Tyranid Ranged Anti-Tank Options

My Tyranid army isn’t geared just for shooting or just for assault but rather hovers somewhere in the middle but today I’ll be focusing on the shooty bit and looking at the alternatives.

I have 5 units capable of reliable (ish) shooting, these being 3 units of 2 Hive Guard and a pair of Tyrannofex. These are in my opinion the best units for the job, but there are other options.

Quite a few other units obviously have guns but none of them can be considered to have shooting as their primary purpose like the ones I’ll be discussing.

Since the main threat in most armies designed for 5th Ed. Seems to be armoured vehicles we need to have reliable methods of making them explode or at the very least end up as wrecks. Against gun platforms like Predators, ‘Crew Shaken’ or ‘Crew Stunned’ are nice to get but we need to make it happen again next turn, whereas a pile of wreckage is no longer a threat of any kind (unless your running across it I suppose).

Against transports shooting is the best method, as we want their cargo as far away from us as possible when it's cargo has to start walking.

Against tanks the distance at which they are destroyed is less of an issue, however given that Imperial Guard can have Heavy Flamers sticking out of the front of most of their vehicles for next to nothing (or in the case of the chimera actually nothing) we probably want to be at least a Flamer template away if were of the slightly squishier variety of shooty unit. As Hive Guard have only a 4+ Save which is ignored by the Heavy Flamers AP they have to rely on their T6 to save them from losing a Wound. That Flamer also counteracts the average Guardsmen’s poor BS.

So we need transports to die far away from us as possible and everything else to either be unable to shoot or be dead. Now that may seem obvious but I’ve seen poor target priority lose someone a game on multiple occasions.

So we need to decide what works best against what unit so we’ll have a look at our options and invite our old friend round ‘Mathshammer’ to give us a hand ;-)

We’ll be looking at chance to wreck or destroy as those results neutralise anything whereas the effectiveness of other results depends entirely on the target. For example, weapon destroyed on a Rhino isn’t much of a loss to the owning player whereas the same result on a Vindicator would be far more serious.

So lets have a look at our options starting with those with the highest strengths and working our way down. I’ll also work out the increased odds of destruction if target units are part of a squadron.

Rupture Cannon (Range 48”, BS3, S10, AP4, Assault 2).

May only be given to a Tyrannofex, however a T6, 6W, Monstrous Creature with a 2+ save has the added benefit of being a very survivable weapons platform. Long Range means that we can pop (or attempt to pop, at least) transports when they’re nice and far away. That 48” range also means we can reach out and silence annoying high strength or high volume units that hide away in corners (like Hydras*)

* I have a near irrational hatred of Hydras, especially in pairs as 8 Twin-Linked, S7 shots with a 72” range should cost more than 150 points imo…

With BS 3 were going to average 1 hit, but what damage are we likely to do with it?

Armour 10: Automatic penetration, 33% chance of unit destruction, 50% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 83% chance of pen, 27% chance of destruction, 41% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 67% chance of pen, 22% chance of destruction, 33% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 13: 50% chance of pen, 17% chance of destruction, 25% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 14: 33% chance of pen, 11% chance of destruction, 16.5% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Brilliant against light vehicles, not bad against heavy ones. Also it's added survivability makes it much more likely to damage heavy vehicles as it's likely to get multiple chances to shoot rather than die quickly like the platform for our other S10 option...

Warp Lance (Range 18”, BS4, S10, AP1, Assault 1, Lance).

Depressingly short ranged. Only useable by Zoanthropes, a unit which can be torrented away fairly easily with it’s T4 and 2 wounds. Having a 3+ Invulnerable save helps against high strength single shots but vs. anti infantry firepower you’re basically talking about the equivalent of killing 2 Marines and if you can’t manage that then I’d consider rewriting your army ;-)

AP1 adds 1 to the roll on the Vehicle Damage Table and Lance ignores anything over armour 12, which helps a lot **

** 2 factors that I admittedly failed to take into account when I assessed this unit previously, Doh.

As we need to pass a psychic test first our odds drop to 82%, we then have to hit which drops it down to 55% so we’ll start from there.

Armour 10: Automatic penetration, 28% chance of unit destruction, 37% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 46% chance of pen, 23% chance of destruction, 31% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 37% chance of pen, 18.5% chance of destruction, 25% chance if target is part of a squadron

Armour 13 + 14: same as armour 12 due to ‘Lance’ rule.

So with everything taken into account the Warp Lance is about the same as the Rupture Cannon (within a few %) until you hit the armour 14 level at which point the Warp Lance becomes superior. If you take multiple units of Zoanthropes obviously you get multiple chances at the above, unfortunately with Psychic Hoods seemingly coming free in Space Marines breakfast cereal there is also an extremely good chance that your power won’t go off at all.

Heavy Venom Cannon (Range 36”, BS3 for the most part, S9, AP4, Assault 1, Blast).

Most units using this weapon are BS3 with the exception of the Harpy, which has the additional benefits of having the weapon Twin-Linked. Has the unfortunate rule that makes all hits take a –1 penalty to rolls on the Vehicle Damage Chart (unless the target is an open topped vehicle).

So we have a 33% chance of a hit. Any scatter over 5” will take us off most vehicle targets (5” scatter – BS3 = 2” scatter). That works out at a roughly 60% chance of hitting something Rhino sized up to about 70% for something as big as a Land Raider. ***

*** If anybody has exact figures worked out for scatter then send me an e-mail please as trying to calculate all the variables has given me a headache and made my Calculator rebel against me…

We’ll call it 60% for the testing purposes, remembering to reduce our Damage Table rolls by 1. We’ll also presume the target vehicle isn’t open topped.

Armour 10: 50% chance of pen, 8% chance of destruction, 17% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 40% chance of pen, 7% chance of destruction, 13% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 30% chance of pen, 5% chance of destruction, 10% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 13: 20% chance of pen, 3% chance of destruction, 6% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 14: 10% chance of pen, 2% chance of destruction, 3% chance if target is part of a squadron.

I’d stick to shooting at infantry with this one, however it is (somewhat ironically) pretty consistent when it comes to getting ‘Crew Stunned’ and ‘Crew Shaken’ results…perhaps it makes a scary noise?

Impaler Cannon (Range 24”, BS4, S8, AP4, Assault 2).

Exclusive to Hive Guard this is your most reliable light anti-tank weapon. Though T6 the Hive Guard are somewhat disadvantaged by only having a 4+ armour save making them vulnerable to medium anti-infantry firepower such as Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons, Autocannons and the like. Due to the weapons relatively short range you’ll probably have to leave cover at some point unless your opponent is happily charging headlong towards you. Luckily Tyranids have access to a cheap and mobile cover save known as a Termagant ;-)

BS 4 gives us a 67% chance of a hit, meaning our Impaler Cannon is averaging 1.33 Hits. Which is a pretty nice starting point ****

**** I told you they were reliable didn’t I?

Armour 10: 89% chance of pen, 30% chance of destruction, 44% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 11: 66% chance of pen, 22% chance of destruction, 33% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 12: 44% chance of pen, 15% chance of destruction, 22% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 13: 22% chance of pen, 7% chance of destruction, 11% chance if target is part of a squadron.

Armour 14: Glance only.

If you can get a couple of these guys into range of light transport vehicles you’ve a good chance of stopping them in their tracks even if the target is getting a cover save for some reason.

So what have we learned?

So that was a pretty long-winded way of saying take Hive Guard and Tyrannofex’s. For those of you more interested in punching transports to death I’ll be looking at those statistics at some point in the near future as well at looking at what anti-infantry firepower upgrades seem worth having.

Thoughts anyone?

Why I love 5th Ed. 40K

There’s a few posts on the various Blogs I follow talking about this * article on Bell of Lost Souls.

* If you happen to get more than half way through without wanting to hunt down the author and give him a slap then your a far more tolerant person than I.

Kirby’s assessment of it is particularly incisive ;-)

Personally I have found 5th Ed. To be a much tighter rule-set than 4th and was a considerable improvement in all respects.

Here for my own amusement (and what better reason would I need?, It's my blog after all) is a list of my favourite things about 5th Ed. In no particular order.

1) True Line of Sight – Makes everything much simpler. If I can see it and it’s in range I can shoot at it…awesome.

2) Better Rules for Terrain – No infinitely high hills, nice little pictures and charts in the rulebook to explain what’s getting cover and what isn't.

3) No Consolidation into Combat – Annoyed both my Daemons and my Berzerkers at first but I’ve got to admit it solved a lot more problems than it created.

4) Vehicle Damage Tables – No more transported units wiped out by a random penetrating hit and no more destroying on a glancing hit.

5) Wound Allocation – Though occasionally abused by a few units *cough* Nob Bikers *cough* the higher chance of killing Sergeants, Special Weapons and other previously immune upgrades from a unit makes the whole experience a bit more interesting. However, the time I lost my Power Fist Champion just before his unit was about to get charged by a Dreadnought was a bit annoying, but you can’t have everything your own way can you, lol.

6) No Partials – I was never quite happy with the whole 4+ partial hit thing.

7) BS Reducing Scatter Distance – Nice and simple like most damn good ideas.

I suppose traditionally lists like this should go to 10 but to be honest I can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

Feel free to add your own if you like, I'm off to bed...

Tyranid Project – Can Termagants actually kill things…

Editors Note – This article is quite long by my usual standards so you might want to make yourself a cup of tea before you start reading…

Termagants are the cheap and cheerful troop choice for Tyranids and essential in any army that wants their Tervigons to be scoring.

Though are they actually good for anything other than being scoring?

Lets let Mathshammer do some of the decision making for us ;-)

We’ll start with the worst-case scenario and gradually give the Termagants some advantages as we go.

For those of you who don’t know the Termagants stats are,

WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 4, A 1 Ld. 6, Save. 6+

With the average roll of a die being 3 or a 4, we’ll end up spawning between 9 and 12 Termagants most of the time and as we need a basic unit of 10 to make our Tervigons scoring to start off with we’ll take 10 as our nice round unit number for testing purposes.

As I’m sure (like me) you end up playing against Marines 4 out of 5 games we’ll use them as our ‘Control’ enemy. We’ll use a squad of 10, as full Marine Squads are still common even with the current trend for Razorbacks units. We won’t bother giving them any fancy weapon options or extra abilities and just to keep it relatively simple we’ll keep them as ‘ordinary’ tactical Marines.

I’m also not going to include the chance of Termagants shooting before charging into the final calculations but for those of you who care about such things,

10 shots, 5 Hit, 2.5 Wound, 0.83 Marines dead after armour saves. Great bugger all happened...

So then, onto the Maths.

Worst case for the Termagants is no upgrades and being charged. This also means were going at the same time as the Marines so no matter how many we kill they’ll all still get all their attacks back.

Termagants (Charged),

10 Attacks, 5 Hit, 1.67 Wound, 0.56 Dead Marines after their 3+ Armour Saves.

Marines (Charging),

21 Attacks, 14 Hit, 9.33 Wounds, 7.83 Dead Termagants after their 6+ Saves.

The Termagants will either be run down, chased off the board or (if their in synapse range) die to ‘fearless’ wounds.

Hang on a bit though…they might have ‘Feel no Pain’ from ‘Catalyst’. So only 3.92 of our Termagants may have died.

So let’s presume they did have ‘Feel no Pain’ and amazingly make the 3 Fearless wounds they’re forced to take and try out round 2 (after rounding our dead guys to the nearest whole model).

Termagants,

6 Attacks, 3 Hit, 1 Wound, 0.33 dead Marines after their 3+ Armour Saves.

Marines,

10 Attacks, 6.67 Hit, 4.45 Wound, 1.85 dead Termagants after 6+ Armour and Feel no Pain is taken into account.

Well we could go on but I’m sure we can see how it’s going. An un-upgraded unit of Termagants dies if charged and if it has ‘Feel no Pain’ can maybe survive a 2nd Game turn of combat if their lucky after taking a grand total of 2 (rounding up) or 0 (rounding down) Marines with them.

Lets give the Termagants the charge this time. We’ll also give them Feel no Pain again as we’ve already worked out that they die horribly without it.

I’m also going to stop repeating myself a bit as I’m sure you all know what a Marines armour save is by now.

Round 1.

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 3.34 Wound, 1.13 Marines dead.

Marines (Charged),

11 Attacks, 7.33 Hit, 4.9 Wound, 2.04 Termagants dead.

Round 2.

Termagants,

8 Attacks, 4 Hit, 1.34 Wound. 0.89 Marines dead

Marines,

10 Attacks, 6.67 Hit, 4.45 Wound, Termagants 1.85 dead.

So we’ve successfully ‘Tar-pitted’ the Marine unit for as long as we can keep Feel no Pain in place. But that’s about it till they finally kill each other 6 or so rounds of combat later.

If the Sergeant had a Power weapon or Power Fist however we’ll be lucky to tie them up for even 4 rounds.

I think it’s time to stop playing fair don’t you?

If were playing a ‘swarm’ list then we’ve most likely given Adrenal Glands (Furious Charge) and Toxin Sacs (Poison) to all our units. If were using them in conjunction with Tervigons then we’ve most likely given the Tervigon those same upgrades so that Termagants within 6” get the benefit of them.

Also given that the Tervigon can spawn Termagants 6” away and they can still move, shoot and assault as normal the chances of us getting charges are quite good.

So this time the Termagants are charging and have Furious Charge, Poisoned Attacks and Feel no Pain all thanks to either the Tervigon, their own upgrades or some combination of the 2.

Termagants (Charging). Due to the way the poison rule works we also get a re-roll to wound this turn as we would be wounding on 4’s anyway (due to Furious Charge).

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 5 Wound, 7.5 with the re-roll 2.5 Marines Dead.

Marines (Charged) Minus the 3 guys who died (rounding to the nearest whole number).

7 Attacks, 4.67 Hit, 3.11 Wound, 1.3 termagants Dead

Hey, we won a combat (Just)…go team Tyranid!!!

Round 2 (Furious Charge no longer an issue, Poison still helping though)

Termagants,

9 Attacks, 4.5 Hit, 2.25 Wound (no re-roll this time), 0.75 Marines dead.

Marines,

7 Attacks, 4.67 Hit, 3.11 Wound, 1.3 termagants Dead.

Bollocks, were back to killing a guy each per turn...

Right now lets pile on every benefit we can possibly crowbar out of the Tyranid Codex and see if we can give these Marines a proper kicking (or biting, or clawing etc.)

First were going to use the Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord’s Paroxysm* on the target unit and give the Termagants ‘Preferred Enemy’ from either the Hive Tyrant’s ‘Old Adversary’ upgrade or via the Swarmlords ‘Swarm Leader’ ability. The were going to also give them every benefit they can get from the Tervigon (Furious Charge, Poison and Feel no Pain).

*It’s a psychic shooting attack that reduces a unit to both WS and BS 1 till the beginning of the Hive Tyrants next turn. This means those pesky Marines will be being hit on 3’s but hitting back on 5’s.

Right lads, you now have all the help we can give you…do us proud ;-)

Round 1.

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 17.78 Hits (13.33 normal hits and another 4.45 from our ‘Preferred Enemy’ re-roll.

13.34 Wounds (8.89 normal wounds and another 4.45 from our ‘Poison’ re-roll).

After armour saves we’ve killed 4.45 Marines.

Marines (Charged and feeling a bit victimised and also at WS1),

7 Attacks, 2.33 Hit, 0.58 Wounds, 0.24 Termagants dead.

So we’ve easily won this one and taking a morale test at –4 there’s a good chance the Marines will fail. So they either get away and can be escorted off the board or they are caught and another 1.33 Marines die to ‘No Retreat’ rules.

Lets say we catch them.

Round 2**

**Now it gets a bit tricky here as the Swarmlords ‘Preferred Enemy’ ability only lasts for the Tyranid turn but ‘Old Adversary’ is a permanent ‘buff’. As more people use Tyrants than Swarmlords (even though I don’t) we’ll let the Termagants have their Preferred Enemy this turn as well.

Termagants,

10 Attacks, 8.89 Hits (with re-rolls), 4.45 Wounds (no re-rolls this time), 1.48 Dead Marines.

Marines,

7 Attacks, 2.33 Hit, 0.58 Wounds, 0.24 Termagants dead.

So at the end of round 2 our Termagants are unharmed and the Marine unit has been cut in half. After that it will get a bit messy, but I think we’ve done enough damage to be able to finish them off without much help.

So what have we learned?

Termagants need support…well you’d probably worked that out anyway but it’s worth mentioning. Also, Feel no Pain via ‘Catalyst’ made (by far) the biggest difference to the combats more by saving Termagants than adding to their killing potential.

So to summarise Termagants can kill things but only with a lot of help. They are however quite good at keeping a unit in place ready for your Monstrous Creatures to stroll in and mush the last few guys ;-)

Used appropriately these cheap little critters can easily turn the tide in your favour, hopefully your opponent will be to busy trying to kill Tyrants, Tervigons and the like to bother with these guys until it’s too late ;-)

Of course you may not be fighting against Marines.

As I can’t be arsed to go through all that Maths again we’ll take the most likely scenario and try a game turn of combat against a few other things.

For all the following combats were going to be presuming we have Feel no Pain, Furious Charge and Poison.

Vs. Orks.

30 Orks on foot are highly unlikely to still be 30 Orks when they reach you. However they may have some kind of Transport that doesn’t fall apart when you throw a sharp rock at it such as a Battlewagon. Either way we’ll call it 19 Orks Boyz and the obligatory ‘Nob’with Power Klaw.

Round 1.

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 5 Wound, 7.5 with the re-roll, 6.25 Dead Orks.

Orks (Charged),

39 attacks, 23 Hit, 11.5 Wound, 4.79 dead Termagants

3 Power Klaw attacks, 2 Hit, 1.67 dead, making a grand total of 6.46 dead Termagants.

Round 2.

Termagants,

4 Attacks, 2 Hit, 1 Wound, 0.83 Dead Orks.

Orks,

39 attacks, 23 Hit, 11.5 Wound, 4.79 dead Termagants

3 Power Klaw attacks, 2 Hit, 1.67 dead, making a grand total of no Termagants left.

Lesson Learned: Don’t get into combat with Orks unless you have at least 30 Termagants or there are only 6 of the Orks left ;-)

Vs. Eldar.

Dire Avengers seem to be the Troop of choice for eldar players locally so we’ll use them for testing purposes.

Round 1

Termagants (Charging),

20 Attacks, 10 Hit, 5 Wound, 7.5 with the re-roll, 3.75 Dire Avengers souls off into the Warp ready for Slaanesh to have as a nice snack.

Dire Avengers (Charged but still getting all their attacks as they are I 5)

10 Attacks, 6.67 Hit, 3.34 Wound, 1.39 dead Termagants.

Termagants win by 3, leaving the Dire Avengers needing a 6 or lower on their morale test to avoid running. An average roll will be a fail, meaning we catch them and they die, or they get away and what happens next will be decided by how far they run and how far the Termagants consolidate. Of course they may pass the test…lets presume they do.

Round 2.

Dire Avengers (going first this time)

6 Attacks, 4 Hit, 2 Wound, 0.84 Termagants dead.

Termagants,

8 Attacks, 4 Hit, 2 Wound, 1 Dire Avenger dead.

Now were in the ‘Tar-Pit’ stage again, oh well…

In Conclusion.

I’m bored now and I’ve a feeling you lot are probably getting that way as well. Neither of those examples really changes my conclusions from the Marine ones at the beginning.

Termagants are cheap, can kill shit if things go their way but don’t stand a chance against anything built for combat.

But what were you expecting for 5 points a model?

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Tyranid Project - Part 16 - Tweaking Time

Strangely enough (for a first attempt) my Tyranid army seems to need very little in the way of tweaking. After 11 games with only a single loss (which was the first game I played) it seems to contain all the tools I need to compete against most common builds.

The only thing that was utterly useless was the 'Strangleweb' on the Termagant units, which will now be dropped for another 2 Termagants in each unit.

Editors Note - A 3rd consecutive day of my FLGS being shut has yet again prevented me from finishing my Swarmlord , a problem that will be somewhat compounded by the fact that it's closed of a Monday and a Tuesday anyway. Looks like he'll just have to stay armless for the time being.

The Tweaked army...

There may well be enough in the budget this month for another Carnifex so my 2000 point army should look something like this.

2000 Pts - Tyranids Roster - Tyranid Test list - 2000

HQ: The Swarmlord (1#, 280 pts)

1 The Swarmlord @ 280 pts

: Tyrant Guard Brood (2#, 130 pts)

2 Tyrant Guard Brood @ 130 pts (Lash Whip)

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)

2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)

2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)

2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts

Troops: Tervigon (1#, 195 pts)

1 Tervigon @ 195 pts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst)

Troops: Tervigon (1#, 195 pts)

1 Tervigon @ 195 pts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst)

Troops: Tervigon (1#, 195 pts)

1 Tervigon @ 195 pts (Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs; Catalyst)

Troops: Termagant Brood (10#, 50 pts)

10 Termagant Brood @ 50 pts

Troops: Termagant Brood (10#, 50 pts)

10 Termagant Brood @ 50 pts

Troops: Termagant Brood (10#, 50 pts)

10 Termagant Brood @ 50 pts

Heavy Support: Tyrannofex (1#, 265 pts)

1 Tyrannofex @ 265 pts (Rupture Cannon; Cluster Spines; Thorax Swarm (larvae))

Heavy Support: Tyrannofex (1#, 265 pts)

1 Tyrannofex @ 265 pts (Rupture Cannon; Cluster Spines; Thorax Swarm (larvae))

Total Roster Cost: 1975

The last 25 points will either go on extra Termagants, Scything Talons for the Tervigons or some combination of the 2.

I suppose I might as well start painting it now...

'Best Of' Space Wolves List 1 - Razorwolves.

Duality and redundancy in lists can be achieved in a number of different ways.

The most obvious is giving a unit an anti-infantry and an anti-tank weapon. Downside to that is that most units will only be able to take one of each and that causes problems when you inevitably miss with that vitally important Meltagun shot.

A 2nd (and in many ways better) option is to put your unit in a transport that does one thing and then give the unit inside something else to do. Fortunately Marines usually get a good variety of both transport and weapon options.

Space Marine Razorbacks are a fine tool for Marines in this respect and work particularly well for both Space Wolves and Blood Angels as they both have ways of equipping a small squad with a special weapon or 2 while still keeping the unit small enough to go in the transport.

Marines also have easy access to the Missile Launcher a wonderful weapon that allows us to choose between anti-tank (Krak) and anti-infantry (Frag) at will.

Of course Melta is the weapon of choice when dealing with heavy tanks and transports but if you have enough light to medium anti-tank then Melta saturation is unnecessary beyond the minimum level required to kill the odd annoying Land Raider or 2.

So he's a list that uses some of those concepts together with notes about why I chose these units right underneath for your convenience ;-)

1750 Pts - Space Wolves Roster - Razorwolves

Editors note - No idea where the name 'Razorwolves' originated from but It certainly wasn't invented by me, lol.

HQ: Rune Priest in Power Armour (1#, 110 pts)

1 Rune Priest in Power Armour @ 110 pts (Chooser of the Slain; Tempests Wrath; Storm Caller)

A good utility HQ choice. The Priests Runic Weapon give us a 50% chance of stopping any psychic power within 24" of him. Psychic powers are chosen to help us out with a nice 5+ cover save for the vehicles and units around him from 'Storm Caller'and 'Tempest wrath' helps to annoy those Jump Pack armies that are appearing all over the bloody place these days.

Chooser of the Slain allows us to deny areas of the board to 'Infiltrators' which is a somewhat situational upgrade but for 10 points is well worth having.

Elite: Wolf Guard Pack (4#, 144 pts)

1 Wolf Guard Pack @ 144 pts (Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Razorback)

3 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Elite: Wolf Guard Pack (4#, 144 pts)

1 Wolf Guard Pack @ 144 pts (Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Razorback)

3 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

We need a way of killing Land Raiders reliably and these are the units that will do it. Though somewhat suicidal, stopping a Land Raider from delivering it's expensive cargo right into a lines is worth the swap imo. If not needed in this roll they can join other units for a Leadership boost (Grey Hunters) or as an ablative wound (Long Fangs).

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 150 pts)

5 Grey Hunters Pack @ 150 pts (Flamer; Razorback)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 150 pts)

5 Grey Hunters Pack @ 150 pts (Flamer; Razorback)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 150 pts)

5 Grey Hunters Pack @ 150 pts (Flamer; Razorback)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 150 pts)

5 Grey Hunters Pack @ 150 pts (Flamer; Razorback)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 150 pts)

5 Grey Hunters Pack @ 150 pts (Flamer; Razorback)

1 Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Lascannons carve through light to medium transport vehicles, Plasmaguns do a number on heavy infantry and the Grey Hunters inside have a Flamer for anti-infantry 'moping-up' duties.

The 5 man Grey Hunter units get a noteworthy 15 attacks on the charge or (due to counter-attack) have a good chance of still getting 15 attacks if they are charged themselves, together with the usual impressive Marine statline and equipment load-out.

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (6#, 200 pts)

4 Long Fangs Pack @ 200 pts (Missile Launcher x4; Razorback)

1 Squad Leader (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)

1 Razorback (Hunter Killer Missile; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (6#, 200 pts)

4 Long Fangs Pack @ 200 pts (Missile Launcher x4; Razorback)

1 Squad Leader (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)

1 Razorback (Hunter Killer Missile; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (6#, 200 pts)

4 Long Fangs Pack @ 200 pts (Missile Launcher x4; Razorback)

1 Squad Leader (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)

1 Razorback (Hunter Killer Missile; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Long Fangs with Missile Launchers and the ability to split fire adds to our versatility as well. Having access to both Frag and Krak Missiles makes them a threat to almost any unit on the table and their Razorbacks add to the armies fire-power and can also go and pick up Grey Hunter units that have lost their own vehicles (a strong likely-hood in most 5th ed. games).

The Hunter killer Missiles are the first thing that I do with any points I have left in this sort of list that I have no specific use for. They also add to our 'Alpha Strike' capability (if only slightly).

Total Roster Cost: 1748

So we have...

10 Lascannons and/or 10 Twin-Linked Plasma Guns

12 Missile Launchers

3 Hunterkillers

Able to fire at 16 different targets between them should it become necessary.

As well as...

2 'suicide' Melta units

and 47 power armoured bodies spread throughout the army.

Well that's the first one out of the way,

Thoughts anyone?

'Best Of' Lists - A Brief Introduction

You quite often see the phrase 'Best Of' thrown around on Blogs and Forums. I'm reasonably sure it was originally coined by Stelek of YTTH back in the beginnings of 5th Ed. when variations of a particular Space Marine list of his started to appear everywhere.

Basically it means a list that uses the optimum selection from each Force Organisation Chart slot, with each of those choices optimised to the nth degree.

These lists don't rely on a single 'Death-Star' unit winning the game on it's own or some 'broken' unit that managed to slip through GW's play-testing unseen. Rather they rely on the concepts of Balance, Redundancy and Duality. They don't 'Win' automatically, they do however have the tools to win any game rather than hope for the Rock, Paper, Scissors matches and/or 1st turn/2nd turn (as applicable) to be in their favour all the time *cough* 'Leafblower *cough*

An example of some kind is probably now in order...

The version I used of that aforementioned early 'Best Of' was pretty much identical to that first list of Steleks.

1750 Pts - Original 'Best Of' Space Marine list

HQ: Master of the Forge (1#, 120 pts)

1 Master of the Forge @ 120 pts (Conversion Beamer)

Troops: Scout Squad (6#, 163 pts)

5 Scout Squad @ 163 pts (Camo Cloaks; Heavy Bolter w/Hellfire Shells; Sergeant Telion)

1 Sergeant Telion

Elite: Dreadnought (1#, 105 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 105 pts

Elite: Dreadnought (1#, 105 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 105 pts

Elite: Dreadnought (1#, 105 pts)

1 Dreadnought @ 105 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Rhino)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Rhino)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 205 pts)

9 Tactical Squad @ 205 pts (Flamer; Multi-Melta; Rhino)

1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)

2 Land Speeder Squadron @ 140 pts (Multi-Melta x2; Heavy Flamer x2)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)

2 Land Speeder Squadron @ 140 pts (Multi-Melta x2; Heavy Flamer x2)

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)

1 Predator @ 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)

1 Predator @ 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)

1 Predator @ 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))

Total Roster Cost: 1748

It's showing it's age a bit now but at the time it was (imo) an awesome example of efficient list building. Every unit can handle both Infantry and Vehicles, there are Flamers and Meltas everywhere and it has plenty of bodies for objective taking.

Times have changed. Every man and his dog now has learned the value of mechanisation, how to use cover and the necessity of bringing both Melta and Flamers to pretty much every game that you actually want to win.

However there is still a lot of shit out there...

Over the next few days/weeks/months (depending on how busy I am with my Tyranids as that 'Project' is nowhere near finished) I'll be posting a few lists that I consider to be optimised versions of what the various Codices are capable of.

As with all things I'm sure as many people will disagree with me as agree (probably more 'disagrees' as your an argumentative bunch at the best of times, lol).

First one should be up later today/early tomorrow. I'll be looking forward to your feedback ;-)

Tyranid Project - Part 15 - Doable on a Budget?

I have been somewhat handicapped by my FLGS not being open today as...

1) The guy who's giving me the swords for my Swarmlord wasn't going to be there.

2) I wasn't going to drive 10 miles out of my way to the next nearest shop just to buy 'Chaos Black' undercoat.

Tomorrow however I should be finished up to the under-coated stage.

I went with the Hive Tyrant model as my Swarmlord as I may use the Trygon as a...well... Trygon...but only at 2000 points...maybe...

I also wimped out on my objective markers and just glued the tube thingys from the Genestealer sprues to 40mm bases.

As I'm at a bit of a standstill (and haven't finished either of the other 2 articles I'm currently writing) this might be a good time to review how much It's actually cost me *

*I know that may not be important to everyone but it's certainly important to anyone currently on a tight budget (like me for example).

So I was fortunate that my Girlfriend had bought me the 'Tyranid Assault Brood' £100 box last year and could use that as the basis for my army. However in these budget conscious times would this have been an expensive army to build had I bought everything individually?

Lets see ;-)

1x Swarmlord/Hive Tyrant - £30

4x Carnifex (2 as Tervigons and 2 as Tyrannofex) - £108

3x Boxes of Warriors (2 boxes to make 6 Hive Guard and 1 to make 2-3 Tyrant guard) - £60

3x Monstrous Arms Sprues (Warrior boxes only come with 1 of those sprues and I used the same bits off 1 for each Hive Guard so therefore needed 3 more to make 6 total) - £18

4x Oval Bases £2.50 each - £10

My personal experience has led me to the (with no science or maths to back it up, sorry) conclusion that you need about 25 Termagants per Tervigon for 'Spawn Termagants' purposes on top of the 2 lots of 10 you need to take to make the Tervigons troops.

Which for the mathematically astute of you means I need 70.

Which is either 6 boxes of 12 - £90 0r,

14 boxes of the snap fit 'no options' type which comes to £68.60

Scrounging bits for objective markers should be free so £0 for those.

Which using all the cheap options comes to £294.60 for the models

Also we best include all the misc. bits as well

1x 'Chaos Black' £8 (I know I said I needed to buy another one but the first can started more than half empty)

2x plastic Glue £4 each - £8

2x Super Glue £4 each - £8

1x Green Stuff - £6

1x PVA - £5

1x Modelling Sand - £5

Lots of rocks for basing which if I'm being honest I stole..er, I mean acquired from a number of random locations.

So that's another £40,

Bringing our grand total for our/my wonderful looking (imo obviously) Tyranid army to £334.60

I'm presuming you already have paints, if not add another £20-50 depending on how many colour variations you include.

I'll leave you to decide if that's reasonable or not.....

Optimising the Non-optimised...

So I managed to sneak off and spend most of the day at my FLGS.

I watched a few games that were going on while swearing at my Hive Tyrant parts for not fitting together properly while simultaneously gluing both my fingers to the model and my scalpel to the table.

But I digress...

A lot of people still write lists based on what they think is cool or has a nice model or a particularly interesting background, or...well you get the idea. Does this mean that they shouldn't bother to make their army better due to the fact that they're handicapping themselves from the start?

I don't think so. Even the crappiest 'Battleforce' army can be made more efficient with a few minor tweaks.

You don't believe me do you?

I suppose some kind of inventive , insightful, well written article is needed to convince you?

Well that's a shame as I'm just going to randomly think out loud and hope for the best ;-)

I suppose I can give you some kind of example though...Will that do?

Okay here we go.

A gentleman at the aforementioned FLGS had decided he wanted to use certain tanks as an Imperial Guard army and basically made a 1500 point army out of what he had available.

It went something like this,

Editors note : Obviously it wasn't exactly like this as the points total was 1500 exactly, but it's close enough for our needs.

1500 Pts - 'I like these tanks and I'm using them anyway, with some stuff from this pile'

HQ: Lord Commissar (1#, 95 pts)

1 Lord Commissar @ 95 pts (Carapace Armour; Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

HQ: Lord Commissar (1#, 95 pts)

1 Lord Commissar @ 95 pts (Carapace Armour; Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 70 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 70 pts

1 Veteran Sergeant

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 70 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 70 pts

1 Veteran Sergeant

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (2#, 400 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 400 pts

1 Leman Russ Vanquisher (Lascannon; Multi-melta Sponsons x2)

1 Leman Russ Vanquisher (Lascannon; Multi-melta Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (2#, 395 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 395 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher

1 Leman Russ Executioner (Heavy Flamer; Plasma Cannon Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (2#, 395 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 395 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher

1 Leman Russ Executioner (Heavy Flamer; Plasma Cannon Sponsons x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1520

It sort of functioned but it didn't manage to pop transports early enough to stop the Marines from strolling up and killing it and the mismatched Tanks made target priority a bit of a nightmare.

So the list is a total loss then?

Not necessarily...Just because a list doesn't use optimal choices doesn't mean that it can't be optimised.

So those are the tanks he wants to use so were stuck with those, everything else is open to change.

First the Tanks.

The squadrons need their target priority to be more optimal so we'll stick the Demolishers and Executioners into their own squadrons rather than mix and match. The Demolishers (having the shortest range) are most likely to be close to the enemy at some point so we'll give them Heavy Flamers. The Multi-Meltas on the Vanquishers require us to get a little bit too close to the enemy than the rest of it's load-out so we'll dump those. As the Executioners Plasma Cannons have a 36" Range we could let them keep their Heavy Bolter...I'd still probably go with the Heavy Flamer though if it was up to me. Being completely honest I'd maybe dump the sponsons as well and use the points for some other upgrades.

Now the Infantry.

20 Guardsmen whether escorted by a Lord Commissar or not are going to die horribly very soon and therefore need some protection. As we all know the best protection 5th. Ed. has to offer is a Transport Vehicle and Chimera's are pretty versatile.

Our revised Tank costs leaves us with 370 points to spend on a HQ and troops. Since our Tanks are doing most of the work some Veterans and a Cheap HQ should be sufficient.

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 125 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 125 pts

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Seems ideal as a starting point, we need two though so that's 250 points gone. Nice and mobile now can add to the fire-power if necessary or can hide behind a tank if they feel like it.

Almost forgot the HQ...

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 105 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 105 pts

1 Company Commander

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

That only leaves us with 15 points spare which can be used for anything that you see fit as nothing is really going to be list changing with those points.

That gives us,

1500 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - Imperial Guard ver 2.0

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 105 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 105 pts

1 Company Commander

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 125 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 125 pts

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 125 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 125 pts

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (2#, 340 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 340 pts

1 Leman Russ Vanquisher (Lascannon)

1 Leman Russ Vanquisher (Lascannon)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (2#, 330 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 330 pts

1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Heavy Flamer)

1 Leman Russ Demolisher (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (2#, 460 pts)

1 Leman Russ Squadron @ 460 pts

1 Leman Russ Executioner (Heavy Flamer; Plasma Cannon Sponsons x2)

1 Leman Russ Executioner (Heavy Flamer; Plasma Cannon Sponsons x2)

Total Roster Cost: 1485

My opinion of how a Imperial Guard army should be done are somewhat different and I'm sure you can all pick holes with this army and their are many much better ways of doing Imperial Guard.

The point is with a few little tweaks you can get the best out of even a 'I think this stuff is Cool' list with a little thought.

After all we can't all run armies like the following, now can we?

2000 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - Imperial Guard.

HQ: Company Command Squad (7#, 165 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 165 pts (Meltagun x3; Astropath)

1 Company Commander

1 Astropath

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 125 pts)

5 Psyker Battle Squad @ 125 pts

1 Overseer

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 125 pts)

5 Psyker Battle Squad @ 125 pts

1 Overseer

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 125 pts)

5 Psyker Battle Squad @ 125 pts

1 Overseer

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)

9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Meltagun x3)

1 Veteran Sergeant

1 Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Vendetta

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Vendetta

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 130 pts)

1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 130 pts

1 Vendetta

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (2#, 150 pts)

1 Hydra Flak Tank Battery @ 150 pts

1 Hydra Flak Tank (Heavy Flamer)

1 Hydra Flak Tank (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (2#, 150 pts)

1 Hydra Flak Tank Battery @ 150 pts

1 Hydra Flak Tank (Heavy Flamer)

1 Hydra Flak Tank (Heavy Flamer)

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (2#, 150 pts)

1 Hydra Flak Tank Battery @ 150 pts

1 Hydra Flak Tank (Heavy Flamer)

1 Hydra Flak Tank (Heavy Flamer)

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Tyranid Project - Part 14 - Tyrannofex 2

Real life has managed to interfere with my 40K yet again. Some of that interference was a bit of freelance servicing work which managed to pay the bills for another month so I can't really complain that much, lol.

With that out of the way I can get back to my Tyranid Project.

So, with the arrival of my oval bases I've finally managed to get around to building my 2nd Tyrannofex.

TYRANNOFEX 2, SIDE VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, OTHER SIDE VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, FRONT VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, TOP VIEW.

TYRANNOFEX 2, ANGLED VIEW.

I'll undercoat it tomorrow together with the 86 Termagants.

I'm now just a Swarmlord away from a fully WYSIWYG Tyranid army :-)

On the subject of The Swarmlord I'm now reconsidering using the Trygon model and may just use the standard Hive Tyrant with some extra plasticard Boneswords, magnetised so I can swap weapons around. That way I can use the Mawloc/Trygon actually as a Mawloc/Trygon and work out if it's viable as my 3rd Heavy Support choice at 2000 points.

Comments are (as usual) welcome.

Space Marine Bikers at 1500 points

A guy named Alex at my FLGS has bought himself 4 boxes of the above in order to build himself a Space Marine Bike army.

I did exactly the same thing so I know it's a bloody good way of doing it on the cheap (ish).

My (admittedly brief) testing of Bike lists forced me to accept that it CANT be done competitively without the Command Squad.

Taking into account that he's already built himself a Librarian on Bike and has Landspeeders in the kit I'd probably do something like this.

Editors Note : Well spotted Grav - forgot to give the command squad bikes, lol. had to drop a speeder to compensate ;-)

1500 Pts - Space Marine Bikes for Alex

HQ: Space Marine Captain (1#, 190 pts)

1 Space Marine Captain @ 190 pts (...in Power Armour)

1 ...in Power Armour (Digital Weapons; Artificer Armour; Space Marine Bike; Bolt Pistol; Relic Blade x1)

1 Space Marine Bike

HQ: Space Marine Librarian (1#, 135 pts)

1 Space Marine Librarian @ 135 pts (...in Power Armour; Null Zone; The Avenger)

1 ...in Power Armour (Space Marine Bike)

: Command Squad (5#, 365 pts)

1 Command Squad @ 365 pts (Space Marine Bike; Veteran; Veteran)

1 Apothecary (Unit on SM Bikes)

3 Veteran (Storm Shield; Unit on SM Bikes; Lightning Claw x1; Meltagun x1)

1 Veteran (Storm Shield; Unit on SM Bikes; Meltagun; Power Fist x1)

Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (9#, 310 pts)

7 Space Marine Bike Squad @ 310 pts (Meltagun x2; Attack Bike)

1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

1 Sergeant (Power Fist)

Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (9#, 310 pts)

7 Space Marine Bike Squad @ 310 pts (Meltagun x2; Attack Bike)

1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

1 Sergeant (Power Fist)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 90 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 90 pts (Typhoon Missile Launcher x1)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 90 pts)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 90 pts (Typhoon Missile Launcher x1)

Total Roster Cost: 1500

Personally I'd go pure bikes and live without the Librarian and put some speeders (or the Librarian if you really want him) back in at higher points values.

Something like this,

1500 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Space Marine Bikers ver 2.0

HQ: Space Marine Captain (1#, 190 pts)

1 Space Marine Captain @ 190 pts (...in Power Armour)

1 ...in Power Armour (Digital Weapons; Artificer Armour; Space Marine Bike; Bolt Pistol; Relic Blade x1)

1 Space Marine Bike

: Command Squad (5#, 375 pts)

1 Command Squad @ 375 pts (Space Marine Bike; Veteran; Veteran)

1 Apothecary (Unit on SM Bikes)

3 Veteran (Storm Shield; Unit on SM Bikes; Lightning Claw x1; Meltagun x1)

1 Veteran (Storm Shield; Unit on SM Bikes; Meltagun x1; Power Fist x1)

Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (9#, 310 pts)

7 Space Marine Bike Squad @ 310 pts (Meltagun x2; Attack Bike)

1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

1 Sergeant (Power Fist)

Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (9#, 310 pts)

7 Space Marine Bike Squad @ 310 pts (Meltagun x2; Attack Bike)

1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

1 Sergeant (Power Fist)

Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (9#, 310 pts)

7 Space Marine Bike Squad @ 310 pts (Meltagun x2; Attack Bike)

1 Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

1 Sergeant (Power Fist)

Total Roster Cost: 1495