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I
have been making a series of short articles discussing some of the variety of
options that the Tyranids now have available to them with the release of the
new codex. My goal is to create competitive army lists in the 1850pt range
using a variety of different units and combinations of biomorph options. I have been
posting and discussing 2-3 armies each week, giving information on how to build the
armylist, what it does and how to work it. As this is the final installment, you should know the drill by now. If not, go check out the other ones. Go ahead, I'll wait... Armored Core The Armored Core is a very unusual Tyranid army, based around a heavy concentration of firepower and some Victory Point denial. It will play totally differently than a regular Tyranid force.
Tyrant Venom Cannon/Devourer Enhanced Senses, Toxin Sacs, Extended Carapace The
Armored Core list looks at first glance like a Godzilla army, or perhaps The Wall. It plays totally differently, however. The primary idea here is to overload one section of the enemy line with shooting. Meanwhile, the Monstrous Creatures are fairly resistant to taking damage, meaning that as the opposing army's power is being degraded by your shooting and you are getting Victory Points by taking out vehicles and squads, the enemy is getting very little in return. Damaged Tyranids can be maneuvered to be partly behind undamaged ones, partially blocking Line of Sight and keeping them alive and denying more VPs to the enemy. The concept of concentration of force is key here. If you simply line up across from the enemy army in an extended line, they will likely shoot you to pieces. The goal here is not to outshoot any army that comes along, it's to outshoot the section of the enemy line (hopefully only 30-40 percent of the whole force) that is across from you, while using terrain and range to block as much LOS as possible from the remainder of the enemy army.
As I was looking at the new codex, I realized that there were quite a few biomorphs and options that worked better if there was more than one kind of Tyranid in the area to take advantage of them. A chief example would be Feeder Tendrils, which let units hit most enemies on a 3+, regardless of Weapon Skill. The models and broods that can get Feeder Tendrils, however, are mostly WS6, meaning they hit pretty much everything on a 3+ anyway. However, since there is an area of effect to it, other nearby broods that don't have such a high Weapon Skill can benefit from it. Another example would be Psychic Scream, which greatly increases the chances (among other things) of an enemy unit breaking from combat. This gave me an idea, which is, generally speaking, a Bad Thing :) Hive
Tyrant WS, S, I upgrades. 2xScything Talons, Implant Attack, Toxic Miasma, Psychic Scream The concept here is to make several "force packages" that support each other and carve through the enemy army in a single, concentrated Spearhead. Make 2-3 groups, each positioned close to the other. Each group will consist of at least 2 Monstrous Creatures and something that has Initiative 6. The Zoanthropes move along behind the groups, trying to stay mostly screened from enemy fire and within the protective umbrella of Synapse provided by the Tyrants in case something does get to shoot at them. You will want the Lictors to be roughly in between the groups, so that their Feeder Tendrils allow all the Carnifexes to hit most opponents on a 3+. Each grouping should be able to take down something like 5-7 Space Marines on the charge, then count as 20+ models for outnumbering purposes and give up to a -5 penalty on Leadership tests. When the enemy runs, chase them down with those Initiative 6 models and keep going. The Great Devourer This army is another very unusual list, and comes to us courtesy of Warpshadow member Vsurma, though I have "evolved" it to have a bit more shooting. This is a truly shooty Tyranid list. Like all Tyranid lists, however, it cannot hope to outshoot Tau or Imperial Guard. It can, however, hope to scare them away!
Hive Tyrant 2xDevourer Enhanced Senses Toxin Sacs Extended Carapace Psychic Scream The 100 Spinegaunts use their Scuttling ability to get closer to the enemy and tie up particularly nasty units in assault early on. They want to avoid blocking all LOS, however! The real focus of this army is to force the enemy to take morale tests for shooting casualties. Morale tests that they will be at -5 on. Thus, they start to run away. If they are close to the board edge, they can run right off the board. By the time turns 3 and 4 roll around, your Psychic Scream umbrella should reach all the way back to their board edge, so anything that panics will have almost no chance of recovery. You can use the Spinegaunts to engage those units with the most firepower, and let your shooting take care of the rest as your MCs advance in a block similar to that of the Armored Core. Unlike the Armored Core, however, you want to spread your fire a bit, as long as the enemy is within your Psychic Scream range. This way, as many squads as possible will be forced to take Morale tests at up to -5, which should force quite a few fallbacks. Yes, this means you are letting the Food get further from you, but that's okay, those that fall back off the board edge are destroyed and the ones that don't will have a poor chance of rallying until they get out of range of your Psychic Screams. Note too that Falling Back units that are within 6 inches of an enemy model cannot rally, even Space Marines will continue to Fall Back. Remember where your Spinegaunts are and you can herd the enemy right off the board. Once the unengaged models are escorted from the board, you may turn your attention to any units still tied up by Spinegaunts. While all this is going on, your 3 Raveners, each in it's own brood, can either help the Gaunts or claim objectives as necessary. Astute readers will notice that there are only 2 Synapse Creatures in this list. Escalation, at first glance, would seem to be pretty harsh on this list. Actually, however, it shouldn't be bad at all. Even though the Gaunts have a measly Leadership 5, I can simply choose to not move them during the first turn and wait for my Synapse to show up. Since Gaunts that don't move may Lurk, they will get +1 to any cover save and not have to check for Instinctive Behavior. I would expect to get one of my Tyrants on turn 2, which would start the Gaunts moving towards the enemy lines. In the meantime, if some of them get shot, who cares, they're just Gaunts! Normally, Monstrous Creatures are very concerned with Escalation missions, since it means they get a turn or two less movement and are then unlikely to reach the enemy lines. Since this list features a lot of shooting, however, there is much less concern, they will move and shoot as they enter the board edge, projecting their firepower over a greater distance than they could with close combat. If more firepower is what you are after, you could make this a MUCH shootier list by replacing the Spinegaunts with 72 S4 Devourergaunts. In this armylist, the Gaunts are part of the shooting design, instead of being intended to tie up the enemy. This time they will set up in cover, outside of Synapse range and Shoot! When they can Lurk (that being the "outside of Synapse range" part) they will get a bonus to their cover save, making them rather difficult to kill, and a brood of 11 should drop 2 Space Marines per turn. That may not seem like much for 110pts, but it's quite survivable and on squads that started at less than 10, that's 25% casualties, which means another Morale test! And so, my children, thus are some of the myriad guises The Great Devourer can take in it's quest to scour the galaxy of life. I hope you enjoyed my look at the new codex and some of our great new options. As always, if you have questions or suggests, please find my email below. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |