Wednesday 23 January 2013

Army composition

Hi All,

Angryman here.  I'd like to ask the question of whether to Swarmlord or not to Swarmlord. 

Since the change to 6th edition one unit has really stood out for me in the Tyranid codex, that is the Swarmlord.  In 5th edition he was too overpriced to really justify, with the way I run him in my 2K lists he plus the guard and lashwhips comes in at a whopping 475 points.  That gives me 11 T6 wounds, 3+sv, 4 rolls on for psychic powers but can only cast 2 a turn (personally I prefer the biomancy table), an increase to my reserve rolls, the ability to re-roll outflank results, I can give units either preferred enemy or furious assault, longer synapse range, instant death weapons that make you re-roll successful inv saves, he is an MC so you all the benefits that brings and counts as a character for the purposes of challenges.  All in all that unit is an absolute must.  There are 2 drawbacks, the unit is expensive and SLOW.  they can move 6", run upto 6" or the 2d6 charge range.  Experienced players will just avoid him if they can.

My other choice for the title of warlord in my Tyranid force is the Flyrant (to be more precise a Hive Tyrant with wings).  I He comes with 4 wounds, T6, 2 rolls on the psychic powers but can only cast 1 per turn (again biomancy), he is a MC so has all the benefits that brings, he has wings so he is VERY fast, can swoop or glide, counts as a character for challenge purposes.  I run him with a 2+sv, 2 twin linked devourers with brain leech worms and old adversary (it gives him and other friendlies within 6" preferred enemy).  the devourers give him 12 twin linked S6 ap- shots a turn.  This is a very effective unit but comes in at 325 points and can end up being stranded due to its speed.

Id prefer to have them both in my army, having a trimmed down version of the Swarmlord unit, may be by losing a guard and the 3 lashwhips but that would still be a total of 725 points for 4 models and both HQ choices.  I don't think I could really justify that in my list.

So have at it, any thoughts, alternatives?

All comments welcome

3 comments:

  1. I do like the Swarmlord, but I'm trying to get away from using unique units and special characters as HQs, just to be prepared for events where they are not allowed.

    I think with all the bonuses he gives, there's never any real point in taking a Walking Tyrant anymore which is a shame, as he's one of my favourite 40k models.

    Like you say, you get what you pay for with the Swarmlord and there's a lot of benefits to choosing him.

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  2. I run a Flyrant and Swarmy (with 2 Lash Whip Guards) in my 1850pts list and it does fine.

    I tend to throw the Flyrant down my opponents throat to take the pressure off the Swarmlord and other important units for a turn or two and if it survies to Turn 3 - awesome!

    Swarmy is slow, but my list consists of 2 Tervs, 2x 20 Gants, 2 x Dakkafexes and some Hive Guard - so generally, everyone is going the same pace and there is a lot of support going on using Biomancy powers.

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  3. I think one of the issues i have is that I run the doom in a pod as well as two 3x hive guard and 2 trygons, I was thinking of dropping one trygon for a dakka fex, in my 2K list i have approx 275 points to play with, by changing 1 trgyon for a dakka fex that gives me 285, this means i can run the flyrant but without the 2+ SV, i'll give that a try and see how it turns out.

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