Last night I used a pretty cool Tyranid list that I came up with for shits and giggles. I had decided recently that I was going to use my Blood Angels for my club's Escalation League, but for some reason after reading Synaps3, Legio Minimus, and The Back: 40k's Tyranid articles, I've been hooked on bugs!
Here's what I ran:
2,000 points - Mixed Ground & Aerial Assault
HQ
Hive Tyrant (Wings, 2x Scything Talons, Old Adversary, Adrenal Glands, Leech Essence, Paroxysm)
ELITE
3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard
10x Ymgarl Genestealers
TROOPS
11x Termagaunts
Tervigon (Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst)
8x Genestealers (Toxin Sacs, one is a Broodlord)
10x Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
FAST
6x Shrike Brood (Lash Whips & Boneswords)
19x Gargoyles (Toxin Sacs)
Harpy
73 models, 11 Kill Points, 4 scoring units (to start with)
So I ran this list against a Dark Angels player running the following (off the top of my head):
HQ
Belial
Chaplain
ELITE
Venerable Dreadnought (Plasma Cannon, Extra Armor)
TROOPS
5x Terminators (Belial Upgrade, 1 TH/SS, 1 Heavy Flamer, 1 Chainfist, 1 Apothecary, 1 Chapter Banner)
5x Terminators (Assault Cannon)
5x Terminators (Cyclone Missile Launcher)
10x Tactical Marines (Power Weapon, flamer or meltagun (can't remember))
HEAVY
Land Raider Crusader (multi-melta)
FAST
6x Bikes + Multi-Melta Attack Bike + Land Speeder with HB/AC (bikes had a Power Weapon and Meltagun)
I've been messing around with Army Builder a LOT and I've really been wanting to run Gargs, Shrikes, Flyrants, and I wanted to try the Harpy out since it should be coming out in plastic during the "summer of fliers". I had ran a similar list a week or two after the codex came out (and it worked great), but I wanted to see how they did almost a year and a half later, with the current meta.
Our mission was Annihilation and Pitched Battle, which I was okay with. Sure, my Tervigon was basically going to miss out on doing much for this game, but it's still a distraction.
My opponent deployed his Dreadnought behind his Land Raider (which was turned sideways) in the middle of the table with his two units of regular Terminators nearby. He put his bikes on my right flank, and his speeder and attack bike on my left flank. He put Belial and his upgraded Terminator unit on the table and the Chaplain and the Tactical Squad in the Land Raider.
I deployed my Gargoyles in front of my Shrike Brood and put them in front of my Harpy and Flyrant. I placed my Hive Guard, Tervigon, and Termagaunts in some cover and opted to infiltrate my two units of Genestealers and use the Ymgarl's "Dormant" ability.
My opponent went first (after scout-moving his bikes up 12" up my right flank), and proceeded to shoot my Gargoyles to bits, though the dice weren't really with him. I only lost 6 by the end of his shooting phase.
As for the rest of the game, as much as I'd like to do a full battle report, I don't really remember a whole lot as the game was quite boring overall. Combat didn't really happen until the 3rd-ish turn, and I spent most of the game just running across the field at him while he backed up. Otherwise, my Ymgarl Genestealers didn't come in until turn 4 and my Broodlord Genestealer unit spent 3 turns in combat with his Venerable Dreadnought.
After a long and fairly boring battle, I was up 9 to 6 in Kill Points, and even though we rolled for a 6th turn of which he'd get to go first, his whole next turn would have done nothing but grant me two more kill points. At the end of the 5th, not only was I up by 3 KP's, but he only had 3 units left on the table: the Land Raider, his Attack Bike, and the Sergeant from the Bike Squad.
I really enjoyed using the Shrike Brood, Harpy, Flyrant, and Gargoyles. The Gargoyles did their job providing cover to the rest of my flying element, but by the time I made it to my opponent for some hand-to-hand, I was down to only 8 Gargoyles. I think next time I'll completely remove their upgrades and use the extra points to have more Gargoyles in the shield unit. The Shrike Brood killed whole Terminator units at a time, but were mowed down by Cyclone Missiles, Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons, and Power Weapon wounds. As for the Harpy, that was the only flying unit I didn't like. I think I would have been better off with another Shrike unit (even if it would only afford me three more Shrikes, I would add them to the other 6, then split the unit into a group of 5 and a group of 4). They were the champions of the match with how they dealt with the Terminators, and with two units I could see them really tearing apart an army (after popping their transports with other things, that is).
Hmm, maybe I'll have to try more flying lists...
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