Hive Tyrant

[fleetofclaw]

Sick flyrant, rpricew. That's how I run 2x TL devs too! Fleshborer Hives are awesome for that!

Anyway, thanks to the new FAQ I'm now definitely going to rock a 2x Flyrant list - for me they come in two flavors:

Air Superiority Flyrant - wings, 2x TL Devs, 2x Biomancy
-Her job is to take to the skies and knock out enemy fliers and generally rain down death on the enemy. Powers you pray to the Hive Mind for: Endurance, Iron Arm, or Life Leech. Because she is going to be swooping as much as she can, that means grounding tests which means you need ways to combat those nasty S9 grounding wounds whether it's via FNP with endurance, regaining wounds with Life Leech or Endurance, or higher T with Iron Arm (by the way, so silly that an ungraceful landing is as bad as getting hit with a lascanon but I digress).

Assassin Flyrant - wings, TL Devs, LW/BS, Old Adversary, Biomancy
-Her job is to do exactly what I did with her all 4th and 5th, get in to the mix and beat face. Pick out targets of opportunity, go slaughter freaking Eldrad, challenge enemy HQ and consume their biomass as their honor guard watch in horror... the usual. Before 6e came out, if someone told me I'd have access to a 24" move for getting my beatstick flyrant in to the mix faster AND it would force the enemy to hit me on 6's, I would have crapped my pants; so just remember you can rock a flyrant that doesn't have to spend all its time dancing around in the air.

So why the devs? Because she will be gliding after getting in to range with swoop, you need a way to help deter incoming charges w/ overwatch, soften targets when you charge, and frankly dakka is brutal in 6th anyway. But the real mission is to slap that annoying character or unit. With LW/BS you become a challenging beast. For Assass'Rant you are begging the Hive Mind when rolling on Biomancy for... well you have a whole lot of goodies that can help. Warp Speed (THANK you FAQ for making it explicit that Warp Speed adds attacks *after* you halve your profile attacks when Smashing), Iron Arm (especially against those fruity gray knights and their Nemesis Weapons and brobanners), Enfeeble (ID-ing T4 dudes with your normal attacks or ID-ing T6 dudes with Smash.... yes please), Endruance; it's all pretty dang useful.

Sorry for the longwinded ranting, but I've been playing Flyrants since 4e and they will always have a warm fuzzy place in my heart.

[Illithid]

I absolutely agree with Fleetofclaw's analysis of the Flyrant. Could not have summed it up better myself.

[DukeMantis]

What are the green things?

truly amazing color scheme

[fleetofclaw]

Sept 10, 2012 14:52:43 GMT DukeMantis said:

what are the green things?

truly amazing color scheme

Fleshborer hives from the tfex / tervigon kit. Since fleshborer hives are hilariously terrible (seriously Cruddace) they make great standins for TL brainleech devourers. I essentially count 1 arm as a twinlinked devourer, so 2 would be 2x TL devourers, instead of needing 4 full arms of the dinky MC devourers (which on the new kit you can't do unless you mount the wings somewhere other than the shoulder socket)

[rpricew]

First time running dual Flyrant list with Dual twin devs, both tyrants died by turn 4, I was very aggressive with them, but they caused a huge amount of carnage. My crimson fist opponent just thought they were Broken... Even after killing both.

His logic was...they, with the rest of my non scoring army, were able to break the backbone of his army. This allowed my scoring element to move into position and secure the win. By the time the Flyrants were dead, the game was essentially won.

One had OA and the the other was the Warlord with HC. I started them in reserves and flew them on 24" shooting 18".

Sent from my ADR6350 using proboards

[coredump]

I may be moving to dual flyrants... need to deal with flyers....

[DukeMantis]

'go slaughter freaking Eldrad'

oh man i laughed

Thanks for the neat ideas for Flyrant builds! I recently got the swarmie kit and im planning to magnetize it all to play swapsies with the options, these twin linked devs seem too good to overlook so im going for those with LW/BS.

The conversions im going to have to do to get allt he weps on the model frustrate me a little bit, im going to covert a TL-dev in one arm and LW/BS in the other... somehow....

[brianb9999]

I have had success recently with double Flyrants with double devourers...it requires a LOT of shooting to bring them both down. Those are shots not being directed at the rest of your army as it advances. I try to keep them swooping as long as I can, harassing my opponent's backfield and picking my assaults wisely. I find double Flyrant to be quite fun.

[fleetofclaw]

Sept 12, 2012 1:47:03 GMT brianb9999 said:

I have had success recently with double Flyrants with double devourers...it requires a LOT of shooting to bring them both down. Those are shots not being directed at the rest of your army as it advances. I try to keep them swooping as long as I can, harassing my opponent's backfield and picking my assaults wisely. I find double Flyrant to be quite fun.

This is such a great point. I know I, with a lot of other people, complained that shots from any old unit can cause a strength 9 grounding test, but even if they devote two or three units to get one ground to go off, that's a lot of shooting that didn't advance or shoot at my other stuff. Going flyrants is definitely an easy warlord point for your opponent, but you'll usually get first blood, warlord, and let your other stuff come forward for line breaker point.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using proboards

[blind[tyrant]guardian]

I've actually found that LW&BS + acid blood works wonders on vanguard veteran squads.

[Anggul]

Not really relevant to the tactics being discussed, but I just thought I'd mention that contrary to what a lot of people on this forum seem to think, a Hive Tyrant is not a 'her'. Hive Tyrants are male. The females of the genus are the Dominatrices.

Sorry, my fluff bunny self couldn't hold it in.


I haven't actually had a chance to use my Flyrant yet, but it's from back in 3rd ed with dragon wings and scything talons. Flyrant with dual talons still seems like a scary prospect, great speed and great damage in CC (as well as still being able to vector strike) but the only way it would make use of a Flying MCs shooting is with psychic powers (mainly this would just be life leech if I roll it), which is probably a waste of the bonuses that being one gives you.