With the knowledge gained from 21 games of 6th edition, I've been slowly improving my Tyranids, to the level that gave me a 4-2 record at Beakycon. Still, I think I can do better. My last list design was focused purely on objective holding and being tough as hell. It worked in that regard, but I suffered in Kill Point games (or when the dice didn't like me). So, I'm now thinking about reworking my army to cause as much destruction as possible. This new list won't be a guarenteed "auto win", or even an improvement, but I think it'll be worth giving a try. Since both the next RTT, and the next GT, I plan on attending are1850, This is what I'll use:
Flyrant with Devourers and Hive Commander
Flyrant with Devourers and Hive Commander
5 Ymgarl Genestealers
5 Ymgarl Genestealers
Doom of Malan'tai in a Spod
Tervigon with Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
Tervigon with Tox/Adrenal, 3 powers
10 gants
10 gants
Trygon
Trygon
The idea here is very, very simple. Turn one, Tervis and Flyrants hide in cover, using Psychic powers to be very durable. Then turn 2 the Hammer drops. The Doom, 10 Ymgarls (who will assault), 2 Trygons and 2 flyrants will hit my opponent in the jaw. This is more than almost any gunline will be able to handle, and with any luck I can overwhelm and wreck my opponent. All my reserves come in automatically, and then the fun begins. Exposed infantry will get shredded by the Doom, and between the 2 Trygons (6 str. 5 shots EACH) and the Flyrants (12 Twin linked shots EACH) I will probably be able to kill 2/3 light vehicles in that alpha strike turn. Finally, Ymgarls will choose and murder whatever two threats I see as most capble of killing me. Long Fangs, Psyflemen, etc. The best part is, none of these units can scatter into my opponent. Trygons and the Spod all ignore that, while Ymgarls just pick a peice of terrain to jump out of. I already have all of these models, (yay!) so as a "test" list it's perfect. If it doesn't work I've lost nothing. The Tervigons are really only there as a tough objective scoring unit, but if I need to I'll be more than happy to run up and hit something, while spawning all the way. Ironically, this lists weaknesses include what my last list was ideal against. A 9 flyer Necron list, which I beat at BeakyCon, would give me a hard time, and Daemons would be able to react and murder me... If I played Tzeentch Daemons I'd have to castle up and spawn like heck, and try to fend off the flamers long enough to charge the bastards.
With only 1 Kill point missions you should only be seeing it in 1 game for most tournaments. I have a similar issue with my Dark Eldar army, for the match I HAVE to table my opponent, there is almost no other way to win after you take into account the secondary objectives.
ReplyDeleteI think you should stick with what nids do very well, target saturation. As a side note, with the Tervigons being only mastery level 1 how much value are you getting from the extra 30 points in powers?
Ever tried Zoanthropes within your lists?
I find the 30 points is worth it, as it guarentees your Tervigons will always have a useful power. There are some I consider less useful in Biomancy (generally, the higher the dice roll the worse it is.) I'd say Hemorhhage and Life Leech do very little to help the game, and I don't want a Tervi useless with those two powers. And the point for me was that I could do good but not great in a tournement, unless I solve Kill Points. My last list was great 5/6 times, but you don't win by being mostly great. The list above, however, I could see winning a KP game.
DeleteAnd I do like Zoeys, and used themin 2k, but here I just didn't fit them in. All my points are dedicated to either tough objective holders, or something that will get right in my opponents face.
Hi again!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you’re going in the same way as I do – from walking psy-heavy nidz to dropnidz. I’ve already passed two tourneys with the similar lists, so I hope, I can tell you something useful;)
At first – dual HiveCommander is useless, cause the reserve roll of “1” is always a failure (printed in brb).
Ymgarls… I posted some words about them earlier. I’m sure they are great as anti-tank, but not as anti-infantry in a squads of 5. Also, experienced opponents on boards with 1-2 pieces of area terrain may force you not to use dormnant at all by spreading units throughout area terrain in his DZ. So, try them but I recommend to try out a squad of 8-10.
Dual flyrants are the thing I love and I’m running now. They are very universal, so I cannot agree that they must start the game on board all the time. In my practice, shooty opponents can easily gun down 1 tyrant if we lost the roll-off. So, almost every time I loose the roll-off, I put them into reserve or deepstrike. As my favorite option is to put Warlord in reserve, while second flyrant is deepstriking – Warlord in this case will arrive in safer position.
I currently use 3 tervigons to counter all those Daemons and Crons flyers. It’s our most powerful unit in the codex, no doubts.
And, the last – Trygons! I saw people running them here and there but I have none in my army yet. Why? I don’t feel that tyranids need them. Maybe It’s personal, but I used 2 carnifexes with devourers in spores at first! It’s even more dakka than 2 Trygons have. Why I put them to the shelf? The answer is DEVILGAUNTS!
Gaunts with devourers in spore pods in combination with Old Adversary Tyrant is a BOMB. I love them! I started with one spore, but now I use 3 spores with 38 devilgaunts inside!
And Doom… he is cute:) I use him too:)
So, as a conclusion. Try Devilgaunts with Old Adversary. Try 8-10 man Ymgarl squad. And tell me how those Trygons perform;)
Best regards,
Erle
Haha a lot of this will be switched out. Nids have plenty of options to get up close! The 1 always failing is surprising... thanks for pointing that out. That'll free up points for Old Adversary. The 5 man Ymgarls are to assassinate rear armour 10 vehicles. If there's a unit that needs 10, I'll just throw both of them in. And I actually have tried Devilgants, and like them, but for the same cost as a Trygon, I get 16 gants and a spod. That's an extra KP, and less ability to kill tough targets, even if I can then shred infantry. Between the Flyrants and Trygons I think I'll have it covered, I really want to get some high toughness in there. Until an FAQ gives SPods a 6" deployment like Drop Pods, I don't think it's worth using thm for dropping in large units. Plus, I want an excuse to use my Trygons again! They're quite lovely models, and I already bought 2 of the suckers. There will be quite a bit of experimenting, to see what's best. An "in your face" list to me just seems like the best way for Nids to win KP games... That's my goal here, in the long run. Win KP games with Nids.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem with Ymgarls is terrain dependance. At a tourney there are usually some tables that have only 1 or NO area terrain pieces. Half of tables will have 2-3 pieces. Wise opponent will choose the side with 1 piece and flood it with minis. Or deploy 18 inch away from area terrain. It really hurts if opponent is aware of Ymgarls. If they have no charge after arriving, they are quite fragile to shooting.
DeleteAs for gaunts, I use only 13 gaunts in a spod for a mere price of 170 pts. It's much more shooting against infantry and AV10 than Trygon can do. And there are not many armies today who cannot handle a trygon at a close range. On the other hand, it's not as easy as it looks like to kill 13 gaunts:)
Nevertheless I fully agree on the awesomeness of the Trygon model!
I started to write down some ideas on how tyranids function in 6 ed on my blog and used your roster as a demonstration of heavy drop list, so, hope to see it in action soon;)
Hm, the error here seems to be with terrain... BeakyCon is the only GT I have attended, and I must say the TO did an excellent job with terrain there, I did not even see a board that didn't have 8 or more terrain peices. In this situation where terrain is plentiful, clever placement (should) mean it is very dificult to flood a terrain peice. I think the trick is to choose a peice that is slightly out of the way, but close enough to get an assault out of. For example, most opponents refuse to advance an inch with Nids bearing down on them, and so a terrain peice right in front of their DZ will yield an assault, but wont be flooded...
ReplyDeleteAnd, I should be using that list this coming weekend! Results will be posted, if so. I'll have to experiment with devilgants once I have tried the Trygons, to get an honest comparison of the two.
I would combine the two Yrmgsrl broods... I found that a brood of eight was perfect.
ReplyDelete