50pl Hydra

[rokir]

Hi everyone,

Since we are playing with 50pl at our table I wanted to create a Hydra list.
I would love to swarm my opponent with Hormagaunts, but I am concerned if they can reach the other side. Our table is 150cm/60“ long, and thats quite some distance for 8“+1d6“. I can revive dead infantry with Endless Swarm but I guess they will target the big ones first.

These are my thoughts so far:

Hive Fleet: Hydra

+ HQ +

Hive Tyrant [9 PL, 195pts]:
Power: Catalyst, Power: Death Shriek, Power: Smite,
Slimer Maggot Infestation, 2x Two Deathspitters with Slimer Maggots,
Warlord, Warlord Trait: Endless Regeneration

+ Troops +

Hormagaunts [9 PL, 270pts]:
Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
. 30x Hormagaunt: 30x Scything Talons

Hormagaunts [9 PL, 270pts]:
Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
. 30x Hormagaunt: 30x Scything Talons

Termagants [9 PL, 210pts]
Adrenal Glands
. 30x Termagant (Devourer): 30x Devourer

+ Elites +

Maleceptor [9 PL, 170pts]

Venomthropes [5 PL, 99pts]
. 3x Venomthrope: 3x Toxic Lashes

Do you think that will work?

[purestrain]

Jul 22, 2021 6:41:06 GMT rokir said:

Hi everyone,

Since we are playing with 50pl at our table I wanted to create a Hydra list.
I would love to swarm my opponent with Hormagaunts, but I am concerned if they can reach the other side. Our table is 150cm/60“ long, and thats quite some distance for 8“+1d6“. I can revive dead infantry with Endless Swarm but I guess they will target the big ones first.

These are my thoughts so far:

Hive Fleet: Hydra

+ HQ +

Hive Tyrant [9 PL, 195pts]:
Power: Catalyst, Power: Death Shriek, Power: Smite,
Slimer Maggot Infestation, 2x Two Deathspitters with Slimer Maggots,
Warlord, Warlord Trait: Endless Regeneration

+ Troops +

Hormagaunts [9 PL, 270pts]:
Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
. 30x Hormagaunt: 30x Scything Talons

Hormagaunts [9 PL, 270pts]:
Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
. 30x Hormagaunt: 30x Scything Talons

Termagants [9 PL, 210pts]
Adrenal Glands
. 30x Termagant (Devourer): 30x Devourer

+ Elites +

Maleceptor [9 PL, 170pts]

Venomthropes [5 PL, 99pts]
. 3x Venomthrope: 3x Toxic Lashes

Do you think that will work?

Lean into the Wounds factor of the spitters by giving the flyrant the Adaptive physiology Voracious ammunition, also give him sacs and glands and the relic Pathogenesis, will grant your deathspitters 32" range and help with one hit roll and a wound on the non relic spitters

[piersonsmuppet]

Concerns about getting across the board can be remedied with the addition of Swarm Lord. Horms w/ toxin sacs prefer to be Behemoth or Gorgon for TS on 5+ to let them threaten a lot of targets. GS would probably be slightly better going Hydra, they get more out of the hit rr's. No hydra list is complete without Crushing Claw Tyrant Guard! Not an amazing choice mind you, but they do offer a decent non-monster S10 option.

For you list, I don't think it will work well. Relying on 6's to-wound for the Horms is not great, and the TS points are probably going to be heavily wasted. As much as I want Slimer Maggot Infestation to work, it literally only increases DSw/SM output to equal Devs and thus is outdone by Pathogenesis. Pathogenesis and 2x2 Devs has greater range (26") and output, and the relic applies to all four guns instead of only two (only really mattes for the range part). Prob better to just go 1x HVC and 2x Devs, use the re-rolls on the cannons for heavy targets and Devs for screens.

[piersonsmuppet]

Jul 22, 2021 14:56:26 GMT purestrain said:

Lean into the Wounds factor of the spitters by giving the flyrant the Adaptive physiology Voracious ammunition, also give him sacs and glands and the relic Pathogenesis, will grant your deathspitters 32" range and help with one hit roll and a wound on the non relic spitters

Non relic spitters? There wouldn't be any relic spitters w/ Pathogenesis, so I'm confused on the distinction. I'll also second Voracious Ammunition, great physiology on a Dakkarant. Generally doubles DS output if you kill something, or makes Devs even deadlier to hordes.

[purestrain]

Jul 22, 2021 15:16:26 GMT piersonsmuppet said:

Jul 22, 2021 14:56:26 GMT purestrain said:

Lean into the Wounds factor of the spitters by giving the flyrant the Adaptive physiology Voracious ammunition, also give him sacs and glands and the relic Pathogenesis, will grant your deathspitters 32" range and help with one hit roll and a wound on the non relic spitters

Non relic spitters? There wouldn't be any relic spitters w/ Pathogenesis, so I'm confused on the distinction. I'll also second Voracious Ammunition, great physiology on a Dakkarant. Generally doubles DS output if you kill something, or makes Devs even deadlier to hordes.

Yerp, my bad. maybe patho is better, idk.

[piersonsmuppet]

Jul 22, 2021 15:29:29 GMT purestrain said:

Yerp, my bad. maybe patho is better, idk.

I think Patho is certainly better. 1 hit rr and 1 wound rr on 12 shots is about equal to all failed wounds rr on 6/12 shots (T4-6 targets: 5.75 wounds vs 6.15 wounds respectively), and that 8" range puts it on top if on a Walkrant. Patho also gives the option to use Devs and the cannons, where Infestation locks you into spitters. I'd personally choose 26" Devs over 32" spitters, as spitters really need another D or AP. I can't see why they didn't make the monster DS profile equal to the STC like how the infantry DS is to the Barb Strangler, while making them more expensive... (prob was the "SM can't have D2 autocannons, well neither can Nids!").

Back on point, I only really think the Slimer relic has a place on a DS/MRC Flyrant for a fun RR all wounds everywhere body. At that point, the Tyrant is more potent psychologically than its actual output.

[purestrain]

Jul 22, 2021 15:57:50 GMT piersonsmuppet said:

Jul 22, 2021 15:29:29 GMT purestrain said:

Yerp, my bad. maybe patho is better, idk.

I think Patho is certainly better. 1 hit rr and 1 wound rr on 12 shots is about equal to all failed wounds rr on 6/12 shots (T4-6 targets: 5.75 wounds vs 6.15 wounds respectively), and that 8" range puts it on top if on a Walkrant. Patho also gives the option to use Devs and the cannons, where Infestation locks you into spitters. I'd personally choose 26" Devs over 32" spitters, as spitters really need another D or AP. I can't see why they didn't make the monster DS profile equal to the STC like how the infantry DS is to the Barb Strangler, while making them more expensive... (prob was the "SM can't have D2 autocannons, well neither can Nids!").

Back on point, I only really think the Slimer relic has a place on a DS/MRC Flyrant for a fun RR all wounds everywhere body. At that point, the Tyrant is more potent psychologically than its actual output.

I find walkers with HVC patho and MRC work in all spots nicely.

[rokir]

Thank you very much for your feedback! It seems this list was better in my head than on the table.
I hoped the Maleceptor and Venomtrope would provide enough support to let the gaunts reach their targets. With death shriek and caustic blood these bodies should have been quite a difficult obstacle.

The Toxin sacks on the gaunts were used because we are playing with pl. I would not dare to spend points on them.

Its interesting to see some math behind the loadout choices. At first glance I thought the slimer Infestation would be viable.

It seems I have to overthrow this list. With Swarmy and stealers I‘m returnig to my Kraken list. First turn charge with stealers, combined with a Trygon and 30 Devourer-gaunts.

Does anyone has experiences with 50pl or 1000pts gaunt-heavy games? They were one of my first imagined tyranid plays until I had to recognise Hormies and Terms dont do much on their own. I still have 60 Hormagaunts waiting for their first game >.<

[piersonsmuppet]

Run a behemoth list with TS Horms, +1 to-wound makes a big difference. You can send 2 30-man blobs at basically anything since Horms have the strat to bump AP for a turn, then a bonus bump to the AP permanently after wiping a unit for 1 CP as well.

[rokir]

Thank you very much for your help! I will give it a try