57 Varieties

I had a week off from gaming this week and you know what they say about idle hands! I've been thinking about a new army for a little while, my Marines are complete (well I'll probably keep adding bits but I don't need anything else right now!), the Orks are built and I can run a couple of 1750 lists with the models I have so what next? For quite a while I've been really into the Eldar, I've even made a couple of small eBay purchases but the list I've been after is a foot-dar build. This sounds like fun but I can see myself tiring of it quickly and want to mechanise it … expensive!

Then GW started shoving Dark Eldar in our faces and I was caught up in the hype like everyone else, the models are fantastic, the rules sound really cool and it would be fun to play the codex-de-jour. But time has passed (admittedly not much) and despite the non-stop publicity machine that's currently grinding I'm going off them a bit, I'm just not an early adopter (those Mandrakes look freaking awesome though!).

So I'm left with a gnawing, scratching sensation digging at the back of my brain, I guess it's always been there, the Hive Mind has had a strong hold over me since I first got into the hobby 30 years ago. Thanks to my time off this week I've spent quite a bit of time with the codex and Army Builder and I've got to say that I think I've managed to put a finger on what attracts me to a particular army. My first love is Marines and that will probably never change, I think the reason for this is that variety is what makes an army interesting for me and, in my opinion, you can get a lot of different, interesting and competitive builds out of the Marine 'dex.

Back to my time with the 'nids this week and what I'm sold on here is that there are quite a number of different, “competitive” builds available which have interesting little nuances that make them exciting to play. Over my next few posts I'm going to put up some lists and talk about why I think they will be interesting to play and why I think they'll be competitive.

First of all I'm going to talk about the first list I'm going to build and how I'm going to collect it, kicking off with a 750pt list as follows:

HQ
Tyranid Prime
Lash Whip and Bonesword

ELITE
Hive Guard
(2)

TROOPS
Genestealers
(10) Toxin Sacs
Genestealers
(10) Toxin Sacs

HEAVY SUPPORT
Trygon

Total: 750pts

Small, elite and pretty cheap to buy, considering that I already have a few genestealers lying about and I plan to convert the Hive Guard from the two left-over warriors from the box set. The basic plan is to reserve the Trygon and outflank the stealers, the Prime sits with the Hive Guard and they try to pop a transport or two to give the stealers some soft targets when they arrive. It's not an all-rounders list and will be completely ineffective against anything with a bit of mech and unlucky outflanking rolls will hurt as well. But when it all comes together it could be nasty.

Anyway, adding 500 pts for the next iteration:

HQ
Hive Tyrant
Wings, 2x TL Devourer w. Brainleech Worms, Hive Commander, Paroxysm & Leech Essence

ELITE
Hive Guard
Hive Guard

TROOPS
Genestealers
(10) Toxin Sacs
Genestealers
(10) Toxin Sacs
Hormagaunts
(18) Toxin Sacs

FAST ATTACK
Raveners
(3)
Raveners
(3)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Trygon

Total: 1250pts

Now you can see what I'm building towards here, a full reserve list. The Hive Guard don't really fit in this list but I think they can be of some use if they can make it to turn 2 and be in position to fire … that's a big “if”, perhaps they would be OK coming in from reserve, I just think they are too short ranged to be effective at all this way.. Other than the Hive Guard, we have the 'stealers and the gaunts outflanking thanks to Hive Commander! The Raveners and Trygon deploy via Deep Strike and the Hive Tyrant flies on. It's in your face on turn 2 on a 3+, I like those odds but it can definitely be let down by poor dice and a piece-meal appearance.

Here's the last 500pts to take me up to 1750:

HQ
Hive Tyrant
Wings, 2x TL Devourer w. Brainleech Worms, Hive Commander, Paroxysm & Leech Essence

ELITE
Zoanthrope Brood
(2) w. Mycetic Spore
Deathleaper

TROOPS
Genestealers
(11) Toxin Sacs inc Broodlord w. Scything Talons
Genestealers
(10) Toxin Sacs
Hormagaunts
(20) Toxin Sacs

FAST ATTACK
Raveners
(3)
Raveners
(3)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Trygon
Toxin Sacs
Trygon
Toxin Sacs

Total: 1750pts

And there we have it, 100% reserve deployment, plenty of nasties in it a good amout of which are glass cannons but some Monstrous Creatures mixed in there to toughen it up a bit. Troops all outflank, Raveners and Trygon deploy via Deep Strike and the Zoanthropes crash down in the pod to try and deliver some “explodiness” to armour. Deathleaper is all about making those Zoes more effective by lowering a librarian's leadership so they can't easily counter the powers with their hoods (won't against Wolves obviously as they're broken ;) ). Sure he can do some ninja stuff as well but that's a bonus for me, when he appears he'll hopefully draw some fire away from my other units.

Like I said, it's something of a glass canon list but I like to leave stuff in the hands of the dice gods, it's all part of the plan! What do you guys think?