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"declares a charge". Its the Jormungandr rule not a general rule, you declare a charge you lose it.

Edit: B.c the 2nd rule you talked about is a general rule and the Jormungandr rule is a Codex, Codex rules trumps BRB rules, its an extra detail to the rule that changes it, so you follow the extra rule from your codex.

The second rule only tells you that you do not count as having charged, but you still count as having declared a charge, which is what limits Jormu.

Am I missing something? I can not find the nids erata.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Rules-Errata

Hey all, I have a tournament this weekend (not the LVO)
and will be bringing GSC/Nids/AM. I am wondering is their anything in this list you would take out or add it to make it better.

Main Ideas;

- Use Tank Commanders as static gunline as well as being sources to gain CP's on 5+'s to use on stratagems.

- Rattlings are to sniper characters and distraction carnifex (will be giving them +1 in cove).

-Devgaunts clear chaff, Stealers clear chaff, Neophytes are "tax".

-Acolytes will be used to take care of dangerous enemies in CC, Primus grants them better cult ambush and +1 to hit. Magus will cast Mass Hypnosis (stop overwatch, -1 to hit and fights last) to help my CC units charging.

-Flyrants are there to take care of Flyers and have them equipped with MRC and Dspitters.

I personally am not sure about the Flyrants load out but not sure what to "fix". All help is appreciated and I can take out the AM/GSC parts if they re not welcome.

You could drop a squad of ratlings and the two platoon commanders and the toxin sacs on the flyrants to take 3 bare guard squads, turning the vanguard into a battalion. Nets you 2 extra CP and a bunch more chaff. For further CP optimisation, drop a few termagants and take a squad of rippers to make the tyranid det a battalion also. This would give you a lovely amount of command points to use on single minded annihilation/adrenaline surge etc

 Niiai wrote:
Am I missing something? I can not find the nids erata.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Rules-Errata

FAQs are nolonger being updated there. Dumb, I know.

They are here

https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/

Also, all nid relevant FAQs are linked to in the OP.

 Dynas wrote:

6. The Trygon did basically nothing outside of delivering the termagants in every game. He either died immediately or was unable to be effective after the devgants shot up their targets. However, the devgants were colossal for me in every game. I don't see how a Tyranid list doesn't run 30 of these bad boys with deep strike. These guys did epic amounts of work in one game, killing a total of 80 chaff models. (Hello, 4 points on secondary, and bullying off of objectives.)

Same here. only i used genestealers. when i did the gaunt bomb it was a waste because they were already in range anyway with 18" and a 6" move. I might start dropping them and just running my GS up the board. That 9" charge is to hard to get, even with the CP reroll. And if they dont get in they die. Trygon is just an expensive DS ability, I think we can find better use of points elsewhere (also it gives up both headhunter and big game hunter 2ndarys). I have found my trygons underwhelming this edition, becasue they hardly ever get into combat.

Trygons do not give up headhunter. They are not characters unless you take them as Trygon Primes... which you should never do unless you plan to give them a relic.

I've been using 2 Trygons in my list and so far they have been super stars. They bring in 25 devgaunts and 19 genestealers. I use the Swarmlord with a double advance to get him close enough to grant the genestealers an extra move, allowing them to charge things BEHIND the screen after the devgaunts make a hole. I also use the double move strat on a Malanthrope to get him within 3" of both Trygons, the Swarmlord and the devgaunts. I also drop a Flyrant near the Malanthrope with Chameleonic Mutation for -2 to be hit.

The large number of threats and the -1 to hit means that the Trygons will always make it to turn 2. I have yet to have a game where my opponents felt that the Trygons were the biggest threats and killed them first. Sometimes the -1 is enough to keep them alive even if they do shoot at them. On turn 2 they're free to go eat something.

C4790M wrote:
You could drop a squad of ratlings and the two platoon commanders and the toxin sacs on the flyrants to take 3 bare guard squads, turning the vanguard into a battalion. Nets you 2 extra CP and a bunch more chaff. For further CP optimisation, drop a few termagants and take a squad of rippers to make the tyranid det a battalion also. This would give you a lovely amount of command points to use on single minded annihilation/adrenaline surge etc

Awesome feedback. However, we can only bring 3 Detachments and we are not allowed to use the same detachment more then once. This is why it's 1 Battalion, Vanguard and Patrol.

I was thinking making the GSC a Patrol and using the Nids as a Battalion but not sure what to drop to make that work. Acolytes should be a good CC unit for T7 and below units but might swap them for more Devigaunts or Genestealers.

Any ideas lads?

 Dynas wrote:

2. Chameleonic mutation + catalyst = the Warlord Lives! People were baited into taking kill the warlord / kingslayer with every game and no one killed him. He was dropped to 1 wound in one game, though, although I couldn't manifest any powers due to Culexus. Dropping him to 1 wound is only 2 points on that secondary, which is nice.

Good to know. Will have to try that one. Did you ever use the Regen stratagem on him?

No, I never had to, nor did I want to spend the CP. If it was a 3 point heal and not d3 I would have considered it but it's too expensive for potentially only 1 wound. My warlord would have died in the following turns for sure, but the games ended.

 Dynas wrote:

3. The new smite rules really hurt the value of neurothropes. I liked being able to cast onslaught and catalyst turn 1. But i needed onslaught a lot less than I needed -1 to hit, that could be provided by a malanthrope. Some restructuring might be required.

Interesting, even at 4 neuros you are only needing a 8 to cast...Hmm. I definitely agree with the Malantrhope, I think 140 is a little high for a -1 bubble at 3", either increase the bubble to 6" (maybe 12") or drop his points to like 120 i think would be perfect.

I just found that I wasn't reliably smiting after the first 2, even rerolling 1s. I'm not going to make a change right away, but I see -1 to hit being more valuable than another smite. But it's not a points equal tradeoff so not sure it's worth it.

4. Hive Guard were underwhelming offensively, although people were scared of them completely. In every game they dictated where my opponent went. They did damage. I didn't face reapers, which was odd because I counted at least 5 lists with reapers (second place had 30 reapers). I will probably either (a) drop a neurothrope for a malanthrope and reduce my hive guard accordingly, or (b) go for the brigade, with venomthropes, and biovores. A single unit of hive guard, i would still recommend, because they will help against many meta things. They also bully objectives very well. I won one game because of these guys. Not because they did any real damage, but because my opponent committed significant energy in killing them, allowing me to control the board and win handsomely in objectives, kills, and actually getting the control all bonus. Or, go battalion x2, and a third detachment with biovores. Anyway, with T5 and 3 wounds a piece, they're surprisingly durable. In my last game i literally deployed them out of cover, as far forward as possible, daring my opponent to attack them. He did and it paid off big time, i curb stomped everything he committed to them, and the squad wasn't even wholly eliminated.

Very interesting obervation. I have only run HG once so far. People are afraid of them and their is something to be said for effecting your opponents mentality and strategy just by the potential threat of a unit, even if they don't do anything. I think a unit of them would be good for anti tank, but no need to take 6 or 9 or 12 like I have seen in some list. I think dropping the neuro and HG to pickup the malanthrope is a good idea.

Yeah, they're threatening. 12 dice coming in at strength 8 isn't something that's easily ignored. You will never win the artillery battle, so they absolutely have diminishing returns. They do a nice job of bullying objective holders. Dropping 3 of them would give me back 144 points. Another option is keeping 2 neuros and adding venomthropes.

5. Recon is a solid scorer. A lot of people are building lists with denying secondaries in mind, and it's not super hard to get recon. It's 2-3 points easily per game, guaranteed. Old School is also a good one. You will kill a unit every turn. Right there, that's 2 points. You will probably have linebreaker, too, so that's 3. And you get those 3 even if the game ends on turn 2 - not bad. Having this many models on the field, you need to score as much as physically possible on turns 1 and 2. It's almost impossible for you to be tabled, and due to the time constraints, games won't go past turn 3 unless your opponents model count is super tiny.

Completely agree. My rippers scored table quarters every round in my last 3 game tourney except for 1. Easy points and a must take. ALso agree with old school, I took that one as well. First Blood, Last blood, linebreaker are almost guareneteed with our army. Slay warlord is doable. That leaves one final slot to flex agianst opponents which I usually take Headhunter or big game hunter. A lot of armies I find go MEU rather than big blobs.

Yep. In a horde Tyranid army Old School & Recon are always 2 you should pick unless the list has a glaring weakness.

Great observations. How did you do with time limits? Did you use movement trays. I rarely get a game past 3 turns in a 2.5 hour match.

I struggle with time limits. I did not get past turn 3. Normally that's not a problem but it does limit your scoring. So yeah you'll score 12-16 points pretty reliably in 2 turns, which is actually solid, but you won't make it to turn 4-5 - making your overall score low. I'm not sure how to deal with this. Because lists that table people will get massive points, and we just aren't built to do this.

I never use movement trays. I spread my guys out in these weird shapes to deny deep strike, and to really take FULL advantage of the pile in & charge move rules. I'm rarely charging from the position of being a blob on the board, usually some kind of funky looking tendril. I typically try to include as many things as i can in a charge unless there's a scary overwatch to disincentivize that.

 Zimko wrote:

 Dynas wrote:

6. The Trygon did basically nothing outside of delivering the termagants in every game. He either died immediately or was unable to be effective after the devgants shot up their targets. However, the devgants were colossal for me in every game. I don't see how a Tyranid list doesn't run 30 of these bad boys with deep strike. These guys did epic amounts of work in one game, killing a total of 80 chaff models. (Hello, 4 points on secondary, and bullying off of objectives.)

Same here. only i used genestealers. when i did the gaunt bomb it was a waste because they were already in range anyway with 18" and a 6" move. I might start dropping them and just running my GS up the board. That 9" charge is to hard to get, even with the CP reroll. And if they dont get in they die. Trygon is just an expensive DS ability, I think we can find better use of points elsewhere (also it gives up both headhunter and big game hunter 2ndarys). I have found my trygons underwhelming this edition, becasue they hardly ever get into combat.

Trygons do not give up headhunter. They are not characters unless you take them as Trygon Primes... which you should never do unless you plan to give them a relic.

I've been using 2 Trygons in my list and so far they have been super stars. They bring in 25 devgaunts and 19 genestealers. I use the Swarmlord with a double advance to get him close enough to grant the genestealers an extra move, allowing them to charge things BEHIND the screen after the devgaunts make a hole. I also use the double move strat on a Malanthrope to get him within 3" of both Trygons, the Swarmlord and the devgaunts. I also drop a Flyrant near the Malanthrope with Chameleonic Mutation for -2 to be hit.

The large number of threats and the -1 to hit means that the Trygons will always make it to turn 2. I have yet to have a game where my opponents felt that the Trygons were the biggest threats and killed them first. Sometimes the -1 is enough to keep them alive even if they do shoot at them. On turn 2 they're free to go eat something.

Two double move strats on turn 1?

xmbk wrote:

 Zimko wrote:

 Dynas wrote:

6. The Trygon did basically nothing outside of delivering the termagants in every game. He either died immediately or was unable to be effective after the devgants shot up their targets. However, the devgants were colossal for me in every game. I don't see how a Tyranid list doesn't run 30 of these bad boys with deep strike. These guys did epic amounts of work in one game, killing a total of 80 chaff models. (Hello, 4 points on secondary, and bullying off of objectives.)

Same here. only i used genestealers. when i did the gaunt bomb it was a waste because they were already in range anyway with 18" and a 6" move. I might start dropping them and just running my GS up the board. That 9" charge is to hard to get, even with the CP reroll. And if they dont get in they die. Trygon is just an expensive DS ability, I think we can find better use of points elsewhere (also it gives up both headhunter and big game hunter 2ndarys). I have found my trygons underwhelming this edition, becasue they hardly ever get into combat.

Trygons do not give up headhunter. They are not characters unless you take them as Trygon Primes... which you should never do unless you plan to give them a relic.

I've been using 2 Trygons in my list and so far they have been super stars. They bring in 25 devgaunts and 19 genestealers. I use the Swarmlord with a double advance to get him close enough to grant the genestealers an extra move, allowing them to charge things BEHIND the screen after the devgaunts make a hole. I also use the double move strat on a Malanthrope to get him within 3" of both Trygons, the Swarmlord and the devgaunts. I also drop a Flyrant near the Malanthrope with Chameleonic Mutation for -2 to be hit.

The large number of threats and the -1 to hit means that the Trygons will always make it to turn 2. I have yet to have a game where my opponents felt that the Trygons were the biggest threats and killed them first. Sometimes the -1 is enough to keep them alive even if they do shoot at them. On turn 2 they're free to go eat something.

Two double move strats on turn 1?

Double move strat and swarmlord

How do you do this? Is the swarm in a pod? I have a hard tile visulising the timing on this. Swarm drops in, he moves the gaunts, and the malanthrope gets the move stratagem?

Well remember on turn one its not hard to just advance the swarmlord forward and remain within 6" of another unit especialy if your kraken. 8" base + 5-6 from advance + 6" bubble.

Youve basically got a genestealer move worth of range for his double move ability. Malanthropes arent worried about the 1/6 chance of suffering a mortal because of their high wounds either so always use MO on it if its not in good position.

 Niiai wrote:
How do you do this? Is the swarm in a pod? I have a hard tile visulising the timing on this. Swarm drops in, he moves the gaunts, and the malanthrope gets the move stratagem?

The Swarmlord starts on the board, within range of a Malanthrope, and preferrably near LOS blocking terrain near the middle of my deployment.

On turn 1, I use the Kraken strategem to double his advance and move the swarmlord an average of 18". This is plenty of reach to put him in a spot that the Genestealers and Trygon can arrive where at least 1 Genestealer is within 6" of the Swarmlord.

At the same time, I use Metabolic Overdrive (double move) strategem on the Malanthrope to move him an average of 20". With fly, this is more than enough reach to have him sit within 3" of the Swarmlord and be close enough to my 'drop zone' to be within 3" of 2 Trygons if I want.

At the end of the movement phase, I drop in 2 Trygons carrying the Genestealers and Devgaunts. I also drop in the Flyrant either in a place to charge something or behind the Malanthrope for -2 to hit (he has the Kraken relic).

In the shooting phase, I use the Devgaunts to clear screening units. I've used this to easily kill 3 units of Alaitoc Rangers or 3 units of guardsman. Then... AFTER the screen is dead... the swarmlord uses his Hive Commander to have the Genestealers move in the shooting phase. I can optionally use the Kraken strategem here to move them an average of 18". This gets them well into my opponent's deployment zone and close enough to charge lots of things. (Oh and I use catalyst on the Genestealers).

So by the end of the turn, several screening units are dead. Genestealers have killed or locked select units in combat which will heavily limit the amount of shooting I have to endure on turn 2. I also have a Malanthrope with Swarmlord, 2 Trygons, 25 devgaunts and a Flyrant all in a -1 to hit bubble right in front of my opponent's lines. My opponent is forced to expend resources to kill the genestealers first. Then they won't have enough to kill much more than 1 or maybe 2 of my big creatures. On turn 2, the trygons, flryant and swarmlord are close enough to finish what the Genestealers started. The Swarmlord's hive commander continues to do work by throwing the Trygon or Flyrant at hard to reach targets.

Obviously this is the best case scenario and it doesn't always work out that way. But there's enough there to usually pull out a victory. I don't have any yet but I plan to get Meiotic spores to make a 'drop zone' more secure and prevent scouting sentinals or alaitoc rangers from limiting my deep strike areas.

The Swarmlord provides obvious utility but don't expect him to live past turn 1.

And scout moves will prevent you from clearing all of the chaff.

You will be eating 12d6 tempest launcher shots and 30 reaper shots turn 1. All of which ignore your Malanthrope.

Committing wholly to alpha will lose you games against meta Eldar or solid betastrike lists. You will also have immense difficulty with fire raptors.

It's a good concept and i like it. There are shortcomings. Although this is true with every Nids list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Update. I actually really like the Swarmlord to catapault Gaunts forward, while staying out of line of sight.

Force your opponent to spend turn 1 clearing gaunts. Genestealers can come along /w a Trygon and be a turn 2 assault option.

Obviously this depends on your level of terrain. Without significant LOS blockers the Swarmlord is a hard pass for me.

If I wasn't playing entirely in an ITC environment where every board is expected to have 2 LOS blockers in the center then I would not be using Swarmlord.

Amusingly, 12d6 Tempest Launcher shots would only deal an average of 5 wounds to the Swarmlord. He also easily shrugs off Manticores as long as a Malanthrope is near him. I have yet to see him alphaed on turn 1.

Meiotic spores are a must IMO to stop enemy scouts/infiltrators from blocking you from landing. Even then though, genestealers with a swarmlord have an incredible reach. They arrive 9" from infiltrators (which we assume are 12" in front of their deployment zone) and the devgaunts kill this unit. The genestealers then get a 18 to 20 inch boost, putting them right at the edge of the enemy deployment zone. This should be close enough to charge stuff.

Yes, I am aware. My point regarding the tempest launchers is that they will take out your infantry. So unless you kill what you need to kill turn 1, you're in range to get smoked.

I like the Swarmlord. I would like to fit him in my list. Just not sure what I would drop to do it.

Have you played him in an event? how did he do for you against a dark reaper spam list?

I’m sure I read that units only get to advance (and thus use Kraken strat) on Swarmlord extra moves if they advanced in the movement phase. It was an obscure bit of semantics but I recall feeling that it seemed pretty conclusive.

 lindsay40k wrote:
I’m sure I read that units only get to advance (and thus use Kraken strat) on Swarmlord extra moves if they advanced in the movement phase. It was an obscure bit of semantics but I recall feeling that it seemed pretty conclusive.

If I recall correctly from what I read units that advance add to their movement characteristic. And when you use the move again strat it did not allow you to aadvance but it remembered your speed boost. Makes sence that the swarmlords abilty does the same.

 lindsay40k wrote:
WRT Acid Spray T-fex: I’ve had good results with mine. Seems to occupy a similar niche to Dakkafex, except the latter is more of a hunter/chaser whereas the ASTF is a pretty scary prospect for a static gunline. Pretty good scarecrow for infiltrator type screens, too - but be aware that if you stand still turn one to annihilate some sniper scouts, you may find yourself lacking targets on turn two. You really want it to be firing every turn.

Now, I play a lot of 50 Power quick games on small tables. And I’ve been thinking about adding loads more Zoanthropes to my collection, for psychic barrage. The mere fact of having three units of them and three T-cytes in my list will probably scarecrow opponents away from ultra-compact deployment, even if they never fire it up. And this leads me to a list that came to mind:

Spearhead: Old One Eye and three Screamer-Killers.

Vanguard: Neurothrope and nine Zoanthropes.

It’s tempting to make the Vanguard a Kronos one, to really up the ante on some of the psyker-heavy lists in my meta.

Spoletta wrote:
Those scream killers are there because you like the models or they do perform better than regular fexes for what you have in mind?

Bit of both. They’re literally vintage SK models with modern plastic arms. On a small table, 7” move and 18” plasma is a pretty good match.

I played against a reaper list in a GT early this month. It ended up a tie 27 to 27. I scored a lot on the first 3 turns and he scored a lot on the last 3. The Swarmlord was great for playing the objectives. I hid him in the middle between 2 large pieces of terrain and used him to launch units into his forces while I held onto objectives. Eventually I ran out of units and waa able to take back lost ground with fast units but it was a hard fought game. I don't know how it would have gone without the mobility given to me by the Swarmlord. Deployment was Vanguard so I had a long way to run.

 Zimko wrote:
I played against a reaper list in a GT early this month. It ended up a tie 27 to 27. I scored a lot on the first 3 turns and he scored a lot on the last 3. The Swarmlord was great for playing the objectives. I hid him in the middle between 2 large pieces of terrain and used him to launch units into his forces while I held onto objectives. Eventually I ran out of units and waa able to take back lost ground with fast units but it was a hard fought game. I don't know how it would have gone without the mobility given to me by the Swarmlord. Deployment was Vanguard so I had a long way to run.

Hmm really interesting.

I've been playing with variations on my list with the Swarmlord in there. He is one of my favorite models.

Do you find that you are vulnerable to deep strikers when you start catapulting units forward? Or do you just use Rippers for that?

Was it just an ITC game mode with the usual secondaries, and progressive scoring? If you wouldn't mind i would be excited to read a detailed batrep.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Niiai wrote:

 lindsay40k wrote:
I’m sure I read that units only get to advance (and thus use Kraken strat) on Swarmlord extra moves if they advanced in the movement phase. It was an obscure bit of semantics but I recall feeling that it seemed pretty conclusive.

If I recall correctly from what I read units that advance add to their movement characteristic. And when you use the move again strat it did not allow you to aadvance but it remembered your speed boost. Makes sence that the swarmlords abilty does the same.

No that is when you move twice in the same phase.

You advance normally with the Swarmlord's extra move because it happens in a different phase.

The Tyranid FAQ specifically says that you may use Opportunistic Advance with the move granted by the Swarmlord's Hive Commander.

I'm heading to LVO tomorrow so I don't have time for a batrep right now. But for enemy deep strikers, I haven't had a problem yet. I do use 3 units of rippers to fill in all corners of the board where they can fit to score recon and deny deep strikers.

I beat a Commander spam list at that GT because I had first turn and I gave him no where decent to land.

Good Luck at LVO!

Let us know how it goes.

I hope bugs take the W, but with a non spam list so GW doesnt nerfbat something into the depths of the warp. Most lists I have seen are pretty non spam though so we shall see.

 Marmatag wrote:
The Swarmlord provides obvious utility but don't expect him to live past turn 1.

And scout moves will prevent you from clearing all of the chaff.

You will be eating 12d6 tempest launcher shots and 30 reaper shots turn 1. All of which ignore your Malanthrope.

Committing wholly to alpha will lose you games against meta Eldar or solid betastrike lists. You will also have immense difficulty with fire raptors.

It's a good concept and i like it. There are shortcomings. Although this is true with every Nids list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Update. I actually really like the Swarmlord to catapault Gaunts forward, while staying out of line of sight.

Force your opponent to spend turn 1 clearing gaunts. Genestealers can come along /w a Trygon and be a turn 2 assault option.

Obviously this depends on your level of terrain. Without significant LOS blockers the Swarmlord is a hard pass for me.

Good points. I Plan to take a mix fleet with a kronos contingent of shooting and my WL to help shut down the pysker phase. Also, i will have 2 flyrants in the list. I have yet to get the SL shot of turn 1, normally by turn 2 or 3 he is dead.

One quick question, does Old One Eye benefit from his own Alpha Leader ability (+1 to hit rolls)? Only reason I ask is that it was pointed out to me during a test game the other night that he is technically a Carnifex unit and is obviously within range of himself, but the stacking of +1 to hit modifiers makes his Berserk Rampage ability rather silly (extra attacks on a 4+ to hit on the charge with Scything Talons, 5+ for Crushing Claws, hitting on a 2+ regardless). The game saw Old One Eye nearly 1-round a Stompa by himself (I used the fight twice stratagem to try to fully finish it off, but left it with 1 wound remaining).

 Strat_N8 wrote:
One quick question, does Old One Eye benefit from his own Alpha Leader ability (+1 to hit rolls)? Only reason I ask is that it was pointed out to me during a test game the other night that he is technically a Carnifex unit and is obviously within range of himself, but the stacking of +1 to hit modifiers makes his Berserk Rampage ability rather silly (extra attacks on a 4+ to hit on the charge with Scything Talons, 5+ for Crushing Claws, hitting on a 2+ regardless). The game saw Old One Eye nearly 1-round a Stompa by himself (I used the fight twice stratagem to try to fully finish it off, but left it with 1 wound remaining).

IMHO he gets the +1 to hit.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But my math hammer says he just does 10 damage to a Stompa on average.

 Dynas wrote:

 Marmatag wrote:
The Swarmlord provides obvious utility but don't expect him to live past turn 1.

And scout moves will prevent you from clearing all of the chaff.

You will be eating 12d6 tempest launcher shots and 30 reaper shots turn 1. All of which ignore your Malanthrope.

Committing wholly to alpha will lose you games against meta Eldar or solid betastrike lists. You will also have immense difficulty with fire raptors.

It's a good concept and i like it. There are shortcomings. Although this is true with every Nids list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Update. I actually really like the Swarmlord to catapault Gaunts forward, while staying out of line of sight.

Force your opponent to spend turn 1 clearing gaunts. Genestealers can come along /w a Trygon and be a turn 2 assault option.

Obviously this depends on your level of terrain. Without significant LOS blockers the Swarmlord is a hard pass for me.

Good points. I Plan to take a mix fleet with a kronos contingent of shooting and my WL to help shut down the pysker phase. Also, i will have 2 flyrants in the list. I have yet to get the SL shot of turn 1, normally by turn 2 or 3 he is dead.

The Kronos warlord can be flat out miserable for people to deal with. If I was going down the road of multi-hive fleet, i would definitely be mixing Kronos in.

I've found instinctive killer to be the best warlord trait for a hive tyrant. Especially in the age of spam.

but why dont play a simpler 4+ flyrant list?

 blackmage wrote:
but why dont play a simpler 4+ flyrant list?

I suppose you could, it is the best unit in the codex.