Mr. Black’s 40K List Thoughts- Doom of Malan’tai and Unbridled RAGE!
Last week Goatboy make a Tyranid list using models I don’t like… Of course the only logical response is all out rage and hate.
First off, here is the article that offends me so much, located Here. Give that a read then head back… Done? Good. As you can see, Goatboy used both Harpies as well as a Tyrannofex! And a unit of twenty Genestealers? With Scything Talons? That jerk!
Now I know what some of you may be saying: “But Mr. Black, maybe he likes using those models and made the list to have fun!” No. Just stop it, no. No one plays 40K to have fun; we play only for the serious business of winning. Anyone who doesn’t is in the wrong sport, and yes, 40K is a competitive sport. Anyone who says otherwise, well have fun not winning every tournament you go to! Cause you’re so bad at using Tyranids! Enjoy playing with the other bottom-tier guys, probably dressing your Hive Tyrants in pink dressed and giving the Genestealers Tutus and posing them like they’re pirouetting or something, whatever it is that those who aren’t hardcore enough for the top-tier tables do.
Ok, so usually I like Goatboy’s lists. Space Goats, pretty cool, really convenient that’s his name after he made an entire army themed after farm animals… A little too convenient if you ask me, but that’s a topic for another day… But this list? Harpies? Tyrannofexs? Mass Broods of Genestealers? Come’ on! How can you expect to crush Thunderwolf Cavalry with something like that? I mean, we all know how Harpies will die 100% of the time cause the opponent will just Heavy Bolter them to death (that’s 90% likely your opponent included and hits with Heavy Bolters, cause really, you know he’s going to, +10% cause of how dumb you are for taking Harpies in the first place!!), and the Tyrannofex? Please! The only use for a Tyrannofex is a proxy for a Trygon… Not that real winners ever proxy anything! I can buy and sell your army twice over from the amount of tournament winning I have compiled! That’s how rad I am!
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… …Ok, so hopefully people are still reading and understood that nothing above is to be taken seriously… Well, except everything I said! Because of how true it is! I kid, I kid.
So what’s the point of it all? Well my main army is Tyranids, and after reading Goatboy’s army-list it made me realize how long it’s been since I’ve handled anything even close to them in some time. That being the case, I decided to post my own army-list here and explain my choices and general play-style. I will say, however, that there is nothing really wrong with Goatboy’s list, it just happens to contain units that I, myself, don’t like, such as the Harpy and Tyrannofex. Are they unusable? Absolutely not, just not to my liking. The thing is that’s a great trait for a codex to have! It’s fantastic to see that there are enough decent choices in the book for people to make various builds that cater to their own unique, individual, tastes. To me that’s what really makes a great codex and one of the primary reasons I’m excited about the upcoming release of the Dark Eldar (contrary to what certain people would have you believe about me and some fascination with female models… I play Tyranids as my main army, and not a boob to be seen! …Ignore the Green Stuff on… Well every model… Ahem…).
Personally, I love to run a mix of big, medium, and small bugs, much in the way that I see all the pictures in the codex, and much of that reason stems from my views that Tyranid Warriors are the perfect box for painting, as well as one of my all-time favorite units in the game. They’re just the right size to me, not small enough to lose detail, not big enough to feel that painting each is a chore, and with the new wargear options in this codex they’re downright deadly!
Side-talk aside, here is my 2000 pt. list:
Swarmlord
Tyrant Guard x2
Tyranid Prime (Duel Boneswords)
Hive Guard x3
Zoanthrope x3
Doom of Malan’tai (Mycetic Spore)
Tervigon (Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, the Catalyst)
Hormagaunts x17 (Toxin Sacs)
Hormagaunts x17 (Toxin Sacs)
Hormagaunts x17 (Toxin Sacs)
Termagants x14
Tyranid Warriors x4 (Bonesword/Lashwhip, Toxin Sacs)
Ravaner Brood x5 (Rending Claws)
1998/2000
The first thing you may notice, if you’re a bit compulsive like I am, is the Hormagaunt Broods are seventeen-man each, and this annoys me to no end but in the end, after all the points-crunching was said and done it had to be seventeen, or remove a Ravaner/Tyranid Warrior, and I feel the Warriors will kill more and that the Ravaners need the numbers to have any staying power. I have not yet noticed a harsh difference between seventeen per unit and twenty, so while from a numeric standpoint it irks my brain from a playing standpoint it’s fine.
You may have also noticed this list will Horde the hell out of most anything, and that’s just how I like it. Saturate the board and then throw out some surprise punches in the form of the Ravaners and Doom… Most players just can’t focus on what to kill, and even if they make the right choice there will be something equally, if not nastier waiting to take its place.
Running down the list we have the Swarmlord, who is there for a few reasons, but one more than any other: Paroyxsm. In my mind this is the single best power in the game, bar none, and I absolutely love it. The basic use would be turning the Hormagaunt swarms into something vicious, allowing them to hit on threes, re-rolling ones, and cause the returning hits (usually going at higher Initiative due to cover-charging) to only hit on fives… Less dead Hormagaunts, more dead opponents. On that note the abilities he bestows in the form of Furious Charge and Preferred Enemy are great as well, allowing me to save points on the Hormagaunt unit by allowing him to give them Furious Charge (and thus re-rolls to wound on account of Poison Rules).
Tyranid Prime/Alphakrieger (you can’t argue that doesn’t sound better) is there for one purpose: Allowing the Warriors to Survive Missile Launcher/Meltagun hits. He does this well and I love him for it. A cheap yet effective solution to the main issue I have with Tyranid Warriors as well as having a decent chance at ganking an Independent Character in melee due to Dual Boneswords.
Another thing I’ve found is I much prefer to run the Zoanthropes without a Mycetic Spore. I know, I know, most are already saying “But Mr. Black, they’re just going to get killed first turn!” I can say after facing IG gun line, Space Wolves Longfangs, and various other annoyances… It’s just not likely to happen. So you start your Zoanthropes in play… Should the opponent have placed any vehicles right at the 12 inch line, you can now shoot them first turn, if not, then you can by turn two, the same turn they’d be arriving from Reserve anyway, and that’s if they make the roll! Your opponent’s shooting phase… They going to focus all their fire on the 3+ invulnerable save bugs? Or the massive hordes coming at them lead by the big guys? Either way, it’s a win for you… Same reasons people love massive units of Death Company, it’s a big distraction. Give them a lose-lose choice: shoot your firepower at the bugs with multiple-wounds and a 3+ invulnerable and allow the horde to move forth, or ignore them and face the ramifications of an S: 10 Lance/AP:3 Small Blast.
Moving to Troops we have the Tervigon dishing out Feel no Pain on whatever looks like it’s going to charge that turn as well as being a big, fat Scoring unit. He and the Termagant swarms (Reason I start with more than ten is due to the odds of him low-balling and crapping out) usually handle a flank on their own, tying units up until something more dangerous arrives or just flat-out killing them with raw, disposable numbers. Already covered the Hormagaunts and Warriors so let’s move onto the Ravaners.
I’ll be honest… I use to bad-mouth these guys all the time and didn’t see why anyone would take them over warriors… Then I noticed they have five attacks each on the charge and cost twenty points less per model than my decked-out Warriors… Also they where Beasts. I figured why not give them a shot and honestly, I was surprised big time by the efficiency these guys carry, twenty-five attacks, usually hitting on threes, re-rolling ones that also Rend killed almost as many as the Warriors, for less points. Also given their speed they could safely Deep Strike outside most charge ranges while being able to maintain their own, being able to get where I needed them when I needed it. I’ve taken a complete 180 on my opinion on these guys and see myself including a unit in most any army I make (P.S. They also get real mean when you throw Feel No Pain or Furious Charge on them. Thanks again Swarmlord!).
In closing you may also notice there is a distinct lack of Trygons in the list and, well, that’s something I also dislike. I love the model, I love what he does, but when it comes down to it what do I remove to make space for him? It seems to me that by the time I’ve removed enough to fit him in I’ve lost efficiency in too many other units to make his inclusion worth it. Again, I’d love to include him, but the list in its current incarnation fits my play-style fine, so unless I turn it around completely and go for, say, the Nidzilla approach, it’s currently working fine for me and is fun to play, and I can’t argue with that.
~I could go on for hours about Tyranid tactics but we’ll stop for now. As I said before the codex offers some great variety if people are merely willing to utilize it and I’d love to hear about some of your favorite “odd-man-out” choices from your respective armies. Also, Goatboy, have fun with your Harpies and Tyrannofexs *snicker* –Mr. Black
