Tyranid List Building Thoughts.

Boom! goes the dynamite.

 After playing Tyranids exclusively since around November last year and capping it all off with a fairly good performance at Blog Wars a couple of weeks ago I’ve been giving my list building strategy a bit of a rethink. Over the last few months I’ve experimented with a few different builds but a few things have remained consistent, firstly the mandatory inclusion of two Carnifexes with two Twin Linked Devourers each and a Tyranid Prime to nestle between them, two Tervigons and two 10-man units of Termagants to make them troops. Beyond these building blocks, I have experimented with Flying Hive Tyrants, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard, Mawlocs, Trygons, the Doom, Raveners and Gargoyles.

So a fairly broad spectrum there, but recently I’d settled down into a more shooting focused build involving Hive Guard, the Carnifexes and a couple of deep striking Monstrous Creatures and indeed this was reflected in the list I took to Blog Wars. However I felt a very significant lack of range and I also realised that such is the power of weight of firepower available to some armies at the moment, that managing your opponent’s range to you is also of great importance to the survival of an army that needs to get in close such as my ‘nids.

In an attempt to address some of these issues I’ve rethought my policy on list building with Tyranids so here are a couple of lists following a different philosophy of play-style:

Hive Tyrant: 2x twin-linked devourers with brainleech worms; wings.

Hive Tyrant:2x  twin-linked devourers with brainleech worms; Hive Commander; wings.

8 Ymgarl Genestealers
The Doom of Malan'tai
• Mycetic Spore: cluster spines.

Tervigon: Catalyst; crushing claws; cluster spines; toxin sacs; 2 powers.
15 Termagants: devourer.
• Mycetic Spore: cluster spines.
Tervigon: Catalyst; crushing claws; cluster spines; toxin sacs; 2 powers.
19 Termagants

18 Gargoyles: toxin sacs.
4 Raveners: scything talons; rending claws.

Total: 1850

I put the first list together because while I have run a single Flyrant in the past I had to stop because it was becoming too easy to take him out without him being able to do enough to justify his inclusion. Despite there being more Interceptor and Skyfire availability than ever, I think two Flyrants could still be a good way to go. The key to the success of this list will be in getting enough of the fast-moving elements across the board (and surviving) for a turn 2 charge in time for the arrival of the significant held in reserve. Devil-gants, Ymgarls and the Doom can all do significant damage when given the right targets but combined with the close proximity of two Flyrants, a unit of Gargoyles and a unit of Raveners I think it’ll be too much for a lot of lists to cope with.

Not forgetting the fact that there are two Tervifexes backing all this up who can put out a fair amount of hurt on their own and I think this has the makings of a pretty useful list. However if you are forced into a corner and have to play defensively the fact that you have a strong offence in units that are not scoring should allow you to have a good go at pinning your opponent back and forcing him to concentrate two or three turns of shooting at targets other than your troops. By the time your forward threats are dealt with you should have been able to secure a good chance of victory by securing objectives.

Here's a different concept:

Hive Tyrant: 2 powers; stranglethorn cannon; Hive Commander; armoured shell.
• 1 Tyrant Guard: lash whip.

The Doom of Malan'tai
• Mycetic Spore: cluster spines.
8 Ymgarl Genestealers

Tervigon: Catalyst; cluster spines; toxin sacs; 2 powers
Tervigon: Catalyst; cluster spines; toxin sacs; 2 powers
15 Termagants: devourer.
• Mycetic Spore: cluster spines.
15 Termagants: devourer.
• Mycetic Spore: cluster spines.

5 Spore Mines
18 Gargoyles: toxin sacs.

2 Biovores
Mawloc


Total: 1850

I came to a bit of a realisation in my first game against Tau, and that was that the fewer guns that they could bring to bear on my advancing army, the better off I would be. This is why you see many Tau players castling, in this way they can usually bring the majority of their firepower to bear on anything that strays into range. I was lucky in my particular game that the fear of my Mawloc's blast template eruption caused my opponent to deploy in a very dispersed manor allowing me to deploy in a refused flank and really only suffer about half of the potential Tau firepower as I advanced.

The list above tried to exacerbate the threat of templates with about 9 large blasts at reasonable range in the list. To add a further wrinkle to the situation, and hopefully further disrupt my opponent's thinking, I've got 5 Spore Mines in the list which I can place pre-deployment. I'll be aiming to get these into the centre of my opponent's deployment zone, this will give him a reason to consider a more clumped deployment or split his force, either of which plays int my strategy somewhat.

I really like the look of these lists on paper, I'll post up my experiences in about a month's time after I've got a couple of campaign games.