[BFG] Tyranid 1500pt fleet for review

[ReDavide]

Bleah, so many threads dealing with business matters. We need some more game threads. :evilgrin:

I played this list against a Tau opponent last night. I won, in large part because many of his points were wasted with bad orbital-defense configurations. He noticed this, and will bring a better list next time. Hopefully you folks can help me put some more oomph into mine as well!

During games, the fleet usually divides itself into three distinct segments: Core (advances slowly up the middle), Speed (advances up either side to hold the flanks), & Decoy (draws enemy fire to protect more fragile vessels):

Core

[395] Hive Ship #1
+2 Spore cysts
+Torpedoes (6)
+Launch bays (8)
+Leadership 9 w/ reroll
This is your standard ordnance mothership.

[360] Hive Ship #2
+2 Spore cysts
+Drone link
+Forward batteries (16)
+Launch bays (2)
+Leadership 9
This setup is a bit more aggressive. My ordnance & feeder ships can disable the enemy, but I need the serious firepower this guy has to actually blow them up.

[130] Razorfiend Cruiser #1
+Spore cysts (2)
+Torpedos (4x2)
+Side batteries (8)
A nice all-purpose support ship. I see him as the Lunar Class of the hive.

[45] Escort Drones x3
+Bio-plasma (2)

[45] Escort Drones x3
+Bio-plasma (2)
At 15 points apiece, these escorts are a steal. With their short range & slow speed, they're only active in the late game, but man do they pack a punch when they arrive!

Speed

[120] Kraken x3
+Batteries (6)
These are another great deal. People never expect a strength 18 battery to be coming out of three little escorts. :evilgrin:

[105] Kraken x3
+Massive Claws
I like ships with pincers. Especially against Tau, when I can imagine my ships snapping their puny escorts along their scrawny little midsections.

[75] Vanguard x3
+Feeder Tentacles

[75] Vanguard x3
+Feeder Tentacles
I also like ships who violate enemy ships with slimy tentacles and suck out their screaming crew. They have the added bonus of being able to easily turn a battleship into a useless hunk of metal if they get into contact.

Decoy

[150]Razorfiend Cruiser #2
+Spore cysts (2)
+Reinforced carapace (4)
+Massive Claws x2
Defensively, this guy is the equal of any grand cruiser. While he's lightly armed, his claws make him a moderate threat to pretty much anything out there, and make him look really scary on the tabletop.


At the end of my game, I had both hive ships, 4 escort drones, and a crippled cruiser #1 left surviving. The hive ships survived because their 6 spores made them very ordnance-resistant, and the escorts because they were slow & hung around the juicer hive-ship targets.

For my next game, I'm expecting to face a whole lot of bombers coming in large waves. I'd like to beef up my bomber defense.

I also suffered from running out of Hive influence on several turns, leaving a lot of my ships on instinctive behavior. I think the easiest way to fix this would be to consolidate some escorts into bigger squadrons, but I'm unsure how to do this.

Suggestions/Comments? If you've read this far, I want to kiss you.

[fracas]

not a commenet so much as a question


how does that hive mind auto play rule working for you?

[ReDavide]

It varies by ship.

For ships with ordnance, it's not a very big deal. They usually get the reload-ordnance behavior, which allows them to still move & shoot however I like.

For escorts though, it can be dangerous. It really sucks when your speedy little Vanguards and Kraken are lolling around at half speed, and it's even worse if those little escorts have to instinctively board a cruiser! :eek:

[fracas]

does this make you want to take more kraken (aren't they less dependent on the hive mind) as well as more ordnance ships?

[ReDavide]

does this make you want to take more kraken (aren't they less dependent on the hive mind)In the fluff, Kraken & Vanguards often range far afield. That never makes its way into the rules though. They need hive influence as much as anyone.

as well as more ordnance ships?Tyranid ordnance is nice, but is also dangerous to overload on. It's very slow - Necron escorts & eldar capital ships can literally outrun it! It also always makes hit&run attacks instead of damaging normally. This is great for disabling a ship, but makes them terrible at actually killing things.

Plus, spreading out ordnance among many ships makes things difficult if you do establish control - If say I take a single pair of launch bays, or a 4-strong torpedo battery, I have a tough choice to make. Do I reload the piddly ordnance, or use another (perhaps more useful) special order? Wasting 20 points on never-reloaded ordnance may be fine to secure the obedience of an important hive ship, but it gets expensive if you modify cruisers that way.