Collecting tyranids in 6th. Part 2 - Slow but tough (Shooty-shooty)

Tough as mountain… dakka-dakka-mountain!

Warhammer 40k 6th edition gave us overwatch, smash and Look out, sir! That is good. And fliers – that is bad.

My first idea of how to struggle with all this was – Monstrous devourers!!! Yes, they are twin-linked. This means 4 hits from every monster for any flyer or overwatch!

My second idea was to try out new Psy-powers! I looked through them and found Endurance! And I loved it cause FnP works against AP1, AP2 weapons… that means, it works ALWAYS for T6 creatures!!! And It Will Not die if cast on a unit, works for all the models in a unit at the same time! Cool!

So, we need a touch walking dakkamonsters. They are Tyrants and Carnifexes! Actually, HiveGuards are not monsters, but who cares as they are T6!! Also we need psy-buffers to toss out Endurance here and there, touch buffers. They are Tervigons and Tyrants. And we need a solid scoring, cause 5 of 6 missions are scoring missions. Touch scoring is… Tervigons! So, we need Tyrants, Carnifexes and Tervigons!

1850 Pts  -   Tyranids Army

HQ

Hive Tyrant - Twin Devourer with Brainleech Worms (x2); Leech Essence; Paroxism; Old Adversary

2 Tyrant Guard Brood - Lash Whips

Tyranid Prime - Devourer; Bonesword; Lash Whip; Toxin Sacs

Elites

2 Hive Guard Brood

2 Hive Guard Brood

Troops

Tervigon - Stinger Salvo; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst; Onslaught

10 Termagant Brood - Devourers

Tervigon -  Stinger Salvo; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst; Onslaught

10 Termagant Brood - Devourers

Fast Attack

20 Gargoyle Brood -Fleshborers; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs

Heavy support

2 Carnifex Brood -Twin Devourer with Brainleech Worms (x2)

Unit by unit:

Tyrant with 2 Guards goes biomancy. He is our Warlord and main support unit, cause he is our synapse, buffer and Old Adversary guy. In the beginning put 1 tyrant guard in front of tyrant, second – behind (or both behind). First wounds shoud go to a tyrant guard (who must be in cover). Since one tyrant guard is slain put 1 wound on the second guard through Look out sir and then up to 3 wounds to HT itself. It helps to soak up 6 wounds without grand losses. Also, if you rolled Iron Arm, you’ll receive full advantage of it after 1 tyrant guard is slain.

2 Carnies + prime. Put Prime in front of Carnies and do Look out, sir, until one Carni is reduced to 1 wound, then put wounds on prime. In your turn, place wounded Carni a bit further from prime to allocate wounds to unwounded Carni in the next turn. It helps to soak up 8 wounds without any models removed.

Keep this unit within 6” from Tyrant for Preferred Enemy.

HiveGuards in this variant can be placed close to Tyrant (6” remember that), or somewhere behind the LOS blocking terrain if desired.

Tervigons need not to be within 6” of a tyrant, so you can put them anywhere you like. Rush them forward, or keep them at your home nest. Both Catalyst and Onslaught are useful for your dakka monsters, so don’t change powers until Tyrant rolled Endurance already. Keep at least 1 onslaught. So that you always have 2-3 FnPs and 1 onslaught.

Gaunts with Devourers. Depending on the opponent and deployment type you can keep them in reserve or rush them forward. Keeping them as reserve may be useful when playing Vanguard Strike or Dawn of War deployment.

Gargoules are our living Aegis defence line:) They letus deploy as close as possible to the enemy lines, covering our Tervigons with ease.

Tactics:

All the army castles up close to tyrant with Old Adversary usually. At first, plan your movement, cause 5 turns of movement give you only 30 inches move, so if you want to get to the furthest enemy marker, you have to deploy as close as possible to it. Use gargoules as a meatshield to cover your monsters. So, you can set up in the open not to be slowed by difficult terrain.

So, the main idea is to determine the starting point of your movement, middle point and end point. As it’s not good idea to stretch your forces, usually it will be wise to set markers near the middle of the table. For example, if you play Emperror’s will on Vanguard deployment. Set your marker in the center of the table. Deploy forces as close as possible to the enemy marker. So, your start point is your deployment, middle point is your marker, end point is enemy marker.

This army is not complex in operation. Rush forward, shoot – it’s as easy as a pie!

Starting army

A 1000 pts competitive army will look like this:

HQ

Hive Tyrant - Twin Devourer with Brainleech Worms (x2); Leech Essence; Paroxism

Tyrant Guard

Tyranid Prime - Boneswords (2 Sets); Regeneration; Toxin Sacs

Troops

 Tervigon - Stinger Salvo; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst; Onslaught

10 Termagant Brood

Heavy Support

2 x Carnifex -Twin Devourer with Brainleech Worms (x2)

Army cost:

To collect this army one will need

(according to http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landingArmy.jsp?catId=cat440179a&rootCatGameStyle=):

53.75$ - Hive Tyrant box

24.75$ - Tyrant Guard

57.75$ - Tervigon

87$ - Termagant boxes (36 termagants)

107.5$ - 2 Carnifexes

47$ - Tyranid Warrior Brood

19.75$ - Tyranid Boneswords Pack

Total:  397.5$

Nevertheless, there is a problem: Only 1 TL Devourer is packed with Hive Tyrant and Carnifexes. So, you have to find 3 more pairs of devourers for your monsters. One idea is to do like this guy:

http://bluetablepainting.blogspot.com/2008/09/twin-linked-devourer.html

If you want to save some money – go to ebay or try to find second hand minis.

1.       At first, buy 1 tyranid warrior instead of taking the whole box! There are many of them are on sale from battleforces!

2.       Boneswords can be easily converted using Scything talons and plastic card!

3.       There are many Carnifexes on sale from hands after fifth edition came out. So, you can find them at a low price on ebay for example.

If you follow that way, you can save about 100$, so the 1000 pts army will cost about 300$ or even less to a wise man. I’ll call this variant an easy one to play, but quite pricey.