Warhammer 40K Kill Team: Tyranids and You
Today, let’s talk about my experiences playing with my beloved Tyranids in Kill Team 2021!
Hey all, Danny from TFG Radio here. With a wide mix of tactics and forces, Tyranids are a blast to play and they certainly have some sweet tricks up their sleeves.
Welcome to Kill Team!
So I have finally managed to get a few games of Kill Team in, and of course, I had to bring out the bugs. If you are a bug player, chances are you have more than enough to get into Kill Team as it is, and really, you don’t need much to be able to play through even a campaign with a well-rounded, varied list. Let’s break it down:
Flexibility:
Tyranids get 2 Fire Teams per game, meaning you can select from 3 different Fire Teams and thus get 2 totally different model types. The Swarm Fire Team gives you 8 little bugs, any combination of Termagants and Hormagaunts, the Genestealer Fire Team gives you 5 Genestealers, and the Warrior Fire Team gives you 3 Warriors. You cannot take 2 Swarm Fire Teams as they cannot have a Leader, but if you just want to play board control, 13 models is a fair number in Kill Team, especially with Tyranids’ speed.
In missions against more elite forces like Custodes or Space Marines, having a ton of bodies really helps as you can essentially feed the enemy non-essential bugs while scoring the objectives, and really, since melee is so deadly, throwing a Hormagaunt into an enemy might mean the Hormie dies, but it’ll do big damage on its way out. If playing a mission where resilience is more important than anything else, 6 Warriors is like playing 6 weaker Custodes. Even within the Swarm Fireteam, you have some variation as you can either lean heavy into Hormagaunts or Termagants, or even cut down the number of models by taking a few Termies with Devourers. This very much makes each game feel fresh as there are a lot of different combinations, not just between Fire Teams but also the variation within the Fire Teams. You can go heavy Devourer Termagants with Shooty Warriors for a gun line or 8 Hormies and 5 Genestealers for just a carpet of melee death.
Ambush:
Kill Team really captures the ambush predator style of Genestealers, I must say. Their ability to ignore abilities that take away their Conceal order (meaning they cannot be shot at unless in the open) makes them amazing for quickly getting up the board and either scoring points or getting into kill range. And boy howdy, do these bugs hit. With 5 attacks that reroll and get extra Crits thanks to Rending, they are going to do big damage, especially if you treat like them missiles. They likely won’t survive, but they will do huge damage in the process, and I definitely won a Custodes matchup because I could cripple a Custode in melee with a Genestealer then polish it off with a Warrior’s shooting later or even another Genestealer that parries all of its attack except for one.
Hormagaunts can do this to an extent as well. They are easier to kill and find, but they also punch pretty hard for their size, so you can sacrifice one to take out a much more valuable target. Tyranids also have an amazing Tactical Ploy (a stratagem really) that lets you flip their order at the start or end of their activation as long as they haven’t shot, meaning you can have a Genestealer move and kill a target with the Engage order and then slip back into Conceal, making it very difficult to engage it again, or you could have a shooting unit like a Heavy Gunner Warrior start in Conceal, wait until other threats have activated, and then flip their order to Engage so they can lay down that Venon Cannon goodness.
Tactics:
Tyranids also have access to a lot of good, workable tactics that fit a Fire Teams playstyle. Security is great for Warriors since they can control the board well with their shooting and melee while your other Fire Team goes out and causes trouble, and of course, Genestealers are great at getting Infiltration points. Swarm also gives Recon, so in one game using Genestealers and Swarm, I got a lot of secondary points as getting those Recon objectives wasn’t too hard at all thanks to 13 bodies and a good amount of speed. An amazing Strategic Ploy is Lurk, giving one model a free Normal Move in the Command step of the Turning Point (turn). This really helps set up a lot of plays for different missions, and especially with Genestealers, this can make them excellent at getting points early.
Killy:
Tyranids also can just straight out kill. Warriors bring a good amount of heat with their ranged weapons, but they also fight in melee pretty well, so they really are the best of both worlds that are dangerous in any situation. Coupled with 18 wounds and our best save, they aren’t too easy to shift, and they don’t suffer injuries and keep the little ones from feeling it when within 6″. As I said before, Genestealers will just blitz anything in melee if you don’t care about them living much, and for that reason, Hormagaunts are also quite respectable, especially if you bring 8 to continually piece trade. Termagants bring the least heat, but they do have range besides the Warriors, so they can clean up weakened models or at least do something when holding your own side of the board. I have been solidly impressed with the actual punch that Tyranids have in Kill Team, and while it is not the same mega firepower of some other teams, it is certainly respectable.
Overall:
Kill Team is a solid, fun game, and Tyranids are surprisingly strong. I wouldn’t say they are over-powered by any stretch as they lack some of the really brutal tricks or combos that others can bring, but they aren’t pushovers either, and if you remember to focus on playing the mission, they have the flexibility in their roster to excel in just about any mission against just about any matchup, if you are savvy. They aren’t as forgiving as other factions to be sure, but they certainly do work. If you’ve been thinking about Kill Team, pick up the rules and the Compendium and get to it. It makes for a great palette cleanser of a game, and once you feel comfortable with it, you can easily get several games in a single evening.
Thanks as always for reading, and oh hey, there is Kill Team at LVO 2022, so why not represent for the Hive Fleets? I am looking forward to seeing what folk bring as I make my rounds around the hall in between judge calls for 40K. Also, if you like winning free stuff, you should check out TFG Radio’s annual end of year contests!
Play games and be nice to each other!
Grab your tickets to the Cherokee Open 2022, in Cherokee North Carolina!
