are probably the best 2. I know a lot of people like Jormugandr and Kronos, but I think that the cover bonus on Jormugandr is too limiting since you don't get it if you advance or charge.

Sure it might be good for gaunts, get a 5+ save but there is a lot of AP out there that will chew through that armor. You might as well get a guaranteed 6+++ FnP with leviathan. With the amount of Synapse creatures (even without taking warriors), its fairly easy to keep the UNIT withing 6" to ensure the survivability and basically 16.667% more wounds for your entire army.

As for Kraken, TraceofToxin demonstrated the effectiveness of speed. Movement and positioning wins games, not Firepower. If you can maneuver and dictate the board on your terms, then the opponent is playing a reactionary game.

The genestealers with Kraken our SOOOO FAST. Especially if you infestation node them right at the edge or your deployment zone. You can sneak at extra 6" out of that with the nodes, move 8, advance highest of 3d6 a good chance at a 6, charge 2d6; that's a potential 32 (6+8+6+12)" move; add another 14" if you take Swarmlord. And as mentioned do it all over again for 4 cp. 32+14+14=60" movement. (or say you roll 4 on advances, and 7 on charge) that's still 25" average(6+8+4+7), 37" (8+4 if you use the 4 CP stratagem), or 49" if you use swarmy to get another move and advance. You are easily going board edge to board edge, even if its long deployment.

I am curious about other peoples first game experiences with the various hive fleets and how they went.

 Byte wrote:

Cauthon wrote:
Am I reading this right? Tyrants and carnifex' can have two different bio cannons?

Says you can change one or both their kit with items from the bio cannons list and on the page that lists the bio cannons it just says you can't have multiples of the same one, so...yes?

Is that new?

This isnt a new option. Been a thing.

But now it's more potent thanks to the updates on the venom cannon/barbed strangler weapon profiles, costs, and strategem.

Just wanted to chime in and comment on the effectiveness of genestealers in conjunction with a swarmlord. Moving + advancing (highest of 3d6") + charge is insane with stealers. My craftworld got charged by two genestealers over the course of the game that were 30+ inches away. I had to laugh!... and then die.

tag8833 wrote:
A few test games under my belt with the new codex.

#1: If using ITC Champs missions, don't run max squads. There is a secondary that gives opponents a bonus for killing a unit that starts with 20+ and double bonus for 30+ models. So run 19 Stealers, and 29 Gants.

#2: Acid Spray TFex is weird. I killed a stormraven with it, and lots of primaris marines. In all 3 games I was able to double shoot most of the game. Still, I feel like a 2nd Exocrine would be better.

#3: Genestealers staying in their nodes is really cool. I was able to null deploy by putting a few T8 beasties and a bunch of Chars behind them giving my opponent no good targets. I was Jormungandr, so I was really tanky against my opponent's alpha strike.

#4: Dakka Flyrant? I spent all 3 games charging him into combats that he failed to do much in. If feels like Keeping a set of MRC's is probably going to be worth it for me.

#5: Using Ravenors to deliver gribbles worked pretty well, but 30 Gants take up more space than you'd think. I thought I'd be able to do it with 3 Ravernors, but I strongly recommend 4 or 5.

#6: Genestealer Acid Maw mainly slowed down rolling. Didn't have a huge impact. Leaning towards skipping it in the future.

#7: I really like Neurothope with Catalyst. He rarely fails. He delivers a fair amount of mortal wounds via smite thanks to his reroll 1's. If you've got a Free HQ, take a Neurothrope.

1. Interesting note. Just played in an ITC but didn't use Champs missions. Had other ones do this didn't effect it
2. It is better, getting a extra d6 to attacks, but I find the version odd also. I feel its best as a backfield arty with its vastly improved and playable gun now. but I can see why just more exocrine would be better. I don't know the difference in points though.
3. Nodes seem kinda useless to me personally. and I have like 100 Genestealers. Rather have them come up in tunnels
4. Are you asking what is it or don't get why people use it? If its dakka, don't see a reason to ever charge it unless its into a land raider or some other vehicle to tie it up, but yea if hes dakka, hes not killing anything in melee
5. Good to know! that's my plan, Ravs or Trygon and deliver 30 devilgaunts in someones face
6. Yea, seems useless to use really
7. Yea, Neuro spam is a thing!

 Dynas wrote:
Im really glad to see people are having success with Leviathan and Kraken. I was personally looking at those two fleets and think they are probably the best 2. I know a lot of people like Jormugandr and Kronos, but I think that the cover bonus on Jormugandr is too limiting since you don't get it if you advance or charge.

Sure it might be good for gaunts, get a 5+ save but there is a lot of AP out there that will chew through that armor. You might as well get a guaranteed 6+++ FnP with leviathan. With the amount of Synapse creatures (even without taking warriors), its fairly easy to keep the UNIT withing 6" to ensure the survivability and basically 16.667% more wounds for your entire army.

As for Kraken, TraceofToxin demonstrated the effectiveness of speed. Movement and positioning wins games, not Firepower. If you can maneuver and dictate the board on your terms, then the opponent is playing a reactionary game.

The genestealers with Kraken our SOOOO FAST. Especially if you infestation node them right at the edge or your deployment zone. You can sneak at extra 6" out of that with the nodes, move 8, advance highest of 3d6 a good chance at a 6, charge 2d6; that's a potential 32 (6+8+6+12)" move; add another 14" if you take Swarmlord. And as mentioned do it all over again for 4 cp. 32+14+14=60" movement. (or say you roll 4 on advances, and 7 on charge) that's still 25" average(6+8+4+7), 37" (8+4 if you use the 4 CP stratagem), or 49" if you use swarmy to get another move and advance. You are easily going board edge to board edge, even if its long deployment.

I am curious about other peoples first game experiences with the various hive fleets and how they went.

I don't know whether or not your idea with the infestation nodes is working. You can just get them out of the nodes at the end of the movement phase. So your additional Movement does not work. It might work, when you use the extra movement stratagem, but it is a bit of a grey area.

The only reason nodes are good is they put genestealers in reserve so you can deep strike them onto a lurker for only the 40 points or whatever the lurker costs.

 Astmeister wrote:

 Dynas wrote:


I don't know whether or not your idea with the infestation nodes is working. You can just get them out of the nodes at the end of the movement phase. So your additional Movement does not work. It might work, when you use the extra movement stratagem, but it is a bit of a grey area.

Ah, my mistake, so take 6" off. Probably just better to hide them behind some LoS blocking terrain then. Still, they can be very fast.

Lictor.

It's also good if you use Swarmlord's hive commander and Kraken trait and/or stratagem. You can use both to reach melee turn 1 without allowing them to get shot.

So hide 2 units on nodes. Use a lictor and one CP to effectively deep strike one unit, and use the Swarmlord and 1 CP to move and double advance another unit.