Building a Tyranid List: Themes

When Building lists, I love to theme them to particular styles of play or even pure thematics. My favorite happens to be a Maccragge vs Behemoth them (what I am working to convert my army to). But this goes beyond cosmetics. Building a themed list can be a great fun and usually quite a challenge. For those who are used to playing with steamrolling, power-playing lists, this is not for you. Many of the themes we can use are not highly competitive or at least take more skill to use than going with the "meta" lists. So as you continue to read, be warned that these are more for fun than effectiveness, but do not underestimate them. 

Our first Theme is based on a hive fleets first encounter on a planet. This theme is about guerrilla warfar and ambush tactics. With the addition of the Vanguard Dataslate, we can field a separate detachment of Lictors or Genestealers that adds a bit of flavor and fun. Aside from these (which I will talk about in a different post) here is an example of a vanguard list. This list is perfect for a Leviathan paint scheme.

Deathleaper

3x Lictors

3x Lictors

3x Zoanthropes

15x Genestealers + Broodlord/acid blood

15x Genestealers + Broodlord/acid blood

30x Termagaunts

30x Termagaunts

3x Warriors/rending claws , 1x Deathspitter (5 point dump)

=1500

This is centered around using the genestealers and the lictors to harass and pin down the opposition. The weakness of this kind of them is lack of dedicated anti vehicle/heavy infantry. That is the only reason the Zoanthropes have been included in the list (and synapse). The second issue is synapse. While lictors have high leaderships and genestealers do not need synapse, the rest of the army does and a group of fearless genestealers is kinda scary. Another option which is a bit more gutsy is to take horamagaunts instead of termagaunts. this means they are less likely to be useless failing synapse, but they could just kill themselves instead. This is a fun list type, but very difficult to use, especially against marines who can outlast you.

The second list that comes to mind is the flying list. It is rather easy to make one. Use flying tyrants, harpies, gargoyles, shrikes, and if you really want to, flying rippers. The troops are harder to make fly, but a few units of gaunts isn't that hard to adapt to especially if you use hormagaunts who can actually keep up with your flyers. This list is all about hitting fast and hard. Its a high risk high reward strategy that tends to die more often then win. But there are few things more frightening than seeing an entire brood of gargoyles and shrikes coming straight at your face. The issue here is it does play well to objectives without some serious strategy. It likes to engage the enemy and kill them, which is still a viable option. also if you want large broods of flyers it is gonna cost you some points/money. Fun but difficult list.

The next theme is a subterranean assault. I know a guy who runs a variant of this and it is nasty when used right. You max out all trygon primes and bring 3 broods of raveners. bring a brood or two of lictors to prevent scatter and tada! nasty deepstriking mayhem (you could also add a flying tyrant for deepstrike). Bring some gaunts in the rear (maybe a tervigon troop) and you can do some heavy damage with a wave assault. Also bring a comm relay for reserves since you cant get the upgrade on a standard tyrant anymore. The ONLY way for this list to be viable is three trygon primes for synapse. Any other way to run it has been unsuccessful from everything I have seen. If you love the idea of dropping three MCs on your enemy and smaller yet no less nasty worms, then this list is for you!

The next two lists are not too uncommon (actually they are the most common). Swarm and Nidzilla. Nidzilla is bringing MCs and as many multi-wound or high toughness things as possible. Runs the risk of getting shot to bits by heavy weapons, but so cool to see so many big bugs moving forward. Swarm is bringing the tervigon (maybe 2-3) and using warriors for synapse. You rush tons of little guys at your enemy while supporting with specialized elites (zoanthropes) who do what your gaunts cannot. Also a wonderful list to see fully painted and on the tabletop. 

I didn't give lists for most of these due to how easy it is to see a functioning list. I see the vanguard theme as the most difficult to use due to its fragility. Now these aren't the only ones you can make. Try creating a digestion theme using organisms involved in the final stages of the planetary digestion or perhaps pick a hive fleet and try to theme around their recorded strategies (lictors being very common in leviathan). If you think of any others post them and I may try them out! hope you enjoyed this section of my Tyranid Tactica!

Tyranid Renovations: Carnifex Conversion

Here is my latest creation! I got this guy from another player through trades. He had the body on backwards but arms weren't attached. I ripped him off the base and put him on a walker base (courtesy of Dan). I put crushing claws and scything talons on him as well as an adrenal gland. In his claws and on his base are parts from a rhino (suitably chosen to be a Ultramarine rhino, dedicated to my classic nemesis Michael) as well as a marine arm severed but still grasping the side of a stormbolter. I added spines inspired from the covenant hunters as well as extra bit here and there. overall I was surprised how much I liked the backwards torso for I was a bit skeptical at first. I now love this guys and cant wait to see him waltzing across the battlefield straight at my opponent. Stay tuned for his paint job!

Bloodbowl Conversions

So here is some dark eldar and dark elf conversions for bloodbowl. This is the team my friend is going to use in the upcoming league. I kit-bashed kabalite warriors and witches from the dark eldar range and the dark elf corsairs. The first photo is the linemen using primarily warrior bodies, mixing in witch heads and using different witch arms and even a corsair arm. The second are the blitzers using corsairs. The third is the assassin. Forth is the runners using witch models. I used the corasair sword arms on the blitzers but snipped the sword turning the fists into brass knuckles. I love the idea of the dark elves running onto the field with weapons so I didnt remove them from the arms. I have a dark elf witch on order from ebay to use later. I am debating the color scheme so stay tuned for that!

Building a Tyranid List: Heavy Support

Ok so here is where our lists have some real difficulty in choosing what to bring. Pretty much all of the choices are viable and useful in the right strategies. Lets start with what accounts for our only artillery. Biovores. Biovores are great anti infantry being one of our two creatures with 48" range and barrage shots. They absolutely wreck tau infantry lines, eldar, and guard infantry while still posing a threat to others. Their instinctive behavior is great for them unless you roll the worst result, in which case they cant do anything. i bring these guys in any game I can fit them in after my other first-pick options.
Speaking of first picks, one of the most iconic creatures to see on the battlefield is the carnifex. this guys is just as beastly as in the last edition but cheaper! I run him as a cannon fex (stranglethorn/brainleach worms) but he has so many options to choose from. he is great to just pay for him and run him at tanks. He draws a lot of fire and if he is a single model unit you need not really fear instinctive behavior. beware though, bring a brood and they might do some hefty damage to each other if you don't keep them under control. He is just a great pick for heavy support.
Our next pick is our tyranofex. This guy has our long-range strength 10 shot. he is good for what he does, but I personally don't bring these guys. they are good at killing all but the toughest vehicles (still able to take them down with luck however) and if you wish to bring his antis infantry option he can do a lot of damage in both rolls. he is almost always brought for anti vehicle due to the strength his his shot, but don't discount this guy. He is our only 2+ armor save and plenty of wounds to soak fire. A good pick, I just prefer zoanthropes for my anti-vehicle.
Next is our trygon and the trygon prime. The trigon is still a mele beast and throw a 6 would MC behind an enemy line and he will cause some chaos. His synapse counterpart, the prime is also fantastic as it add more synapse wherever you want it and he bring 12 shots out of a deepstrike instead of 6. I know a guy who runs 3 of these and groups of raveners. His deepstrike list works rather well and is probably the only one I have seen do so well. These guys are great but once again, I have another pick.
The mawloc. This guys just became awesome in this edition. When he comes up hit AOE hits, then if he cant be placed, then you do it again. If it still can be place then you roll a mishap. what makes this great? you have a 1/6 chance of death with the other options being misplaced only to burrow next turn or delayed to come up again! I bring at least one of these guys in an attempt to eat heavy infantry. I have destroy plenty of wraithguard, terminators, and light vehicles with him. Great worm. Use him to disrupt or hunt down those high armor save units. Be warned, he does scatter as per normal deepstrike so don't rely on him too much.
Now we have the exocrine.... ermergerd I want to buy this bug. He is good because he brings a large blast marine killing plasma cannon. He is also a multi wound MC so he is decently durable. Use him against marines and their equivalents. I give this guy a thumbs up :)

Now the problem with these options is something you can kinda see from my comments.... where are the bad options? They are ALL good. Maybe some are a little more for specific lists, but even in a general list these can all be used. Now you just have to decide how is my list going to synergize the best. Do you want a purely shooty bug? Bring the biovore. Shock and awe? Trygons and Mawlocs. Most of these are MCs so even the exocrine who is made for shooting can do something in H2H. Be warned though, for these are mostly single model units that can be easily focused and taken down in one turn (if they try hard enough). If you put a deepstriker out of position, or give their weapon teams open firing against them these bugs will go down. Beware of devastators, railrifles, etc. They will not find them anything but a single target to focus. Bring a venomthrope and they can get a minimum of 5+ cover (except against the lousy tau flashlights). Be smart with them and you can dominate. I hope you enjoyed the commentary on the overview of units. I will be further delving into list building and other synergies between units next. Stay tuned!

Off-Topic Painting

Here are just a few painting projects for the viewing pleasures. I have taken a small break from 40k painting to paint a model for a friend and to start painting my new Skaven army. Prob gonna touch up that banner to see the symbol easier.