Collecting tyranids in 6th. Part 6 – Slow but Hoppy-Droppy

“Slow but hoppy-droppy” lists utilize both concepts – the slow “steamroller” with a hoppy-droppy part.

1850 Pts - Slow but Hoppy-Droppy Tyranids Army

HQ
The Swarmlord
Tyrant Guard - Lash Whips
Hive Tyrant - Twin Devourer with Brainleech Worms (x2); Wings; Leech
Essence; Paroxism; Old Adversary

Elites
The Doom of Malan'tai in Mycetic Spore

Troops
Tervigon- Stinger Salvo; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst; Onslaught
Tervigon - Stinger Salvo; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst
Tervigon - Stinger Salvo; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst
13 Termagant Brood with Devourers in Mycetic Spore
13 Termagant Brood with Devourers in Mycetic Spore
 13 Termagant Brood with Devourers in Mycetic Spore





Unit by unit:


Swarmlord. Maybe the best close combat unit in the game. He is pricey, but he boosts our reserves (-25 pts for HiveCommander) and boost one unit per turn with Preferred enemy (-25 pts for Old Adversary). And he is Mastery level 2 psyker! Make him into close combat as soon as possible and he will cut everything to pieces. You should decide what psychic powers are better for him in the match and take Telepathy (for Invisibility/Hallucination) or take Biomancy (for Iron Arm and Enfeeble). I like Biomancy more, cause the powers are warp charge 1 and he can toss 2 powers a turn + Preferred enemy for free!

Tyrant guard. Just the ablative wounds for Swarmlord to make him a bit toucher target and for some cover shenanigans: put tyrant guard behind a gaunt (25% in cover) and then transfer lascannon wounds from Swarmy to guard via “Look out, Sir!” – the guard will receive his cover save!!! So you can walk in the open field to reach your opponent as soon as possible with Swarmy!

Flyrant. We need him to deal with flyers and control the table. We need him to buff gunts with Old Adversary. He is our mobility, so don’t play him aggressively until you protect him with something like
invisibility:)

Tervigons. Our Steamroller! Scoring, countercharge, buffing. The one with 3 powers is here to exchange powers for biomancy. Others keep their codex powers and toss out FnP for Flyrant, Swarmy and themselves. FnP is so good in 6th:) Rush them forward close to Swarmy for countercharge. Spawn gants to tarpit your opponent, then bring your Swarmy to the brawl and finish it:)

Gaunts. Slap-slap-slap, dakka-dakka-dakka! Quite a straightforward unit. With preferred enemy, 1 gaunt = 1 wound for T4 model. So, 39 gants = 39 wounds. Remember that sporepods always shoot at the closest
 targets, so if you land near soft troops, you may want to shoot them down before spore to hit something touch like a Rhino with S6 shots. Or you may want to wreck a rhino prior to gants shooting. Sometimes I
 give spores a deathspitters to make them a bit more aggressive and increase the number of S5 shooting in the army.

The Doom. It is our Joker, which can solo win the game. Change Cataclysm for Psychic shreek if there are not many targets for large blast. Remember that Cataclysm can blow up even a land raider!

Tactics:
 This army is not straightforward in action. You can adapt to your enemy with psychic powers first. Choose biomancy or telepathy for Swarmy. Flyrant is obviously better with biomancy. But tervigons with
 telepathy are pure evil:) 30 ork boyz mob is fearless… until you use Terrify on them! Obliterators, daemons… a lot of units in the game feel safe until they loose fearless!
Enemy unit has low Ld? Dominate!
 If you see no targets for telepathy, go biomancy! Iron Arm is a key to victory against S6-S7 shooting spam. Lootas have nothing to do against T9 flyrant:)
 Deployment. Usually, we deploy aggressively with 3 tervs and swarmy in the middle – all in cover if necessary. We advance as fast as possible to synchronize with reserves!
 Turn 2 we deliver the blow with flyrant, Doom and gants, so our blow is much more powerful if we add some support from Swarmy and tervigons – don’t keep them in backfields!
 Turn 3 you can spawn gants and send to the backfield objectives, but… if you put objectives midfield – you will have no need to hold any units back! Rush to the middle and sit on the objectives there!

Starting army:

1000 Pts Slow but Hoppy-Droppy Tyranids Army

HQ
Hive tyrant - 2 x TL devourers with brainleech worms, hive commander, wings

Troops
Tervigon - Stinger Salvo; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst; Onslaught
Tervigon - Stinger Salvo; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst
17 Termagant Brood with Devourers in Mycetic Spore with TL deathspitter
10 Termagant Brood with Devourers

Go for biomancy with Flyrant and 3-power tervigon. Put both tervs on board, outflank the 10-gant unit. Place Flyrant on board if you won the roll to go first, or place him in reserve if you lost it and is afraid that opponent can shoot him down fast. Buff your flyrant with Catalyst, kill the opponents key unit with your
 reserves and spam gants to control the battlefield! The control of the field is a key – with flyrant, reserves and 2 spawning scoring monsters you have all you need to get control over the board, push your opponent into the corner and devour him:)

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
115.5$ -Two Tervigons
145$ - Five termagant boxes (60 termagants)
5 - 50$ - Mycetic spore


Total: 320$ - 365$

Also, there are no original model for Mycetic Spore, so you can
scratch-build it:
http://hive-fleet-hyenna.blogspot.com/2012/08/mycetic-spore.html
Or you can buy some Mycetic Spore Alternative Model:
http://hydracast.blogspot.com/p/drop-spore.html

 You also will counter a Monstrous devourers problem, as there are no one in a tyrant box! But.. you cane use fleshborer hive from your Tervigon/Tyrranofex box count as TL devourers!

 It is mediocre expensive for those who love the “horde” style armies. It’s not easy to play, but very effective and flexible. The “starting army” can easily be expanded further to make full reserve or no reserve army later if you wish.