List Design for Beginners - Part 3(e) - What Army to Choose?

Well were on the home straight now,

Previous articles can be found below,

Blood Angels, Chaos Daemons and Chaos Space Marines,
Dark Eldar, Eldar and Grey Knights,
Imperial Guard, Necrons, Orks,
Space Marines, Dark Angels, Space Wolves and Tau.

Now for the last three,

Black Templars.

The recent FAQ has been fairly kind to the Black Templars as it has given them the Marine versions of many of the special rules and weapons stats. These FAQ's have breathed a bit of new life into the codex in much the same way that they did with the Dark Angels but not necessarily for all the same reasons ;-)

Mech - Due to the ability to give pretty much all your vehicles Power of the Machine Spirit you can make a mechanised Black Templars army 'pseudo' fast, by which I mean you can take Razorbacks, Predators and even Vindicators and make it so you can move 12" and still fire a weapon. This helps to get side armour shots with the Predators, shots after moving 12" with the Razorbacks and to have an effective threat range of 36" with your Vindicators. Combined with the 'Abhor the Witch/Destroy the Witch' vow and you can get an extra D6" of movement towards the enemy after deployment if the enemy army has a Psyker in it....Even an extra inch or two can make a big difference ;-)

Terminator Spam - Take a pair of Terminator Command Squads and another three units of Terminators from your Elite slots and give each unit a pair of heavy weapons and you have a formidable wall of 2+/5+ saves that are firing a combined total of  40 Assault Cannon or 20 Cyclone Missile Launcher shots per turn. For 3 points a model you can give them 'Tank Hunters' as well.

Black Templars work well enough if you use the codex as it's intended. If however you just like Power Armour then pick one of the other Marine 'flavours'.

Tyranids.

Tyranids are a difficult army to do well with based on how the current game works. They're are quite light on anti-tank shooting and in addition have problems with the way their Force Organisation Chart has crowbarred a lot of useful stuff into one slot (Elites). They can be made competitive but you as the controlling player need to accept their limitations from the beginning in order to avoid frustration.

The 'Death-Star' - Take a Hive Tyrant and give him a 2+ save, 'Old Adversary' and a few other upgrades, then stick him with two or three Tyrant Guard and repeat a 2nd time. Then throw both units at the enemy and hope they reach it intact enough to kill your opponent when you reach it. There are of course other variants on this theme but the basic concept remains the same.

The Horde - Termagants, Hormagaunts and Gargoyles are fairly cheap and Genestealers are reasonably priced (as long as you can reach your opponent without being 'torrented' to death)  so an army with over a hundred creatures is entirely possible. This sort of build really requires Venomthropes to give it a 5+ cover save (amongst other advantages) but will have problems vs. vehicle heavy armies, especially ones that have any degree of mobility.

Stealer Shock - An old build that I never really rated even when it was popular. It's the same principle as the 'horde' build but uses Genestealers (almost) exclusively and relies on going first in combat (due to high initiative) and a torrent of attacks in order to cripple what it hits before it gets a chance to hit back. against vehicles you just have to hope that you get enough rending rolls to do the job. It bounces off Land raider Spam as well...

Balanced - This is the way to go with Tyranids (imo). Take a HQ of your choice, Hive Guard as light anti-tank, Tyrannofexes with Rupture Cannons for heavy anti-tank, Tervigons and Termagants as troops and advance the lot in a series of lines designed to give everything (except the expendable stuff at the front) a cover save.

Tyranids are generally considered one of the weaker of the 5th Edition codices and there are fairly justifiable reasons why this is so. With the growing popularity of Librarians (or equivalent) as HQ's making the possibility of your six wound monstrous creature dying to a single lucky Force Weapon hit quite likely and that same psychic defence stopping many of the near essential Tyranid psychic abilities from working it can be a bit of an uphill struggle for the Tyranid player. Grey Knights obviously make that Force weapon issue a much bigger problem as well.

Witch Hunters.

I don't see these anywhere near often enough to have a good handle on them so this might be the weakest analysis I've done so far. If anybody has considerable experience with Witch Hunters and would like to 'chip-in' with some filler in the comments section then that would be much appreciated. In fact I only know one really effective Sisters of Battle list...

Immolator Spam - Take anything that can have an Immolator as a transport and give it one and then fill out the points with Sisters of Battle in Rhino's and give all the passengers all the Meltaguns they can carry. This sort of build needs practice to get right but once you've got the hang of it you'll be popping transports and flaming the contents like there's no tomorrow ;-)

And on that somewhat of an anti-climax we've reviewed all the various codices...

Now that's complete I hope you can pick a codex that suits you and an appropriate build from it as the basis for your army. Next we'll start looking at some list building concepts that apply across the board like Duality, redundancy, Bubble-Wrap etc.

Thoughts, comments and filler for the Witch Hunters section are (as usual) most welcome.

UKGT - List Option 4 - Tyranids

I'm not convinced about Tyranids at low points values, but the advantage of this list is that it's pretty much built so all I'd need is painting time.

1500 Pts - Tyranids Roster - 1500

HQ: Hive Tyrant (1#, 255 pts)

1 Hive Tyrant @ 255 pts (Lash Whip & Bonesword; Old Adversary; Regeneration; Armoured Shell; Leech Essence; Paroxysm)

: Tyrant Guard Brood (2#, 130 pts)

2 Tyrant Guard Brood @ 130 pts (Lash Whip)

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)

2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)

2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)

2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts

Troops: Tervigon (1#, 195 pts)

1 Tervigon @ 195 pts (Cluster Spines; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst)

Troops: Tervigon (1#, 195 pts)

1 Tervigon @ 195 pts (Cluster Spines; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst)

Troops: Termagant Brood (10#, 50 pts)

10 Termagant Brood @ 50 pts

Troops: Termagant Brood (10#, 50 pts)

10 Termagant Brood @ 50 pts

Troops: Termagant Brood (12#, 60 pts)

12 Termagant Brood @ 60 pts

Heavy Support: Tyrannofex (1#, 265 pts)

1 Tyrannofex @ 265 pts (Rupture Cannon; Cluster Spines; Thorax Swarm (larvae))

Total Roster Cost: 1500

Mathshammer Week - Part 3 - Thorax Swarm.

Since this particular weapon is only available on the Tyrannofex for free* all of you people who still think that the Tyrannofex is rubbish can go an sit in the corner till I've finished.

* A Hive Tyrant can take the same upgrade for 25 points if you really want.

Just the Tyrannofex fan-boys (and girls) here?

Good, off we go then ;-)

The Thorax Swarm comes as part of the Tyrannofex's standard wargear and has the wonderful ability to be fired in addition to the 2 weapons normally allowed by Monstrous Creatures. The 'default' option is 'Electroshock Grubs' but as changing to the other options is free that doesn't really make a difference to the analysis (points cost being a non-issue). In the unlikely event that your taking this as an upgrade for a Hive Tyrant the cost is also identical regardless of the 'insect ammo' you select.

As this is a Template weapon Maths becomes a bit tricky as there is no way to calculate average number of hits, so were going to go with 'chance to kill' as this...

...is unlikely to be your opponents deployment unless your very, very lucky or all your opponents suffer from mental disorders ;-)

So our template options are,

a) Electroshock Grubs : S 5, AP 5, Assault 1.

b) Sheddershard Beetles : S 3, AP -, Assault 1, Rending.

c) Desiccator Larvae : S1, AP -, Assault 1, Wounds on 2's Vs. non-vehicle units.

So lets see which is best then,

Electroshock Grubs.

Range - Template, S 5, AP 5, Assault 1.

Vs. Marine Terminator - 0.67 chance to wound, 0.11 chance of death after 2+ save.

Vs. Marine - 0.67 chance to wound, 0.22 chance of death after 3+ saves.

Vs. Ork - 0.67 chance to wound, 0.67 dead.

Vs. Guardsmen - 0.83 chance to wound, 0.83 dead.

It also has a small chance to penetrate Armour 10,

Vs. Armour 10, 0.167 chance of a pen, 0.056 chance of wreck/explosion.

So it does nicely against Orks and Humans but barely tickles anything with a decent armour save or actual armour (much like most Flamer weapons if were honest).

Sheddershard Beetles.

Range - Template, S 3, AP -, Assault 1, Rending.

Vs. Marine Terminator - 0.33 chance to wound (0.11 chance of death to Rending after 5+ inv. save), 0.05 chance of death after 2+ save.

Vs. Assault Terminator - 0.33 chance to wound (0.06 chance of death to Rending after 3+ inv. save), 0.05 chance of death after 2+ save.

Vs. Marine - 0.33 chance to wound (0.17 chance of death to Rending) 0.11 chance of death after 3+ saves.

Vs. Ork - 0.33 chance to wound (0.17 chance of death to Rending) 0.28 chance of death after 6+ saves.

Vs. Guardsmen - Vs. Ork - 0.33 chance to wound (0.17 chance of death to Rending) 0.22 chance of death after 5+ saves.

It also can in theory hurt Armour 10,

Vs. Armour 10, 0.17 chance of a Rending hit, 0.057 chance of pen, 0.01 chance of wreck.

So it's worse against everything, lol.

Desiccator Larvae.

S1, AP -, Assault 1, Wounds on 2's Vs. non-vehicle units.

As we're wounding everything on 2's anyway we'll look at effectiveness based on target save.

0.83 chance of wounding,

No Save, 0.83 dead (Is there anything with 1 wound and no save?).

6+ Save, 0.69 dead (Orks).

5+ Save, 0.55 dead (Guardsmen, Guardians, Rangers, etc.).

4+ Save, 0.42 dead (Ard Boyz, Dire Avengers, Fire warriors, Marine Scouts, etc.).

3+ Save, 0.28 dead (Blue Marines, Grey Marines, Red Marines, Spiky Marines, etc.).

2+ Save, 0.14 dead (Terminators).

1+ Save, sorry wrong game system...still 0.14 dead though...

So the Larvae work better against everything except Guardsmen who are slightly more vulnerable to Beetles and can do nothing to vehicles.

Conclusion.

Desiccator Larvae is the best overall despite it's inability to hurt vehicles. I'm sure the fucking great MC it's attached to can sort out the vehicles, especially if it's got a S10, Assault 2 gun of some description ;-)

Mathshammer Week - Part 2 - Crushing Claws.

So I got slightly distracted by my new Imperial Guard list idea, but I suppose I better finish off posting some of the Tyranid Mathshammer I threatened you with earlier in the week ;-)

So Crushing Claws cost 25 points and grant you an extra D3 attacks from your Carnifex at an Initiative of 1.

As a Carnifex is cursed with WS 3 it can occasionally have issues doing enough damage to a unit to avoid being tarpitted. With 4 attacks base that's only an average of 2 hits per assault phase which isn't going to chew through even a small unit particularly quickly. If that target unit has an invulnerable save of some description then the problem is exaggerated even more.

This problem is somewhat mitigated by it's 2 sets of Scything Talons which grant it a re-roll to hit in assault. However, this bonus is reduced to re-rolling 1's to hit if we only have a single set.

So the question is...do the extra D3 attacks granted by Crushing Claws make up for the reduced re-rolls to hit?

Often averages don't tell us the whole story. The average number of extra attacks is going to be 2, however there is always the potential of either 1 or 3 so we better look at the numbers for all the possibilities.

Lets take a completely un-upgraded Carnifex. The Characteristics we're interested in are WS 3, S9 and 2 sets of Scything Talons.

We'll take the worst case first and let it be charged and presume the charging unit doesn't kill it before it gets a chance to hit back * and that the target unit has no invulnerable saves.

* It's death is a very real possibility by the way...A WS3, T6, 4W and a 3+ armour save MC can be killed by a number of dedicated Assault units.

Charged Carnifex c/w 2 sets of Scything Talons.

4 attacks, 2 hits (+1 from the reroll) so 3 hits in total, 2.5 Dead whatevers.

Charged Carnifex c/w 1 set of Scything Talons + Crushing Claws.

A re-roll on 1's gives us a 0.167 chance of getting a re-roll per attack reduced by 50% to 0.084 (we've still got to hit with it the second time around and for the most part that will be on 4's)

+1 Attacks : 5 attacks, 2.5 hit (+0.42 from re-rolls), 2.92 hits, 2.43 dead.

+2 Attacks : 6 attacks, 3 Hit (+0.5 from re-rolls), 3.5 Hits, 2.92 dead.

+3 Attacks : 7 attacks, 3.5 Hit (+0.58 from re-rolls), 4.08 Hits, 3.4 dead.

So rounding to the nearest whole number our Crushing Claws made Fuck all difference. Even taking the fractions into account the best case scenario of 3 extra attacks didn't account for a whole extra model dead.

Maybe charging will turn out better?

Charging Carnifex c/w 2 sets of Scything Talons.

5 attacks, 2.5 hits (+1.25 from the reroll) so 3.75 hits in total, 3.125 Dead whatevers.

Charging Carnifex c/w 1 set of Scything Talons + Crushing Claws.

A re-roll on 1's gives us a 0.167 chance of getting a re-roll per attack reduced by 50% to 0.084 (we've still got to hit with it the second time around and for the most part that will be on 4's)

+1 Attacks : 6 attacks, 3 Hit (+0.5 from re-rolls), 3.5 Hits, 2.92 dead.

+2 Attacks : 7 attacks, 3.5 Hit (+0.58 from re-rolls), 4.08 Hits, 3.4 dead.

+3 Attacks : 8 attacks, 4 Hit (+0.67 from re-rolls), 4.67 Hits, 3.89 dead.

So rounding to the nearest whole number only our best case scenario (+3 attacks) gives us any benefit and when taking the fractions into account still doesn't add up to a whole extra model dead.

As one of the most expensive upgrades for the Carnifex (only a Heavy Venom Cannon or Regeneration clock-in at the same points) I'd really expect a more significant advantage from this biomorph.

Another factor that needs to be noted is that even with the 'Living Battering Ram' rule making you I3 on the charge, Crushing Claw attacks are still at an initiative of 1 so there's a chance that your 'extra' attacks will be useless if your opponent can kill you before that initiative step.

Some of you may still be under the impression that the Carnifex is unlikely to die in assault before it gets a chance to attack. However think about it this way, If someone is actually attacking your Carnifex there is always the possibility that they're either tying it up because they have the numbers (Orks, Imperial Guard) and don't care if they kill it or they have a unit that they think can take it out...

Oh and in case you missed my conclusion when I wandered of the point a little...Crushing claws aren't worth taking, but unfortunately (imo) neither is the Carnifex that can take them...that subject however needs a blog post all of it's own...

Mathshammer Week - Part 1 - Termagant Upgrades.

Seems like as good a place to start as any.

Termagants are cheap, scoring and can have access to a number of upgrades some of which are fairly cheap, others which well... aren't...

So lets see what we have...

Adrenal Glands - 1 point each.

Gives 'Furious Charge' to unit.

Pretty much essential if you want your Termagants to be of any use against vehicles, allows you to hit Marines before they hit you and allows you to wound those same Marines on 4's rather than 5's.

Obviously you need to get the charge but that applies to any unit that has Furious Charge...

There is an alternative however.....Tervigons...If your Tervigon has 'Adrenal Glands' then any Termagants within 6" get them for free and as spawned Termagants don't get any upgrades it's pretty much a no-brainer upgrade for the Tervigon.

So Termagants need this upgrade but personally I run Tervigons with Adrenal Glands so I get it for free*, if I didn't I'd pay the one point per guy ;-)

* Well not exactly free as it costs 10 points to give the Tervigon the upgrade.

Toxin Sacs - 1 point each.

Gives 'Poison' to unit.

Another essential upgrade which allows you to wound anything (that isn't a vehicle) on 4's whether you've charged or not.

Also, as the Poison rule says 'If the strength of the wielder is the same as or higher than the toughness of the victim, the wielder must re-roll failed rolls to wound in close combat' if you are Strength 4 at the time that the poison rule comes into effect (due to 'Furious Charge' from whatever source) then imo you get the re-roll to wound as there's no mention of 'base' strength in the poison entry anywhere, only strength. Some people have disagreed with that interpretation but as far as I'm concerned it's 'Rules As Written' so that's the way I play it.

So, take everything I said about Adrenal Glands in the last 2 paragraphs of their entry and replace the words 'Adrenal Glands' with 'Toxin Sacs' as the same things apply ;-)

So that's the 'special rules' upgrades out of the way...onto the weapon upgrades...and the Mathshammer...

First as a baseline, this is the weapon that the Termagants get for free

Fleshborer - Range 12", S 4, AP 5, Assault 1...Yes, It's a Bolt Pistol, lol.

We'll take a squad of 10 Termagants armed with the above and shoot at some Marines and then just for a change of pace we'll shoot at some Guardsmen as well.

Vs. Marines - 10 shots, 5 hit, 2.5 wound, 0.83 Marines dead after their 3+ saves

Vs. Guardsmen - 10 shots, 5 hit, 3.3 wound and kill as standard Guardsmen only have a 5+ save

Okay that was fairly indifferent (unless your one of those 3 Guardsmen I suppose) but what did you expect for free?

Okay then, onto the stuff we have to pay for.

Spinefists - 1 point per model

Range 12", S 3, AP 5, Twin-Linked, Assault 1.

Vs. Marines - 10 shots, 7.5 hit (with re-rolls), 2.5 wound, 0.83 Marines dead after their 3+ saves

Vs. Guardsmen - 10 shots, 7.5 hit (with re-rolls), 3.75 wound and kill as standard Guardsmen only have a 5+ save

So we've done exactly the same damage to the Marines with a negligible increase in damage to the Guardsmen. for the 10 points we've spent we could get another 2 Termagants which would make the following difference using the free Fleshborer.

Vs. Marines - 12 shots, 6 hit, 3 wound, 1 Marine dead after their 3+ saves.

Vs. Guardsmen - 12 shots, 6 hit, 4 wound and kill as standard Guardsmen only have a 5+ save.

So for the same points as the Spinefists we get 2 extra Termagants which actually give us better results and that's before we even take into account the extra attacks in assault or the extra 2 ablative wounds the unit gets.

It's also useless against vehicles**

** Not that the Fleshborer is much better, but at least it can glance armour 10 and if your charging the vehicle anyway you might as well take any shots your allowed...every little helps after all ;-)

Spike Rifle - 1 point per model

Range 18", S 3, AP -, Assault 1.

Vs. Marines - 10 shots, 5 hit, 1.67 wound, 0.56 Marines dead after their 3+ saves

Vs. Guardsmen - 10 shots, 5 hit, 2.5 wound, 0.83 Guardsmen dead after their 5+ saves.

6" extra range is of negligible benefit, worse than either the Fleshborer or the Spinefists at actually hurting stuff. Useless against vehicles.

Not worth it at all if you ask me...

Devourer - 5 point per model.

Range 18", S 4, AP -, Assault 3.

Vs. Marines - 30 shots, 15 hit, 7.5 wound, 2.5 Marines dead after their 3+ saves

Vs. Guardsmen - 30 shots, 15 hit, 10 wound, 6.67 Guardsmen d

ead after their 5+ saves

Any wounds caused reduces any subsequent morale check by the unit which is of only minor concern to the Marines but may worry the Guardsmen if one of the guys who died happened to be the Sarge.

So a fair increase in damage output for double the cost. Lets see how the unit would do if we spent those points on more Termagants...

Vs. Marines - 20 shots, 10 hit, 5 wound, 1.66 Marines dead after their 3+ saves

Vs. Guardsmen - 20 shots, 10 hit, 6.67 wound and kill as standard Guardsmen only have a 5+ save.

So we've killed 1 less Marine or the same amount of Guardsmen but have an extra 20 attacks on the charge and an extra 10 ablative wounds.

I'd rather have an extra 10 scoring bodies than an (almost) extra dead Marine and a slight increase in chance of the unit running away as I probably wanted to charge it anyway.

And finally the Strangleweb, which is a Strength 2?!?!?! Flamer Template.

Strangleweb - 10 points, 1 per 10 Termagants.

Range - Template, S 2, AP -, Wounds Vs. Strength rather than Toughness, Pinning.

They're shit.

Edit - Okay that seems a bit lazy now I've read my own post...sorry

They're really shit.

Still not detailed enough?

If you insist then...

Vs. Marines, 0.167 chance to wound, 0.056 chance of killing each Marine caught under the Template after their 3+ save.

Vs. Guardsmen, 0.333 chance to wound, 0.222 chance of killing each Guardsmen caught under the Template after their 5+ save.

Editors note - I used them in a dozen or so games and it failed to do anything of note in any of them. I replaced them with an extra 2 Termagants and I've been much happier that way...

So to summarise...

If you don't have Tervigons, give the Termagants Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs.

If you do have Tervigons, give the Tervigons Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs.

So that's episode one of Mathshammer week done.

Any comments are (as usual) most welcome...

Tyranid Ranged Anti-Tank Options

My Tyranid army isn’t geared just for shooting or just for assault but rather hovers somewhere in the middle but today I’ll be focusing on the shooty bit and looking at the alternatives.

I have 5 units capable of reliable (ish) shooting, these being 3 units of 2 Hive Guard and a pair of Tyrannofex. These are in my opinion the best units for the job, but there are other options.

Quite a few other units obviously have guns but none of them can be considered to have shooting as their primary purpose like the ones I’ll be discussing.

Since the main threat in most armies designed for 5th Ed. Seems to be armoured vehicles we need to have reliable methods of making them explode or at the very least end up as wrecks. Against gun platforms like Predators, ‘Crew Shaken’ or ‘Crew Stunned’ are nice to get but we need to make it happen again next turn, whereas a pile of wreckage is no longer a threat of any kind (unless your running across it I suppose).

Against transports shooting is the best method, as we want their cargo as far away from us as possible when it's cargo has to start walking.

Against tanks the distance at which they are destroyed is less of an issue, however given that Imperial Guard can have Heavy Flamers sticking out of the front of most of their vehicles for next to nothing (or in the case of the chimera actually nothing) we probably want to be at least a Flamer template away if were of the slightly squishier variety of shooty unit. As Hive Guard have only a 4+ Save which is ignored by the Heavy Flamers AP they have to rely on their T6 to save them from losing a Wound. That Flamer also counteracts the average Guardsmen’s poor BS.

So we need transports to die far away from us as possible and everything else to either be unable to shoot or be dead. Now that may seem obvious but I’ve seen poor target priority lose someone a game on multiple occasions.

So we need to decide what works best against what unit so we’ll have a look at our options and invite our old friend round ‘Mathshammer’ to give us a hand ;-)

We’ll be looking at chance to wreck or destroy as those results neutralise anything whereas the effectiveness of other results depends entirely on the target. For example, weapon destroyed on a Rhino isn’t much of a loss to the owning player whereas the same result on a Vindicator would be far more serious.

So lets have a look at our options starting with those with the highest strengths and working our way down. I’ll also work out the increased odds of destruction if target units are part of a squadron.

Rupture Cannon (Range 48”, BS3, S10, AP4, Assault 2).

May only be given to a Tyrannofex, however a T6, 6W, Monstrous Creature with a 2+ save has the added benefit of being a very survivable weapons platform. Long Range means that we can pop (or attempt to pop, at least) transports when they’re nice and far away. That 48” range also means we can reach out and silence annoying high strength or high volume units that hide away in corners (like Hydras*)

* I have a near irrational hatred of Hydras, especially in pairs as 8 Twin-Linked, S7 shots with a 72” range should cost more than 150 points imo…

With BS 3 were going to average 1 hit, but what damage are we likely to do with it?

Armour 10: Automatic penetration, 33% chance of unit destruction, 50% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 83% chance of pen, 27% chance of destruction, 41% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 67% chance of pen, 22% chance of destruction, 33% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 13: 50% chance of pen, 17% chance of destruction, 25% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 14: 33% chance of pen, 11% chance of destruction, 16.5% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Brilliant against light vehicles, not bad against heavy ones. Also it's added survivability makes it much more likely to damage heavy vehicles as it's likely to get multiple chances to shoot rather than die quickly like the platform for our other S10 option...

Warp Lance (Range 18”, BS4, S10, AP1, Assault 1, Lance).

Depressingly short ranged. Only useable by Zoanthropes, a unit which can be torrented away fairly easily with it’s T4 and 2 wounds. Having a 3+ Invulnerable save helps against high strength single shots but vs. anti infantry firepower you’re basically talking about the equivalent of killing 2 Marines and if you can’t manage that then I’d consider rewriting your army ;-)

AP1 adds 1 to the roll on the Vehicle Damage Table and Lance ignores anything over armour 12, which helps a lot **

** 2 factors that I admittedly failed to take into account when I assessed this unit previously, Doh.

As we need to pass a psychic test first our odds drop to 82%, we then have to hit which drops it down to 55% so we’ll start from there.

Armour 10: Automatic penetration, 28% chance of unit destruction, 37% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 46% chance of pen, 23% chance of destruction, 31% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 37% chance of pen, 18.5% chance of destruction, 25% chance if target is part of a squadron

Armour 13 + 14: same as armour 12 due to ‘Lance’ rule.

So with everything taken into account the Warp Lance is about the same as the Rupture Cannon (within a few %) until you hit the armour 14 level at which point the Warp Lance becomes superior. If you take multiple units of Zoanthropes obviously you get multiple chances at the above, unfortunately with Psychic Hoods seemingly coming free in Space Marines breakfast cereal there is also an extremely good chance that your power won’t go off at all.

Heavy Venom Cannon (Range 36”, BS3 for the most part, S9, AP4, Assault 1, Blast).

Most units using this weapon are BS3 with the exception of the Harpy, which has the additional benefits of having the weapon Twin-Linked. Has the unfortunate rule that makes all hits take a –1 penalty to rolls on the Vehicle Damage Chart (unless the target is an open topped vehicle).

So we have a 33% chance of a hit. Any scatter over 5” will take us off most vehicle targets (5” scatter – BS3 = 2” scatter). That works out at a roughly 60% chance of hitting something Rhino sized up to about 70% for something as big as a Land Raider. ***

*** If anybody has exact figures worked out for scatter then send me an e-mail please as trying to calculate all the variables has given me a headache and made my Calculator rebel against me…

We’ll call it 60% for the testing purposes, remembering to reduce our Damage Table rolls by 1. We’ll also presume the target vehicle isn’t open topped.

Armour 10: 50% chance of pen, 8% chance of destruction, 17% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 40% chance of pen, 7% chance of destruction, 13% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 30% chance of pen, 5% chance of destruction, 10% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 13: 20% chance of pen, 3% chance of destruction, 6% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 14: 10% chance of pen, 2% chance of destruction, 3% chance if target is part of a squadron.

I’d stick to shooting at infantry with this one, however it is (somewhat ironically) pretty consistent when it comes to getting ‘Crew Stunned’ and ‘Crew Shaken’ results…perhaps it makes a scary noise?

Impaler Cannon (Range 24”, BS4, S8, AP4, Assault 2).

Exclusive to Hive Guard this is your most reliable light anti-tank weapon. Though T6 the Hive Guard are somewhat disadvantaged by only having a 4+ armour save making them vulnerable to medium anti-infantry firepower such as Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons, Autocannons and the like. Due to the weapons relatively short range you’ll probably have to leave cover at some point unless your opponent is happily charging headlong towards you. Luckily Tyranids have access to a cheap and mobile cover save known as a Termagant ;-)

BS 4 gives us a 67% chance of a hit, meaning our Impaler Cannon is averaging 1.33 Hits. Which is a pretty nice starting point ****

**** I told you they were reliable didn’t I?

Armour 10: 89% chance of pen, 30% chance of destruction, 44% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 66% chance of pen, 22% chance of destruction, 33% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 44% chance of pen, 15% chance of destruction, 22% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 13: 22% chance of pen, 7% chance of destruction, 11% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 14: Glance only.

If you can get a couple of these guys into range of light transport vehicles you’ve a good chance of stopping them in their tracks even if the target is getting a cover save for some reason.

So what have we learned?

So that was a pretty long-winded way of saying take Hive Guard and Tyrannofex’s. For those of you more interested in punching transports to death I’ll be looking at those statistics at some point in the near future as well at looking at what anti-infantry firepower upgrades seem worth having.

Thoughts anyone?

Tyranid Project – Can Termagants actually kill things…

Editors Note – This article is quite long by my usual standards so you might want to make yourself a cup of tea before you start reading…

Termagants are the cheap and cheerful troop choice for Tyranids and essential in any army that wants their Tervigons to be scoring.

Though are they actually good for anything other than being scoring?

Lets let Mathshammer do some of the decision making for us ;-)

We’ll start with the worst-case scenario and gradually give the Termagants some advantages as we go.

For those of you who don’t know the Termagants stats are,

WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 4, A 1 Ld. 6, Save. 6+

With the average roll of a die being 3 or a 4, we’ll end up spawning between 9 and 12 Termagants most of the time and as we need a basic unit of 10 to make our Tervigons scoring to start off with we’ll take 10 as our nice round unit number for testing purposes.

As I’m sure (like me) you end up playing against Marines 4 out of 5 games we’ll use them as our ‘Control’ enemy. We’ll use a squad of 10, as full Marine Squads are still common even with the current trend for Razorbacks units. We won’t bother giving them any fancy weapon options or extra abilities and just to keep it relatively simple we’ll keep them as ‘ordinary’ tactical Marines.

I’m also not going to include the chance of Termagants shooting before charging into the final calculations but for those of you who care about such things,

10 shots, 5 Hit, 2.5 Wound, 0.83 Marines dead after armour saves. Great bugger all happened...

So then, onto the Maths.

Worst case for the Termagants is no upgrades and being charged. This also means were going at the same time as the Marines so no matter how many we kill they’ll all still get all their attacks back.

Termagants (Charged),

10 Attacks, 5 Hit, 1.67 Wound, 0.56 Dead Marines after their 3+ Armour Saves.

Marines (Charging),

21 Attacks, 14 Hit, 9.33 Wounds, 7.83 Dead Termagants after their 6+ Saves.

The Termagants will either be run down, chased off the board or (if their in synapse range) die to ‘fearless’ wounds.

Hang on a bit though…they might have ‘Feel no Pain’ from ‘Catalyst’. So only 3.92 of our Termagants may have died.

So let’s presume they did have ‘Feel no Pain’ and amazingly make the 3 Fearless wounds they’re forced to take and try out round 2 (after rounding our dead guys to the nearest whole model).

Termagants,

6 Attacks, 3 Hit, 1 Wound, 0.33 dead Marines after their 3+ Armour Saves.

Marines,

10 Attacks, 6.67 Hit, 4.45 Wound, 1.85 dead Termagants after 6+ Armour and Feel no Pain is taken into account.

Well we could go on but I’m sure we can see how it’s going. An un-upgraded unit of Termagants dies if charged and if it has ‘Feel no Pain’ can maybe survive a 2nd Game turn of combat if their lucky after taking a grand total of 2 (rounding up) or 0 (rounding down) Marines with them.

Lets give the Termagants the charge this time. We’ll also give them Feel no Pain again as we’ve already worked out that they die horribly without it.

I’m also going to stop repeating myself a bit as I’m sure you all know what a Marines armour save is by now.

Round 1.

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 3.34 Wound, 1.13 Marines dead.

Marines (Charged),

11 Attacks, 7.33 Hit, 4.9 Wound, 2.04 Termagants dead.

Round 2.

Termagants,

8 Attacks, 4 Hit, 1.34 Wound. 0.89 Marines dead

Marines,

10 Attacks, 6.67 Hit, 4.45 Wound, Termagants 1.85 dead.

So we’ve successfully ‘Tar-pitted’ the Marine unit for as long as we can keep Feel no Pain in place. But that’s about it till they finally kill each other 6 or so rounds of combat later.

If the Sergeant had a Power weapon or Power Fist however we’ll be lucky to tie them up for even 4 rounds.

I think it’s time to stop playing fair don’t you?

If were playing a ‘swarm’ list then we’ve most likely given Adrenal Glands (Furious Charge) and Toxin Sacs (Poison) to all our units. If were using them in conjunction with Tervigons then we’ve most likely given the Tervigon those same upgrades so that Termagants within 6” get the benefit of them.

Also given that the Tervigon can spawn Termagants 6” away and they can still move, shoot and assault as normal the chances of us getting charges are quite good.

So this time the Termagants are charging and have Furious Charge, Poisoned Attacks and Feel no Pain all thanks to either the Tervigon, their own upgrades or some combination of the 2.

Termagants (Charging). Due to the way the poison rule works we also get a re-roll to wound this turn as we would be wounding on 4’s anyway (due to Furious Charge).

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 5 Wound, 7.5 with the re-roll 2.5 Marines Dead.

Marines (Charged) Minus the 3 guys who died (rounding to the nearest whole number).

7 Attacks, 4.67 Hit, 3.11 Wound, 1.3 termagants Dead

Hey, we won a combat (Just)…go team Tyranid!!!

Round 2 (Furious Charge no longer an issue, Poison still helping though)

Termagants,

9 Attacks, 4.5 Hit, 2.25 Wound (no re-roll this time), 0.75 Marines dead.

Marines,

7 Attacks, 4.67 Hit, 3.11 Wound, 1.3 termagants Dead.

Bollocks, were back to killing a guy each per turn...

Right now lets pile on every benefit we can possibly crowbar out of the Tyranid Codex and see if we can give these Marines a proper kicking (or biting, or clawing etc.)

First were going to use the Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord’s Paroxysm* on the target unit and give the Termagants ‘Preferred Enemy’ from either the Hive Tyrant’s ‘Old Adversary’ upgrade or via the Swarmlords ‘Swarm Leader’ ability. The were going to also give them every benefit they can get from the Tervigon (Furious Charge, Poison and Feel no Pain).

*It’s a psychic shooting attack that reduces a unit to both WS and BS 1 till the beginning of the Hive Tyrants next turn. This means those pesky Marines will be being hit on 3’s but hitting back on 5’s.

Right lads, you now have all the help we can give you…do us proud ;-)

Round 1.

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 17.78 Hits (13.33 normal hits and another 4.45 from our ‘Preferred Enemy’ re-roll.

13.34 Wounds (8.89 normal wounds and another 4.45 from our ‘Poison’ re-roll).

After armour saves we’ve killed 4.45 Marines.

Marines (Charged and feeling a bit victimised and also at WS1),

7 Attacks, 2.33 Hit, 0.58 Wounds, 0.24 Termagants dead.

So we’ve easily won this one and taking a morale test at –4 there’s a good chance the Marines will fail. So they either get away and can be escorted off the board or they are caught and another 1.33 Marines die to ‘No Retreat’ rules.

Lets say we catch them.

Round 2**

**Now it gets a bit tricky here as the Swarmlords ‘Preferred Enemy’ ability only lasts for the Tyranid turn but ‘Old Adversary’ is a permanent ‘buff’. As more people use Tyrants than Swarmlords (even though I don’t) we’ll let the Termagants have their Preferred Enemy this turn as well.

Termagants,

10 Attacks, 8.89 Hits (with re-rolls), 4.45 Wounds (no re-rolls this time), 1.48 Dead Marines.

Marines,

7 Attacks, 2.33 Hit, 0.58 Wounds, 0.24 Termagants dead.

So at the end of round 2 our Termagants are unharmed and the Marine unit has been cut in half. After that it will get a bit messy, but I think we’ve done enough damage to be able to finish them off without much help.

So what have we learned?

Termagants need support…well you’d probably worked that out anyway but it’s worth mentioning. Also, Feel no Pain via ‘Catalyst’ made (by far) the biggest difference to the combats more by saving Termagants than adding to their killing potential.

So to summarise Termagants can kill things but only with a lot of help. They are however quite good at keeping a unit in place ready for your Monstrous Creatures to stroll in and mush the last few guys ;-)

Used appropriately these cheap little critters can easily turn the tide in your favour, hopefully your opponent will be to busy trying to kill Tyrants, Tervigons and the like to bother with these guys until it’s too late ;-)

Of course you may not be fighting against Marines.

As I can’t be arsed to go through all that Maths again we’ll take the most likely scenario and try a game turn of combat against a few other things.

For all the following combats were going to be presuming we have Feel no Pain, Furious Charge and Poison.

Vs. Orks.

30 Orks on foot are highly unlikely to still be 30 Orks when they reach you. However they may have some kind of Transport that doesn’t fall apart when you throw a sharp rock at it such as a Battlewagon. Either way we’ll call it 19 Orks Boyz and the obligatory ‘Nob’with Power Klaw.

Round 1.

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 5 Wound, 7.5 with the re-roll, 6.25 Dead Orks.

Orks (Charged),

39 attacks, 23 Hit, 11.5 Wound, 4.79 dead Termagants

3 Power Klaw attacks, 2 Hit, 1.67 dead, making a grand total of 6.46 dead Termagants.

Round 2.

Termagants,

4 Attacks, 2 Hit, 1 Wound, 0.83 Dead Orks.

Orks,

39 attacks, 23 Hit, 11.5 Wound, 4.79 dead Termagants

3 Power Klaw attacks, 2 Hit, 1.67 dead, making a grand total of no Termagants left.

Lesson Learned: Don’t get into combat with Orks unless you have at least 30 Termagants or there are only 6 of the Orks left ;-)

Vs. Eldar.

Dire Avengers seem to be the Troop of choice for eldar players locally so we’ll use them for testing purposes.

Round 1

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 5 Wound, 7.5 with the re-roll, 3.75 Dire Avengers souls off into the Warp ready for Slaanesh to have as a nice snack.

Dire Avengers (Charged but still getting all their attacks as they are I 5)

10 Attacks, 6.67 Hit, 3.34 Wound, 1.39 dead Termagants.

Termagants win by 3, leaving the Dire Avengers needing a 6 or lower on their morale test to avoid running. An average roll will be a fail, meaning we catch them and they die, or they get away and what happens next will be decided by how far they run and how far the Termagants consolidate. Of course they may pass the test…lets presume they do.

Round 2.

Dire Avengers (going first this time)

6 Attacks, 4 Hit, 2 Wound, 0.84 Termagants dead.

Termagants,

8 Attacks, 4 Hit, 2 Wound, 1 Dire Avenger dead.

Now were in the ‘Tar-Pit’ stage again, oh well…

In Conclusion.

I’m bored now and I’ve a feeling you lot are probably getting that way as well. Neither of those examples really changes my conclusions from the Marine ones at the beginning.

Termagants are cheap, can kill shit if things go their way but don’t stand a chance against anything built for combat.

But what were you expecting for 5 points a model?

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Tyranid Project - Part 14 - Tyrannofex 2

Real life has managed to interfere with my 40K yet again. Some of that interference was a bit of freelance servicing work which managed to pay the bills for another month so I can't really complain that much, lol.

With that out of the way I can get back to my Tyranid Project.

So, with the arrival of my oval bases I've finally managed to get around to building my 2nd Tyrannofex.

TYRANNOFEX 2, SIDE VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, OTHER SIDE VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, FRONT VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, TOP VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, ANGLED VIEW.

I'll undercoat it tomorrow together with the 86 Termagants.

I'm now just a Swarmlord away from a fully WYSIWYG Tyranid army :-)

On the subject of The Swarmlord I'm now reconsidering using the Trygon model and may just use the standard Hive Tyrant with some extra plasticard Boneswords, magnetised so I can swap weapons around. That way I can use the Mawloc/Trygon actually as a Mawloc/Trygon and work out if it's viable as my 3rd Heavy Support choice at 2000 points.

Comments are (as usual) welcome.

Tyranid Project - Part 13 - Horde Tyranids.

So the pile of Termagants got me thinking about whether a Tyranid Swarm list is viable in 5th ed.

First lets look at some of the problems 5th Ed. Inflicts on us daily.

Mechanisation – Okay we all know that in 5th ed. The vehicle is king. A highly forgiving set of vehicle damage tables, combined with cover save providing options like Smoke Launchers, Kustom Force Fields and various ‘Shield’ psychic powers makes killing vehicles a chore. Not to mention that you’ve still got to hit and penetrate them first. Tyranids get access to a number of units capable of killing light transports but only Hive Guard could be considered reliable.

Land Raiders – Part of the above problem but also worthy of their own subsection. Armour 14 all around means that you need S10, Lance or Melta, AP1 or some combination of the above to reliably kill a Land Raider. Tyranids basically only get 2 options that can do this (Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon and Zoanthropes with Warp Lance) and neither of them can be considered reliable.

Marines – Yes, Marines. 4 out of every 5 armies I see are of 1 Marine variant or another. Most Tyranid weapons are AP4 or lower (even the high strength ones), which means Marines are getting armour saves from 90% of what Tyranids can throw at them. As we are talking about hordes here they’ll also be getting 3+ saves in combat, will be getting hit on 4’s but hitting back on 3’s and against un-upgraded units will be wounding on 3’s and being wounded on 5’s. This means that a considerable volume of attacks is needed to put even a small dent in a Marine unit, while the Marines will be generating a lot of wounds back.

Templates – As any honest Ork player will tell you, thinking that your opponent can’t possibly kill 160 models is an excellent way to open yourself to disappointment. Massed Orks routinely die to even a half arsed amount of Flamer weapons and if those Flamers are vehicle mounted the problems are compounded even more. If T4 Orks have this problem what chance do T3 termagants have?

So what options does the humble Tyranid player like myself have to get around these problems?

Lets start with the major one – Vehicles…

Even 60 odd S4 (and that’s with Furious Charge) attacks on the charge have a very low chance of harming an armour 10 vehicle that’s moved over 6”

60 Attacks, 10 Hit, 1.667 Glancing hits…Well that’s just wonderful :-(

So we really need to work out how to de-mechanise that opposing army before we even start to think about our horde of infantry munching space bugs.

Our options are,

Hive Guard – BS4, 24” Range, S8, A4, Assault 2

Okay for taking out light transports, but even taking into account T6 and 2 Wounds an armour save of 4+ makes us vulnerable to even the lowly Heavy Bolter.

Zoanthropes – So they have a S10, AP1 weapon but they can be easily shut down by psychic defense and are not in the least survivable.

Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon – 2x S10 shots at BS3 is averaging 1 shot per turn. Decent enough at popping light vehicles not so hot once we reach the Armour 14 level.

Anything with a Venom Cannon – S9 would be nice but the minus 1 to the result on the Vehicle Damage Table reduces their chances of destroying a vehicle (the result we really need) by 50%.

So the options aren’t brilliant. It looks like we’ll need Hive Guard and a couple of Tyrannofex’s before we even start to think about our actual horde.

So onto HQ’s,

As were not going down the uber killy path something cheap will do.

Best candidate is obviously a Tyranid Prime, which un-upgraded only costs 80 points. As he’s only there to provide Synapse and the mandatory HQ he’ll probably do, maybe 2 of them would be better as I wouldn’t be particularly happy with only a single synapse source.

Supporting the swarm.

So let now look at what can help out our swarm.

Tervigons are a great supporting unit but primarily only help Termagants and we’re not going to get very far just using mass Termagants. Catalyst (which gives a unit within 12” Feel no Pain) can affect any unit but as it can only affect a single unit we’d need a prohibitively high amount to be much use to our swarm of doom.

Venomthropes give a 5+ cover save to any unit within 6”, which is certainly worth having, they also give those units defensive grenades as well as other benefits. They are however very delicate so are extremely vulnerable to enemy shooting. We’d probably need at least 2 of these (more likely 3), which also use up an Elite slot that I could do with putting Hive Guard in. Still if that’s what we’ve got to do then we’ll just have to make do with 2 units of Hive Guard rather than 3.

The Swarm.

We have 5 options, which are (in no particular order) Termagants, Hormagaunts, Ripper swarms, Gargoyles, Sky Slasher Swarms.

Both Ripper and Sky Slasher Swarms are rubbish so we’ll cross them from the list straight away.

Termagants that are unsupported by Tervigons are going to need both Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands which makes them 7 points each. Slow and relatively easy to kill these would serve better as our objective holding units.

Hormagaunts are a bit faster than Termagants due to ‘Bounding Leap’ and ‘Fleet’, Have 2 attacks base but weigh in at 10 points each once the Toxin sacs and Adrenal Glands are added in. These would most likely be our ‘Taking other objectives’ unit.

Gargoyles are the fastest horde unit we have available as they are classed as Jump Infantry. They also have the ‘Blinding Venom’ ability which makes any to hit roll of a 6 wound automatically, which obviously ups our successful attacks by a bit. Other than those abilities they’re basically flying Termagants and set us back 8 points per model once the (imo) mandatory Glands and Sacs are added. These would obviously be our ‘in your face early’ unit.

So if you stick that all together then we’re going to need a couple of cheap Synapse HQ’s, Hive Guard, Tyrannofex’s, 2 or 3 Venomthropes, Termagants, Hormagaunts and Gargoyles.

I’ll try and make an at least semi viable list out of that later, but if anybody else wants to have a go then I’m open to suggestions…

Tyranid Project - Part 12 - Termagants Part 2

86 Termagants. Holes filled, Mould lines removed (for the most part anyway), based and ready for undercoating.

Almost makes me want to do a horde Tyranid army...

Editors Note - I have added a 'Tyranid Project' label to all the appropriate posts so anyone who's interested (or masochistic) can find them easily ;-)

Tyranid Project - Part 11 - Termagants

So my large oval bases arrived at my FLGS today, which means I can finally start on my 2nd Tyrannofex. As I'm basically just going to copy the first one it shouldn't take long. It will however be kept as my reward to myself after I sort out another little problem.

Due to much generosity from several of my friends I now have a pretty substantial pile of 'Battle for Macragge' Termagants.

A large percentage of them seem to share the same problem, however...

As they have been donated by several different people, all of which are experienced hobbyist's I can only presume that the chunks missing from the carapace and tail are a result of the way they were originally attached to the sprue.

The tail was easy enough to reshape by filing, but apparently Green Stuff is a bit messy to use in such a small gap...

However with a bit of tidying up...

I'll smooth it down a bit more when it's dry.

1 Down, 60 (ish) to go.

Tomorrows going to be a looooooonnnng day :-(

Tyranid Project - Part 10 - Unit Analysis

So I've had a few games. A few units have performed well...others...well not so much.

Time for a brief overview of how each unit has done. These assessments will be how they and their abilities compliment my army so I'll be ignoring certain abilities which are of no benefit to me currently (like the Swarmlords 'Alien Cunning' rule for example).

Starting at the top,

The Swarmlord.

A bit of a points sink weighing in at 280 points. He does however do his job very well. Being able to give a friendly unit within 18" either Furious Charge or Preferred Enemy* is brilliant but he will for the most part be giving it to his own unit, It's also worth remembering that these abilities only last to the end of your turn so you don't get the benefit of preferred enemy in your opponents assault phase.

Though he has all 4 of the Hive Tyrant's abilities the 2 you'll get most use out of are Leech Essence and Paroxysm to the point that should I ever replace him with a standard Hive Tyrant those will be the 2 powers I pick.

Pretty much anything you end up in assault with (with the possible exception of TH/SS Terminators) will be dead in at worse 3 or 4 rounds of combat (and that includes attached characters) .

As with all such things there is a downside and this is his...without Tyrant Guard to absorb wounds and grant the unit cover saves he will NEVER reach assault. In the world of Mech that we currently live in, any even semi-optimised army will have enough ranged anti-tank to carve 6 wounds off a MC with no inv. save against shooting with ease. This seems like as good a time as any to move onto...

* Well he can also dish out Acute Senses as well, but as that's only of any real use in turn 1 of Dawn of war so I haven't used it yet.

Tyrant Guard.

Essential to anyone who wants their Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord to actually have a chance to rip something in half. As they are infantry they can get cover saves if 50% of the unit is in cover, this means that as long as the Tyrant Guard get a cover save or are in cover the Tyrant will get one as well if he is joined to the unit. They're pretty good in a fight themselves being WS 5, S 5 and having 3 attacks basic and if you happen to get a rending roll as well then all the better. Mine have Lash Whips which are useful as my Swarmlord doesn't get the option for them himself.

Hive Guard.

The no-brainer Elite choice. 2 S8 shots each at BS4 do a great job of carving through light Mech, Transports and denying Blood Angels their Feel no Pain save. I take 3 units of 2 and am yet to regret the decision.

There are people who champion the Zoanthrope as an Elites choice but imo they're wrong, my reasoning behind this is here. If you must use an Elite slot for something else (Deathleaper, maybe) then combine the 3 lots of 2 into 2 lots of 3. In most scenarios you'll need to advance at least 2 units of them forward due to their 24" range, luckily Termagants make a nice cheap piece of moving cover.

Tervigon.

A 6W , T6, Monstrous Creature that can hold an objective and make more Termagants...Fucking ace I'll have 2...

In objective missions one sits back and holds my home objective while the other moves forward giving the Termagants the benefit of both her Adrenal Glands (Furious Charge) and Toxin Sacs (4+ poison).

Though there have been rare occasions when Onslaught (gives the ability to run and shoot to a single unit) would have been useful, Catalyst (Gives Feel no Pain to a unit) has been priceless. If I had the spare points I'd have both but being as I had to choose I picked Catalyst which has been consistently useful. For the most part I've used it to increase Termagant survivability, but it has also been used to help out both The Swarmlord and Hive Guard units when necessary.

'Spawn Termagants' though useful, is so random that it can't be relied upon. Best to consider each unit produced as a bonus rather than rely on them to win you games. Also resist the temptation to get trigger happy and start producing Termagants from turn 1, much better to wait till you know where they'll be needed.

The default ability 'Dominion' which extends synapse range to 18" is always worth remembering if you happen to have a unit out on it's own that you really need to go where you want it to. Not used often but you get it for free so it's worth remembering you have it.**

Though it's possible to upgrade the Stinger Salvo to Cluster Spines I don't on the Tervigon for the simple reason that I'll probably be pretty damn close behind the Termagants that I'm enhancing and I don't wan't to risk dropping a Large Blast Marker on them...

** I have a terrible habit of forgetting abilities that I haven't had to pay extra points for...

Termagants.

Obviously I need 2 units of 10 to make my Tervigons troops so that's what I've got.

A unit of un-enhanced Termagants is basically useless against pretty much anything due to the string of 3's on their Statline (Initiative is 4), 1 base attack and their 6+ armour save.

However, once you start piling on the potential upgrades they become a lot more useful. It's fairly easy to end up with Furious Charging, Poisoned guys with Feel no Pain. Furious Charge makes them Initiative 5 so they're hitting before those annoying Marines that seem to be everywhere these days and their Strength obviously goes to 4 for that turn. This is doubly useful, Firstly because your now wounding Marines on 4's and Secondly that means that if your also getting poisoned attacks your rerolling that 4 to Wound (just for that turn mind you, but anything that ups the number of saving throws your opponent has to make is a bonus when you need as much dead before it can hit you back as possible) due to the Poison rule. Mine have Stranglewebs which I am yet to have the opportunity to use, they therefore may be going in exchange for another 2 Termagants per unit when I next tweak my list.

Their default ranged weapon is for all intents and purposes a Bolt Pistol. The points cost of ranged weapon upgrades is not worth it in my opinion, best to keep them cheap as they're going to die anyway.

Tyrannofex.

The much maligned by so-called (and for the most part) self titled experts, Tyrannofex. I happen to think they're awesome.

T6, 6W, 2+ Save makes anti-tank weapons the only reliable way of killing them.

The Rupture Cannon is the obvious weapon upgrade : S10, Assault 2 (making up for the BS3) and a 48" Range. With a secondary ranged weapon and a built in Flamer they're pretty good up close as well.

In my first game I made the mistake of using the Tyrannofex like a 'Rifleman' Dreadnought which it isn't, Unlike most long range gun platforms there is no need to tuck it away in a corner somewhere. First couple of turns use the Rupture Cannon to pop Transports, then when you get a bit closer you can start dropping Large Blast templates on the former occupants then finally you can unload that lot and your Flamer on something before Charging it and finishing off what's left.

Unlike with the Tervigons, I upgrade the Stinger Salvo to Cluster Spines as I'd rather have a S5, AP-, Large Blast at BS3 than 4 S5, AP4 shots at BS3. A hit with the Cluster will generate a lot more wounds than the 2 hits I'll get on average with the Salvo.

The Thorax Swarm (which can be fired in addition to any other weapons the model has) is upgraded to 'Larvae' as my experience with Sternguard (both with and against) has led me to believe that anything wounds on 2's is pretty fucking useful to have.

So that's it then, my experiences after a grand total of 4 games using my Tyranids.

The floor is now open for opposing viewpoints...

Tyranid Project - Part 9 - Game 3 vs. Imperial Guard

So time for the latest instalment of 'Ill screw up so you don't have to' ;-)

Had an opportunity to test my Tyranids out against Imperial Guard and Blood Angels (Again) today.

Must admit that I wasn't very hopeful about the outcome of either but they both went better than I was expecting.

In the 1st game I was playing against this list,

1750 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - Daves Imperial Guard - 1750

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 70 pts)

2 Company Command Squad @ 70 pts (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Company Commander

Elite: Ratling Squad (5#, 50 pts)

5 Ratling Squad @ 50 pts

Troops: Infantry Platoon (55#, 340 pts)

1 Infantry Platoon @ 340 pts

4 Platoon Command Squad

1 Platoon Commander

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Autocannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Autocannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Autocannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad (Heavy Weapons Team)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 90 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 90 pts (Meltagun x2)

1 Veteran Sergeant

Fast Attack: Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Valkyrie (Multiple Rocket Pods x2)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (2#, 260 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 260 pts

1 Vendetta

1 Vendetta

Fast Attack: Hellhound Squadron (2#, 260 pts)

1 Hellhound Squadron @ 260 pts

1 Bane Wolf (Heavy Flamer)

1 Hellhound (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (2#, 150 pts)

1 Hydra Flak Tank Battery @ 150 pts

1 Hydra Flak Tank

1 Hydra Flak Tank

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 200 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 200 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 200 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 200 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1750

Dave's been using this list for quite a while so he's pretty much got the hang of it. For those long term followers you may remember it as the army that destroyed my Chaos Daemons.

I haven't bothered to take pictures of every stage as certain things are now obvious and can be learned from previous battle reports.

As usual - Pictures first, Commentary afterwards...

Spearhead Deployment, 5 objectives. I win the roll for first turn and deploy first.

Dave's Deployment.

My Deployment. The Dreadnought is still standing in for the 2nd Tyrannofex and the Swarmlord still has no arms (he does however have Tyrant Guard that look like Tyranids rather than the Chaos Spawn I had been using).

The objectives are in forests in the top right and bottom left. A 3rd is between the 2 middle forests with the 4th and 5th 12 and a bit inches away on either side.

Dave fails to seize the initiative for the first time in our last 3 games.

Dave's Valks and Vendettas had used their Scout moves to go far enough for cover saves.

The Tervigon sitting on my objective Spawned 14 Termagants to reinforce my home objective. Both Tervigons gave the advancing Termagants Feel no Pain though one of them rolled double 1 for her psychic test and gave herself a wound. Everything else advanced forward. My shooting kills a Vendetta and stuns a Hydra but fails dismally at everything else.

Daves return shooting has killed a few Termagants, A Hive Guard each from 2 of the units and wounds a few of the Monstrous Creatures.

I continue my steady advance forward after spawning another unit of Termagants to try and absorb some fire that's likely to finish off my 2, now 1 man Hive Guard units. My shooting stuns a Vendetta.

The Hellhound/Banewolf Squadron has moved forward to block my progress around the left flank. Long range Lasgun and Autocannon fire puts wounds on my big monsters and thins out the Termagants. My Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard make a stupid amount of cover saves meaning they should get stuck into assault in my turn. The Valkyrie unloads it's veteran cargo in order to finish off the Tyrannofex, however the combined fire of pretty much everything that's left on that side of the board can only reduce it to 1 wound.

Close up shot of the road block.

The Tyrannofex on his last wound...and some Pizza.

The one firey death machine dies, however the other is depressingly functional and I've charged into Flamer formation, lol.

The Hive Guard finally do something useful and kill the Valkyrie, The Tyrannofex thins out the Veterans with shooting and charges what's left. Meanwhile the Termagants move up to claim the objective after the Vets hopefully die (which they do).

The Swarmlord carves through the unit that it had assaulted. The Termagants however being out of range of their supporting Tervigon get slaughtered by the Guard Company Command Squad.

It then butchers another 2 units in it's next assault but is only on one wound. Having by now lost it's Tyrant Guard it has no way of getting a cover save so promptly dies in the next shooting phase.

This Vendetta manages to improbably survive another torrent of fire and readies itself to contest an objective.

The advancing Tervigon plonks itself on an objective.

At this point Dave throws the remaining surviving bits and pieces of units at my objectives in order to contest as many as possible. If the game ends on turn 5 it's a draw, if it goes another turn I should be able to easily clear 2 objectives for a hard fought victory.

We roll for the next turn and.....the game ends.....bollocks :-(

A pretty good game but I'm beginning to have doubts about the Swarmlord. He made a lot more cover saves than I could have reasonably hoped for and still only just managed to reach the enemy intact. In Dawn of War he'd have been lucky to get halfway across the board.

Editors Note : The Blood Angels game we played afterwards basically involved us running at one other, meeting in the middle and butchering one another. I won but nothing came up that was really informative enough to be worthy of a battle report.

I'll do a proper analysis tomorrow as I think I'm at the list tweaking stage now.

Comment are (as usual) welcome.