IN SEARCH OF VICTORY : 1K Tournament looming!

[DukeMantis]

Hey Hive

In the past you have been a great help to me with my army list queries so here i am again hoping to share my ideas and get some feedback from my fellow bugbrains.

At the end of this month im going to my third tournament with my nids, after starting them last summer. Ive managed two 2nd place finishes so far in tourneys and im really keen to reach the top three again in this one! A little about the tourney:

1000 point armies
5 Rounds, each game 1.5 hour time limit
Up to 25% Forge World allowance
4x4 tables
No duplicate units unless they are troops or transports
Im unsure but presume it to be rulebook scenarios

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So ive put together a 1k army list, which ill post below. My considerations when writing it was that i wanted something that had a nice mix of all the good tyranid abilities, some nice close combat, a bit of shooting, some psych, some deepstrike etc

Splinter Fleet Mantis 1K

HQ Tervigon w/ ScyTals, TS+AG, Dominion, Catalyst
200

HQ Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, 1x T-L Devourer, LW+BS
245

Troops - Tervigon w/ Crushing Claws, AD+TS, Catalyst, Dominion - 220

Troops- 10x Termagants (no upgrades)
50
Elites: 3x Hive Guard
150

Elites: Doom w/ Spore
130

995/1000 pts

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For the Warlord: I originally had the flyrant as the warlord but he is too big a victory-points pinata in my opinion, so i was going to make the ScyTal Tervigon the Warlord so i can play conservatively (hide) with it if i need to. Then i can play viciously with the flyrant without fear of giving up as many points if he dies. I plan to roll on personal warlord traits.

The Flyrant: I normally give the flyrant the double devs but thought a balanced build with the LW+BS could help him do a little better in hand to hand, it would make him able to cripple terminator squads on the charge due to his bonesword denying armour. The lash whip can help him pick on elite squads with high initiative such as eldar elite infantry. I was seriously considering taking a roll on Telepathy in the hope of getting Puppet Master, and if i dont taking Psychic Shriek... 6TL devourer shots + a shriek should soften up pretty much anything in preparation for an assault i hope

The Crushigon: This will be my attacking tervigon, im likely to keep it ahead of my Warlordigon to provide cover saves, i might take two rolls on biomancy but ive had rotten luck trying to get iron arm or endurance recently so i can always fallback on Catalyst.

The Test Games:

I had two test games against a club mate, he heavily tailored his lists to hurt my army as much as possible, using Nurgle heavy chaos, and chaos+death korps guard.

The aim was to see how much punishment my list could take in a worst case scenario, how long i could hold on/avoid a tabling while scoring as much as possible. In both games i got massacred and in one of them i was almost tabled, but i survived to turn 5(the end of the 1st game) and the bottom of turn 4 in each game respectively.

My tervigons never made it further forward than midfield in either game, i was hanging back in my deployment for cover in turn 1, but then not making it much further forward before they died to shooting or chaos lords with crazy wargear. Apart from that the list performed quite well the hive guard are good at popping a transport for first blood.

Any thoughts on this list or tactics would be awesome! The tournament looms and im getting over-exciteable as usual

[zoat]

Nice and solid, I would want to have every Tervigon in the troops section but if its for denying the warlord and some Hive Guard its just fine.
I would take Scything Talons on the Flyrant instead of the BS/LW, because he always has its AP2 and you can reroll 1s to hit this way. With I5 he is faster than the enemy in most cases.
And if you have 5 points left, why not take one gaunt to round it up?

[FTGTEvan]

Pretty good. With the time limit, it's unlikely you'd get a game to 5 turns anyhow, and very few lists will probably be tailored as much to counter your strengths, so I think you're looking pretty good.

I might check with the tournament organizer about if the Tervigon in the HQ counts as duplicate unit that is not troops. Dropping a hive guard to get it back to Troops with more gants wouldn't be the end of the world, but, as you said, you'd have to be more careful with the flyrant.

I get what you're saying about telepathy, and I guess it would be preference, but the possibility of Iron Arm is just too juicy to me; I've had my flyrant on one wound survive a failed ground test and then take on a unit of 20+ boyz who couldn't hurt him because of +3 on Iron Arm, and Smite isn't terrible if you're looking for a second shooting attack.

[gigasnail]

the lashwhip/boneswords aren't needed; as zoat said the flyrant is an MC and is AP2 always. the guns are always good. even if you're charging him into cover at something, the last thing you want to do is charge him at TH/SS terminators or something killy. throw him into combat with a longfang or heavy weapons platoon and watch him mulch them with relative impunity instead of risking him vs. mr. superkillgaiz. swoop around and vector strike/devourer their faces off instead.

list is solid, otherwise. nids at low points are brutal. iron arm on tervigon/flyrant is game winning.

[DukeMantis]

Thanks alot for your replies guys, it means alot to get some assurances from you hive veterans that im not completely crazy!
I will definately take your advice on the Scything Talons vs Bonesword+LW thing, i overloooked that somehow Im not 100% sure im really to give up the double devs, but if i decide to make the flyrant a normal Hq and NOT a warlord chances are he will be getting in alot more assaults.


Since i made this post some of the guys have been shooting the breeze online about what they are planning to field at the 1k, this is what they are saying so far:

The ork dude says:

''Big Mek : 35
BOYS : The rest''

The Deldar guy says:

''Archon - Venom Blade, Combat Drugs, Haywires, ShadowF
4 Incubi - Venom Dual Cannon
5 Warriors Blaster - Venom Dual Cannon
10 Warriors Splinter Cannon - Raider
8 Wyches Haywires - Raider
6 Reaver Jetbikes - 2 Heatlances
Ravager Nightshield, Grisly Trohpies''

The Chaosy guy says:

Lord in terminator armour with sigil and combi-plasma
2 x 13 man chaos squad w/2flamers and champ w/power sword and meltabombs
4 man terminator squad w/combi-plasma
Helldrake
Maulerfiend

The eldar dude says (didnt fully understand his post)

''Eldrad.

Supported by Eldrad in a Warp Hunter that reroll misses until a hit is rolled.

Eldrad piloted War Walkers with Super Scatter Lasers [AP1]

Pathfinder Eldrad with Psychic Long Rifles.

...and a Guardian.''


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So those are my first indications of what im up against, i know their will be exorcist toting sisters of battle as well, maybe with grey knight alliees. Im daunted by the number of skimmers in that dark eldar list (naturally), i have had nightmarish premonitions of the flyrant getting insta-slapped then my tubby tervigons listing like scuppered galleons as they are shot to bits by venoms

But then again my imagination does run riot

I dont really think i should change my list based up the ideas people are chucking around, but i do look at Doom and ask myself ''can i trust you to rock or shall i just get ymgarls?''

Then again the ygmarls occasionally epic fail as well so ><

Thanks for reading my customary second-guessery, haha!

[DukeMantis]

So the end result of this 1k list! Came 3rd overall in the tournament and won the prize for best presentation!

In the five rounds i defeated Tau, Yarrick+Flyerspam Guard, Mech Nurgle Chaos and Tyranids before losing to the eventual 1st place overall winner who was playing..... Dark Eldar in a game of the Relic MVP's were Doom and Flyrant predictably enough!

Still very happy with the list and the army, id recommend this build at 1k to anyone!

This ones for the all you heroes of the Tyranid Hive forums thanks for all your support:

[FTGTEvan]

Nice. And that is a nice trophy for a 1k tournament.