Monday 20 December 2010

The unloved Nids

Hey all,
It's been a LONG time since I last put up a post so I thought I would share my thoughts on my Tyranids that I have been trying. My lists have been made using units which at least at MAWS don't get used and as far as I know have been shunned in most gaming circles.

Firstly lets look at my favourite unloved Tyranid, the T-fex. This beast costs 250pts basic which is a hefty lump of points, but for that you get 6 T6 wounds with a 2+ save, plus a Strength 6 Ap4 flamer which can fire 20" (12" plus the 8" flamer) plus two other weapons (cluster spines and a thorax swarm) it can also fire all three weapons because it is so awesome. It can take some upgrades but the only worthwhile one is regen costing 30pts. The fleshborer hive just isn't worth the 10 points it costs.

Next I tried out the Harpy, I'm still unsure on this guy as he didn't really stand out, but he took out 2 war walkers and blatted a squad of guardians. But he is only T5 with 4 wounds and a 4+ save, which means Heavy Bolters will shred him if he is left in the open. He has some good abilities like his Screech which halves the enemy's initiative the turn he charges and he can drop spore mines (but only once). Having twin-linked Stranglethorn cannons is a bonus and it isn't worth upgrading to venom cannons. I would leave the regen at home even though it's only 15pts. As a distractive unit or a support for a Trygon, or the Parasite it is a decent buy at 160pts.

The last unit I tried which I personally thought was a bargin buy was two Venomthropes. I have heard alot of negativity about these guys but I loved them and will include them in every list I use from now on. Giving my big monsters a 5+ save makesa huge difference, It saved a tervigon from being blasted apart in turn one from a full Eldar shooting round and kept various others alive for a few turns. This frustrated my opponent greatly and took great delight in blowing them apart with missile launchers, I did however forget about various rules that these guys have, like when an enemy assaults a unit within their spore cloud range they have to take a dangerous terrain test!!! At 55pts I think these guys are a bargain and will definatly help keep Tervigons alive and spawning. Just remember they are not like most Nid units they are purely support and will do well being kept behind the Tervigons they are protecting.

Well they are the three units that rarely get used or considered at MAWS but I think we will be seeing more Venomthropes around.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on these three and if you like, dislike or would consider using them.

Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. I don't like any nids over any others. I just hate them all, with the exception of pyro & bio.

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  2. As a regular user of a Kustom Force Field big Mek, I love the Venomthropes. Yeah, it's only a 5+ cover, but like you say, the big creatures aren't going to get a cover save most of the time. Either they will be shot at, or they'll be out of view completely. Stopping such a shot 1/3 of the time can be mega handy.

    As for the Tyrannofex, I love the idea of them. Big massive creatures, effectively the Land Raider of the Tyranid world (in my view). Admittedly they don't really excel at anything other than being tough, since Trygons / Mawlocs are quicker and better in combat, and other units are probably better at shooting and for cheaper. But oh well, he's a big gribbly beast and seems like fun to use.

    As for the Harpy, I'd like it a bit more if it made Gargoyles troops, or something along those lines so you could have an all flying army. I'd prefer to use swarms of Gargoyles or winged Warriors.

    Also, just because the resident Nid player doesn't use them, don't think the rest of us wouldn't use such units! If I had a Nid army, first name on the team sheet would be the Venomthrope!

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  3. The Parasite and 2 Venomthropes are my first 300pts worth of choice no matter what limit I am playing, because I love the rules and the models.

    Also, I was making a generalisation from the "Interwebs uber-lists", which means very little in MAWS society anyway. As for the resident Tyranid Manager, even he uses a now unloved Nid, being the Mighty Carnifex which appears to be left out of the "Uber-lists" because there are "better" choices.

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  4. Death to the Uber-list!

    Long live the Fexes!

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  5. ever since i played against the harpys i've gotten a taste for the flying nid. i already have the flyrant, parasite, 3 shrikes and 2 harpys so i've just added 20 gargoyles to my collection (with a view to adding 10 more soon). for 8 points these guys are armed with bolt pistols, furious assault, poisoned weapons, jump infantry and can come in a brood of upto 30. thats a lot of pain.

    the mighty dakka fex is even better in this version of the codex, why people dont take them is beyond me.

    I liked the game against col straken, it's nice to have another nid player at the club. playing against venomthropes really opened my eyes to what they can give the nid army. question is do i sacrifice one of my precious elite slots to take them.

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