My Thoughts on the Tyranids: part IV – Anti-tank Shooting

I'm going to condense the rest of my Tyranid analysis so that I will have more time to write tournament reports, opinions on other codices (especially Blood Angels) and some other tactics that I have made use of but have not seen a lot of on the interwebz. I also want to post pictures of my models and a current conversion I'm working on, turning a LRC into a battlewagon.

Hive Guard and Zoanthropes
There are 3 units in the Tyranid codex capable of reliably killing vehicles at range: Zoanthropes, Hive Guard and Tyrannofexes. Zoanthropes and Hive Guard are far more efficient than the T-fex. The problem is that they are both in the Elite slot. A mycetic spore is pretty much manditory for Zoanthropes. As far as I'm concerned, you must have either Zoanthropes or Hive Guard to have a competitive Tyranid list. Which one to choose is usually pretty simple. In a drop/ninja Nids army, take Zoies. In a foot army, take Hive Guard. There are of course exceptions to this and I will go into them in a later post but for the most part this is a good rule of thumb.

One big advantage of Hive Guard over Zoies is that they are able to be in range of enemy vehicles on turn one. They are also more resilient with their T6, and they are better at killing lightly armored vehicles like rhinos. Zoanthropes are more versatile because they can kill infantry with Warp Blast. They can also kill AV-13/14 with ease, unlike Hive guard. It will be interesting to see which choice triumphs in the long run. As of right now though I think the better choice depends on the rest of the 'Nid list.

Tyrannofexes
Tyrannofexes are a totally different beast. The only real reason to take them is for the Rupture Cannon, so we'll ignore the other options for now. First of all, I believe the Tyrannofex is way overcosted. You are paying 265+ points for one STR10 hit per turn. That said, we must consider the T-fex in the context of it's codex, and it's the only non-Elite anti-tank shooting in the whole book. If you want to run a shooting-themed list, the Tyrannofex is a decent support choice, but I would recommend it only if you have maxed out on Hive Guard already.

I think the best loadout for the T-fex is Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines and Electroshock Grubs. On the tabletop the Tyrannofex should advance along with the rest of your army, but keep a squad of gants in front of it so that it can't be charged. Most people don't bother to shoot at the T-fex because of its 2+ armor, so you can place it in front of your other MCs (especially tervigons) and give them cover. This should be relatively easy because most peoples' Tyrannofex models are huge. The secondary weapons can be useful for the T-fex if you have killed the enemy transports or if they never had any to begin with.

My Thoughts on the Tyranids: part III – Termagants, Tervigons and Ripper Swarms

Termagants
In my experience, most of the competitive Tyranid lists have been using at least one small squad of Termagants. They are generally only taken so that the Tervigon can become a troop choice, and I would say you should always take a Tervigon for every Termagant squad. However, the in-game utility of Termagants should not be overlooked, because they can really help out the Tyranid army. Fleshborers are now very capable anti-infantry weapons, so when you have large amounts of Termagants they will do damage in the shooting phase. The other weapons are garbage, so just skip ‘em. The CC boosts if you have points left over, go for it. With Adrenal Glands, termagants can be a decent CC unit.

Tervigons (in Troops because nobody ever takes them as HQ)
A monstrous creature Troop choice, what’s not to love? I suppose the idea behind the Tervigon is that it’s a big force multiplier to the army. Catalyst and Onslaught are both useful powers, and I think one of them should be given to every Tervigon. You can’t take both, so have to consider how it will affect the other units in your army. Obviously, the main purpose of the Tervigon is to poop out Termagants. Usually you will roll doubles within the first 2 turns, so don’t rely on ever getting more than 20. In objective games, you can use the spawned Termagants to delay incoming enemy assault units. In Annihilation missions, you don’t want to give away free Kill Points, so the Tervigon tends to be a big points-sink in Annihilation. For that reason, I would say never take 3 or more Tervigons, and even 2 is pushing the proverbial envelope.

Ripper Swarms
I have never seen anyone use these, but I think they can be great sit-at-home objective holders. Let’s say you take 3 bases for 30 points. Keep them in cover, and go to ground whenever they are shot at. Now you have 9 wounds with a 2+ cover save, along with Fearless. Good luck getting rid of that. On the downside they can be an easy Kill Point, and you must always be in Synapse range for them, or there is no point in taking them at all.

My thoughts on Tyranids: part II – Warriors, Genestealers and Hormagaunts

I’m starting off with the troops choices because I think the Troops should be the foundation of all lists. Always remember the most important role for troops is objective capturing, and anything else is secondary. The tyranids overall have good objective holders, but make sure the small bugs have synapse.

Tyranid Warriors
It seems to me warriors are designed to be a jack-of-all trades unit for the tyranids. They are relatively resilient, with capabilities in shooting and assault. However, they are very slow and they have no way to get into the assault quickly. Their shooting alone does not justify the points spent on them, so overall I just don’t see a use for these guys. It’s unfortunate, because I like the idea of an all-warrior army.

Genestealers
Genestealers are an excellent example of a “glass hammer” unit. They do a great deal of damage in the assault, but they are very easy to kill. At 14 points base for what is essentially an Ork, they are very vulnerable. For deployment, they have the options to infiltrate, outflank or deep strike via mycetic spore. I personally would never simply infiltrate, because they will be shot off the board on turn 1.
The brood lord can be very effective, especially when spammed. I have a list which I will post at the end of the review that includes 6 broodlords in mycetic spores with the Doom of Malan’Tai. Of course, the functionality of this list depends greatly upon the GW FAQ ruling. So in my opinion there are two main uses for genestealers:
a) Podding Broodlord spam
b) cheap, scoring outflanker

Both of these roles minimize the weakness of genestealers (resiliency). Option B also forces your opponent to either line up a bubble wrap on the table edge, or deploy in the centre of their deployment zone if they don’t want to sacrifice a unit.

Hormagaunts
Well, if you want a swarm of assault gribblies charging across the board, take lots of hormies. Adrenal Glands are a no-brainer; always give it to them. Keep in mind you will need strong synapse support to keep these guys under control, and these guys can’t kill vehicles. However, if you surround a transport and then glance it to death, the vehicle will not explode, and models inside won’t be able to disembark, meaning they are killed. This is a very evil trick that I have been using with kroot and scarab swarms for a long time. I don’t suggest using it in friendly games.

My Thoughts on the Tyranids: part I – Intro

The first series of posts I’m going to do is a sort of codex review for the Tyranids. It’ll be unit-by-unit, covering every unit in the book and then a few list build ideas and tactics to go along with it. I have played about 10 games against the ‘nids and a couple with them on Vassal, and my experiences have been interesting.

To be honest, I feel sorry for the die-hard Tyranid fans. It’s not that their codex is bad; it’s just that it is not on the same level as the recent codices, namely IG and Wolves. I think that when a codex comes out, it should be slightly more powerful than the previous one. The ‘nid codex was a small step backwards. While not a problem at the moment, in five years I think the codex will be crap, unlike IG & SW.

In the period since its release, a certain build seems to be very popular. That is the dual troop-tervigon build, usually with 6-9 hive guard and 3 Trygons. Podded Zoanthropes sometimes replace the hive guard. In the posts to come I will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of this build, along with some other lists that I feel have gone under the proverbial radar.