Tyranids 1750 Points - Strange list working well.

[leeroy1986]

I wrote this list and it did quite well suprisingly.

HQ.

Swarmlord
3 Tyrant Guard.

Hive Tyrant
Wings, 2x twin-devourers, old adversary, regeneration.

Elites.

3 Hive Guard

2 Zoanthropes.

Troops.

11 Termagants

11 Termagants

Tervigon
Crushing claws, adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, onslaught.

Tervigon
Crushing claws, adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, onslaught.

Fast attack.

3 Raveners
Rending claws, deathspitter.


First thing you notice is the Swarmlord and Tyrant normally people advise either one or the other due to the points costing and to put your remaining points into Dakkafexes or Trygons. I sat down and thought to myself both of these I find harder than those 2 options so why not have both?

Also you may think the Raveners seem a bit out of place. No they aren't they totally ignore cover, are good screening units too they hit hard in melee also and decent shooting. Most say Gargoyles but I think these guys are a little bit better.

Tervifexes, I prefer these in the middle as a hammer solely because of Iron Arm, they run about at toughness 7-9 and statistically one should get it and you just shove that one down your opponents throat with it will not die, it mkes them very hard to deal with, especially making ubergaunts too. So I find Tervifexes slightly better than Dakkafexes/Trygons because with Iron Arm they're so hard and they can get loads of attacks themselves.

Also I found my Swarmlord giving Prefered enemy to Hive Guard very useful and furious charge to Gaunts lol, so there is lotsof self buffing going on.


But yeah I'm finding life without Trygons and Dakkafexes very sweet and good. I normally roll up with all the MC's in the middle and the Flyrant harassing it seems to be working well so far.


Thoughts?

Leeroy

[Deleted]

Doesn't look strange to me, in fact it looks good. How do those raveners work for you? Deathspitters worth it on them?

[grimgore]

It doesn't look strange to me either. However I am curious to how the Tyrants are working out for you and how you are specifically using them. I ask because Primes aren't cutting it for me as an HQ choice, and the last time I fielded a Tyrant he got blasted off the board.

[wisdomseyes1]

Who would advertise to take a dakka fex over a tyrant, knowing the dakka fex is 10 points cheaper and sticky worse.... The only reason to take a dakka fex is you want to keep the HQ slot.

I question the use of regen. On my 3 wound prime, it barely justifies the 10 points I spend on it, only offset by its insane increased survivability. Something like 30 points on a model with 1 more wound and no added defenses asside from its speed which doesn't really do much because of grounded tests... It just doesn't seem like a good use of points.

Tervigons have pretty much taken away the need to use trygons. With iron arm or warp speed or endurance... It's just much nicer (warpspeed + CC means for a trygon that just can't compete against vehicles. Ws5 and talons help a bit though against everything else)

You made me look up prefered enemy... It doesn't say anything about vehicles anymore... Interesting. I mean, "to wound" and "to pen" aren't the same thing, but it's nice to reroll to hit against even vehicles (or am I missing something)

[fragile]

Couple things I would tweak personally.

Drop a guard for SL and add lash whips on other 2. Drop Regen on HT, AG on Tervigons (SL gives FC to someone and Terv's dont need the +1 Str). Then pick up 2 more Raveners



Swarm
2 Guard w/ Lashwhip

HT, wings, 2xTLDev, OA

11 Term
11 Term
Tervigon, CC, TS, Onslaught, Catalyst
Tervigon, CC, TS, Onslaught, Catalyst

5 Raveners w/ Rending, Deathspitters

3 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthrope



That will make your Raveners less likely to be decimated by missle shots.

[Lanesend]

^ Yeah, that makes sense, Fragile. I was also thinking that while Raveners are great this edition, 3 in a brood is a bit small. When 4 or 5 hit the enemy lines, they'll go right through it.

[leeroy1986]

Doesn't look strange to me, in fact it looks good. How do those raveners work for you? Deathspitters worth it on them?

Not vs Marines, you're probably better off going for all combat Raveners, all the fire they put out doesn't really do much to Marine armour. But vs anything not in Power armour it's nice i.e. Orks, Guard, Dark Eldar and so forth they really do reap them

However I am curious to how the Tyrants are working out for you and how you are specifically using them. I ask because Primes aren't cutting it for me as an HQ choice, and the last time I fielded a Tyrant he got blasted off the board

You need a distraction to take the attention away from the Tyrants the Swarmlord and Tervifexes do this nicely. I play mine as a harassment unit sure he can die easily but does quite a bit of damage in the process though.

You see this is why I take 3 Tyrant Guard so they can soak up alot of fire, if you get It Will Not Die on one of the Tervigons that can be very handy too.

Who would advertise to take a dakka fex over a tyrant, knowing the dakka fex is 10 points cheaper and sticky worse.... The only reason to take a dakka fex is you want to keep the HQ slot.

I question the use of regen. On my 3 wound prime, it barely justifies the 10 points I spend on it, only offset by its insane increased survivability. Something like 30 points on a model with 1 more wound and no added defenses asside from its speed which doesn't really do much because of grounded tests... It just doesn't seem like a good use of points.

Tervigons have pretty much taken away the need to use trygons. With iron arm or warp speed or endurance... It's just much nicer (warpspeed + CC means for a trygon that just can't compete against vehicles. Ws5 and talons help a bit though against everything else)

You made me look up prefered enemy... It doesn't say anything about vehicles anymore... Interesting. I mean, "to wound" and "to pen" aren't the same thing, but it's nice to reroll to hit against even vehicles (or am I missing something)

Yeah I was just giving regen a run to see how it does, probably won't be handy, maybe I can squeeze in another Ravener if I drop it.

Yeah re-rolling 1's to hit was very handy in my last game on the Hive Guard, sure you can't re-roll armour pens but those extra hits sure are nice. But yeah I agree pretty much with you on everything there.

That will make your Raveners less likely to be decimated by missle shots.

Thing is that extra Tyrant Guard is so handy, I can screen most of the army with that unit and I can screen most of the Swarmlord's unit with the Ravener's it's a nice little trick, if I have to choose between 2 Raveners and 1 Tyrant Guard it will be 1 Tyrant Guard allday. You see the Ravener's purpose isn't really to kill units although they can efficiently picking your targets well and Lashwhips I'm really not fussed about, the unit is that hard anyway. Any unit that wants to attack the Swarmlord is out of their mind lol.

But yeah thanks for your effort on the list appreciated, does open my eyes a bit, but I really like the 3 Tyrant Guard

^ Yeah, that makes sense, Fragile. I was also thinking that while Raveners are great this edition, 3 in a brood is a bit small. When 4 or 5 hit the enemy lines, they'll go right through it.

You are correct but this is a hammer army so most of the units in the hammer need buffing up really.

But thanks for all the input I'm defo thinking about how to squeeze 1 more Ravener in at least.


Leeroy

[Jabberwocky]

See I've found myself using less and less Tyrant Guard in 6th.

I don't need the offensive power as biomancy Swarmy just destroys everything. The unit is already the toughest target in the army with biomancy buffs especially, so adding more defence just scares more heavy weapons onto the Flyrant/DoM etc.

I've been looking more and more at raveners but I just don't want to drop anything from my army!

[eldar88]

DON'T base ur list around Iron Arm, it's nice as a bonus but u have to be lucky with ur rolls (Psychic Shriek lot more Fun)

[Lanesend]

Hi Eldar,

It's true you can't base a list on Iron Arm, but you CAN base a list around biomancy rolls. With the big amount of Psychers and double rolls on all of them (possible three on Tervi's) you can be pretty sure that you'll have either Iron arm or Endurance on at least a few of them.

BTW, you should try and use proper English punctuation and capitals. I thought you meant 'Ur - rolls', as in Shoarma wraps from the Sumerian Era.

[leeroy1986]

Ive not had a single game yet where i've not had Iron arm, 1 in 2 chance+ on all my creatures gradually multiplies when you have more creatures, when rolling to hit etc you base your decisions on chance not guarantee so why not base my battleplan on chance not guarantee? As it is likely to happen anyway.

Last game I had Iron arm on all my creatures except the Swarmlord who had Hallucination, I was very lucky though I've been thinking in dropping 1 Guard for that extra Zoanthrope in my list, it doesn't quite look right to me with 5 Raveners as I don't really expect them to kill anything, just to screen units.

Leeroy