The Swarm from LV-426


Building the Tyranid Swarm
The Tyranid army I play is fairly static so I have been coming up with ideas for the other archetypes available in the codex. I am going to start by looking at the swarm. I do not have enough Hormagaunts to build this at the moment; I do however have a ton of Genestealers I can proxy them with.

Concept
Just like the Aliens or Starship Troopers films the idea is to have a seemingly endless horde of a hundred or more bugs swarming across the table toward the opponent. Hormagaunts, Gargoyles and Genestealers are all great for this. I wanted to avoid Monsters, however the Tervigon is just too good to pass up on. Raveners 12" charge helps get them into melee quicker and their claws can destroy tanks. Orinally I was going to use two broods of hormaguants; as I do not own those I instead went for Devilguants.

Army List: The Swarm from LV-426 @ 2000 Points
050 Termagants x10
160 Hormagaunts x20 w/ Toxic Sacs
160 Termagants x16 w/ Devourers
250 Broodlord & Genestealers x11 w/ Toxic Sacs
250 Broodlord & Genestealers x11 w/ Toxic Sacs
150 Gargoyles x25 (Mobile cover for the other units)
210 Raveners x6 w/ Rending Claws

Brains options 1
110 Tyranid Prime w/ Bone Sword & Whip, Deathspitter, Regeneration
220 Zoanthropes x3 in Mycetic Spore
250 Hive Guard x5
190 Tervigon w/ Catalysis, Toxic Sacs, Talons
Has 93 Bugs (single wound models), 17 Large (multi-wound) Bugs , 1 Monster & 1 Spore.

Brains options 2
390 Tervigon w/ Catalysis, Toxic Sacs, Glands x2 (one HQ; one Troops)
180 Zoanthropes x3
200 Two Broods of Hive Guard x2
This gives 93 Bugs (single wound models), 15 Large (multi-wound) Bugs & 2 Monsters


Alternative units
1. Raveners could be replaced with Shrikes for more Synapse and extra shooting.
2. Swap the Prime (and a Hive Guard) for a second Tervigon.
3. Drop the Spore and walk the Zoanthropes with the horde; Spend the extra points on more bugs. Combines quite well with option two.


Tactics
Genestealers outflank (or infiltrate) to threaten the sides of the gaming table; Meanwhile the Hormagaunts, Raveners & Tervigon are the main horde to charge up the middle of the board. Tervigon gives Feel No Pain (for a 4+ Save) to the front rank of the swarm. They in turn give everything else a 4+ cover save. The Prime goes with the Hive Guard so we can direct our shooting and gives them some combat potential. Zoanthropes will deep strike in to help with Synapse and destroying tanks with their psychic attacks. The Termagants can hold the home objective or join the horde as required. We also have the Tervigon's Babies that will push us past the target of one hundred bugs.


Strengths: The core units are fast moving (Beasts, Wings and Bounding Leap) so should be getting into second or third turn assaults. Combining this with Genestealers attacking from the flanks (or infiltrating) will help minimise the time available for enemy shooting. Even with blast weapons a hundred bugs is a lot to take out.

Weakness: We only have three Synapse units so we are likely to end up with some units running on instincts. This should not be too bad as we want most of them to just charge at the opposition anyway. This list is light on shooting, and while that was part of the design, it may struggle in games against heavily armoured and/or fast tanks. Most of the army gets no save against common handguns; it is reliant on getting cover saves from terrain or other Tyranids.

Other Point values
For higher points - I would add a second Tervigon (as HQ), Hive Guard #6 & Shrikes. I actually put together a 1k list which I like. For 1500 I would add in the Prime and make Tervigon a Troops unit.

1000 Points - The Swarm from LV-426
220 Tervigon: Catalysis, TS, Talons, Regeneration
200 Hive Guard x4
160 Hormagaunts x20 w/ Toxic Sacs
160 Termagants x16 w/ Devourers
170 Genestealers x10 w/ Toxic Sacs
090 Gargoyles x15
Total: 7 Kill Points; 61 Bugs, 4 Large Bugs, 1 Monster.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular articles

Blood Bowl Inducement Review

Image
Blood Bowl Inducement Review As most of the inducement options from Death Zone are allowed in LBBL games I thought it was worthwhile providing a summary of what is available.  I have also added a quick colour code to say if I think the options are Good , Bad or Situationally useful.  Remember as per the League handbook you must bring along an official copy of the relevant rulebook for any Inducement you are using.  This guide is intended to be used to help you decided if you want to buy a copy of Death Zone not as a replacement for it.  Remember folks we get an extra 5% off at Geek Retreat on League night! Death Zone offers (In)Famous Coaching Staff, new Wizards, Named Referees and a small number of other cheap options for using up petty cash.   0-2 (In)famous Coaching Staff Galandril Silverwater 40,000 gp Elven Kingdoms Extra Cheerleaders and a minimal chance of extra Team Re-rolls if that kick off event happens.  I will pass thank you.
Read more

Death Zone 2020 - A Review

Image
    Once again we have a beautifully produced full colour book that is slightly marred by the lack of proof reading.  Almost everything in the book is a reprint of the 2016 content updated to use the new team special rules.  There are little things such as Ranulf the Ref still having to "roll higher than the AV of the player" even though the main rule book changes AV 7 to be AV 8+ being everyone else is having to roll equal to AV.  Then we have the new Mercenary rules where the Elf starts with AG 2+ but can increase this by 2 to AG 0+ when AG 1+ is the max allowed!!? New Inducements This section takes all the inducements printed in the old Death Zone and Spike journals and updates them to use the new team special rules.  Instead of being taken by an Orc or Dwarf team they are now Badlands Brawl or Worlds Edge.  This expands which teams can take them.  Some of the inducements have had minor alterations and there are a couple I have not seen before. (In)Famous Coaching Staff Ka
Read more

Arcane Trickster

Image
The Arcane Trickster is my favourite sub-class in Fifth Edition D&D.  It is not the most powerful but is a lot of fun.   Trickster does not need to multi-class but a single level of Wizard gives a big boost with access to all first level spells, ritual casting and we can trade out our known spells for more Second Level options.  Best spot for multi-class is level six but if we have a game where we expect to spend a long time in Tier 1 we can also dip at level 2. Rogues get lots of choice for using a Bonus action and Reaction as we go up levels. Actions: Attack; (3) cast a spell Bonus: Off-hand Attack; (2) Dash; Disengage; Hide; Mage Hand; (13) Versatile Trickster Reaction: (4) Shield ; (5) Uncanny Dodge; (6) Feather Fall ; (17) Spell Thief A trickster wants good Dex and Int as well as Dark Vision, after all it is hard to sneak around carrying a torch.  If we are using point buy that gives us three choices in the PHB - High Elf, Half-Elf and Forest Gnome. Feats/ASI: We are g
Read more