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Hive Tyrant:
These are incredibly violent and brilliant creatures, the model is also
excellent (unless it is lego). So the key to getting the best out of these
creatures is to make them for one specific task and one only. If you are
going for hand to hand go all the way and try twin bone swords, voltage
field, sharpened claws and venom sacs, this evil shit has 6 attacks, 2
parries, S9 and D3 wounds on all attacks and it blows up fields, negates
daemon saving throws and has its own 4+ save (snigger!). On the other
hand if you are going for shooting then take barbed strangler for troops
or venom cannon for tanks, and null zone, adrenaline sac and voltage field
or warp field. However the second option is no where near as good as the
first as the idea is not to skulk at the back but to tear them apart (in
Aliens did the queen ever use a missile weapon?). But when using your
psycho creature remember two things; you WILL draw a hell
of a lot of fire from the meat things, so in addition to your fields try
and support the Tyrant with either a squad of 3 warriors or a carnifex.
While these are good troops on their own nothing is more important to
the swarm than the tyrant so look after it (or be assimilated). The second
thing not to forget is psychics, you can with luck rule the psychic phase
on your turn and even the opponents turn - just use the scream and watch
their puny psykers die or get stunned. You should then be free to soup
up your troops or scare theirs.
Lictor :
The best infiltrators in the game and the nightmare of your opponent.
They are almost impossible to get when hiding, then when the stealth as
served its purpose LAUNCH YOUR ATTACK! They are meant as assassins for
shock attack guns, devastators, vehicles, and threatening characters.
If you've got many Lictors, try to keep them under 100p with a cheap biomorph
like Optic Membranes or Enhanced Senses. Alternatively you can get a Bio-plasma
Attack for him, to get Terminators and Space Marines down. With sharpened
claws it can rip tanks apart. With voltage field, it's safer and can take
out enemy characters easily. Their flesh hooks are rather useless except
in high terrain battles with food on the terrain. Don't expect them to
live too long though because they will draw some fire because of targeting
rules. This can be good and bad, the good part being it lets the rest
of your swarm moves with less shells coming their way. And the bad being
the lictor will eventually die, so make sure you take out more than it
is worth. A very important thing with them is where to deploy them. Obviously
near their targets, but away from danger is the key, so go for the jugular
and charge. They distract your opponent and will keep him on his heels.
Don't be mad at these guys if you can't get them to work the first few
games as they can be hard to use. Put them in pairs (if you can spare
points and the models back) and watch your opponents face turn white.
When deploying also remember their basic ability to double their initiative
distance for spotting, which means no other infiltrator can infiltrate
within 16" of your lictor, so deploy it in or around the terrain your
opponent will try to use.
Zoanthrope:
Another very good Tyranid unit. The Warp Blast is extremely powerful,
especially against vehicles. Keep it at the back of the army with a clear
line of sight long range because it can have a very long range with the
blast and they can shoot twice a turn (2 psychic phases) but with only
a mastery level of 2, their blasts can be nullified with relative ease.
The psychic scream is handy here, use your hive tyrant to stun (or even
kill) the enemy's psyker and then use the blast to wreak havoc. Try to
use your tyranid warriors as body guards for it. Remember to use it's
blast even if you have no force cards left. It can still do a mini blast
to take out foot troops. Use it if you know you're up against some heavy
war vehicles.
Tyranid Warriors:
A lot of stuff can be done with these, say 2 w/Devourers and one with
either a Venom Cannon, another Devourer or twin boneswords. Then give
them Adrenaline Sacs and let them charge. Make sure that you have run
just within Devourer range before revealing that you have the Sacs. Alternatively
give all bioplasma and pound the closing enemy (and bear in mind that
it is not encumbering) or hardened carapace and twin boneswords and then
cast catalyst and watch the fun. Make sure that they are either shooting
or HtH because some armies can pull it off, but Tyranids aren’t one of
them and so in a mixed squad either the guns or the HtH weapons will be
wasted.
Genestealers:
The only thing to watch out for is guns, Daemons, and other models with
a 6+ WS. Keep these in groups of 6. While this reduces the power of Catalyst,
it gives you more flexibility. If you ever get Catalyst to work, get into
HTH ASAP and be sneaky to try to keep it from being nullified later on.
Units of 6 also make them easier to control. They're awesome space marine
and character-killers. Just don't have too many of them against the wrong
opponent. Hormagaunts are much better against Eldar and IG. They also
cause fear. If facing Space Marines, get as many of these as you can,
but watch for rapid fire.
Termagants:
These little buggers make a good shield. They make perfect screens to
protect more valuable creatures like Genestealers. But they are still
ok in hand to hand, and you will always get surprised when you see your
cannon-fodder shred the opponents in hand to hand. Try to get a brood
of these for every 2 other broods that you buy. stay away from buying
a strangle web, it is too expensive and has too short a range.
Gargyoles:
Try to take a large brood of these and then use them to either harass
the heavies and support weapons at the back of the army or for missions
such as dawn raid. They are also good if fired into bunkers as the flamespurt
goes up to S4 and -3. Don,t go HtH though you will die.
Hormagaunts:
These are probably one of the best Tyranid Bio-killers, or at least they
give you the most for the points. They're incredibly fast and as good
as a Space Marine in HtH. Don't use them against Space Wolves, or other
good HtH troops though as they are better in hand to hand than ordinary
Space Marines and can kill a lot of Hormagaunts. Of course if you charge
first and have many more will you win. Also good against Eldar. But use
many small broods and not one big one and ignore Banshees and Scorpions
(or be slaughtered).
Carnifex:
Defintely one of the toughest creatures in the game. They're great vehicle
busters. The best biomorphs to use are: Voltage field and Null Zone (4+
fixed save, S 8, 4+ save against psychic powers). If you are up against
chaos take sharpened claws as it allows them to scythe through lesser
daemons and gives them a chance versus the larger ones (esp. Nurgle).
Adrenaline sac is ok if you want to run and fire (but the sod will probably
miss anyway). They suck up a lot of fire and can act as bodyguard for
Tyranid Warriors and Hive Tyrants. Watch out for vortex grenades and wraithguard.
If there is a squad of wraithguard, go behind cover and slowly make your
way up. But with tyranids you really have to risk it and CHARGE!!!! The
bio-plasma comes handy sometimes (especially if your warriors have it
as well). Take at least 1 for every 1500 points in your army.
Biovores and Spore Mines:
It's very hard to hit anything with Biovores. But they are your only long
range artillery and have a longer range than just about anything else
(bar the earthshaker) which lets you pound the buggers from your back
line (that where the indirect fire is useful). If you hit something, they
can really do some damage (especially against vehicles). But it seems
a waste of points that when buying one, you can get 10 Termagants for
the same price as one (with 4 sporemines). But they are a must in large
battles! They are especially good for immobile and shooty troops such
as devastators and Dark Reapers, because they're usually rather close
together. There's nothing really to say about these creatures as there's
not much strategy to them except remembering to shoot with them.
Ripper Swarms
Not very good, they're much better than other creatures on a base
(Nurglings, Snotlings) and 5 wounds is good, but not much more.
Biomorphs:
Also try out our house biomorphs.
Acid blood: Not worth it, because a troop with a high enough toughness
to do damage shouldn't be damaged in close combat. Also tyranids that
can get biomorphs shouldn't be losing close combat.
Adrenaline sac: Useful for carnifexes but not much else (not even hive
tyrants).
Aura of Torment: Useful on lictors as it can really bugger up the enemies'
front line. Also good on a big brood of tyranid warriors that can get
to enemy. It is a pity that the modifiers are not cumulative.
Bio plasma: Good on a big warrior brood so that they can pound the opposition
into the ground. It is good against tanks and support batteries and also
large concentrations of heavily armoured troops (marines, aspect warriors).
Enhanced senses: Not always useful as initiative is usually high anyway,
but occasionally useful against dug in defenders or infiltrators.
Flesh hooks: Only good in a battle with lots of high terrain that have
food on them.
Hardened carapace: Good for HtH tyranid warriors or tyrants. Pity tyranid
warriors can't get both this and bioplasma…
Null zone: Brilliant against gits that do nothing but use vortex grenades
(ring a bell?), also good for tyrants that are also psykers as they will
be targets of enemy powers.
Optic membranes: Only good if you know the meat things will use flash
grenades and/or conversion fields.
Regeneration: Too expensive for what it is (+100 for a carnifex!), and
is also too risky as it may not work and as you can shoot the prone model
you could be trying to regenerate 10 -15 wounds or more. Good but only
at the right time.
Toughened exoskeleton: Good on a carnifex as it boosts them to T9, but
also good on tyrants and tyranid warriors simply because it makes them
even harder to kill.
Sharpened claws: Excellent on a carnifex or tyrant (look up the super
hard tyrant at the top), especially as it negates daemon saves.
Venom sacs: Not very good as most creatures do not use claws, but useful
if combined with sharpened claws.
Voltage field: Very good value, especially for killing characters as
a lot of fields could be burnt out if they target you a lot.
Warp field: Again good, but expensive and not reliable enough against
terminators or heavy weapons.
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