I'm putting together a Hivefleet Onachus list and would appreciate some input.

This is what I've come up with so far:

NEXUS SWARM [350]
Dominatrix

TYRANID SWARM [300]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 6 Termagants, 2 Carnifex

TYRANID SWARM [300]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 6 Termagants, 2 Exocrine

TYRANID SWARM [300]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 6 Termagants, 2 Exocrine

TYRANID SWARM [200]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 6 Hormagaunts

TYRANID SWARM [200]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 6 Hormagaunts

GENESTEALER SWARM [200]
6 Genestealers, Broodlord

GENESTEALER SWARM [150]
6 Genestealers

BOIVORE SWARM [250]
9 Biovores

TRYGON SWARM [400]
3 Trygons, 5 Raveners

HIERODULE [350]

There are a couple of things that I think might give me trouble. Firstly the Dominatrix being on it's own and the second is the lack of any Harridans or Lictors. I also feel like I'm taking the Hierodule just because I want to try out one of the Big Bugs, I might be better off replacing it with a Harridan and some gargoyles and sprinkling in some more Carinfex or Haruspex or something?

I've left the Dominatrix alone because I don't want it to be the BTS and I want to see how having the BTS come on later in the game plays. Initially it was unintentional that it worked out that way. In fact I could do with some clarification - if the Dominatrix or the Hierodule are destroyed before the Trygon swarm enters play does that satisfy BTS conditions for my opponent?

Anyway the aim is fairly simple, have plenty of CC threats with plenty of formations that can prep assaults and offer decent firefight support. I can think of wildly different lists that might spam bigger bugs or Harridans or something but this one seems reasonably balanced - except for the total lack of AA of course...

Any C+C is more than welcome.

Think I found my answer to the bts question - yes it would!

Once the Trygons surface they would become the BTS I believe. When they're off board they wouldn't count for it, but once they're on they do.

I haven't tried Exocrine in Synapse Swarms, I'd like to see how they do and if their costing is good compared to the independent.

On Swarming, your Dom can't because it didn't start the game with gants and gaunts. So you'd be missing out there. Also, with the Swarms only having gants OR gaunts, you won't be able to exchange between the two. Not the end of the world, but it is nice to have the flexibility.

I tend to take 8 Stealers for a bit more durability, and haven't tried two formations of them. Again, interested in your games. I've been playing the broodlord as 25 points with no extra attack. Feel free to try that too.

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Dave

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Squats 2019-10-17

Hi!

I'd take Hive Tyrants in the swarm with the Carnifex. Fearless on those guys is just a major pain in the ass for the enemy, meaning the swarm will be back unless the Hive Tyrant is dead.
I usually have one swarm with 2 Tyrants and 4 Carnifex, and with the 12 Gaunts, it's nigh unstoppable

Also I never leave home without Lictors. I found that Tyras just suck at shooting, at least the way I play them, so I desperately need something to strike behind enemy lines.

Biovores I have a mixed feeling about... sometimes they're great, sometimes they get shot at once and the whole formation doesn't seem to recover.

cheers,

Hi Alf,

1) As Dave says, I'd add a single hormagaunt and termagant to the Dom, so she can spawn, and ensure the swarms have a mix of gaunts with at least one of each type; It's much easier to bring back losses where you want them that way.

2) In the three swarms with AV bugs, I'd replace the Warriors with Tyrants; I find them overall better, with their only disadvantage being vulnerability to AT fire. If they're with other AVs, they can use those for ablative wounds.

3) Haven't had much luck with Genestealers, myself. Perhaps swap out one of them for Lictors? They're also situational, but teleporters that haven't arrived yet are always good for shaping the opponents game.

I'd be interested in seeing battle reports with tunnelling Trygons; I haven't tried that myself.

Cheers guys - thanks for pointing out the Hive Tyrant thing, that's totally obvious now you mention it. One thing I hadn't noticed about the swarming rule was that it allows you to increase the size of the formation beyond its starting size, for some reason I'd added that restriction in my head. That could be very nasty, almost like I form of teleport without the downsides...

I'm going to leave the Lictors out for now, at 150 for 3 they feel a little overpriced to me. I think I'd need to build the list around them a little more to get the most value - I could just see a formation of three taking blast markers on arrival and getting crushed!!

Ok so the tweaked list is as follows:

NEXUS SWARM [390]
Dominatrix, 1 Termagant, 1 Hormagaunt

TYRANID SWARM [300]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Carnifex

TYRANID SWARM [300]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Exocrine

TYRANID SWARM [300]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Exocrine

TYRANID SWARM [200]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 1 Termagant, 5 Hormagaunts

TYRANID SWARM [200]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 1 Termagant, 5 Hormagaunts

GENESTEALER SWARM [175]
6 Genestealers, Broodlord

GENESTEALER SWARM [175]
6 Genestealers, Broodlord

BOIVORE SWARM [200]
7 Biovores

TRYGON SWARM [400]

HIERDULE [350]

I also like the fact that there is only ever one BTS and that the addition of the gaunts to the Dominatrix at least gives me half a chance against being wiped out by Deathstrikes!! I may well be facing guard in my first outing. In fact those things seem to be kind of problematic, possibly to the point of making one of the Tyranid swarms large taking the activation hit and making it the BTS:

NEXUS SWARM [390]
Dominatrix, 1 Termagant, 1 Hormagaunt

TYRANID SWARM [300]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Carnifex

TYRANID SWARM [300]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Exocrine

TYRANID SWARM [300]
Hive Tyrant, 5 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt, 2 Exocrine

TYRANID SWARM [410]
2 Tyranid Warriors, 1 Ravener, 1 Termagant, 11 Hormagaunts

GENESTEALER SWARM [175]
6 Genestealers, Broodlord

GENESTEALER SWARM [175]
6 Genestealers, Broodlord

BOIVORE SWARM [200]
7 Biovores

TRYGON SWARM [400]
5 Raveners

HIERDULE [350]

Small Swarms are only going to return 1 brood creature if you're within 30cm. It's helpful but hasn't been a game changing, at least in our games.

On the Lictors, the key to using them is giving your opponent more than he can deal with at the start of turn 2. That's when my Lictors teleport in and Tyrgons surface. Hopefully I have 3-4 assaults setup at the start of the turn as well. I have to post a report still, but this past weekend I had 4 of them BtB a chaos armor formation, it was 250-300 points and they wiped it out with 4 kills and hack downs. They took 2 losses from support fire, but since they won those chaos formations got BMs and then I assaulted one of them with a retain. Not bad for 200 points of Lictors.

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Dave

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Squats 2019-10-17

I don't get that. Why only 1, shouldn't it be 1D3? Was swarming changed?

@topic: I usually don't bother with adding gaunts to the Dominatrix. Since you can only spawn what has already been killed, I usually need the gaunts for the bigger swarms.

Concerning Deathstrikes, I thought about adding one or two Trygons to the Dominatrix as a living shield. Makes the formation quite expensive though.

cheers,

It was, either in .1 or .2. Synapse creatures now have values:

Warrior: 1
Tyrant: 2
Dom: 3

Add those up in a swam and that's what you spawn, halve it if you're within 30 or broken, don't if you're both. It means swarming scales with M and L formations, and with it being diceless it's easier to account for.

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Dave

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Squats 2019-10-17

Swarming's been changed to concrete values now, probably to take the edge off it a bit. By having a couple of gaunts with the Dominatrix you do have the option of moving all of your dead gaunts to the Dominatrix formation of course and change the focus of your attack somewhat - not necessarily a bad idea for 40 points?

With regards to the Dominatrix and Trygons, I noticed that Markconz did exactly that it his recent batrep against Tau - I agree, it does make the formation quite expensive. On balance, I think I'd rather just not have it as the BTS, find some cover and take my chances against Deathstrikes! Might be another reason to take Lictors of course... I might have to consider that...

Just double checked, you can't have more than 1/3 of your army be WEs in 10.2. Armyforge can't check that for you however. The first list is at 1100 by my count.

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Dave

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Squats 2019-10-17

I hadn't noticed that restriction but I think I'm good? Dom [350] + Hierodule [350] + Trygons [225] = 925?

Yep, wasn't sure what was in the 400 points Trygon formation, I assumed all Trygons.

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Dave

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Squats 2019-10-17

I just want to say that I do not find Tyrants better than Warriors. They are just as fearless, and since you have two of them, it becomes harder for your opponent to kill off your synapse. Plus, having your sole Synapse take a 4+ RA save is a sure recipe for sweaty palms and snake eyes.

If I want to use Hive Tyrants, I would definitely go for the medium swarm and probably still opt for 1 tyrant and 2 warriors. The other use would be to use Commander (in conjunction with teleporting Lictors or burrowing Trygons).

You will find that most of the time, neither Hive Tyrants nor Warriors will see actual combat. Your opponent will stay out of 20 cm of your Tyrant and you do not want to risk your Warriors. They are there for synapse.

/Fredmans

Good points, and I don't like getting my Synapse up close and personal either. The reason I prefer the Tyrant is for it's Leader ability, allowing the swarm to shed BMs faster.

For small swarms, I would mitigate against possible synapse loss by adding a single Warrior; This also brings the Swarming potential up to 3, which rounds to 2 when close to the enemy - usually effectively doubling swarming.