2k balanced shop list

[royalecheez]

Trying to build towards a balanced list I can bring to the local shop and face anyone who might be hanging around and have a moderate success rate. Would love to hear back from some people who have a few games under their belt with 8th nids as I do not. It's been all grey knights thus far and I'm still working on getting all of these models together.

Tyranid battalion:

Malanthrope
Malanthrope
20x genestealer
20x genestealer
Ripper swarm
15x gargoyle
14x gargoyle
Harpy

Spearhead:

Broodlord
Exocrine
Exocrine
Trygon
Trygon

Total 1997

I feel like the list can handle a lot of different things and create some fast pressure. Kinda worried not enough bodies on the table though. And that the malanthrope a might not be able to keep up. Not meant to be a tournament list or anything. Again would love some CC.

I was also toying around with a list that was exactly the same but with a flyrant with VC and boneswords. Just drop both stealer squads to 16 and both gargoyle squads to 10. Would add another large fast moving synapse threat. But again worried it would reduce the body count even further. Total points ends up at 1993.

[No One]

royalecheez said:

And that the malanthrope a might not be able to keep up.

You'd probably be able to daisy chain back for T1 move. But T2+? Not likely I'd say. But hey - at that point, you're likely in combat, so who cares? Done its job and delivered the unit safely, can now sit back with the exos and protect them.

I was also toying around with a list that was exactly the same but with a flyrant with VC and boneswords.

Monstrous rending claws are really good for a single weapon. The other thing you could do for synapse would be upgrade one of the trygons to a Prime, which gives some forward synapse for the gargs/stealers, which they'll really need. Definitely do one or the other - I'd go with prime over flyrant, due to the lack of t-guard to protect against an alpha strike. Mal...might be sufficient? Or they might shoot the exos? Not sure, but also costs less.

Try to avoid dropping the stealer numbers - they really need to stay above 10 and to hit hard on the drop.

[able]

What protects the exocrine? They look really exposed, with all the army wanting to go forward except them, and while they are unlikely to die to something like vespids, they may get shut down by being assaulted repeatedly. I get the feeling that your stealers are going to be spending a fair amount of time running backwards.

I have to second the rending claws being good comment. I initially thought that it wasn't worth giving up the flat 3 wounds for, but the reroll is really powerful. 3+ with a reroll is better than 2+, and 5+ with a reroll is slightly better than 4+, but what really sells it is that you are actually more likely to roll a 6 against hard to wound stuff (more rerolls). You get more value from toxin sacs, and they push your average damage against tough targets up to 3 anyway, on top of being far more likely to roll a wound. T7 8 wounds is pretty common, and 2 6s to wound will flat kill it. If you only hit a dread with 2 attacks, there is a ~1/13 chance you will kill it anyway!

[royalecheez]

Jul 10, 2017 15:02:22 GMT able said:

What protects the exocrine? They look really exposed, with all the army wanting to go forward except them, and while they are unlikely to die to something like vespids, they may get shut down by being assaulted repeatedly. I get the feeling that your stealers are going to be spending a fair amount of time running backwards.

I have to second the rending claws being good comment. I initially thought that it wasn't worth giving up the flat 3 wounds for, but the reroll is really powerful. 3+ with a reroll is better than 2+, and 5+ with a reroll is slightly better than 4+, but what really sells it is that you are actually more likely to roll a 6 against hard to wound stuff (more rerolls). You get more value from toxin sacs, and they push your average damage against tough targets up to 3 anyway, on top of being far more likely to roll a wound. T7 8 wounds is pretty common, and 2 6s to wound will flat kill it. If you only hit a dread with 2 attacks, there is a ~1/13 chance you will kill it anyway!

I was just kind of using the gargoyles as a catch all. I figured if the expcrines were in a touchy spot I could use the gargoyles to swoop in and tie something up that might threatening them till I can move something nastier in. Thanks for the suggestions

[royalecheez]

Jul 10, 2017 12:18:46 GMT No One said:

royalecheez said:

And that the malanthrope a might not be able to keep up.

You'd probably be able to daisy chain back for T1 move. But T2+? Not likely I'd say. But hey - at that point, you're likely in combat, so who cares? Done its job and delivered the unit safely, can now sit back with the exos and protect them.

I was also toying around with a list that was exactly the same but with a flyrant with VC and boneswords.

Monstrous rending claws are really good for a single weapon. The other thing you could do for synapse would be upgrade one of the trygons to a Prime, which gives some forward synapse for the gargs/stealers, which they'll really need. Definitely do one or the other - I'd go with prime over flyrant, due to the lack of t-guard to protect against an alpha strike. Mal...might be sufficient? Or they might shoot the exos? Not sure, but also costs less.

Try to avoid dropping the stealer numbers - they really need to stay above 10 and to hit hard on the drop.

All good suggestions and points. I appreciate all the feedback. I'm going to be doing some tinkering to fit the t primes in.