Post by Joelercoaster on Mar 27, 2014 10:54:44 GMT -6
Alright... so being fair, I think many of us would agree that the Skyblight Swarm is the new power build for Nids. At least until the Objective Secured rule gets thrown about to lots of other units, it is a truly game changing effect that, honestly, unless I was facing tournament Taudar type stuff, I'd feel a little bad about. It's the contestive version of S:D... there's nothing you can do about it, short of killing the unit that has it. And while Gargoyles are far easier to shift than a titan, the titan doesn't come back on a 4+... soooo.... there's that.
But anyway.
I've decided to take a look at a couple of the other formations and see what I can come up with. One list features Manufactorum Genestealers, and the other an Endless Swarm.
List Concept - Early Pressure Saturation - 2000 pts
Formation: Manufactorum Genestealers
HQ
Tyrant - Wings, Dual TL Devourers, Electro-Grubs
Elites
3x Hive Guard
2x Venomthrope
2x Zoanthrope
Troops
20x Hormagaunt
20x Hormagaunt
5x Warrior, Rending Claws
Fast
Crone
20x Gargoyles
Heavy
2x Biovores
Mawloc
Tyrannofex, Electro-Grubs
2k on the nose. The concept, as mentioned, is flooding the field with units that are designed to be lined up for a turn 2 charge (many turn 1, if you go second). I could aggravate this by finding points to swap the Warriors into a CC build with Adrenal Glands, but I don't necessarily want them at the forefront as they form a big Synapse Anchor for the swarm.
I almost went with a 2nd brood of Hive Guard, as the bulk of the list will stutter against armor, but the Synapse from the Zoans was needed.
The Biovores are a threat from turn 1 to infantry (and absolutely shred Xenos), and the Mawloc gives an 'in your face' (hopefully) turn 2, that discourages castling.
The Tyrannofex is the outlier, but Acid Spray should start hitting turn 2 as well, and it forms a bit of an Anvil to the fast-moving Hammer. Plus a big nasty to draw fire from the less survivable flyers. And it fit perfectly into the remaining points I had left.
I've tried Genestealers. And it hurts. But this single formation may make them at least playable. I've heard good things from others (on the internets) about how this just puts so many tiny broods out there that it's a mix of target saturation and wasting a lot of enemy fire to kill a mere 5 bodies. I dislike that so many of the first dataslate requires specific terrain (not to mention a Warlord trait... ughf) but buildings/ruins are *very* common in standard games, so that in and of itself shouldn't be an issue near as much.
List Concept - Go Ahead and Try - 2000 pts
Formation - Endless Swarm
10x Termagants, 5 Devourers
10x Termagants, 5 Devourers
10x Termagants, 5 Devourers
11x Hormagaunt
11x Hormagaunt
11x Hormagaunt
5x Warriors, Rending Claws
HQ
Tyrant, Wings, Dual TL Devourers, Electro-Grubs
Elites
3x Hive Guard
Venomthrope
2x Zoanthrope
Troops
30x Termagant, 15 Devourers
Tervigon, Electro-Grubs
Fast
20x Gargoyles
Crone
Heavy
2x Biovores
Trygon
This list features a minimum of 8 scoring units, 6 of which have the ability to come back into play, and one of which able to pump out further scoring units. KP missions will be a laugh at best, but the ability to swarm the field (wink wink nudge nudge) with scoring bodies is the key to (hopefully) victory.
Elites, Fast, and Heavy are the standard support for the most part, with the addition of a Trygon to make the formation useable. The Tunnel the Trygon provides is basically mandatory, and a lot of the time I expect you'll wish you had 2.
The Venomthrope will hang back to give shrouding to the "real" troops, further promoting the destruction of the utterly expendable/replaceable formation-gaunts, or at the very least annoying the opponent (shoot at the bugs that can come back, or the bugs with a 3+ cover save? And maybe Catalyst... shudder).
Objective placement will be key with this build, as you need to insure that you can cover at least 2 objectives with any given synapse bubble. Especially if you end up with 2-3 backfield on your end, you need to be able to walk on gaunts in Synapse range and still have them holding something in the late game.
Thoughts on either? What scares you? How would you dismantle it? How would you make it better?
And the first person to even *say* "Imperial Knight" is getting punched in the taint. And no, Jeff, not in the sweet way you like.
But anyway.
I've decided to take a look at a couple of the other formations and see what I can come up with. One list features Manufactorum Genestealers, and the other an Endless Swarm.
List Concept - Early Pressure Saturation - 2000 pts
Formation: Manufactorum Genestealers
HQ
Tyrant - Wings, Dual TL Devourers, Electro-Grubs
Elites
3x Hive Guard
2x Venomthrope
2x Zoanthrope
Troops
20x Hormagaunt
20x Hormagaunt
5x Warrior, Rending Claws
Fast
Crone
20x Gargoyles
Heavy
2x Biovores
Mawloc
Tyrannofex, Electro-Grubs
2k on the nose. The concept, as mentioned, is flooding the field with units that are designed to be lined up for a turn 2 charge (many turn 1, if you go second). I could aggravate this by finding points to swap the Warriors into a CC build with Adrenal Glands, but I don't necessarily want them at the forefront as they form a big Synapse Anchor for the swarm.
I almost went with a 2nd brood of Hive Guard, as the bulk of the list will stutter against armor, but the Synapse from the Zoans was needed.
The Biovores are a threat from turn 1 to infantry (and absolutely shred Xenos), and the Mawloc gives an 'in your face' (hopefully) turn 2, that discourages castling.
The Tyrannofex is the outlier, but Acid Spray should start hitting turn 2 as well, and it forms a bit of an Anvil to the fast-moving Hammer. Plus a big nasty to draw fire from the less survivable flyers. And it fit perfectly into the remaining points I had left.
I've tried Genestealers. And it hurts. But this single formation may make them at least playable. I've heard good things from others (on the internets) about how this just puts so many tiny broods out there that it's a mix of target saturation and wasting a lot of enemy fire to kill a mere 5 bodies. I dislike that so many of the first dataslate requires specific terrain (not to mention a Warlord trait... ughf) but buildings/ruins are *very* common in standard games, so that in and of itself shouldn't be an issue near as much.
List Concept - Go Ahead and Try - 2000 pts
Formation - Endless Swarm
10x Termagants, 5 Devourers
10x Termagants, 5 Devourers
10x Termagants, 5 Devourers
11x Hormagaunt
11x Hormagaunt
11x Hormagaunt
5x Warriors, Rending Claws
HQ
Tyrant, Wings, Dual TL Devourers, Electro-Grubs
Elites
3x Hive Guard
Venomthrope
2x Zoanthrope
Troops
30x Termagant, 15 Devourers
Tervigon, Electro-Grubs
Fast
20x Gargoyles
Crone
Heavy
2x Biovores
Trygon
This list features a minimum of 8 scoring units, 6 of which have the ability to come back into play, and one of which able to pump out further scoring units. KP missions will be a laugh at best, but the ability to swarm the field (wink wink nudge nudge) with scoring bodies is the key to (hopefully) victory.
Elites, Fast, and Heavy are the standard support for the most part, with the addition of a Trygon to make the formation useable. The Tunnel the Trygon provides is basically mandatory, and a lot of the time I expect you'll wish you had 2.
The Venomthrope will hang back to give shrouding to the "real" troops, further promoting the destruction of the utterly expendable/replaceable formation-gaunts, or at the very least annoying the opponent (shoot at the bugs that can come back, or the bugs with a 3+ cover save? And maybe Catalyst... shudder).
Objective placement will be key with this build, as you need to insure that you can cover at least 2 objectives with any given synapse bubble. Especially if you end up with 2-3 backfield on your end, you need to be able to walk on gaunts in Synapse range and still have them holding something in the late game.
Thoughts on either? What scares you? How would you dismantle it? How would you make it better?
And the first person to even *say* "Imperial Knight" is getting punched in the taint. And no, Jeff, not in the sweet way you like.
