Zone mortalis advice

[Goldfish]

New to 40k and tyranids and I'm looking for some advice. I will be playing a 1500pt zone mortalis battle against blood angels and I'm wondering what to take to best deal with them?

[darthplagis]

Anything >S6 will be mean as they get rending. But it all depends on what you already have.

I am aiming my new force to be mortalis and tabletop, so gaunts aplenty and stealers (for fluff). Flyrants are out, carnifex do well too, no matter the load out (from my math hammer).

[Goldfish]

Thats what I was initially going for also but the mortalis rules state that you cant have more than three troop choices which initially cant be more than 15 models. So this is what I came up with as a first draft:

Swarmlord
2x tyrant guard (adrenal glands, crushing claws, rending claws)
2x hive guard (impaler canon)
4x zoanthrope brood (includes neurothrope upgrade)
15x gene stealer brood (adrenal glands, scything talons)
Broodlord (adrenal glands, scything talons)
15x termagants with devourers
tyranid warrior brood
carnifex (bio-plasma, regeneration, crushing claws, stranglethorn canon)

My reasoning is this, the swarmlord for his 18" synapse, psyker ability and lethality in combat, the tyrant guard obviously have to go with the swarmlord, the hive guard for the ignores LOS and homing which if I understand correctly means I could possibly shoot around corners, Zoanthropes for the brotherhood and the effect that has on warp blast ("Assault 4 blast or lance is pretty deadly), genestealers for the infiltration and the rending ability and since its a mortalis game I could easily place them out of LOS, the termagants for the volume of fire from the devourers and the carnifex for the heavy hitting it can bring.

Thats my thinking atm any suggestions are always appreciated.  this is for a 1500 pt battle.

[Hyrrokin]

I like the list but the Genestealers are an (fluffy) point sink. If you keep them I would rather go with smaller units with Broodlords. Personally I would go with Lictors instead. Lictors do the same "thing" but do it better, the're also one of my favorite unit so..
To get the most out of zoanthropes you have to max them or minimise them so 1 or 6, 3 to get the neuro can work. I would go for 3 and an extra hive guard in your list.
Shrikes are better than warriors but getting them is harder (you have to convert or wait for FW) If you go with warriors you should take a bio-cannon.
The Carnifex dont really need the crushing claw, it only adds +1 S. Regen is very expensive its better to get another fex. bio-plasma is cool(actually very hot) and an okay upgrade but its close range makes it better suited to an melee fex so it can run up to get in range. ranged fexes are best with devourers.
You seem to go very heavy on upgrades. For the nids more bodies are better than upgrades. but if you are low on models it makes sense.

My list (based on yours) would be.
Swarmlord
2x tyrant guard
3x hive guard
3x Lictors
3x Zoanthrope (neurothrope)
15x termagants (devourers)
15x termagants (devourers)
3x shrikes (rending)
1x Carnifex (bioplasma, Adrenal glands)
1x Carnifex (2x brainleech-devourers)

A list with stealers could be
Swarmlord
2x tyrant guard
3x Hive guard
3x Lictors
3 zoanthropes
5x Stealers (+1 brood lord)
5x Stealers
5x Stealers
15x termagants (devourers)
3x shrikes (rending)
1x Carnifex (barbed strangler)

I made the second list with more of the models I know you have. anyway just some ideas. I tried to keep the spirit of your list.
PS. A last thing your genestealer unit is 16 models with the broodlord, sadly

[Goldfish]

All your suggestions make sense, to me. I like your lists but I don't own any lictor models and your 2nd list has 5 troop choices, zone mortalis limits me to only 3 choices. I would think shrikes would be a bit limited in the close confines of a mortalis game, I've wondered about GW having a unit with no model to go with it and would gargoyle wings work for a conversion. I might reduce the stealers number down and either go for another carnifex or additional neurothropes. You defiantly gave me some ideas to think about, thanks.

[Hyrrokin]

its possiple to do shrikes with gargoyles. I did a test model myself. I cut out the back claw and slided it behind the arms. It didnt fit with the other warriors, that I had already pieced together, so I abandoned it and decided to wait for an release of actual models.
Warriors are en requirement of some of the better formations so its fine to just leave them as is.
Shrikes are the same size, in game terms, as warriors so thats not a problem. the wings will be a hazzle in actual zone mortalis though. thinking about it warriors may be on par with shrikes in the zone mortalis as they dont die as easy to bolter fire. I should mention that shrikes are fast attack still over the cap though.

haven't looked that far into zone mortalis, thanks for correcting me. In the mortalis compartments the hive guard are beastly good but the zoans have ap so ignores the marines armour saves, its a tit for tat I would say.
Glad that i could be of help.

[darthplagis]

Dakka fex will be LETHAL so remember S6 devourers, reroll for TL, 2 lots per fex and S6 is rending..........

[Goldfish]

I do like dakka fex but my game will be against Blood Angels, so I'm wondering just how susceptible they would be to pinning and if it would be worth taking the stranglethorn cannon on the fex. It's still S6, so still rending, but only assault 1. If I get lucky and pin them maybe I could assault them then in the assault phase. then again maybe I'll just go with the 12 TL shots and hope for some bad rolls on his part. I have some warrior models that I haven't assembled yet if I can get some gargoyle wings I might give some shrike conversions a try, I'll use magnets just in case it doesn't work.

[darthplagis]

Im seriously contemplating a dakka fex (i hate bekng a sheep) simply for mortalis 12 TL rending shots is a lot more likley to cause damage than 1 S6 large blast.

Just stick a sanitary pad or paint a little piece of plasticard tube as a can of red bull on the base.... Always and red bull give you wings, and no one can argue that proxy logic

[xenite]

Here is something that I wonder about MCs in Zone Mortalis. Does their large base size cause trouble? Are they affected by doors which their base can't fit through?

[xenite]

Another thought about ZM. Would regeneration be a better investment? I am wondering this in cases where less saturation of shooting seems likely.

[Freeman]

Mar 6, 2015 22:55:25 GMT xenite said:

Here is something that I wonder about MCs in Zone Mortalis. Does their large base size cause trouble? Are they affected by doors which their base can't fit through?

Yep. If you are using the FW terrain all MC's have serious issues with moving through doors. A fex can easily dominate a single room or corridor though.

[Hyrrokin]

In the Anphelion book. the setup for zone mortalis does not only have corridors and rooms. they also have some open ground. Im not sure how you are setting up the board though. the corridors are too small for the mc to move in.

[darthplagis]

New oval base is easier for mortalis i have to admit.