Tyranids, And how I see they work!

[gcsmith]

Hey guys and just a quick warning, WALL OF TEXT BELOW. This is by now means solid, or overly experienced. But I hope some of you find this useful and believe its an accurate portrayol of our favourite all devouring xenos, Tyranids.

So tyranids have changed, a new book has been out now for a couple of months and yet tyranids still havnt had the time (or the tournaments) to change local or meta game. Sure people are playing them, but because a lot of nid players are switchers or noobs to the army (Like me at the moment) A lot of skilled players are winning over them due to the lack of player knowlege. However this will soon change and I hope to aid that, and give what i believe is how nids are today.

Overall: Tyranids are one of the new steep learning curve armies in my opinion. Hard to play but can be insanely rewarding, especially when compared to nooby armies such as space wolfs and probably Blood angels (no offence intended but really my brother could win with Space wolfs and he dnt no the rules :) ). So what does that mean. Well generally it means we wont be seen between fun games and uber tournies. We might be seen at locals but in a more friendly atmosphere. This is because most local store players are either young and possibly in experienced, to poor to buy all they need (like me) or uber players who benefit from their learning cure but don't want to show off. This is good, it means for those with stupidly good lists should be able to surprise several people and take them off guard. But don't be put off by the dreaded 'Curve'. Tyranids are a very fun army to play and quite Unique in the realm of 40k able to take monstrous swarms. Hordes of gaunts backed by tervigons and trygon; general swarms with powerful combat; or elite armies with warriors and trygons and etc. Trust me the tyranids are an army for everyone.

So lets take a look at the units:

HQ: Hive Tyrants are an extreme choice, Fun, powerful, and adds a lot of synergy to your army, however I think cruddance over pointed it, 170 points basic is more than a winged deamon prince, and 60 points for wings is really silly. However, they are still quite balanced and can assist your army greatly, able to make powerful units, WS and BS 1 makes a unit fear even your rippers. The ability to make nearby friendly units preffered enemy is quite cool, to make a unit of 30 termigaunts with devs outflanks is strong too, and +1 reinforcements makes it sweet to boot, Then theres to leadership to charge it means you can be protected slightly from TH/SS termies. The best thing is, all 3 of skills are powerful and are all able to be taken at once

Swarmlord: A poweful Tyrant that come with all 4 powers and able to use 2 in one turn, he gets a 4+ invunrable in combat, and all wounds cause instant death, in addition all succesful invun saves must be retaken, Pack this with giving a USR to nearby units, +1 to reserves He is a must have for tyrant loving who want decent synergy.

Tervigon: A ok HQ who is better as a troop choice when you have termigaunts, sorry but capturing monstrous creature is better than a HQ. A creature that can also poop gaunts for want of a better word is also quite powerful for objective based missions as it is able to secure many objectives on its own and allow your army to destroy your opponent, this is also good concidering they probably wont have that luxury/

Tyranid prime: My favourite HQ, and also the cheapest, able to lend its ws and bs to a warrior squad and with powerful stats and options be sure not to underestimate him.

Parasite or mortrex: An independent character able to make many times its points of rippers, main downsides are its points cost, vunrability and needing a lot of rippers. But if annilations the game, and you have gargoyles to protect him, he might be work a shot.

[gcsmith]

Elites: Elites breaks down into Zoans, hive guard, venomthropes, lictors, deathleaper, doom, pyrovore, yrmgarl.

Zoans are the ranged seige breakers of the Nid army, they can tear apart a land raider with ease. tho they only have 2 wounds and the lance has only 18" range, they have a s5 ap3 blast for marines, and a 3+ invunrable save, at 60 points each, they shall see heavy use with me.

Hive Guard: cheaper than zoanathropes they surve a totaly different purpose. They are the transport breakers, with bs4 and a s8 ap 4 Assult 2 cannon with 24" raneg and no los needed they are useful for those pesky monsters and hidden vehicles like basalisk, at t6 as well they are cheap as chips. However due to limited slots wont see my lists too often.

venomthropes: not really tried them yet but the do the same as tyrants, provide a lot buffs to your army, offensive grenades, cover save and dangerous terrain, they are usful for horde armies that have carnifexis for crushing power so that zoans are not needed.

lictors: strong and are 'teleporting homers' for your DS units with rending and some useful rules like plus one reserve. Not that useful to me as a Deathleaper is more useful.

Deathleaper: a beauty of a unit, most useful with a army designed to avoid synapse as such army might lack shadow of the warp. He is most useful used to jump across the bored and provide a homing beacon. as well as a -d3 leadership and minus -d6 to difficult terrain test this unit should be used carfully, and to top it off he comes with a 5+ rending to shooting and combat.

DoM: a unit of controvasy probably the only unit in the dex that can be called at all chessy gaining a wound for each wound caused, and making all units withing 6" (foe) take a leadership and on 3d6 and causing one armour piercing wound for each is quite cool. However even with a 3+ invun and max of 10 wounds he is vunrable to ID so make sure to pod him.

yrmgarl and pyrovore I cant cover as They either seem useless or I havnt seen them used and as such dnt no what they are good for.

Troops: The troops choices are filled with genestealers, warriors, hormoguants, termiguants, rippers.

Warriors: One of my favourite choices in the dex they have some mean choices and while expensive if used correctly they can be outight lethal, boneswords, combined with lashwips makes them nearly always strike first, and with toxin wound on 4+ always with power weapons , oh and did i meantion for each wound caused the enemy must pass a leadership test or be instantly killed, and if you drop the whip for a bonesword . I.E a pair then the leadership must be taken on 3d6. Trust me if the opponent under estimate a squad of these, his army will be eaten alive.

Hormies: This unit has a low toughness and save, but mean combat ability, 6 points basic, same as an ork they have less overall power, but with toxin and adrenal most units will fall. always wound on 4, initiative 5, 6 with adrenal and reroll 1's to hit due to sythings, yes pls, then you have the 3d6 pick the highest run and move through cover, and then ull nearly always get into combat in good speed.

Termigaunts: This unit hasnt got much power, tho they can take adrenal and toxin so even they have to be dealth with. Add in the ability to take a termigaunt as a troop choice per unit and then these will be in many armies.

Rippers. Not the most useful but a possible 4 TW shots each mass wounds, just be careful they dnt eat each other out of synapse. cheap to fill slots but cant capture objectives.

Genestealers. The only troop choice that can inherintly outflank/scout or infiltrate in the dex, they pose danger in combat, but are risky as they die in droves wen damage is dealt. Useful with broodlord powers now as well. Adrenal and possibly toxin sacs is best load out for them. Giving them much tactical variance.

Next up fast attack, and heavy.

[gcsmith]

Saved for next section

[Tynskel]

Hormies are Initiative 5, 6 with adrenal glands. People always over look that...

You should try out the Ymgarls n' Pyrovores. They are interesting.

Funny that you beginning is about 'friendly' games, yet you refer to Ymgarls/Pyrovores as useless.

People don't care about 'useless' units if they are playing a friendly game.

[gcsmith]

yes sorry will edit :p
ty

[DarkLink]

HQ: Hive Tyrants are an extreme choice, Fun, powerful, and adds a lot of synergy to your army, however I think cruddance over pointed it, 170 points basic is more than a winged deamon prince, and 60 points for wings is really silly.

A hive tyrant is also significantly better than a daemon prince. And daemon princes are underpriced. For what you get hive tyrants are a pretty good deal. You just can't take a cheap, bare bones version, as they come with several built in upgrades.

[Tynskel]

I am glad someone else has noticed that.

Hive Tyrants come with 2 psychic powers, WS 8, Instant Death Weapons, Initiative 1 weapons, the ability to re-roll 1s, Shadows of the Warp, and Synapse. All for 170. I don't know a Daemon Prince that can do that much stuff, even after upgrades.

[DarkLink]

I am glad someone else has noticed that.

Hive Tyrants come with 2 psychic powers, WS 8, Instant Death Weapons, Initiative 1 weapons, the ability to re-roll 1s, Shadows of the Warp, and Synapse. All for 170. I don't know a Daemon Prince that can do that much stuff, even after upgrades.

And a dp upgraded with a bunch of bling gets to be well over 170 pts. If anything, a tyrant with all those upgrades is underpriced when compared to almost ever other hq in the game.

[Unpresentable]

Yeah I agreed, a Tyrant brings a whole lot more to the table then its daemon counter parts.

I liked your write up, and your take on Ymgarl stealers and Pyrovores would be great.

I haven't used them but I plan on trying out the Y-stealers. Something about them coming out of reserves and being able to charge just makes me smile. That plus a toughness 5 stealer. Yes please.

[DarkLink]

I played a kill teams game where my opponent took some ymgarl genestealers. They were pretty ugly, popping up out of nowhere and getting into assault quickly. They might be a little hit or miss in normal games, though. Not entirely sure, I haven't seen them played in normal games.

[Son_of_Osiris]

I feel the tyrant's price is very justifiable. He's got awesome support powers and can still handle himself in most all situations.

Pyrovores... are just an embarassing codex entry. Musta been cruddance's last minute bug. I honestly think the model was meant to be an advanced biovore artillary bug or something... I mean it doesn't even look like a flamethrower/acidspitter thing. At least they could have made it fire like a hellhound and a make it look like its arcing it's shot... or something.

I think the tyranid elite section suffers from the same sickness the CSM codex's heavy support does. Where one or two choices far outweigh all the others. No matter how cool some of the others are... I'm looking at you venomthropes..

[Tynskel]

The fact that when the Venomthrope dies, you lose all the benefits right away makes them a RISKY choice. If their effects lasted to the end of the round, dead or alive, that would make them worth while.

The whole point of them is to have them absorb shooting. But, it doesn't take much to remove Venomthropes. And once they are gone, the rest of the army is back to where it normally is...

why would you take them when for ~the same points you can get teleport homers or Tank-be-Gone?

[Uncle Nutsy]

what.. no shrikes?

I don't understand why no one's even mentioned these three-wound, stinkin' fast and CC decimating nightmares.

[Jolyas]

becouse they have 5+ save, and most of the weapons, denied AS

no matter the W3 they can´t save at 5+ and the cost is 35 each for these points put 5 gargoyles with adrenaline glands or toxins and get 2W more and more atack and blind venom!

[Unpresentable]

I feel the same about the fast attack. Gargs in my opinion just give you a better value per point then pretty much any other FA unit.

Sure Raveners are pretty good, but a unit of gargs for the same point value can give you more wounds, a unit that is almost as fast, but with blinding venom. Give the gargs Toxin sacs and now you have a unit that can the hurt on anything in the game, minus tanks.

[DarkLink]

Pyrovore should've been able to shoot it's template, like a hellhound. That might have made it worthwhile.

[blackarmchair]

becouse they have 5+ save, and most of the weapons, denied AS

no matter the W3 they can´t save at 5+ and the cost is 35 each for these points put 5 gargoyles with adrenaline glands or toxins and get 2W more and more atack and blind venom!

True, but Shrikes have their place. 40k is a game of more than just armor, it's a game of cover and the 12" move allows you to turn that 5+ armor save into essentially a 4+ invuln with only minor detours. Plus, who cares if they take a wound or two especially if you're smart enough to change the biomorphs on each model so you can roll save separately. If that is the case it takes 7 wounds to kill one, it's pretty intense...

[Lyracian]

especially if you're smart enough to change the biomorphs on each model so you can roll save separately. If that is the case it takes 7 wounds to kill one, it's pretty intense...Since the only item you can vary is the Heavy Weapon you can only get two wound groups in the unit.

Four Shrikes with Boneswords or dual talons is a nice unit to accompany Gargoyles. It gives them Synapse and can break away and slaughter elite troop units. The whole codex is about synagy, no one unit can hold up the enemy on its own.

[Notanoob]

The problem with that Hive Tyrant>Deamon Prince argument is that a. the DP is much cheaper b. It comes standard with an invulnerable save c. It has access to cheap wings. This means that it isn't a huge investment, but it's fast enough and survivable enough that it can actually make it across the board and kill something, unlike the Hive Tyrant, which eats Missiles on T1, and melta/powerfists on T2/3 before dying. It's just too easy to kill to be worth the massive investment.

[Vepr]

The Tyranid codex appears rushed and sloppy. You can see what they were going for with synergy but they failed because the synergy is so easy to counter or interrupt. They did a much better job with BA even though they might have gone a little over the top with some things like Meph. I don't believe the Tyranid codex is going to age well and this "Meta change due to Tyranids!" you hear from people on the net like Spencer from 40k radio is never going to materialize because the nids are such an unforgiving army now. I don't envy nid tournament players with the uphill battles they will face but on the bright side playing with an average at best codex will out of necessity make you a better player.

[Extinction Angel]

I agree 100% Vepr. All the books since 2nd ed have been sub-par as well. They have some punch at first, but age horribly.

I'm not sure why they have such a hard time giving a really solid book to the nids. Last one was pretty close. Just needed a little bit of updating for the new edition.