Tyranid Musings
The Mesa Nids are not the brightest gaunts in the swarm. They deploy badly. They spawn the wrong creatures. But they are learning…
In the Tyranid book there are three types of creatures: small, medium and large. The monstrous creatures cannot get cover saves from the others generally, so they are in a class apart. The medium creatures can get cover saves from the smaller gribblies.
Small
Termagants
Hormagaunts
Gargoyles
Parasite of Mortrex
The Parasite is jump infantry, not necessarily even on a 40mm base. I’m thinking more of a jump-packer-sized thing.
Synapse Creatures
Anything in HQ
Tyranid Warriors
Shrikes
Zoanthropes
Trygon Prime
These two things have to match up. The Parasite can run with Hormagaunts and keep up with them, which is a nice feature. I’m going to try this once and let you know how it goes. Actually, you will probably see it in a video batrep.
I am currently a huge fan of Hormagaunts. They are the same cost as Gargoyles. I’m not trying to say one is better than the other. I just think they serve the role of shock troops better. On the net, their total movement is only about 1-2″ less. They can move through terrain better, getting cover saves. The big drawback of Gargoyles is that they have to take difficult terrain tests, or be out in the open. After all, who is going to screen them.
I see Gargoyles as being more of a troubleshooter unit. I plan on trying out a unit of 10 and seeing if they can cause some damage. That’s only 60 points after all. They can do something that Hormagaunts cannot: get up to higher levels of terrain easily. I see them more as a unit to lurk around the edges and pounce on pesky units.
An interesting list to try out would be all Mycetic Spores. I wonder how a conga line of those things would affect the battlefield. If you’ve seen the models I’m using for these, we can create a painted one for you for $110 (or two for $180) or you can just get the model for $50 (four for $180).
The trick with Tyranids has to be the synergy of units. How do two units work together. Example: Parasite of Mortrex can run with Hormagaunts, giving it protection while the gaunts get some extra hitting power. But the Parasite is pretty spendy for it’s relatively tame hitting power, that is a problem. I mean, it costs as much as a Carnifex for pity’s sake.
Speaking of Carnifexes, I’m just not seeing it. I do plan on running a pod to see how they do. I would really like to (just once) run nine of those boys across the table. Strength 9 is their big item. And bio-plasma, don’t forget they can turn into a close range plasma cannon.
Back to synergy. Small and medium creatures are the two great tastes that taste great together. The gribblies give cover saves while the large creatures add hitting power. I see Shrikes working well here as they can hop about out of sight (the best defense against shooting is to simply be unseen completely). They have the enormous downside (Gargoyles too) of dangerous terrain tests. There is a ton of difficult terrain on the typical 40K board. But I don’t see that as a big downside.
Starting to love the Shrikes. Want to try them out. I’m thinking a brood of five. Or maybe just three to keep their profile slim while still keeping spread out.
Three medium creatures on 40mm bases, spaced 2″ apart can only have one member of the brood hit by a large blast template at a time. That ain’t bad.
I’m really worried about the trenchworks board. That thing is a deathtrap for Tyranids: gribblies forced into a tight pack down in the trenches means the cover save is not so useful. A pair of flamers and it’s roasty time.
The thing I love about the Tyranid codex is that it is full of mono-purpose creatures which means that they can handle almost any situation. If the swarm is large enough.
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