Tervigon Tactics

[tylertt]

I've got several games under my belt (I know 9th is coming soon, but trying to get into the swing of things), and one unit I tried out and was really unsure of was the Tervigon.

The reinforcements rule makes the once special big ability of the Tervigon not so impact. For those of you that run Tervigon(s), how do you best use them? Is it a whole list built around them?

[hiveman75]

I was just about to make a post asking the same thing. Ive been trying to get my tervigon to work but both games I've played with her she's been a pretty big detriment because of her low damage output

[Hive Bahamut]

If you think of it as a tank that runs around with a 4 shot heavy bolter that can smite/cast 1 then you have achieved goal.

A conundrum Nid. I wish the other armies didn't wreck summoning. Nobody lost a game from a handful of free Gaunts.

[kwisatzhaderach]

Note that reinforcing an existing unit of Termagants does not cost any reinforcement points due to wording. It is only when you are looking to create "new" units that you run into the reinforcement problem.

There have been some tournaments that have seen success with multiple Tervigons and a lot of gaunts.

[irondreddknight]

I find that you need plenty of termagants to get the squeeze the most out of a tervigon. I personally think you need 3x30 gants, all congo lining back to Terry for the re rolls (not that its game changing, but it's a buff). This screen of 90 wounds is incredibly time consuming fo chew through, especially when you start spawning 10 fresh bodies each turn. Leavws your heavy hitting shooting units to do work with littlw fear of bad touch.

The truth about a tervigon, is that she won't put in work, she's not a damage dealer. But she will play the mission very well.

[niiai]

Jun 17, 2020 2:04:10 GMT Hive Bahamut said:

If you think of it as a tank that runs around with a 4 shot heavy bolter that can smite/cast 1 then you have achieved goal.

A conundrum Nid. I wish the other armies didn't wreck summoning. Nobody lost a game from a handful of free Gaunts.

In fift edition armies did loose to a handfull of free gaunts. Back then 4 troops where mandatory. And for each gaunt squad you took one Tervigon became a troop choise. Back then it was really something!

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I tried out tervigon lists one league. I played a jormungandr gunline and a Leviathan gaunt heavy list. The jormungandr list did the best by far. Note: all of this play testing happened before new marines.

The rough list:

SPOILER: Click to show

Batallion 1:
Walking hive tyrant
Tervigon
3x30 fleahborer gaunts
2x3 venomthropes
2x rupture cannon fex
2x shooty carnifex (I can't remember how the points shook out)

Batallion 2:
2x hive tyrants
3x ripper swarms

The lists equipment was heavily skewed towards antitank, to remove threats to the big bugs. The tervigon + gaunts were there to act as a screen to shooting and a slowly moving wall pushing towards my opponent. Opponents had the choice of being pounded by the big guns while shooting down and removing the tervigon to make my screen more vulnerable or to remove the big guns while the tervigon regenerated gaunts.

More detailed write ups and discussion are here:
thetyranidhive.proboards.com/thread/56948/best-hive-fleet-tervigon?

I'd still like to try out kazes idea for a kraken based list.

[infornography]

Tervs in the 5th edition codex were undercosted and amazing. Especially when you could outflank one.

Tervs in 8th edition are severely overcosted and lackluster. Yeah you can reinforce gaunt squads, but only fleshborer gaunts and only when close to the terv and only if they aren't wiped out and only if the terv is still alive.

Not to mention that tervs are not that hard to kill since they are all but impossible to hide and have no character protection.

You CAN make them work, but it takes a list tuned to that purpose with tactics revolving around them. It just isn't worth it.

[tylertt]

Darn, was one of my favorite units to use. Definitely going to play around with them still for fun while I wait for 9th to see what happens.

Appreciate the insights everyone

[winterman]

They did get a bit better post CA2019n and PA. I think the list they work in is basically a monster mash with 90+ termagants in support. Make the most out of the -1 S strat from a maleceptor and relatively cheap T7-8 wounds. Whether that works at all in 9th remains to be seen. Have a hard time wanting to take anything but 10 man termagant squads which are terrible with a tervigon in current matched play rules.

[lordsia]

Tervigons are NOT a killer unit. They are a 'transport' for your Gaunts, which - instead of making them faster - makes them tankier.

One Tervigon in a mixed list is good, as long as you have two or three big Gaunt units to reach those objectives and make sure you get your points' worth respawning Gaunts every turn. You should have plenty of big threats to draw enemy fire as well, such that if they spend the ammo killing your Tervigon, you still come out ahead with your Exocrine and Tyrannofex getting more turns in, or your Haruspex and Toxicrene reaching melee, or... You get the point. It's a big distraction, and off-sets its points cost by making it pointless to kill Gaunts, who should be your primary Objective Securers.

Alternatively, do what I did, and go all-in on Tervigons. Three Tervigons (two with Dermic Symbiosis for 5++, one Catalysted for 5+++), backed up by a Maleceptor and some Venomthropes (or a Malanthrope if you run Forgeworld), and clever use of terrain will see your opponent cry 'CHEEESE' as they try and fail to kill them. And with conga-lining tentacles of Gaunts parked on each objective, you can just rake in the points, while laughing as they try to get rid of the tiny gribblies. But unless they kill every last Gaunt, the whole unit will just respawn, and in a turn or two they will be back on the Objective. Not that it matters, because you should have at least two other broods ready to move in and secure those points for you.

It remains to be seen how well they work in 9th, but I think a clever Hive Mind can get good use out of them - just like most units in our Codex.