Just starting 1500pt fun list

[badlybuilt]

Good evening all, this will be my first time posting here. Great forum by the way, just found it the other day!

Starting to collect tyranids and wanting to work with the following list as a base. It is not for tournament play, more or less just fun.

Swarmlord ( biomancy table )
2x Tyrant guard + Bonesword

5 squads Hormagaunts
10 strong with Devourers + TS + AG

3x Zoan + Mycetic ( 1 rolls on biomancy )
3x Zoan + Mycetic ( 1 rolls on biomancy )
DoM + Mycetic

Can't quite decide on devigaunts or termagaunts or how I will deal with flyers.

The basic strategy is to push up in cover with troops + swarm in behind. Hope pods come in turn 2/3 , kill back end tanks with zoans and drop objective campers with DoM. I have been played SoB for a year + now , and have no experience with a melee/horde army aside from playing against them on rare occasions.

I would love some advice on how to make this list or something like this work. Thanks !!

Oh , for to mention that all I currently own is one box of hormagaunts and have a zoan on order.

[Squire]

Is that 5 squads of hormagaunts and one squad of termagants? How big are these units?

I'm not sure a unit of zoanthropes can choose different powers from each other. I had the impressions they all had to take the same powers

One problem I see is the opponent has at least one turn and maybe two to throw all of their powerful shooting at the swarmlord and his guard. I don't see much hope for that unit making it to combat, especially if the opponent gets the first turn. The zoanthropes and doom could cause absolute carnage when they turn up though, that would be fun- and it's good that the swarmlord provides +1 to reserve rolls

I would focus on making the swarmlord more survivable before the zoans show up. You could do that by adding a tervigon or two, which could draw fire away from the SL, provide extra synapse and give assistance to the gaunts when they get to combat. Alternatively, if you don't want to use any tervigons, it would be wise to add an extra tyrant guard to the SL. You can be guaranteed he is going to draw a lot of fire so extra protection won't be wasted

[badlybuilt]

Oops sorry mistype, that would be 5 squads of 10 termagaunts. As far as I can tell by looking at the psyker rules, each psyker can replace their power for a BRB one.

I have adjusted the list a bit to take the advice of the tervigons.

Swarmlord ( Biomancy )

Tervigon - no upgrades

Tervigon - No upgrades

10 Termagaunts - Devourers+ TS

10 Termagaunts - Devourers + TS

10 Termagaunts - Devourers + TS

3x Zoan + Mycetic

3x Zoan + Mycetic

DoM + Mycetic

This list seems alot beefer , especially with the ability to add more scoring units. Unsure which powers to take of the tervigons or if they require some upgrades to the melee

[Deleted]

Larger broods of Gaunts are better, I'd go with 2x15.

Don't give the Gaunts TS, give it to the Tervigon and they will bestow it to nearby Gaunts. You save points and get more TS.

Give Swarmlord a Guard or 2 or he won't make it to combat.

[badlybuilt]

I don't see how the Tervigon confers TS to the gaunts, if you could please point me to that entry I would be very thankful.
Adjusted list accordingly.

Swarmlord
2x Tyrant Guard + Lash whips

Tervigon + TS

Tervigon + TS

15x Termaguants + Dev

15x Termagaunts + Dev

2x Zoan + Mycetic

2x Zoan + Mycetic

DoM + Mycetic

[Deleted]

Read the Tervigon's entry in the codex.

[badlybuilt]

Thank you, I was only reading the negative part of that entry

[Deleted]

By the way, unless you are facing heavy Longfang spam going with one Tyrant Guard can often be more durable if you swap the Swarmlord's powers for Biomancy. With Iron Arm you can boost his T to 7-9 and the Guard will receive it as well since a unit uses majority toughness, going with highest when there's a tie.

[Squire]

Dec 30, 2012 3:06:28 GMT badlybuilt said:

I don't see how the Tervigon confers TS to the gaunts, if you could please point me to that entry I would be very thankful.
Adjusted list accordingly.

Swarmlord
2x Tyrant Guard + Lash whips

Tervigon + TS

Tervigon + TS

15x Termaguants + Dev

15x Termagaunts + Dev

2x Zoan + Mycetic

2x Zoan + Mycetic

DoM + Mycetic

I really like this army now. It's in keeping with the original list you posted, has character and looks like it would be fun to play with. 60mm's advice about the one tyrant guard is actually pretty good, I'd go with that. I hadn't thought about it from that point of view. If the SL rolls highly for iron arm I could imagine opponents ignoring it for that round. It would be pretty depressing to have to wound on a 4+ with a lascannon only to take a wound away from a tyrant guard

The good thing is with that extra 60 points you could bring back a zoanthrope, or maybe just field 10 of the hormagaunts you already have (maybe all of them if you have the remaining points or would be willing to trim a termagant or two). The advantage those guys would have is that nobody would bother shooting a small unit of hormagaunts if there are two units of devilgants on the table

[badlybuilt]

Thanks for the tip 60mm, though would it be worthwhile to take the 2 tyrant guard and just cast iron arm on them? Also I was hoping to get warp speed and cast it on the tyrant guard as well, possibly giving them boneswords rather than Lash whips. The swarmlord will most likely be eating challenges alot and any shooting that gets him it would still be majority toughness. Just trying to keep him alive a little longer to eat some units.

[rampagingfex]

Dec 30, 2012 17:54:15 GMT badlybuilt said:

Thanks for the tip 60mm, though would it be worthwhile to take the 2 tyrant guard and just cast iron arm on them? Also I was hoping to get warp speed and cast it on the tyrant guard as well, possibly giving them boneswords rather than Lash whips. The swarmlord will most likely be eating challenges alot and any shooting that gets him it would still be majority toughness. Just trying to keep him alive a little longer to eat some units.

Iron Arm only affects the psycher I believe. If you have 2 guards and cast Iron Arm, then the enemy still can shoot you and wound on T6 as if you hadn't even cast the power. If that happens, might be useful to just use look out sir until one of the Guards is dead and then the enemy has to wound you using the higher T value.

-RF

[Jabberwocky]

Warp speed and iron arm only affect the psyker who cast them unfortunately.

I'd definitely go with the 1 guard and use majority toughness to your advantage.

The points could put a twin linked deathspitter on each sporeand give the Tervs catalyst each, which gives you a great power still with the option to swap out for biomancy.

[badlybuilt]

Thanks again for all the input

List now looks like this :

Swarmlord
Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whip

15x Devigaunt

15x Devigaunt

Tervigon - TS + Dominioin + Catalyst

Tervigon - TS + Dominion + Catalyst

DoM + Mycetic w/ TL deathspitter

2x Zoan + Mycetic w/ TL deathspitter

2x Zoan + Mycetic w/ TL deathspitter

I am enjoying the look of the list, adding those tervigons just added 2months extra before I get to play a game but it looks worth the wait!

From experience how many stock termagaunts should I have around for the tervigons to spawn?