How to do Troops?

[carnivorousrex]

New rules means I want to try a new army. Having never done an assault focused army I picked up Nids codex. I also lose most frequently to Nids so its kind of a "know your enemy" thing as well.

As I try to understand and plan a list for the new rules the biggest problem I find is what to run as troops. I like the idea of an Old Adversary Hive Tyrant with Guards flanked by a pair of Horm units at least 20+.

Now again I have no experience running Nids so if this move is doomed id like to know. Also what units are good for sitting on objectives, what units can survive a run across the board etc.

Thanks for any and all help, a new Nid player appreciates it. Long live the Swarmlord, baddest model I've ever seen

[swarmy]

That is a pretty open ended request. Termagants are still the bread and butter of our army; Their cheapness is unrivaled. It all depends on what you support them with. The same can be said about any of our troop choices.

[Rakuall]

Buckets of Hormies with OA support can indeed wreak havoc. A slight problem with it is your Hormies will be in synapse, so only +1A on the charge, rather than 2. For claiming objectives, a Tervigon (take Termagants, Tervie is now troops) is mighty intimidating, and 15-20 Termas in cover, gone to ground can be hard to shift.

[wisdomseyes1]

Aug 22, 2012 23:47:59 GMT Rakuall said:

Buckets of Hormies with OA support can indeed wreak havoc. A slight problem with it is your Hormies will be in synapse, so only +1A on the charge, rather than 2. For claiming objectives, a Tervigon (take Termagants, Tervie is now troops) is mighty intimidating, and 15-20 Termas in cover, gone to ground can be hard to shift.

You can't be in range of OA and out of synapse at the same time

Rippers: don't take them (sorry Blindmage)

Hormagaunts: great in bulk if you don't use tervigons. They are fast (in comparison to other fleet models). Take lots of them, give them whatever. TS>AG but they like both (issue is they cut down on numbers)

Termagants: not much worse than hormagaunts. Unless upgraded with devourers, their guns are pretty much a joke. Don't just upgrade with devourers, as they are expensive. Try are very flexible in the roles they perform.

Genestealers: made a name for themselves in tyranids. However, their biggest boon was lost with this edition (outflanking) so their worth has been cut down. They ate still close combat monsters... But they will be getting shot at for a turn while that happens... Maybe 2 turns depending on the opponent... Then they have to deal with overwatch.

Tyranid warriors: "terminator troops" for tyranids. Be warry of s8 though... That's what makes people not take them.

Tervigon: a troop that requires a troop that creates a troop and has huge benefits to the army (psychic powers for FNP) and isn't bad in close combat (anymore) (crushing claws + warpspeed mean that on the charge the tervigon gets 5-9 s10 attacks)

[coredump]

Troops are pretty solid. I would stay away from rippers. Tervigons are great.

Warriors can work, but I would want a Prime with them for Wound allocation; and probably only one brood of warriors.

HGaunts work okay.
Fleshborer gaunts work okay, though I would want either a tervigon or Prime with them.

I am currently unhappy with Stealers... mostly because I loved Outlflanking them last edition. If running them now, I would keep the broods somewhat small, and add a Blord.

[DarkGuard]

wisdomseyes1 as usual hits the nail on the head, a good sub up there.

The main question will be what sort of list do you want? By the sounds of it you want one that's fast and aggressive, so Hormagaunts backed up by Swarmlord may be for you. Maybe two broods of 20 with toxin sacs max? This will give you the bodies to get the enemy and hit hard, without costing too much.

However, you will also want some units to hold objectives in your half, enter Warriors/Tervigons. The first would be cheaper, but less durable (in a way) and less useful overall. The latter is more expensive but will add more to the force, plus be able to create more scoring units. I play an aggressive army, and use the Tervigon still so I don't have to worry about holding backfield, I find the Tervigon and the Termagants are more then capable of doing that.

Genestealers were great, they're not so great anymore. At the moment I find them best with Broodlords for utility and distraction. They're certainly not a run in from the side unit anymore, though you could get success through running them up behind some Hormagaunts for cover.

[carnivorousrex]

Thanks for all the great tips guys. Someone asked what kind of list I was aiming for, I want lots of monstrous creatures. So I see the tervigon route being more to my style

[DarkGuard]

Yeah, with MCs you want a couple of Tervigons and a couple of Termagant, maybe Devilgaunt broods. Consider Broodlord bombs for the last two slots if you have the points. They'll add another high toughness model with more BGB powers and the ability to infiltrate close and disrupt the enemy.

[wisdomseyes1]

I am currently not a fan of the broodlord.

My reasons for last edition stand just as they did before. There is one other addition I must add, and that is that the broodlord gained new psychic powers (wooo). Thing is, since the broodlord cant use most of them (invisablility, smite, puppet master...really any shooting ones... And yes tere is a debate on if he can snapfire them but that doesn't help the case much) he hasn't gained enough for me to be colored impressed. And yes he is a character, so he can issue and accept chalanges, but at what is likely to be a 1 model unit... Eh.

If invisablility wasn't warp charge 2 I would be pro broodlord... A it stands it's just an expensive useless model who got a remote control car for it's birthday but batteries are not included.

Op: I personally play walls of T6 with my tyranids. Medium sized units like hive guard and larger models like trygons and tervigons. Hive tyrants are good monstrous creatures to go with as well (though I prefer tyranid primes because of their in game flexibility) and use small-medium sized gant units to soak up wounds, hold objectives, tie combats down, and make tervigons scoring.

That's just my preference though.

[coredump]

I think I would leave BLord with codex powers, and use Hyp Gaze to try and take out ICs.

[Anax]

I like to use a small contingent of stealers outflanked. Combined with smart/lucky terrain placing they are possibly the easiest way to earn you a linebreaker.

[DarkGuard]

Hypnotic Gaze is ok with the Broodlord, but I think it can be worth the risk trying to roll for Enfeeble or Endurance or similar, as they can be great force multipliers if you get them.

[Deleted]

IA Broodlord commando units infiltrating could be great for assassination.

[Anax]

I very much agree with going for a roll on the biomancy table for BLs. I play a lot against marines (don't we all?) and making t4->t3 can be devastating (the luckiest thing I ever accomplished was instant killing a terminator lord with a shooting flyrant this way). Also if you're up against terminators its really great to get them down to s6 before you send in one of the big guys, or even warriors/shrieks (yay for no instant killing wounds).

[bacchusgreenman]

I'm confused. Why exactly are people saying 'stealers can't Outflank anymore? They still have Infiltrate do they not? Which confers Outflank. Page 38.