My First 1,000pt, non-Tervigon Horde List

[mathew]

Hi all,

Just got my first battleforce and Codex: Tyranids, and have been spending most of Christmas drafting up my first 1,000-pt force.

I'm definintely more of a 'fluff' gamer than a WAAC-type gamer, so I'm trying to assemble a force that will epitomise the 'chittering horde'-type army that first drew me to the Tyranids in the first place. Although I love the models, the 'nidzilla lists just don't hold any appeal for me - my philosophy is going to be "keep 'em cheap and stack 'em high":

HQ - Tyranid Prime (scyything talons & rending claws) - 80 pts

Elite - Zoanthrope - 60 pts

Elite - Lictor - 65 pts

Troops - 25 Hormagaunts - 150 pts

Troops - 20 Hormagaunts - 120 pts

Troops - 20 Hormagaunts - 120 pts

Troops - 20 Genestealers - 280 pts

Fast Attack - 20 Gargoyles 120 pts

TOTAL = 995 pts


My plan is to throw as many models on the table as possible, giving the enemy too many targets to shoot at. The gargoyles will be the first wave of the attack, focusing on the most dangerous assault/blast weapon-bearing squads, and acting as a meat shield for the rest of the force.

The lictor will be a sacraficial model, designed to keep at least one enemy unit's guns (again, preferably something with assault or blast) away from the main horde for at least a turn. If he survives and makes it into combat, then that's a bonus.

The Zoanthrope is my anti-armour. My concern is that I don't have multiple redundancy for this model if he gets targeted early in the game; my other option would be to switch out the Lictor and have 2 Zoanthropes instead. The Prime goes in this unit to take wounds and discourage shooting; have also been thinking about giving the Prime a ranged weapon (Deathspitter?) instead.

The hormagaunts will charge forward en masse, and drown anything they come across with weight of numbers.

The genestealers are the second wave, who wil roll up to finish off any assault-specialist troops or ICs that are too strong for the gaunts to deal with. Hopefully the volume of bodies in front of them should keep them well-protected from enemy fire.

Thoughts, anyone? I'm trying to keep it simple, in the style of an Ork 'green blob', ensuring that, no matter how many bugs get shot down, there will always be more that make it into assault.

No fancy tactics, really, just a simple meat grinder.

[Anggul]

Swap out the Lictor for a second Zoanthrope. One Warp Lance which might just die anyway really isn't going to do much. Get Adrenal Glands on the Gargoyles too, as that way they can tear apart vehicles. Also try to find the points for Boneswords on the Prime, they really are worth it.

[commandersasha]

Genestealers are hopeless since 6th, having list their tactical advantages (outflank or infiltrate assaults), and dying so easily to basic gunfire.
Ymgarls, on the other hand, are better than ever.
Use some of your Genies as Ymgarls, they give you a back door to his deployment area, and can open a vehicle or two, giving your Hormagants hordes some yummy targets!

[mathew]

Thanks for the pointers, folks. I just can't bring myself to get rid of the Lictor, even though I know I know it's been nerfed to hell the last couple of updates. There's just something about the model and its fluff that I love.

I haven't collected an army since I did Eldar in 2nd ed(!), so I've got a lot of re-learning to do; there's so many new units out there that I've never even heard of before! I was toying with the idea of running an "old-skool" 40k army list, and self-limiting my choices to those that I remember from the 'good ol' days' of the 2nd edition Codex:

Hive Tyrants
Zoanthropes
Lictors
Biovores
Genestealers
Hormagaunts
Termagants
Carnifexes
Ripper Swarms

...unfortunately, I can't remember what else (besides genestealer cults) was in that codex, but I know that's well before the time of Mawlocs and Tyrannofexes! I know an army like this isn't going to win any tournaments any time soon, but it would satisfy a deep longing in me to complete that army that I never got around to collecting - "the one that got away", if you will. :')

So if anyone happens to have a copy of the old 2rd-edition codex lying around, and fancies telling me if there's any entries on there that I've forgotten about, please let me know! The only problem I can forsee is squeezing a Hive Tyrant into a 1,000 point force. To me, it seems a bit OTT, like putting a Land Raider in a 1,000 point SM army. But perhaps that's just me.

PS - Yes, I'm that old that I remember 2nd edition. The Eldar/Tyranid thing originally came about due to a board game I picked up from a hobby store, called "Doom Of The Eldar". Anyone remember that? Good times.

[Anggul]

The problem I find with Lictors is that although I love their models and their fluff, their rules in-game don't represent them well at all, so I don't feel bad at all refusing to use them. It's like if a Hive Tyrant was S4 T4 with 2 wounds or something. Yeah I love the model and the fluff, but if the rules don't represent what it should be, why would I want to use it?

[Deleted]

1 zoanthrope will get killed before it can do a thing. I promise.

1 Lictor won't do anything.

20 Genestealer blob will be an expensiv meatshield, because they're gonna get focus fired to death.

Your main issue is you have lots of horde with no synapse really. The Zoan is going to get killed asap, probably first turn. That leaves you with only the Prime and you'll have plenty of units out of range of him with those numbers. If you run this list it will fall apart against anyone who knows how Tyranids work. Work on your synapse coverage big time. And I know you're not too into MCs, but they are Tyranid's bread and butter, you're going to lose a lot without them

[mathew]

Thanks for the advice, guys - that's given me a lot to think about; my idea of a horde force has already changed a lot since I first thought about it!

I'd (foolishly, perhaps) thought that, because Hormagaunts have Feed, a failed IB test wouldn't be the end of the world, as they'd at least still be heading in the right direction. I now realise that losing Fearless will be the biggest hinderance, because of their ordinary Leadership.

So I'm thinking, then, that the solution may be to run with two Zoanthropes instead. Added to the Prime, this gives three synapse points, as well as some valuable redundancy for my anti-armour. The core of the army will then comprise three, 20-strong units of toxigaunts and two, 10-strong units of Gargoyles, upgraded with adrenal glands and toxin sacs.

This weighs in at 840 points (and 83 models!), so there's still a bit of room left for flavour. Genestealers, as someone's already pointed out, will be a bit of an expensive fire magnet, as would a Carnifex, so was toying instead with either adding a Venomthrope or two for some cover saves, some Tyranid Warriors for some ranged support, or alternatively a brood of Devilgaunts in a mycetic spore (though it may be hard to keep them in synapse range).

However it pans out, I think having a core of roughly 85% of the army feels about right, leaving 15% to experiment with, depending on who the enemy is.