Sunday, May 30, 2010

Updated Tyranids

So, after some more games I've come up with a new draft of my Tyranid army.  What I had noticed was a distinct lack of speed, particularly against mechanized opponents, as well a over reliance on my fexstar.  So I added in Raveners to give me cheap and mobile assault units ideal for munching on units that have just lost their transports in addition to giving me yet more targets that require dedicated anti-tank fire to bring down.  I like Fiends so much, we'll see how their buggy cousins work out.

HQ
Tyranid Prime w/ Lash whip and Bonesword, Rending Claws, Toxin Sacs, Regenerate

Elites
3x 2 Hive Guard

Troops
Tervigon w/ Cluster Spines, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Scything Talons
Tervigon w/ Cluster Spines, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands
2x 10 Termagants

Fast Attack
2x 3 Raveners w/ rending claws

Heavy Support
2 Carnifexes w/ Frag spines, Adrenal glands
2x Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Dessicator Larva

Total - 2000

I had also consider losing the Fexstar altogether in favor of 2 Harpies to give me even more firepower or investing in Genestealers to give me independent, versatile Troops that can do some damage with Toxin Sacs and rending.  I tried a variation swapping the Fexstar and T-fexes for 3 Trygons and 2 Harpies.  The Trygons performed extremely well, but I feel they were unsupported so I'm going to look into a separate build that makes use of these super snakity snakes, detailed on a later post (y'know, next week).

Lemme know what you think.

10 comments:

HolyCause said...

The Tyranid Prime's gear confuses me. Are you assuming that you can't stack special CC weapons? I don't know if it's RAW or not, but it's how my local group has decided to play it and I've yet to really see something convince me otherwise...

I would take rending claws over scything talons because you can maybe ignore armour sa... oh wait, the bonesword does that. Well maybe you can automatically cause a wound on high tou... err strength 5 allows him to wound anything and... you have poison. Well I guess I wouldn't take rending claws.

TheGraveMind said...

My two suggestions, take the scything talons off the tervigon. They shouldn't hit combat, and if they do, the talons won't make that much of a difference. At the least/most give them crushing claws, the low init won't matter, but the extra attacks will help a lot.

Second, add the two squads of raveners into one, they are a glass hammer and die fast enough as they are, no need to make them small squads.

Anonymous said...

What's with all the homo pics?

Even the 'normal' ones are of naked guys! Are you trying to tell us something Chumb?

I've watched you play quite a bit now and I really like the shooty element of the list... it can cause quite a bit of devastation.

I'm really not taken on the Raveners or the Carnifexes though. In our game neither did a great deal, but I think a good deal of the rolls went my way early on, so maybe that's not a good example to go by.

I'd consider dropping the Raveners for some bulking of the Hive guard units, the extra shots will cripple most light mech lists, just a shame you can't get a 4th unit instead.

If not, I personally am scared of Genies more than raveners. Independance of the hive mind, infiltrate and fleet scares the begeebies out of me! Another troops choice can't hurt either.

I liked the way the Trygons reaped destruction and can see them being equally destructive against most things, but yeah... it totally changes the list as 1 is, well... meh!

Chumbalaya said...

HolyCause, I don't play them all stacking so I just threw in the claws in case I run into armor I may want to at least try and open up. It's also free so I'm not losing anything but a Devourer.

GraveMind, the talons were just to eat up an odd 5 points. I've been using Tervigons more and more aggressively and it really can pay off. It only has 3 attacks, but with toxin sacs and adrenals glands (which I'd give it anything to help the gants) it can do some damage and with T6 and 6 wounds it'll be hard to kill for anything but dedicated CC units.

Haven't used the Raveners much, but I'll give 'em a try in both configs. The Raveners are less of a main line assault unit and more of a counter assault or mop up squad, going after weakened units or those who have just had their transport shot out from under them.

Brolo, I just love those adorable cutenids :P

I'd say you didn't see much use out of the Fex because you pretty much focused heavily on them early on. Once the Prime went down you had nothing to worry about. That is another function the Fexstar has, but I did a pretty terrible job of capitalizing on it =/

I could ditch the Fexstar for my new favorite support combat unit, an Old Adversary Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guard, fitting in more points for Hive Guard or Harpies.

Genestealers are an option too, with Toxin Sacs and Old Adversary they are ludicrously killy.

Thanks for the input guys, I'm taking it all to heart.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a pretty big achilles heel if your Prime has to leave your fexes after they've lost half the unit. It just doesn't seem like a true 'bodyguard' to me.

The basic list has got some nice shooting (but I think the extra hive guard would be useful). But for the final 500 points I'd go with tyrant and guard or a big ol' prime and warrior troop. You've got enough high str shots to not require the str 9 fexstar!

Anyway, just my opinion.

Von said...

I like the cute 'nids. Where are you getting them from?

Will chime in and say that I quite like the idea of Genestealers as a fast killy unit that can score should it be necessary.

Chumbalaya said...

Google Image Search FTW :P

Unknown said...

Nice image ;)

HQ and elite are sound. Though 3 x Hive Guard works good, but I guess you have the same amount as me as I have 2 x 3 Hive Guard.

I'd boost those Raveners up to 4 tbh. I like Raveners and I take them in units of 5, but 4 you could get away with.

Hmmm the Carnifexes are ok, bio plasma isn't bad for a ranged attack but is expensive. Depends what you want.

Looks good to me mate. How does it play?

Anonymous said...

@HolyCause & Chumbalaya
Nid CC weapons do stack. Read the descriptions of the weapon effects in the Nid codex, in effect every entry has some description like, a model with weapon X or a tyranid with weapon Y gains..
I take this to mean the model get's the benefit of sevceral weapons, after all they also work different from normal CC weapons as they do not het bonus attacks for 2 (or 3 or 4 (6 limbed buggers)) close combat weapons.

So yeah, a Hive tyrant with bone sword, lash whip and 1 pair of scything talloins would have all 3 effects.

Feel free to say other wise or play otherwise off course, but RAW wise it's pretty clear.

Chumbalaya said...

Mercer, I have them in smaller units so they can split fire. 6 S8 shots may be overkill on weaker tanks, so 4 will suffice.

I would boost the Ravs up but I can't seem to find the points. Would you recommend just fielding a big unit? I'd prefer to be able to split 'em up if need be.

Anon, thanks for clarifying. I'll give it a read myself to confirm.