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Hi there,

I noticed a trend in Tyranid army building on almost every forum: take a Devourer Hive Tyrant or two, add in some Tervigons and Gaunt units as Troops, and from there it's pretty much different in every list.
Some take the Doom of Malan'tai to fry some infantry, some pick up a unit of Hive Guard for light vehicle destruction and some choose the Zoanthrope to crack open those pesky Land Raiders and such.

I find that the Ymgarl is underrated in many ways and that a unit of them is rarely added in a competative list, so I'd like to discuss some of the tactics I use.

One of their special rules (Dormant) places them in reserves, and lets the owning player pick a piece of area terrain where they will deploy, without scatter. When they arrive from reserve they are allowed to move and assault (FAQ'ed). This already a powerful combination but it gets better when you know that you can pick which ruin they will arrive after deployment. Ofcourse the obvious advantage is that the Tyranid player can pick the perfect place to put them in, but it creates an all the more powerful asset to your army that I will explain next.

Make sure that before the battle begins you explain to your opponent what special abilities the Ymgarls have and what they can do. Once your opponent realizes that his artillery/ Heavy weapon squads/ Objective-grabbers cannot be placed safely in the back of his deployment anymore, there's a good chance he will try and save those units by placing them in weird spots, or even putting them in reserve.. I'v had opponents completely screw up their deployment, and thus winning me the game, with two squads of 5 Ymgarls.

A smart opponent will simply ignore them and accept that he will lose a unit or two, but still this is a win-win stuation for the Tyranid player.
Also, this tactic works best when you have one or maybe two units of Ymgarls, having 3 or more and the enemy won't bother trying to avoid them, from there it's practically impossible to do so.

Let me know what you think! What's your opinion of the Ymgarl Genestealer?

Ymgarl are good. They are contesting with other good units: Tyrant Guard, Zoanthrope and Doom of malantai. All of them are grade A choises.

Would I want to use Ymgals. No, tyrant guard and zoanthropes fit my playstyle better. Also, there is not always aria terain where I play.

Should people use Ymgals? Yes. They are good.

I do not think anybody think they are bad.

They are pretty much a staple in my lists. I have had great fun watching people figure out the best deployments. I actaully had a tau player very careful set his broadside between to peices of terrain and then fill both with FWs and GDs to prevent me from being able to deploy there. He did not move them till after the Ymgral entered the game.