Hey folks, Chaplain Sam back with more of
Tyranids in 7th Edition. The topic today is Tyranid troops choices. Troops hasn't been a strong point for Nidz recently. The more competitive bug builds only take minimum troops now that everything can score. I still don't think Tyranid troops are bad, but I do think they play a different role than those of other armies.
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| http://derpzillagaming.blogspot.com/2014/01/tyranid-review-troops-tactica.html |
Good
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| http://derpzillagaming.blogspot.com/2014/01/tyranid-review-troops-tactica.html |
Average
- Termagants - Termagants are cheap, cheap, cheap. They can act as a meat shield, move forward to score objectives and are actually fairly durable because of their sheer numbers. They have decent shooting because of how many shots they put out, especially if you upgrade to devourers. Termagants are solid troop choice for most Tyranid lists
- Hormagaunts - Hormagants are nearly as cheap as termagants and have pretty similar capabilities. They ditch the guns for fleet and a +3 modifier to their run rolls so they get up the field pretty fast. They're better at reaching objectives and are great meat shields because they won't jam up the horde behind them. In my opinion hormagaunts are very underrated.
- Rippers - Rippers can deep strike right on top of objectives and that is pretty much their sole value. It's a pretty useful tactic, especially because rippers are so cheap. Also, they can operate completely independent of the rest of an army so they fit with pretty much any type of list. I think they work particularly well with a skyblight/FMC list where you won't have a lot of backfield synapse to babysit other troop choices.
- Warriors - I like warriors more than most Nid players, but they are probably the worst of the average group. They're best suited to sit in the backfield and provide synapse and OS scoring. That's a rare and valuable combo, even with warriors' various weaknesses. They are fairly durable even though they can get insta-gibbed by S8+ weapons. The issue with warriors is they don't have a lot of "umph" to their shooting. Frankly, their offensive output is pretty poor. The absolute best way to include warriors in an army list is as part of the Living Artillery Node formation.
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| http://imperatorguides.blogspot.com/2014/02/tactica-tyranids-genestealers.html |
Poor
- Genestealers - Genestealers are too cool to be so bad. Seriously... they are an iconic Tyranid unit! Unfortunately, they are overpriced, super squishy and are essentially forced to eat a 1-2 turns of shooting before having any chance to charge into combat. However, if they actually make it to combat they are pretty good!
- Tervigon - Tervigons just don't do enough to justify the cost. Their damage output is pretty marginal and the changes to smash in 7th edition made it worse. Their best role is as a durable, super scoring synapse creature, but the cost of the tervigon plus the termagant tax is too big of a points sink to be effective.
Chaplain Sam's Choice: Hormagaunts. Wait, what?!? But everyone says hormagaunts suck, right? Well that depends on your expectations and how you plan to use them. I like to take two minimum sized squads (10) exclusively to act as a meat shield and to claim objectives if they are still alive. They do both of those things better than termagants, which are generally a more popular choice. Hormagaunts are much faster so they can reach objectives and they don't slow the rest of swarm behind them. I really don't like it when my carnifexen get stuck behind their own shield of gants after a horrible run roll. Now you must be thinking, buttermagants can shoot! They have guns! Realistically, 10 termagants aren't going to kill anything. I'll take the speed hormagaunts. Rippers are solid and they are really popular right now because they can deep strike right on top of objectives. I prefer to have a meat shield to complement the cover save provided by my malanthropes, but rippers are a good choice too. It really just depends on what you want from your troops. I'm not claiming that Hormagaunts are always the best choice, but I use them in my most competitive lists.
I'm expecting a lot of people will disagree with my choice so let me know it in the comments! I'd love to hear other peoples' thoughts.
Chaplain Sam signing off.
What's your top troop choice for a competitive Tyranid list? Let me know in the comments!
