For a little while I’ve been alluding to a new expansion to my Tyranid Hive Fleet. Although I have not gotten any assembled yet, I would like to let you in on what they will be and what they will do.

Like many other Tyranid players, I’ve been bitten by the Godzilla army bug (ow!) However, just putting up a bunch of big monsters isn’t particularly exciting to me. I don’t think it would be terribly effective, either. However, if I can put together a bunch of big monsters that would let me do something radically different than my current army, that would really be something. (For those of you that haven’t been playing along at home, my current army is rather good at swarming forward at a pretty good clip and eating things. I’m not really interested in swarming forward slowly, so maybe we can do something about changing the ‘eating things’ part of the strategy. Hmmm.)

For quite some time I’ve wanted to make a Tyranid shooty army, mostly because it used to be somewhat possible (at low values and with certain opponents, but it was somewhat possible.) Now it is quite a bit more possible, but far from being competitive with real shooty opponents. It’s fairly easy to outshoot World Eaters, it’s not so easy to outshoot Dark Angels or Tau.

This list changes that a bit…

The List

146 Hive Tyrant: BS4 S6 2+ SV 2xTL Devourer Psychic Scream

146 Hive Tyrant: BS4 S6 2+ SV 2xTL Devourer Psychic Scream

113 Carnifex: BS3 2xTL Devourer

113 Carnifex: BS3 2xTL Devourer

113 Carnifex: BS3 2xTL Devourer

96 6x Genestealer

96 6x Genestealer

96 6x Genestealer

96 6x Genestealer

96 6x Genestealer

128 8x Genestealer

40 Ravener RC/ST

40 Ravener RC/ST

40 Ravener RC/ST

148 Carnifex: BS3 VC/BS

148 Carnifex: BS3 VC/BS

185 3x Zoanthrope: 3x Psychic Scream, 2x Warp Blast, 1xSynapse

1840pts

How it Works…
Devourers on Monstrous Creatures are pretty impressive. Take the Elite Devilfex for example. Each Devourer is Twin-Linked, meaning I get to reroll missed hits. It is S6, so it wounds pretty frequently, but any failed Wounds are rerolled as well. Each one also gets two times the base number of attacks, which means it gets a total of 8 S6 shots that reroll misses and failed Wounds. This works out to almost 2 dead Space Marines per turn.

How it Really Works!
The thing is, even if everybody is in range and is shooting at Troops, the whole list still only cuts down about 13 Space Marines each turn. While that’s nothing to laugh at, it’s not really on par with Tau or Guard or even Space Marines in terms of shooting effectiveness. The key here is the Psychic Screams. Once the bulk of my army is within 18” of the enemy, they will be coming under the effect of 5 Psychic Screams. Simply killing 25% of a squad forces a Morale test. Testing at -5 means that normal Space Marines are now trying to roll a 3 or less on 2d6 to see if they run away. Even against a squad of 10, I’ll only have to shoot down 3 to force that test.

Normally, Tyranids don’t want their enemies running away, as that means it’s farther to walk before lunch time. In this case, however, so many units will be running away, that many of them will run right off the board! Now, I’ll grant that Space Marines will be able to rally, due to the And They Shall Know No Fear rule. The thing is, there are two things that hinder that. First, if I have any units within 6 inches of them when they try to rally, they won’t be able to. Second, if they run off the board, they don’t get to rally either. Given that most opponents set up closer to the board edge against Tyranids, that second one really works in my favor!

No Fear!
What about Fearless troops, you might ask. (Go ahead, ask, I’ll wait…) Well, for starters, it’s rare that a whole army is Fearless, so I’ll get rid of the others like normal, then have a much smaller army to deal with. With the remainder, or against entirely Fearless armies, I have two things working in my favor. The first is that armies usually pay a premium for Fearless Troops, so there will be fewer of them and the 13 dead Space Marines Equivalents I’ll be putting down each turn will hurt more. The second is the 38 Genestealers and 3 Raveners (plus 7 Monstrous Creatures!) that are waiting in the wings. The Genestealers and Raveners will be hiding behind the wall of Monstrous Creatures until I get close to enemy squads that haven’t run away (or that have actually moved toward me. Once I get into charge range, I’ll move the Monstrous Creatures further apart to allow the Genestealers and Raveners to slam into the enemy and kill them the old fashioned way!

Babies?
I’ve already got plans for the first 3 of these new creatures. I picked up a Tyrant Guard model a few weeks ago. Don’t see Tyrant Guard on the list? I didn’t pick it up to use as Guard. Some time back, a few enterprising Synapses on Warpshadow came up with the idea of using Tyrant Guard as baby Carnifexes. They decided they’d use them as Elite Carnifexes, putting them up on rocks or something to make up some of the height difference. The conversions look very good, and really give the idea that someday it might grow up to be a big Carnifex! I’m planning on doing the same thing for my 3 Elite Carnifi, since I think they look really cool, and it makes it easy to distinguish between Elite Carnifi and Heavy Support Carnifi.

She’s got Legs…
Now, I have long had a fascination with using Scything Talons for legs. While I don’t feel this is feasible (any more) on the smaller Tyranids, it’s certainly doable on the big guys. I’ve been struggling, however, to keep them on their legs. It tends to make the models rather top-heavy, so they are prone to falling over. In addition, I don’t have a great storage solution for them at the moment (working on it, though, you’ll hear more about it as it gets more done) so they sometimes get damaged in transit. Finally, I haven’t always connected them well or used the strongest material to make the legs. Now, however, I have a plan.

Uh, is this gonna be another Bug Hunt?
First off, I’m going to be giving the talons an underlying structure of metal, in the form of bent paper clips. Second, I’m planning on pinning them into the model itself _and_ into the base, so they are less likely to come undone. (The tip of the metal will already be poking out of each end of the talon. I’ll make a tiny hole in the socket and the base for it, then insert the pin and glue, giving it a much larger surface for the glue to adhere to, giving me a stronger join.) Finally, I think I’ve solved some of the balance problems. I’m planning on using a setup and talons much like the bugs from StarShip Troopers.

You see how the four legs attach to a sort of platform/hip assembly underneath the main body? I think that will make this whole process much better balanced and give me something more effective to work with. I also plan on weighting the bottom of the base with metal washers, both to make it less top-heavy and to help with my storage situation, since I’ll be using magnets to help keep them in place. More on that later, however.

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