The New Tyranids: Alpha Strike!
Hey everyone. Bigpig here to talk Tyranidturkey and take a look at what all the Tyranid players have been viewing as an early Thanksgiving!
Recently I reviewed the first wave of releases added to the Tyranid lines and had originally intended to take a look at the second wave of releases, but with GW firing out new models and rules faster than a Hormagaunt chasing down a fat Guardsman the Internets are already abuzz with everyone’s opinion, informed and otherwise, about what works and what doesn’t. By the time I complete this piece, the Leviathan supplement will probably be hitting the shelves with new rules, formations, detachments, and (yes!) Warlord Traits. Many changes.
So, rather than redo all the work already done by the various online pundits about the strengths and weaknesses of the various units, let me only take a moment to quickly summarize the new units and then take on the more important task about what the big changes in the second wave mean for the way the Tyranid army is played.
- Mucolid Spores: Dirt cheap, deep striking, multiwound, and a troop choice that lets you fill two troop requirements for only 30pts. In min troop lists these may replace Rippers as the go to placeholder. Thanks to “Living Bomb” rule they can’t score or contest, but they can do some cool damage when need be. Grade: B-
- Sporocysts: What? What the hell do I do with these? Everyone is sure there is a use for these beyond cool theme games but is still struggling to find them. A neat idea but just might not have enough punch or utility to justify the cost and, more importantly, Heavy Support slot. Grade: C
- Bigger Zoanthrope Broods: They can be taken in larger broods now. Problem is people rarely took them in broods of more than 1. Being able to spore in a tac nuke unit may make you take more than 1 now, but going up to 6 is unlikely. Zoans still remain a valid choice, just don’t think increased brood size is that big a deal. Grade: B
- Neurothrope: Not the Doom, not even close, so stop calling it “Return of Doom”, “Doom 2.0”, “Doomlite”, etc. Psychic Shriek, however, is one of the better witchfires so this as a delivery system is not a bad thing. Its power dice creating feature probably won’t gain you dice most of the time so don’t count on it. Grade: B
- Tyrannocytes: This is the big one, of course. Tyrannocytes single tentacledly change the character of the Tyranid army and are the focus of the rest of this article. So let’s dive right in . Grade: A
The Old Face of Tyranids
Prior to this week, Tyranids in 7th edition could be generally characterized by the following profile; An army played most effectively as Monstrous Creature or flyer spam, with short to midrange, high volume, mid strength firepower. The army was durable but slow to move across the board (with the exception of FMCs which are the opposite on both points). This lack of speed leads to issues with grabbing far objectives and reacting to an extremely mobile force. In fact, I would classify pre-Tyranocyte Tyranids as a mostly reactive army. Alternatively, you could call it a “beta strike” or “counter strike” army, but the premise is the same; Be tough enough to survive the first hit and then deliver a telling counter blow. My discussion on the Trapdoor Spider playstyle gives several examples of why this is the case. Missions with a large number of objectives, such as Scouring, were particularly difficult, as was the Hammer and Anvil deployment because of the extra ground to cover. Nids found it difficult to ferret out enemies hiding out of line of sight and out of range, or those who just refused to come and play, forcing you to plod forward at 6” a turn.
This need to react and play catch up to the opponent’s alpha strikes and movement is why the durability of Monstrous Creatures lent itself so well to success with the army. MCs have the ability to soak up that fire or plod across the board to objectives and make it in reasonable fighting shape.
This need to be reactive is also why swarm tactics have fallen out of favor in 7th for nids. Hormagaunts, Genestealers, and Termagaunts just aren’t durable enough to slog across the board and come to grips with the enemy in the face of all the 7th edition firepower out there. Bodies over bullets just doesn’t work when there are more bullets than bodies. I used to love playing swarm lists a couple years back but after Eldar/Tau, they just couldn’t cut it. Obviously I’m speaking in general terms here and there will always be friendly metas or tournaments where the players present, missions, and tables combine to favor or allow another playstyle to succeed. A lictor list dominated at a recent 11th Company tournament, after all.
Overnight, Tyrannocytes change that. This is no surprise as the Tyranid “drop pod” existed in the previous edition. I played the fifth edition codex with a drop element and had a lot of fun with a null deploy all drop list for a while. With the loss of spores in the new codex, I immediately noticed the shift in our mobility and had to struggle for a while to figure out how make the reactive army durable enough to work. Not any more. The following assessment of how Tyrannocytes will change Tyranid playstyle is based upon experience playing with Mycetic Spores of our last codex, discussing the experiences of others, and good old fashioned Internet arrogance and theoryhammer. The differences between new and old spores could bring out new ideas that we haven’t thought of yet, but this is a good place to start.
The New Face of Tyranids: Alpha Strike
The big change from Tyrannocytes is that Tyranids can now be played as an alpha strike army. Nids have some of the best mid-range firepower in the game in the form of Brainleech Devourers and can also field quite a few Template/Torrent weapons. Even the basic guns are relatively powerful, including the Deathspitter on warriors and Fleshborers on the lowly Termagaunt. Again the problem with these has always been getting them into range intact. Tyrannocytes let us do that.
In order to make an alpha strike work you need to commit to it fully. You must arrange for all of your elements to arrive at the enemy at the same time so they can deliver a telling, coordinated blow. If applying the Nine Principles of War (MOOSEMUSS) to 40k concepts, this would be described as “Mass.” Ensure you deliver sufficient force at the correct time and place to ensure victory. Many players will make the mistake of dropping one or two big scary monsters in the enemy’s back lines but have nothing else there to support their attack. These models will often be quickly eliminated, before doing any damage at all in the case of melee oriented beasties. This can be ok if they are there to perform a suicide mission (see Surgical Insertion below), but is a waste if you are counting on them to stick around.
The best way to ensure sufficient mass is to bring a variety of elements together and control their arrival. To this end, we first need to control reserves. There is speculation that Shield of Baal: Leviathan will bring a formation which gives Tyrannoctyes the “Drop Assault” rule, like drop pods. Until that transpires, we want to make certain as many Tyrannocytes as possible arrive on turn 2. Tyranids have two choices here, Swarmlord and Comms Relay. Swarmlord is pricey and suffers from the big scary monster that moves 6” a turn syndrome. His ability does work if he’s off the board so you could put him in a spore too if you want, not my first choice though. Comms relay seems to be the better choice. I would buy it with an Aegis Line or an Imperial Bunker. Both options will run you well under 100pts and also allow your smaller Turn 1 elements to be more durable to an enemy alpha strike.
The next way to deliver mass is to follow the three rules of a gunfight; “1. Bring a gun. 2. Bring an extra gun. 3. Bring all your friends with guns.” Basically, deliver a lot of firepower and options to deal with a variety of targets. Accomplish this by simultaneously dropping in at minimum three Tyrannocytes and cargo. This gives you 6 targets in the enemy’s face overwhelming target priority and putting out the hurt. Good alpha striking units to deliver include Dakkafex, Tyrannofex, Devourer armed Termagaunts, and Zoanthropes.
Combine that with board elements moving forward. Think of this like a pincer move. The best source for this is Flying Monstrous Creatures that started on the board on turn 1. You can either move them after the drops to fill holes OR move them first to fill open areas and minimize scatter of the Tyrannocytes (inexpensive Mucolids can do this too). Another option to deliver something different is to put an Escape Hatch on the bunker you purchased for the Relay. Put that escape hatch 12” forward (midfield) and start something fast and scary like Genestealers, poisonous Hormagaunts, or Bonesword Shrikes inside. On turn 2 they can probably get to grips with the enemy and assault as they get to deploy from the hatch which should be right in board center. Lastly, Mawlocs suddenly became more useful. As a cheap MC and a very viable answer to invisible deathstars Mawlocs have a place, but their tendency to miss and get shot up unsupported left them in the second string. Now they can hit on turn 2 with the rest of the alpha strike. Just make sure to drop them in first.
I should mention delivering melee units like Hormagaunts, Stealers, Toxicrenes, Haruspex (yeah, I said it), and Dimachaerons in Tyrannocytes. While potentially a valid option and a way to get these dangerous units in your opponent’s face right away, these will not impact your mass on the turn you come down. Make sure you support them or protect them. One option could be to drop them but shield them with a dropped Malanthrope or Venomthropes, basically setting up a deep striking beta strike army. That gets expensive fast as the Tyrannocytes are not exactly a cheap transport. Perhaps a single melee element dropped in to mop up the turn after the shooting alpha strike is a better option.
Sample Alpha Strike Army
Here is a rough-hewn sample Alpha Strike army at 1850pts. It’s a stab and needs playtest but is a place to start.
Tyrant; Wings, 2xBrainleach worms, Warlord
Tyrant; Wings, 2xBrainleach worms
30 Termagaunts
Tervigon; Troop, Crushing Claws, Electroshock grubs (pod)
Malanthrope
3 Zoanthrope (pod)
Carnifex; 2xBrainleach worms (pod)
Carnifex; 2xBrainleach worms (pod)
Mawloc
4x Tyrannocyte
The basic approach to this single CAD list is to start both Tyrants, the Malanthrope, and the Termagaunts on the board in terrain, near or in the bunker and near a placed objective. Everything else in reserve. The Malanthrope can hop into the bunker if you like. Turn 2, most of your elements will come in for a hard hitting alpha strike with multiple options. You will have 48 TL Brainleach, the Mawloc, 3 Warp Lances, 60 Deathspitter, ESG, and however many Gaunts get spawned by the Tervigon unloading in the enemy face. You combine high volume, ignores cover, and lance elements at whatever point on the board you need them. The Malanthrope and Gaunts camp the backfield.
