Advice on 1250 point list

[icarusfalling]

Not used my nids in 9th, looking on advice for this list for a local tournament

Hive tyrant: Lashwhip & Bonesword, HVC, Shardgullet relic, Heightened senses WT
3x tyrant guard
4x Warriors: Deathspitters, scything talons
3x Zoanthropes
3x Raveners
2x Carnifex: HVC, enhanced senses, scything talons
Barbed Heirodule: Voracious Ammunition

Not sure whether to use Jormungandr for the protection against alpha strike or Kronos for the buffs to shooting.

I’m limited by the models I have, but any suggestions are welcome!

[dkng]

Personally I'd drop the Hierodule (it's overcosted for what it does) for Neurothrope (one of our best units overall) plus more bodies on the board - 175 points left can be spent on, for example, 3 Warriors + Horms screen. You need board presence as 1250 is played on the grown-ups tables. With Shardgullet and 2 HVC 'fexes you should have enough firepower.
Speaking of Shardgullet and Fexes - they would definitely love Levi - it is still strong even after the nerf. Having a reroll on of those 3 monsters will make a difference.
If you don't want that I'd go with Jorm - for a meagre 1 CP you can deepstrike the 'dule or 'fexes to surprise the opponent. This is especialy handy for the 'dule (if you want to keep it) as it can be really easily shot off the table as it has 18 wounds do don't benefit from obscuring.

[icarusfalling]

I was considering swapping the heirodule for a tyrannofex and some more bodies, I just love the model and the sheer size of it puts a lot of people off advancing towards it. Do you think shardgullet is overkill and may be better with a different relic like the reaper?

[dkng]

Shardgullet and Reaper serve very different purposes. It depends heavily on your meta and terrain used during the battles.
The Reaper Tyrant sometimes dies very easily but can do a ton of damage before going down. He's more CP reliant, both pre-battle (it is advisable to give him 5 fnp) and during the battle - more attacks, mortals on charge, overrun... it all piles up... Yes, the damage output is great but he is easier to play around.
Shardgullet (or Pathogenesis which is also a great and much overlooked relic - imho better than the 'gullet in anything non-Leviathan thanks to much more reliable output) pump out less damage but they do it downrange, are much easier to hide (the Walkrant is microscopic compared to Flyrant) and still pack a punch in cc when needed. I've also seen lists with Walkrant RoO and a generic HVC.
Answering your question - with a Rupturefex and HVC Carnies a Shardgullet is definitely an overkill. With just the Carnies I'd weight it (or Pathogenesis) and RoO Flyrant as equals. Depends on your preferred playstyle really. With just the Raveners in the role of a fast and hard-hitting unit RoO Flyrant may be preferable.

[icarusfalling]

Thanks for the input, I’ll definitely have a look at some of your suggestions. Our local meta isn’t super competitive bar a few people, so we get a real mix of armies- everything from drukhari wrack spam to imperial guard tank lines. Trying to cover all the bases with strong firepower and decent melee, just not played in so long I’ve no idea what’s powerful atm

[piersonsmuppet]

Jorm thoughts: A Tyrant w/ Shardgullet/Balethorn and 2x Carnifex will be plenty of heavy shooting for 1250 pts (maybe add a third fex and change to 2x3 Warriors if you have the units). The choice of the above should be based on what armies you might run into. I wouldn't recommend Pathogenesis over the other cannons; while it is a more consistent weapon, it's avg dmg is lower than Shard or Bale meaning it really only has a lower floor (and that is mostly canceled by adding Senses to the other two).

Kronos thoughts: The Barbed Hierodule could work here, being able to bump up to S9 AP-3 2D w/ the fleet power and the fleet adaptive will help effectiveness. I'd actually potentially run Pathogenesis here since you can bump it to S10 when needed, making the avg Dmg about equal to the other cannons vs T5/T9 w/ better consistency (and the extra range helps trigger the additional -1AP). I'd take off the 4th warrior and use the pts to give the carnifex light cover, a 1+Sv is pretty good especially with the biggest guns going at the dule first.

[dkng]

Dec 5, 2022 14:03:00 GMT icarusfalling said:

Thanks for the input, I’ll definitely have a look at some of your suggestions. Our local meta isn’t super competitive bar a few people, so we get a real mix of armies- everything from drukhari wrack spam to imperial guard tank lines. Trying to cover all the bases with strong firepower and decent melee, just not played in so long I’ve no idea what’s powerful atm

What's powerful?
Neurothrope
Basically all flavours of Tyrant
Zoans
^ That's the holy trinity.
Besides that Harpies are very strong, Tervigon with a Termagant carpet is great, Exocrines and Rupturefexes are very decent, Warriors are a strong backbone of the army.

[icarusfalling]

I’ve had a look through again at a couple of these suggestions and got a few follow up thoughts/questions:

Leviathan looks great for the Tyrant with shardgullet and Carnifexes - I’ve also added the cover save to carnifexes to boost their survivability a bit.

If I drop the hierodule, I can add a neurotrope and bring the warriors up to 5 (that’s all I own), with 130 points to spare.

What would you recommend to add with these points? Would you drop the warriors to min size squad to free up more points?

I thought about adding small gant/gargoyle squads but they just look so flimsy.

I’ve got a couple of lictors that could be good for sneaking onto objectives, has anyone had success with them?

Thanks to all for their input so far

[dkng]

Gargs and Horms being flimsy is not a problem. They have two purposes - go quick to grab an objective and die instead of a more important unit. They are fantastic for blocking enemy movement as you can stretch their units to cover quite a lot of ground.
If you have 130 points spare I would substract one Warrior (so you have 160) add a Lictor (have fun with it, it's a great unit) and add 10 Horms or Gargs and add Synaptic Enhancement to one of the Fexes (in Levi it will gain transhuman) - it will gain SitW and an ever useful Synaptic Link coverage for, for example, screening Horms (remember they have Ld5 so you will lose some of them to morale if outside Synapse).

[piersonsmuppet]

Leviathan is very good for our low shot weapons (using 1 rr hit trait) and is another way your list could be run. I'd also suggest Perfectly Adapted over Heightened Senses since a wound rr is very valuable for Shardgullet.

Gargoyles could also be good for performing Spore Nodes and supplying additional Obsec in any fleet you choose. They have a strat for -1 to-hit in melee which makes them a bit more durable than gants.

2x Lictors are pretty good at scoring behind enemy lines, and there is going to be a lot of room in your 1250 pt games (assuming the 60x44"). Depending on terrain, they could be very difficult to deal with for opponents while scoring you easy VP.