I am a 40K player located in Southern California and I would first like to say I have been reading your blog for ~4 months and have found it really quite informative and interesting. Well time to get to the point. I have been playing around with the Tyranids Codex for about 2 months now after playing Tau and Dark Angels. I found a pretty interesting list concept and after playing a couple games against the local Dark Eldar and Grey Knight players(Out of ~30 people at my FLGS 12 play GK 6 play DE....Grrrr I6 Halberds) it has had some really interesting games. I would really love to get some feed back on this list. My question to you is this....do you think this is a good way for Tyranids to go? What would you add or subtract?
That's a pretty crazy percentage of players, mang; I really feel for you. However, I think you can take some heart that the number of GK players will decrease over time here, since a fair number of them will jump ship/get bored as the new books come out. Until then, however...
Well here it is at 1,500:
HQ
Tervigon-Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst :195
Tervigon-Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst :195
Elites
Hive Guard x2 :100
Hive Guard x2 :100
Hive Guard x2 :100
Troops
Genestealers x19 -Adrenal Glands :363
Broodlord
Genestealers x19 -Adrenal Glands :363
Broodlord
Fast Attack
Gargoyles x11 -Adrenal Glands :77
Total
1493
When I built this list I thought "What would make my opponent have to play how I want him to" and this is what I came up with. The 3 squads of Hive Guard are used to form a moving zone where my opponent cannot place his vehicles safely. I then use my Genestealers to force my opponent to either enter this zone or be assaulted. My Tervigons give my Genestealers FNP as well as create gaunts. The Gargoyles act as a quick reaction unit. The overall effect is a greater than sum of all parts kinda thing. Each unit creates a zone that forces my opponent to react to my decisions rather than be proactive. It also allows me to choose what he can shoot at as well as what he can shoot with.
To explain some of my choices....AG on the Genestealers...just good for my meta. Makes rending vehicles easier, killing wyches before they swing, and of course going before halberds is sweet. Gargoyles were a last minute addition to fill the points. I still really like them though. I feel like they generally get ignored and forgotten......Providing cover for my Tervigons until they're needed to tie something up. Not to mention they are still pretty good on the assault.
If this list is up to par I would also like to know....how would you take it to 1850?
Alright, so here's my thoughts:
Obviously, you are biasing your list to beat GK; given the percentage you say you have in your area, I suppose that's not entirely surprising. However, I'm not sure you're taking the right tack here; GK have a lot of anti-infantry firepower in their lists thanks to Storm Bolters, Psycannons, etc, so your Genestealers are potentially going to be eating a lot of shots- FNP and cover will help that, but they are still obvious targets. Adrenal Glands may seem like it will help superficially, but really Halberds are more an annoyance than anything- you will still strike simultaneously with them, which is what's really important. GK cannot afford to take casualties, whereas Tyranids can. What will kill you is charging into cover, either because of terrain or because of Sanctuary (which is a terrible power to be up against.)
Note that Adrenal Glands do NOT get you any more Rending hits than naked 'Stealers will, nor do they get you more penetrating hits against tanks. (They do get more non-Rends and more glances, though.)
Your Tervigon HQs help mitigate your lack of scoring units a fair amount, but I still don't like the "huge blocks of Genestealers" method that some people seem to be turning towards; a smaller group would threaten board edges just as effectively and tie up fewer of your points, leaving you to take other goodies as well.
Hive Guard, while an amazing unit, can suffer against GK because of Psyflemen. However, I still feel they are necessary, so I would say leave them in (and also because they benefit you so much against other armies.) Likewise Tervigons, although we'll look to moving at least one of them into the Troop slot if we can.
The Gargoyles are definitely a weak link in the army- while a good unit, they don't seem to serve much of a purpose in your list and are basically just a fire magnet.
So what can we do against GK? Well, the core of your list is fine- we want some units of Genestealers with Toxin Sacs (to increase the number of Rends) as "surprise" units to keep our opponents guessing. Remember that Outflanking is very unreliable, as you don't know when you'll enter, one which side, etc. A smart opponent can also minimize their exposure to you by hugging one side of the board and using bubble-wrap; however, GK can't take full advantage of these due to not having cheap throwaway squads for the most part and not having the range to sit on one side of the board.
Devourer gaunts can also be surprisingly effective, if somewhat costly, against GK- lacking many expendable bodies, GK really can't afford to be making a lot of saves and Devilgaunts do nothing better than force saves. With Catalyst to protect them against GK shooting, they can be a rude surprise to many opponents.
Whip/Sword Warriors and Shrikes can also be very dangerous, but they are vulnerable to Psyflemen; for this reason I wouldn't generally recommend them, but if you don't see a ton of the Dreads around or run up against Draigowing a lot, you might consider them- three Warriors will strike first and kill 2-3 Paladins, more if they have support from a Tyranid Prime. Draigo, however, can give them a bad day as always.
If your opponents don't typically take Psybolt Ammo on their squads, Trygons can also bring a lot of damage. As always Force Weapons are annoying, but small squads will generally get wiped out by them, doubly so if they are under Shadow.
So how about something like this:
1500pt TyranidsYou could also tweak this some and take Tyranid Prime + Warriors (reducing the Genestealers some) in place of the Tervi, or add more Devgaunts, or more Hive Guard. At 1500pts, Regen on the Tervigons is also a possibility, since you can use it + cover + Catalyst to try and force them into bad ways of using their firepower.
1 Tervigon (Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst, Cluster)
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
10 Genestealers (Toxin)
9 Genestealers (Toxin)
15 Termagants (Devourers)
15 Termagants (Devourers)
1 Tervigon (Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst, Cluster)
1 Tervigon (Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst, Cluster)
Strategy isn't terribly difficult- Genestealers from the edges will hopefully limit the enemy's movement and Hive Guard will de-mech things (remember to stay out of LOS of those Dreads if you can!) Devgaunts move up behind a wall of spawned Termagants to keep cover; Catalyst will usually be aimed at them unless you think the enemy can drop an important Tervigon that turn; hopefully you can bring 12+ of them to bear on the enemy, which should evaporate most or all of a squad each time they shoot. Your hope is to force the enemy to split firepower- their "big" and "little" guns are all in the same units, so if they're shooting the Termagants they aren't using the Psycannons best and if they shoot Tervigons they aren't getting mileage from the Storm Bolters.
