"Gentlemen, I know there has been a lot of talk recently about the upcoming championships and suchforth. Rumors have been flying about, accusations have been made, etcetera; it's difficult times for all of us and no two ways about it. However, I want to reassure you all that there will be absolutely no downsizing as part of the new programs. There will, however, be a few changes around here."
"murmur murmur rutabaga cantaloupe"
"And when I say changes, I mean REAL changes! Specifically, changes from a magic potion that we bought off of a wandering peddler who promised us that it would increase competitivity by over 900%, grant extra attacks and wounds, and reshuffle our entire force org chart with a minimum of fuss. There was some mumbo-jumbo about side effects and such, but our lawyers assure us that was just standard boilerplate. Now, everyone line up at the magic cauldron; one cup per person, two if you're a fatty."
"What do you suppose he meant by 'side effects'?"
"Shut up, Carl, they're listening! Seriously, man, what's the worst that can happen, we turn into Necrons and get a codex update before the end of the year?"
"Do you feel any different?"
"Nope. How about you?"
"Uh-uh. You think this whole thing was just a-"
"Wait... wait! I think I feel it!"
"Me too! I can feel my body... changing! Shifting! I'm becoming better! Harder! Stronger! More like a Daft Punk song!"
"Ha ha, this is incredible! I have the strength of ten men! A hundred men! I'M BECOMING THE MODERN-DAY HERCULES!"
"Holy shit, look at us! We are like sexy towers of man-flesh!"
"I feel like I could bench press three tanks!"
"There's no way we can lose 'Ard Boyz like this!"
"...Guys, I don't... I don't feel so good... I think I got one of those side effects they were talking about..."
"Ha ha oh my GOD, Dave, you look so stupid!"
"Guys, this isn't funny. I think something went wrong."
"Yeah, you accidentally drank the potion that turns you into a little girl."
"I'm not kidding, you guys!"
"Awwww, we're sowwy. Does widdle Huggafex want a hugs? Poor baby."
"That's it, fuck all of you, I'm going to the hospital."
Tyranid 'Ard Boyz ListI'll go ahead and just let you take a moment to savor that nonsense. SinSynn has taken over your keyboard. For those who don't read YTTH, this is more or less exactly the list Stelek posted and, after some consideration, I decided to use it because, whatever his faults, the man is still probably the best list writer on the internet. It's straight out of left field, but I think it can work.
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Toxin)
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Toxin)
1 Venomthrope
1 Venomthrope
10 Termagants
10 Termagants
10 Termagants
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
3 Carnifexes
3 Carnifexes
2 Carnifexes
The obvious complaint is that it has no Hive Guard (or, for that matter, really any shooting at all.) However, consider the problem of 'Ard Boyz or any other 2500pt game for Tyranids: you CAN'T bring enough shooting to the table to consistently wreck mech armies. It is simply not possible. You fill your nine Hive Guard slots by 1750 at the latest, and then you start looking to other units- Harpies, Tyrannofexes, Tyrants, Carnifexes- none of them brings the kind of shooting you need for as cheap as you need it. Up to 2K or so you can manage by carefully picking and choosing so as to get a decent spread of options, but as you hit the top end of the scale, you realize that even three TFexes and nine Guard simply isn't enough to take out the masses of tanks you can easily wind up fighting. Guard can take in excess of fourteen hulls and still have other units supporting them- what are you going to do against that? Marine armies will easily be fielding 12+ of their own and have dangerous guys inside them.
So we can't bring enough shooting to the table; it's just not possible. What we CAN bring, however, is bodies. Lots and lots of bodies. Bodies that are pretty reasonable or even downright deadly in melee combat. We can simply flood the table with mans and say to the opponent "I don't think you can kill all of these." And, chances are, he can't. The list produces an average of about 130 Termagants per game (counting the ones you initially start with); if those Gaunts are in cover, which they should be, that is over five hundred Lasgun shots in order to kill them all. Even with Orders, that is a nigh-impossible amount of firepower to bring to bear.
We still need to destroy tanks, though, and Termagants alone will find lots of things they have trouble killing. But that's what our Monstrous Creatures are for- specifically, our thirteen Monstrous Creatures. Sixty-two wounds worth. With layering, terrain, and special abilities, it should not be hard to get cover for them most of the time, at which point even Long Fang spam (which runs into similar FoC constraints as our Hive Guard) is starting to have problems really putting a dent in things.
To magnify the resilience of our horde, provide utility against other melee armies, and give cover to our MCs on shitty boards, Venomthropes are included. Venomthropes are actually very good units, they just normally have fierce competition for the Elites slot from our AT units and end up losing out. However, lacking that competition, they are quite excellent; the 5+ cover is obviously the main thing, but many people don't realize how much of a game-swinger the Dangerous Terrain tests and Defensive Grenades can be; killing a model or three out of a unit when it charges you can be very useful and forcing non-Imperials to strike last (and get fewer attacks) is similarly very relevant.
I already talked about my army in relation to the scenarios some in my original post about them, but some quick mentions of things again:
Mission 1 is KP, which is against this list in some ways because it is reliant on spawning large numbers of models to win; on the other hand, the base list is only 13 KP, which is a pretty small number for 2500pts. It should be relatively easy for me to shift the Traitor from squad to squad, ensuring that he never gets "caught," as I have a nigh-endless supply of bodies for him to sit with. Night fight is also a good thing for me, giving me a free to turn to advance on the enemy and apply pressure.
Mission 2 is five objectives. This list will consistently have sixteen-plus troops, so that's a good thing for me. Spearhead is kind of unfortunate, but the nature of the objectives means that even shooting armies are going to have to be moving forward a lot.
Mission 3 is VP; if spawned Gaunts don't count... it will be difficult for me to lose this one. If they do, I'm still doing pretty good okay, as most of my "real" units are fairly resilient. Night Fight on that final turn helps a little, too, cutting down on the end-game shooting. I give up a fairly small number of points for my "general," especially because of how tough it is.
All in all, the missions are quite favorable to my army and the nature of 2500 works to my advantage. As a bonus, no one is expecting all of the Carnifexes- much like the Spanish Inquisition, their weapons are surprise, fear, and ruthless efficiency.
Bonus feature: group shot of my casual 1500 list, Hive Fleet Googly Eyes.
