Sunday, August 7, 2011

Tuning the NOVA list


Painting like a madman this weekend - so much to do, and made harder because I haven't settled on my final list yet.  As I work through several different options, these are the ones I keep coming back to.  One of my private conclusions, and interestingly borne out as a result of Lyracian's work with Nikephoros' excellent 40k-Metrics series, was that Tyranids have trouble shooting infantry; we can kill vehicles pretty decently, but getting to the tasty morsels inside is often the hard part. In batrep after batrep, everything comes down to getting into close combat - and the larger Tyranid metagame indicates the way to do this is with great big broods of stealers, backed up by tervigon-powered FNP.  So the challenge has been to try and put together a list that can hurt infantry long before getting into cc, can withstand firepower and continue to take down 2-4 vehicles per turn through at least turn 3, has redundant FNP, and has 5 or 6 troops slots to deal with the NOVA conditions.  These are the variants I've put together and had varying dice-dependent success with in my at-home playtesting vs. various lists.  The fact that my losses are generally due to dice and not the inability to be effective is encouraging.

Without further ado - what are your thoughts?

List #1:

Total Roster Cost: 1999
HQ:  1 Tyranid Prime, Lash Whip & Bonesword
Heavy Support:  2 Carnifex Brood, TL Devourer w/Brainleech Worms + Frag Spines
Heavy Support:  2 Biovore Brood
Heavy Support:  2 Biovore Brood
Elite:  3 Zoanthrope Brood
Elite:  3 Hive Guard Brood,
Elite:  3 Hive Guard Brood
Troops: Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs + Catalyst
Troops: Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs + Catalyst
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood
Troops: 12 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs + Broodlord (+ Scything Talons)
Troops: 8 Genestealer Brood


List #2:
Total Roster Cost: 1999
HQ:  1 The Parasite of Mortrex
Fast Attack: 18 Gargoyle Brood, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs
HQ:  1 Tyranid Prime,  Lash Whip & Bonesword + Regeneration
Heavy Support:  2 Carnifex Brood, TL Devourer w/Brainleech Worms x2 + Frag Spines
Elite:  2 Hive Guard Brood
Elite:  2 Hive Guard Brood
Elite:  3 Zoanthrope Brood
Troops: 1 Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs  + Catalyst
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood
Troops: 11 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs + Broodlord (+ Scything Talons)
Troops: 10 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs
Troops: 10 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs


List #3:
Total Roster Cost: 1996
HQ:  1 The Parasite of Mortrex, 160 pts
Fast Attack:  16 Gargoyle Brood, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs
Elite:  3 Zoanthrope Brood
Elite:  3 Hive Guard Brood,
Elite:  3 Hive Guard Brood
Heavy Support:  2 Biovore Brood
Heavy Support:  2 Biovore Brood
Troops: 1 Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs  + Catalyst
Troops: 1 Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs  + Catalyst
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood
Troops: 15 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs + Broodlord (+ Scything Talons)
Troops: 15 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs


List #4:
Total Roster Cost: 2000
HQ:  1 Tyranid Prime,  Lash Whip & Bonesword + Regeneration
Heavy Support:  2 Carnifex Brood, TL Devourer w/Brainleech Worms x2 + Frag Spines
Heavy Support:  3 Biovore Brood
Elite:  3 Zoanthrope Brood
Elite:  3 Hive Guard Brood,
Elite:  3 Hive Guard Brood
Troops: 1 Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs  + Catalyst + Onslaught
Troops: 1 Tervigon, Adrenal Glands + Toxin Sacs  + Catalyst + Onslaught
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood
Troops: 10 Termagant Brood + Devourer
Troops: 16 Genestealer Brood, Toxin Sacs + Broodlord (+ Scything Talons)

4 comments:

  1. I like list #3.

    As an aside, you've got a prime and fex, but one prime will only grant cover to one fex, not a pair, as you have them.

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  2. Yup. I've playedtested it by splitting into two 1-fex broods and run them with the fex+prime up front and other fex behind. Need to make the lists reflect that though. For list 4, I've looked at dropping 1 stealer, onslaught on one terv, the regen on the prime, and the devourers - which lets me add a second lash/bs Prime.

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  3. Hey Ghostin,

    I like list#1,

    I was reading thru your past articles, the one on biovores in particular, I see from your lists that you still like them.

    I have a question, in your biovore article you talk about seeding areas of the table with spore mines. It seems like you would be firing at empty table space to do it, I didn't think you could, don't you have to target a unit?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Bahz - you are correct; you do have to target an enemy unit. My 2nd edition rules are showing again =\ At least if you miss, the scatter effect may (if you're lucky) leave spore mines in a path of advance or retreat. No seeding the table though. That can only be done with the orbital deployment Spore Mine Cluster. I corrected the post.

    Some of my playtesting results have also shown me that 2 units of T4/W2/4+ biovores is a really good way to give my opponent 2 KPs on turn 1. Target priority issues aside (better shooting at the biovores than other things generally), durability is pretty important given the KP victory conditions.

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