Pretty long email, here it comes:
Hey there, just wanted to say thanks for the recent Tyranid features ; it’s getting harder and harder to find upbeat postings online about the bugs. Thought I might try to capitalize on that, and see if I could get some advice on the following tournament list. The tournament itself isn’t until the 26th, so I’ve got some time left to make changes.
Currently sitting at 1847/1850, it’s designed to be a null deployment army, although there are situations where I can see starting some of the units on the table. I went with null deployment because I still haven’t found a reliable way to get my swarm across the table without being shot to pieces. Really looking forward to hearing how your foot swarm does on that front. Anyway, on to the list.
HQ:
Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, lashwhip and bonesword, Paroxysm, Leech Essence, Hive Commander, TL BL devourers – 270
Elites:
2 Zoanthropes in Mycetic Spore w/ TL deathspitters – 170
2 Zoanthropes in Mycetic Spore w/TL deathspitters – 170
Troops
10 Termagants w/ devourers, in Mycetic Spore - 140
8 Genestealers w/ toxin sacs -136
8 Genestealers w/ toxin sacs – 136
Tervigon w/ Dominion, Stinger Salvo, Catalyst – 175
Heavy Support:
Mawloc – 170
Trygon Prime – 240
Carnifex w/ x2 TL BL devourers in Mycetic Spore w/ TL deathspitters -240
I’ve given up numbers and some combat prowess, but I feel that I’ve gotten that back in the potential to negate the first two turns of fire and the ability to pick my own ground to attack. I’ve tried to maximize the number of mid-strength shots in the hopes of side/rear armor hits, hence the deathspitters on the spores. They’re not meltaguns, but have a decent chance to at least glance and harass Razorback and Chimeras, while their occupants can get out and do the heavy tank busting. Similar thinking went into the devourers on the Tyrant, Carnifex, and the Prime upgrade on the Trygon. They aren’t ideal tank hunters, but they’ve got quantity, and won’t be wastes if I need to thin out Orks or other Tyranids.
The Termagants will be aimed at whatever happens to be outside of a transport most times – preferably Long Fangs/Devastators, although I can also see castling them in cover.
The Tervigon will be outflanking via Hive Commander and hopefully setting up a second flank with the Genestealers. Catalyst isn’t a substitute for frag grenades, but helps quite a bit getting them through that first turn of fire (assuming there’s nothing within 12” of the board edge).
The Mawloc is included as a distraction. He’s big, reasonably hard to kill, can pick on weak units, and escape from assaults that don’t kill him, all in addition to his Terror From the Deep Attack.
I’ve had a lot of success with this style of list over the last few months, but haven’t gotten in enough games against tournament-prepped opponents to feel comfortable with it yet, so any thoughts /criticism is welcome.
In any event thanks for the read-over and for taking the time to run Best Overall – I’ve really enjoyed the analysis and discussion here.
I'm glad you enjoy reading. I have thought about Null Deployment Nids, but don't have any experience with them. I'll give you a few thoughts.
Outflanking things without rerolls to their table edge is a pretty risky proposition. You say your plan is to bring your Tervigon and Genestealers to "set up a new flank." The chances of them both coming in on the correct table edge are like 44%. Frankly I don't think this is going to work.
You are following the 'one of each' approach with your Heavy Support choice which is almost never right.
Pretty much anything that's worth taking once is worth taking twice, so you can be sure you have it when you need it. That's why good lists have redundancy, and usually duplicate units at least a bit.
I have thought about Mawloks, but I think if I even TRIED to use them I would take three, start them on the board and burrow first turn and make my opponent deal with them all coming in on turn two. I don't know if it would work, but it's something I have thought about.
Personally my Null deployment thoughts lean more towards Warriors and/or Shrikes deep striking in rather than trying to make things like Tervigons and Genestealers work in this kind of an army.
1850 is not the level I normally play at, but this army seems really light, it seems like things are going to be coming in piecemeal and are going to get destroyed. I haven't seen a Null Deployment Nids list that I liked a whole lot but maybe there's something one of the readers can suggest.
Sorry to criticize without offering a solution, but I just don't think this will work and I don't have a great suggestion for an alternative.
