5 tervigons- adrenals, toxin sacs, catalyst
minimum gaunts
9 hive guard
2 tyranofexes or 3 trygons, take your pick
... I'm pretty sure we've all see that on the internet at least 200 times. Maybe more. Maybe with some variation like cutting a trygon and tervigon and picking up the swarmlord! Same thing...
It's boring, and hardly uses any of the other competitive tools our not so wonderful book gives us. Tools like our reserve modifiers, ymgarls, zoanthropes, a plethora of outflankers, broodlords, gargoyles, raveners, carnifexes, and biovores, yes even biovores lol.
Well how about a list with some variey for crying out loud! Maybe even a list that plays the way tyranids should be played. As in, little bugs swarm the enemy and tie them up so that the bigger killier monsters can eat them. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here this is competitive 40k, and that means that we need to spam the best units ever!
Well that's why your tyranid army wont win a tournament. Because, it's spam. Maybe guard can work because they spam chimeras, and space wolves can spam missles, but tyranids don't work when they spam units. Tyranids need army wide synergy that can only be achieved by taking many different units.
What does the above tyranid list having going for it as far as synergies? "Well it shoots you, then when you get close it swarms you with gants!" That's not real synergy. "But, what if you replace a tervigon with a tyrant with old adversary? That makes all your gants better!" Well yeah that's synergy, but that's just not going to be enough to make tyranids competitive. I'm talking everything needs to work in tandem, as a cohesive instrument where everything has a purpose.
This style list building is much the opposite of my latest demon list, which is realtively void of tactics other than hit your over and over with fast rending and power weapons attacks until you fall over. Anyone who understands how to deep strike properly can play my demon army. But, it takes a true 40k genius to make tyranids work.
HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard 60
Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
5 Ymgarls 115
Troops
5 Genestealers- broodlord 116
5 Genestealers- broodlord 116
10 Gaunts 50
10 Guants 50
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs 195
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs 195
Fast
5 Raveners- rending claws 175
5 Raveners- rending claws 175
Heavy
2 Biovores 90
2 Biovores 90
2 Biovores 90
1997.
List inspired by Hulksmash and Jy2, credit given where credit is due. Although, it is still completely my list.
Now what does this list bring?
Well let's see what do tyranids struggle with? Guard and spacewolves. And double lash but no one plays that anymore lol. Everything else folds pretty well to every decent tyranid list.
Against guard we have tons of threats, especially since their vehicles are mostly static. The raveners hit the center turn 2, and if they deploy in the corners they are hit by my outflankers. That's real synergy right there. So what does guard shoot? The hive guard in cover? The raveners that are knocking on their door also in cover? Or the monsters? Too many decisions, and for 1 turn of shooting from not close range. All of that si messing with you along with 15 stealers that you cant shoot on turn 2. Also those broodlords have a nice aura of despair, was that a -2 leadership for your units that are going to be bailing out of transports? Oh re they pinned now? That's what I thought, real synergy right there.
Against space wolves you're afraid of 2 things. Jaws, and long fangs. Tyranids just dont have a way to deal with jaws, but hopefully aura of despair and shadow of the warp combined will shut it down. Moving on, long fangs, we have 6 biovores. That's 6 large blasts a turn, that cause pinning, coupled with aura of despair and you're going to see long fangs getting pinned and not shooting you up, quick. Then between the raveners hitting turn 2, and the stealers and ymgarls, and hive guard, they should be demeched quickly enough. Isn't that cool?
Point is, point and click doesn't work with tyranids. Good tyranid lists need to be carefully and properly constructed. And take months of gaming to master, they are not an army for a noob to just pick up and take to a gt.
Nice to see something new. I agree with you that:
ReplyDelete- It will take a genius to win a major tourney with Nids,
- Spam does not cut it
Like you said no one is expecting to see lash anymore but MSU SW is well proven and they are the definitive death of just about any Nidz list I've seen so far. JAWS is the nasty nasty versus Tervis and Carnifexen - there is no good counter to it. I think Phil Kelly intentionally wrote the SW codex to nuke Nidz.
I'd like to see some batreps.
Good luck with it bro !
G
Been cogitating over a similar synergistic list, and becoming a fan of biovores; only concern I have here is 6 pie plates + scatter with all of that speed/infiltration. I dig swarmy though - and in a list like this he's gonna be a fire magnet, which should let your troops get into contact nicely.
ReplyDeleteYeah it deffinitely needs testing. But, I think it's going to work better than the current "good" tyranid builds.
ReplyDeleteI like the list and the direction folks are going of late with their nids.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately aura of despair is gimped by when it is activated. It activates in your assault phase and goes away at the end of you opponents turn. So it really only interacts with assault phases and an occasional morale check your opponent has to make in his turn (eg casaulties due to dangerous terrain can trigger a 25% casualty morale test, or some rare pin checks from his vehicles exploding in his phase)
Ahh thanks for that winterman. Should have read that more carefully. I don't know how necessary the broodlords are anymore. Maybe aura is still worth it for when the enemy falls out of their transports in your assualt phase, and for stopping psychic powers. But it's certain;y less appealing.
ReplyDelete