First 9th RTT horde-ish list

[brianb9999]

So I'm headed to my first 9th RTT this weekend and I'm torn between running my Nidzilla or a gaunt carpet, as these are 2 of the strongest builds I (think) I can roll out at the moment. The Nidzilla list is pretty much set at this point, but I'm trying to put the finishing touches on the gaunt list. At first, I had a custom detachment for the gaunts and a small Kronos detachment for Hive Guard, but I was weighing the merits of getting the hive guard into the custom detachment to benefit from the -1 aura of my malanthrope (essentially trading offense for defense). I can get 2 more hive guard in the list, so I do make up some of the damage, but I won't be able to do any Kronos shenanigans. Main idea of the list is to spread out fast and exist, getting easy secondaries and scoring lots of primary early.

Malanthrope, warlord
Neurothrope, catalyst, barb
Swarmlord, scream, onslaught

Lictor
6 Hive guard, impalers
6 Hive guard, impalers

28 Hormagaunts, unnatural reactions
28 Hormagaunts, unnatural reactions
22 termagants
22 termagants
22 termagants

28 Gargoyles

1999 points

Main thing right now is I'm deciding on the hive fleet. Definitely going with the 6++ on gaunts, but I've moved away from retooling advance rolls since 9th dropped since there are advantages to not advancing (yet I can still do 2 double moves between Swarmlord and Metabolic Overdrive). I've tried pack hunters (-1 ap when outnumbering) but wasn't sure if wound regeneration, 6" pile in, or consolidate any direction would be any better if the whole list is one hive fleet. Looking for any insight I haven't thought of yet. Or I'm open to any feedback on the list.

[No One]

brianb9999 said:

since there are advantages to not advancing (yet I can still do 2 double moves between Swarmlord and Metabolic Overdrive)

You can't move again after you start an action without it failing. So it's only for metabollic.

Not sure about 12 hive guard, especially outside Kronos. 600 pts is a lot.

[brianb9999]

Here’s a revised version I’m considering. Swapped malanthrope out for Broodlord for extra psychic and counterpunch, and made room for 4 venomthropes. Hopefully I can hide swarmlord and the venomthropes, and put the hive guard in a favorable firing position. The idea is to get everything within that -1 and force bad choices if my opponent does have outside LOS shooting. I also split a termagant squad into 2 smaller units for scoring versatility. I’m at 146 small bugs...hopefully that’s enough, not really sure what to change to fit more in.

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Tyranids) [113 PL, 2,000pts, 11CP] ++

+ Configuration +

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)

Detachment CP

Hive Fleet
. Other: Adaptive Exoskeleton, Shrewd Predators

+ Stratagems +

Progeny of the Hive [-1CP]

+ HQ +

Broodlord [7 PL, 125pts]: Monstrous Rending Claws, Power: The Horror

Neurothrope [5 PL, 95pts]: Claws and Teeth, Power: Catalyst, Resonance Barb, Warlord

The Swarmlord [14 PL, 270pts]: Bone Sabres, Power: Onslaught, Power: Psychic Scream, Prehensile Pincer Tail

+ Troops +

Hormagaunts [9 PL, 162pts]
. Adaptive Physiology: Unnatural Reactions
. 27x Hormagaunt: 27x Scything Talons

Hormagaunts [9 PL, 168pts]
. Adaptive Physiology: Unnatural Reactions
. 28x Hormagaunt: 28x Scything Talons

Termagants [9 PL, 105pts]
. 21x Termagant (Fleshborer): 21x Fleshborer

Termagants [9 PL, 110pts]
. 22x Termagant (Fleshborer): 22x Fleshborer

Termagants [3 PL, 50pts]
. 10x Termagant (Fleshborer): 10x Fleshborer

Termagants [3 PL, 50pts]
. 10x Termagant (Fleshborer): 10x Fleshborer

+ Elites +

Hive Guard [12 PL, 250pts]
. 5x Hive Guard (Impaler): 5x Impaler Cannon

Hive Guard [12 PL, 250pts]
. 5x Hive Guard (Impaler): 5x Impaler Cannon

Lictor [2 PL, 37pts]: Flesh Hooks, Grasping Talons, Rending Claws

Venomthropes [10 PL, 132pts]
. 4x Venomthrope: 4x Toxic Lashes

+ Fast Attack +

Gargoyles [9 PL, 196pts]
. 28x Gargoyle: 28x Blinding Venom, 28x Fleshborer

++ Total: [113 PL, 2,000pts, 11CP] ++

[cmob208]

MY main feedback is it'll be sad if you can't hide all the hive guard. They're a lot of points wasted if they die (also can only double shoot one unit). I'd consider having one unit of 6 and adding an exocrine, or more bodies - marines can cut through bodies surprisingly quickly.

[brianb9999]

So I ended up taking the list above and went 2-1 on the day, with a chance for 2nd place (out of 13). Both my other hive mind teammates were using different armies, so I was the sole representative of the faction for the first time in a while.

First mission is 33, Priority Target, against a Guard player who I'd seen at the store before but never got to play. He was running custom regiment jury-rigged repairs and spotter details with a Banesword, Battle tank commander, 2 punishers with las/plas, a few guardsmen squads, auto cannon weapon teams, command squad, 6 Ogryns, company commander, commissar, and an Inquisitor. According to him, (not 100% sure this is true), he said the inquisitor could only deny powers that targeted it or his units, so I felt reasonably comfortable taking psychic ritual with the way the terrain was laid out. I took ritual, domination, and banners. He took the priority objective (mission special), thin their ranks, and investigate sites (not sure why). I won the roll off and took first turn, at which point he did the 2 cp orbital bombardment, which killed a termagant and wounded a venomthrope. Ouch. That strat plus his secondary choice had me feeling pretty good about my chances.

I deployed pretty conservatively with the hive guard, venomthropes, and Swarmlord all behind the cover in my corner, waiting until he tried to move more centrally so I could blast away with my hive guard. My plan was to get out early and get some banners up that he couldn't easily take down, and just outlast him on primary. I was able to get the gargoyle blob into the middle and drop a banner on turn 1, providing cover for my broodlord to MO to the middle and start the ritual. I moved onto 3 objectives and dropped 2 banners. I was able to keep him tucked in his corner most of the game, but he eventually pushed forward with his tanks, and my hive guard were woefully below average on 4+ wound rolls early on so I struggled to kill one, and it ended up harassing my top corner objective. He ended up killing all 146 of my small bugs to a man (to a bug?), but because of the venomthropes and all the -1 terrain, I made him work for it and kept him from scoring more than 5 a turn on primary. In the end, I won 70-50 without really using Swarmlord at all, and leaving 6 points on the table from domination (boneheaded moves on turns 4 and 5 where I 100% would have gotten it). Still, the plan worked, and my tank busting was off which affected the primary a bit (the aforementioned hive guard, and leaving the tank commander on 1 wound after double fighting with broodlord). He could have made it a little more interesting by targeting the gargs early to try to pick off the brood lord, but they had catalyst up so I think he got discouraged. Any way, I think I still get ritual with Swarmlord or Nuerothrope and my speed. He had a 4 cp bombardment Strat with his inquisitor that killed a hive guard, venomthrope, and did 2 wounds to Swarmlord, but ehh...he didn't manage his CP very well.

Second game was against a teammate who has run Orks from day 1 but was making his tournament debut with Custodes. I was excited for this game because I figured I had the matchup advantage (despite how high everyone is on Custodes now). I hadn't beaten him in 2 tries in the past, so I was hoping for the best. Mission was 12, Scorched Earth. I chose banners, WWSWF (all 3 HQ's), and domination. He picked banners, engage, and thin their ranks. He had Trajann, a bike captain with 3++, salvo launcher, and unstoppable destroyer (consolidate 3+d3" in any direction), the -1 vexilla, a 3-man guard squad with 2 shields, 4 bikes with salvos, a Telemon, 8 Allarus, and an Inquisitor with 5 sisters of silence. The dawn of war deployment was perfect for my hive guard, as I could sit right near the back and have a view of the whole board, mostly unobscured by forests. I was happy his bikes had salvo launchers because his main anti-horde was the brick of terminators. He didn't reserve anything and blobbed up everything on one objective, with his 3-man squad holding the other and his bikes in the far corner. I won the roll-off and moved out. I put up 3 banners early, 2 on my home objectives and 1 with my gargoyles on the side near his blob of units. I knew immediately that I had no firepower to do anything about the terminators (they can ignore my -2), and I wanted to shoot at the stuff that wasn't -1. So I wiped the sisters in one hive guard volley (I don't need any of that anti-psychic nonsense) and killed a storm shield and wounded another from the 3-man squad turn 1. He responded by moving up the brick and bike captain, killing the gargoyles and taking that objective, and he brought his bikes up to the other and charged my hormagaunts there, nearly wiping them out. So my goal now was to try and hold out on the flank with the terminators, hopefully kill the bike captain, and shoot everything into the bikes (they hate hive guard). I was able to charge his bike cap with my other blob of hormagaunts and the broodlord, and killed 2 bikes, tying them up with termagants. I got some wounds on the captain who took the broodlord down to 1. He used his unstoppable destroyer ability to leave the combat, but I realized he was still within 3" so I popped fight twice with the Broodlord and killed him. This was probably his biggest mistake - he was thinking about just popping backwards instead of forwards, although I could have double fought with the gaunts to tie him up, so who knows how that would have ended. Anyway, my turn 3 was the clincher, as I shot the bikes off and Swarmlord double moved himself to the back corner where his 2 lonely custodes were and crushed them in combat, securing the entire side of the board. The lictor popped down and then would drop a banner the following turn (yay Lictor)! There were more tense moments with my Broodlord and his Telemon, and me leaving my neurothrope too close to his terminators who can snipe characters, but he rolled a bunch of 2's when I had everything in -1 range. I ended up winning 73-65 in what I thought was a very well-fought game and I executed a good plan. It was fun and I'm glad I finally beat him (even if it wasn't vs 120 work boyz).

So I rolled into the last round at 2-0 feeling pretty good. The last mission was 11, retrieval mission. Opponent was one of my teammates who plays White Scars. We had a practice game the week before and I nearly tabled him in The Scouring, another long deployment map, using my Nidzilla list. In looking at the mission and thinking about how to win, I started feeling not so great. Domination was off the table vs Scars, and his army is all infantry with 4 characters, so it really only gives up assassinate. I didn't like my chances for engage, as I felt I needed to play cagey at first and try to bust out after grinding him down, so in the end I decided on banners, assassinate, and WWSWF. He picked Oath of Moments (White Scars special) engage, and abhor (incidentally, all my WWSWF models), so this would be interesting. He had Chapter Master, Chaplain on Bike, some other bike character, apothecary, 6 eradicators, 2 10-man units of jump pack vets with storm shields and either claws or fists (gross), 10 assault intercessors, 2 10-man incursor units, and 2-3 infiltrators (I think)? It was a lot of primaries marines and would be a lot for my hive guard to handle.

I won the roll off for the third time and decide I need to go first to put a buffer in front of my psykers and guns, so off we go. I killed 2 forward 5-man squads with hive guard and gargoyle(!) shooting, setting up some banners and hoping for the best. He rushes everything forward except the eradicators, as my hive guard will be out of range and Swarmy is out of sight. Basically the way the game went down, he charged into me, and kept beating me back into my lines. I pulled off some slick maneuvers with MO and Swarmlord trying to keep gaunts between him and my shooting/psychic, but we were running short on time, so we had to talk/roll out the last 2 turns. This is where I needed to kill 9 or 10 incursors and rolled 2d3+1d6 smite damage and got...3 damage. Swarmlord crashes in, gets 5 wounds, and...he makes 4 of 5 6+ saves. Ouch. He still has his eradicators because they hung back, so he is able to finally kill Swarmlord and another psyker - a 20 point swing because of WWSWF and abhor. Ultimately, if we scored it right, he wins 73-49.

In hindsight, not sure how I play this one better, other than maybe moving hard to one flank to guarantee me 2 primary objectives every turn, but it's much harder to pull off with a swarm list (compared to my speedy nidzilla list). I also didn't want to move out too far turn 1, but forgetting just how stupid fast White Scars are, I probably should have tried to move block the one flank with double moving gargoyles and just try to pin him back and cut off his forward deployed units. I should have just taken scramblers, as that would have been a guaranteed 10, and I didn't get much from banners.

Overall, still happy with my performance, as I haven't started 2-0 in a long time, and it was my first 9th ed tournament. Not sure how sold I am on the custom fleet; I'm still not sure if 6++ does enough or if I need more models to make it better. It's hard to fit more than that in the smaller 9th deployment zones, so I wonder if I should go back to using reinforcement points for endless swarm/sporefield. Also, the unnatural reactions upgrades were garbage, never got a chance to use it, and I'm not sure it's a good idea on hormagaunts either. I'm thinking the regular hive fleets may be just as good, so I think I'm more interested in trying a more hybrid approach with around 100 small bugs but with a double exo, 6 hive guard Kronos backbone (just waiting for my 2nd exo to arrive). However, I think there is still play for the gaunt carpet, even in the hands of someone who maybe gets to play once every other week.

[beetlejuice]

Thanks for the reports. If you charge his character with unstoppable destroyer just make sure you put your model base to base. According to BRB a model touching another model cannot make consolidation move. If he charges, he can still place it at 0,99” and then consolidate 4,1” away and preventing anyone from swinging back but if you can charge and base him he stays put.

[brianb9999]

Oct 25, 2020 19:20:05 GMT beetlejuice said:

Thanks for the reports. If you charge his character with unstoppable destroyer just make sure you put your model base to base. According to BRB a model touching another model cannot make consolidation move. If he charges, he can still place it at 0,99” and then consolidate 4,1” away and preventing anyone from swinging back but if you can charge and base him he stays put.

Excellent point, I will keep that in mind. I’m not sure he would have been able to get far enough away based on my blob of models surrounding him, but important to remember nonetheless.