Swarm tactics / 500 point army

[cowbell]

I'm fascinated with zerg rush-style armies. Besides fielding a large number of Hormagaunts/Termagants, what are some swarm-specific tips? My play group uses 500 point armies.

I'm thinking

HQ: Tervigon with Adrenal Glands/Toxin Sacs
Troops: 14 Termagants
Troops: 14 Termagants
Troops: Tervigon with Adrenal Glands/Toxin Sacs

[ravengoescaw]

Well if you want a Zerg theme then swap out one unit of termis for 11 hermis.

If you want to simulate a 6 zergling rush then get a unit of gene stealers in there.

[fragile]

Well, that should be pretty Zergy.. About 50 Termagant on average.

[glassiya]

Sept 5, 2012 22:43:13 GMT cowbell said:

Besides fielding a large number of Hormagaunts/Termagants, what are some swarm-specific tips?

Besides this - avoid templates, place your models as far as possible from rach other.

It may sound obvious, but I'm still forgetting it sometimes.

[eugee]

I think to really experience the tyranid swarm you need gargoyles, hormagaunts, and termagants.

Tervigon (Claws, Salvo, Adrenal, Toxin, 3 Biomancy) - 235
10 Gargoyles (Adrenal, Toxin) - 80
13 Hormagaunts (Adrenal, Toxin) - 130
11 Termagants (Fleshborer) - 55

500 points. I don't like running any list without Hive Guard, but you're starting with 34 gribblies on the table plus an MC, and should spit out another wave or two of termagants on top of that. I wouldn't run 2 Tervigons in 500 simply because there's no curve ball for your opponent--shoot the big guys, which kill the little guys. Now admittedly I'm presenting a wrecking ball tervigon, because it's the only way I run them anymore.

You could also go with:

Tyranid Prime - 80
2 Hive Guard - 100
Tervigon (Claws, Salvo, Adrenal, Toxin, 2 Biomancy) - 220
10 Termagant - 50
10 Termagant - 50

The Prime can attach to the Hive Guard to soak wounds for them, and now you can run the Tervigon as a Troop choice. It's still a wrecking ball even with only 2 powers, and you've got 20 gribblies on the board before you start spitting them out. Your hive guard will shred any vehicle in a 500 point game as well as high T targets. Expect any player with experience to focus fire the Tervigon till it blows and kills your termagants, since that's all your troops in one go. (Easier said than done though, especially in 500.)

[cowbell]

Besides this - avoid templates, place your models as far as possible from each other.

So true! My first army is Necrons, 500 point, and I nearly lost a whole Troops of Necron Warriors when I wrecked a Sisters of Battle tank on turn two, because who popped out but a unit armed with Flamers! Each use of the Flamer template overlapped, resulting in massive hits upon my unit. Only luck with rolls saved me another turn. Yay Reanimation Protocols!

[cowbell]

I played my first game with my proxy Tyranid 500 point army.

I roll for Warlord trait on the Command table. I almost always manage to roll Intimidating Presence, which rocks since my playgroup ignores all missions save pure elimination.

Turn 1: My HQ/Warlord Tervigon rolled doubles. Thank goodness the Spawn Termagants rule still allows it to spawn that turn. Fleshborer range is (please do not swear) (12"), so I run everything full out towards my Space Wolves enemy. My friend is really silly, insisting that he hold back nearly 50% of his army in Reserves even though he's really shoddy at remembering Reserves rules.

Opponent Turn 1: My friend moves and finds on our small table that he has Shooting units within range. His snipers, Wolf Scouts, have been a pain for me to fight (they do tons of damage to my 500 point Necron army). My solution is always to close in on them. I lose barely any Termagants (2-3), that go back in the bucket where I grab them for the Tervigon to respawn them. Mwuhahaha. My friend also takes pot shots at my HQ Tervigon, succeeding in wounding him for 2 out his 6 Wounds. It shrugs them off.

Turn 2: I continue spawning Termagants with my other Tervigon and close in on my foe. Finally within range of some of my Fleshborers, which of course suck. I manage to shoot down some Wolf Scouts.

Opponent Turn 2: More Shooting. At this point I realize my friend, just as new to 40K as me, still lacks basic tactics understanding He deployed his Wolf Scout snipers up with the front of his army instead of keeping them back and protected with CC units. He rolls to deploy his Reserves: Nope.

Turn 3: Charge into Wolf Scouts, taking them down to 2, which survive for 2-3 more turns against slowly accruing masses of Termagants.

Opponent Turn 3: Deploys Reserves, wins roll to deploy on his choice of left or right side of the table. Charges his units into CC against my Tervigons. I'll decide now that I should have left lanes for my Tervigons to maneuver; I was letting my Termagants pin them in. My Tervigons take more Wounds but not enough to die yet.

Turns 3-5: Tervigons don't die and one continues spawning yet more Termagants, the two reasons I believe that I win this match. My friend has power weapons, Terminator armour, and even to better Initiative, but I gradually overwhelm him with superior numbers. At some point, the other Tervigon finally rolls doubles. But down to his HQ Warlord, surrounded by 50+ Termagants and a Tervigon with 5/6 Wounds, he surrenders.

Debriefing: With so many models (pennies) moving around, I noticed patterns in positioning that I should follow: Leave lanes open for Tervigons to progress, or they risk exposing front line troops to Instinctive Behavior. I spent most of the game piling in Termagants to juuuuuuuuust within base contact of Termagants engaged in CC--I had spawned so many that it was hard to get them all close enough to engage.

Not sure what else to do with my swarm. Besides run, charge, and pile in, what do you do with so many 'gants?

[cowbell]

Ah, I just realized that with so many CC models, it's hard to get most of them within base contact range to actually damage enemy units. I might as well use the frontline CC unit to tarpit the enemy and just shoot it down with the units behind. Fortunately, I decided to go with Termagants instead of Hormagaunts, so this will not be a problem.