40K EDITORIAL: Hive Tyrant – Worth It?
I’ve been thinking lately are Hive Tyrants actually worth it? Mercer here from I.D, I’m going to take a look more in depth.
They’re one of the two monstrous creatures as HQ choices (ok you’ve got Swarmlord but still a Tyrant) and it’s the most expensive (except Swarmlord). Profile isn’t too bad the the upgrades aren’t too bad either, though the Tyrant doesn’t exactly have much potent anti tank weapons, though to be honest, do many Tyranids?
Flying Tyrant
There’s two ways you can run a Tyrant, the first one is a Flying Tyrant or Flyrant.
You could run this fella dead cheap using the standard wargear and then throw on some wings which comes to 230 points, or perhaps make it a bit more aggressive and add adrenal glands making it 240 points. Not bad but it has no ranged shooting except for the psychic powers it can take for free. You could add in some ranged firepower and take a single pair of devourers which are pretty cool. Personally I prefer two pairs which spews out 12 S6 twin-linked shots! The downside is the 270 points, which is still a big chunk of points.
The problem with the Flyrant is you need a supporting unit. This is either another Flyrant which will cost a fair whack of points or a Gargoyle screen swarm. A Gargoyle swarm should be about 20 Gargoyles really which is minimum points 120, but they’re a bit weedy just as they come. What you can do with the Gargoyles is give them adrenal glands and toxin sacs for 1 point each, a real bargain.
Problem with all the above is cost. Tyrant with double devourers to kick butt, old adversary, adrenal glands and wings is 295 points! Add 160 points for the upgraded Gargoyles which is a total of 455 points which is a massive chunk of your army whether your playing 1,500 points or 2,500 points. That’s a lot of points invested into two units which need each other to work/survive. Sure the Gargoyles will hit harder, but they’re still wimps in combat and sure the Tyrant has cover but the beast only has 4 wounds and mass fire will soon bring the big brute down.
Walking Tyrant
The other option over a flying beast is a walking Tyrant, or a Footrant for this conversation. Like the Flyrant the Footrant needs a unit to give it cover so a Hive Guard is mandatory, you probably can get away with just one as getting cover is easier, and they’re expensive at 60 points each and only give a extra 2 wounds.
As the Tyrant is on foot it will need a ranged weapon which are either anti infantry stranglethorn cannon or the not so hot anti armour heavy venom cannon (-1 on the damage table isn’t that cool) but it can still crack infantry. Min points for one of this is 20 so including the Guard the total is clocking in at 250 points, not far off the Flyrants base cost.
However the problem you’ve got with the Footrant is he’s not adding anything to the army besides synapse. Ok you can take old adversary but honestly what units are going to be lingering around to use it? You could use hive commander but that’s obviously only useful if you have a deep striking army. So the Footrant doesn’t add anything to the army, but a Flyrant really only benefits the intermediate units around it, which will definitely be Gargoyles.
Summary
Taking everything into considering a Flyrant MUST have a Gargoyle shield or else it’s going to get zapped out of the sky by gun fire quickly; and a decent setup can cost 455 points. Sure you can slim that down to about 400 points but it still costs a lot and the Gargoyles have less damage output.
The Footrant is no doubt cheaper but offers less benefits, but then again the benefits of the Flyrant will only work with units close by, which more than likely could just be Gargoyles.
Even though I like the big guy I’m seriously having second thoughts. The Tyrant needs a massive investment to make it work when taking wings and when on foot it’s just meh. However, I offer a better HQ monstrous creature solution:
Tervigon
Yup Big Momma herself. Only costs 10 points cheaper than the Tyrant but can offer better benefits for the army and the upgrades available are cheap too.
You’ve got all the use benefits like Termagant spawning, synapse and goodies with benefit other units etc but what it comes down to is cost and survivibility. The Tervigon has more wounds which is a bonus and can get a cover save more easier with it’s lower down position. Sure it’s slower and not as good in combat (you can make it better with expensive crushing claws) but this beast will remain more in synergy with your armies movement, plus you can use existing units to give it a cover save, instead of adding pricey units just to gain a cover save like you have to do with Gargoyles. What’s not to like about the Tervigon?
