Hormagaunts Upgrades?

[INKS]

Do you think any of their upgrades are worth it? 

I am thinking I'd just love a mass of these guys and just try to overwhelm my opponent. 

[jbaeza94]

Devourers are good for devil bombs, but otherwise keep them barebones imo

[Xenith]

Devourers are good for devil bombs, but otherwise keep them barebones imo

 

Hormagaunts cannot take Devourers, that's Termagants.

 

Hormies the only upgrade, necessary/worth it it Adrenal Glands, in my opinion. +1 Charge range for a point is decent. In the long run, points mean 6 with adrenal v 7 without, but the cost of a failed charge is much, much higher than the points invested in adrenals. 

 

If you want them to maybe do something, then the Bio Metallic Cysts hive fleet trait is an ok one. I think I'll be trying it in my next game. The tactic with hormies will be to:

1. move 8"
2. metabolic overdrive/hive commander
3. multicharge opposing front line
4. move a synapse creature to give them synapse coverage. 

After that, your opponent will be pretty much locked into their DZ turn one. If you do this and stop them from getting on top of any primary objectives until their T2, meaning they dont start scoring until T3, you might just have won the game.

[WarriorFish]

They die to a stiff wind so points on top would probably be better spent elsewhere in most cases especially if you are fielding them in number. That said I am probably unusual in that I take a fair few, there's more scope if you have a small number intending to lock enemies in combat etc - a +1 to charges would help them do their job for a modest cost.

 

The main exception would be as Xen mentioned where you have a particular plan. I'm thinking something like a single unit of Hormagaunts that opponents may not wish to over commit to (and being the sole unit, less obvious as the one to shoot)? My inclination has long been cheap and cheerful so I'd be interested in hearing more from those who like to flash the cash :P

[INKS]

My general plan is to just have TONs of them and overwhelm my enemy if possible. 60 or more on the board?

warriors for synapse? unless there is a better option? 

[Xenith]

Might be hard to swallow, but 60 isn't tons, unless you're playing at 500-1000pts?. It's barely 400pts of gaunts. Still, if you can get into CC with synapse, 60 will hold up the enemy side nicely. If you can't, then you'll lose a lot of models. 

 

With that, I'd use the bio metallic cysts and pack hunters adaptations, to net your gaunts -2AP on their talons, which should do something. The 6++ from Leviathan you can get from Catalyst (but better) and The Horror will keep your models alive better than that trait ever will. Hydra trait is designed for hordes...but I think the custom traits work even better.

 

You can add in some scytal/deathspitter or scytal lashwhip warriors for bonus CC and synapse. 

[INKS]

A fair point. 120 models or more. :)

 

I don't really have a point total worked out just yet. What I know if I want tons of nids. get them in combat fast. that is the strategy. Tanks worry me. I have the 9th ed codex coming because my mind rule set is back in 3rd /4th edition. which I know is a long time ago. lol

 

I do expect that I'll lose a lot to incoming fire and even in general combat but I just want to overwhelm my opponent. 

[Xenith]

I just mean that 60 in previous versions of the game was enough, but 8th and 9th are really, really killy, with a lot of broken stuff. 30 might die really quickly. Start with that 60 that you envisage, and go from there perhaps? With the new cover systems in 9th, they might be better than I imagine. I'll admit in my last 2 games, I've had 1/3 of my hormagaunts left at the end, but these were small games against new opponents. 

[WarriorFish]

60 is a lot in my book - think of the assembly and painting For this sort of number cheap is good, but it depends on your opponent too to a degree and what sort of shooting they can muster before you close. If you want to go to 120 (which is really a lot ) then upgrades start to look harder to justify when you can compare that to extra models it could put on the table.

 

Hormagaunts don't achieve a great deal, and die in droves, but I don't think anyone needs telling how important synapse is even without considering gaunts. One thing to consider is how you fill those Troop slots up, and what you have spare for Warriors. Aside from synapse being good to have with redundancy, synapse units also tend be good/main platforms for some heavier fire power. Warriors wouldn't be enough for proper AT though, but with hordes of gribbly gaunts crawling over your opponent you might not get room to manoeuvre big hitters in.

[INKS]

I'll have to get my hands on the latest codex, because right now I don't know how all this stacks up in terms of points or selection. I would assume that gaunts are troops. I just said warriors because I know they are a synapse creature and might be the right HQ choice / whatever they are now. My memory isn't as good as it used to be, I've ordered the books and stuff, just waiting for it to arrive.

[WarriorFish]

Battlescribe is great for playing around with lists, give that a try for getting the feel of things and what has changed :tu: Tyranids have lots of Troop choices:

• Rippers
• Termagaunts
• Hormagaunts
• Warriors
• Genestealers

A Warrior Prime is a nice HQ choice as it buffs Warriors, but as you can see there can be a fair bit of argument between units for Troops. I find my Troop slots filled quickly as these are all units I want to field in number.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about synapse you can get it easily enough as it tends to come on solid units. For example a Hive Tyrant and Zoanthropes - good choices on their own merits, so it's not too much effort to get a good coverage of synapse.

[Xenith]

As per WF: Warriors, and anything smaller are probably troops. Anything Warrior-sized that isnt a warrior is probably an elites. Anything with a gun the size of a warrior is probably heavy 

 

60 gaunts is pretty good, despite what I said before. I'd back it up with a few other troop choices to grab objectives while the gaunts hold stuff up. You'll also need units to do the killing, be the hammer to the anvil of the gaunts. Any thoughts on what you'd like those to be?

[INKS]

Battlescribe is great for playing around with lists, give that a try for getting the feel of things and what has changed Tyranids have lots of Troop choices:

• Rippers
• Termagaunts
• Hormagaunts
• Warriors
• Genestealers

A Warrior Prime is a nice HQ choice as it buffs Warriors, but as you can see there can be a fair bit of argument between units for Troops. I find my Troop slots filled quickly as these are all units I want to field in number.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about synapse you can get it easily enough as it tends to come on solid units. For example a Hive Tyrant and Zoanthropes - good choices on their own merits, so it's not too much effort to get a good coverage of synapse.

Thanks, I'll give battle scribe a look

[INKS]

As per WF: Warriors, and anything smaller are probably troops. Anything Warrior-sized that isnt a warrior is probably an elites. Anything with a gun the size of a warrior is probably heavy 

 

60 gaunts is pretty good, despite what I said before. I'd back it up with a few other troop choices to grab objectives while the gaunts hold stuff up. You'll also need units to do the killing, be the hammer to the anvil of the gaunts. Any thoughts on what you'd like those to be?

Are gaunts not good enough for killing in mass numbers?

[INKS]

Or maybe I've been wrong this whole time and Ripper Swarms are the way to go!!!! 100s of them! lol

[WarriorFish]

That would be an interesting army, and definitely "interesting" to gather the models... I've seen some Rippers being sold but the prices were optimistic shall we say, good job I'm not in need of any perhaps you can find better?

 

Sadly Hormagaunts are pretty basic as far as damage output goes. You can help them out - the -1AP scything talon custom fleet rule comes to mind (Bio-metallic Cysts) - but they're S3 and that only goes so far. You can be cheeky with some upgrades so they do 2D on 6s with Toxin Sacs (which of course works on everything, so they can nibble down vehicles etc) but it's a bit pricey. Aside from locking units in combat and drawing fire you can only really expect much from them against light infantry.

 

Numbers helps of course, but I think it's worth keeping in mind that a fair few won't make it into combat, and of those that do there is a limit on how many can swing. This is why I generally consider numbers to be more of a longevity thing for gaunts rather than output - helps keep them in the fight longer and anything they take down with them is a bonus.

[INKS]

I started to look into Rippers for fun. Hard to get, expensive to get it seems. (lots of people are over optimistic) and the more I thought about it, kind of a pain to paint as well. Especially if you want to have 4-5 models per base or the forgeworld ones.

[Xenith]

 

Are gaunts not good enough for killing in mass numbers?

 

Againt marines, not really, but they don't have to be. WS 4+ and S3 don't help them so much. I tend to use them to pin enemy units in place so my actual killy units have time to engage them. 

 

Take this example: 30 Hormagaunts charge a 10 man intercessor unit. Even with the rerolls to hit from talons and to wound from being a horde manage ~9 wounds on marines. 30 gaunts = 60 A; 36 hits; ~14 wounds; ~5 failed saves; 2 dead marines.

 

7 intercessors strike back for 21 attacks, 14 hits, 9 wounds, 8 dead gaunts. Serge attacks back and kills 1-2 more. 

 

The gaunts will not win this fight, however if those intercessers were on an objective, there's now 8 of them with 20 obsec gaunts on top of them, that are going nowhere. If you managed to engage 2x 10 man units, then they go nowhere in their turn 1 and your opponent loses 4 scoring troops for a turn, or the firepower of those units.

 

One thing to take advantage of is the bounding leap for 6" pile in and consolidation. You can, with clever charge moves, clip and engage multiple enemy units with this. They get to attack you back, but you're tying them up. 

 

A couple of games ago, I charged 12 gaunts into my opponent's Land Raider. Didnt have a hope of damaging it, but it took it out of action for a turn. 4 lascannons having to shoot gaunts on a 4+ in their shooting phase  it gave my trygon, carnifex and haryp enough time to get across the board and into the safety of combat without getting shot. 

 

 

Possibly the best shooting termagants have, devourers, can do some more work: 30 gants with devs = 210pts.

90 shots. 45 hits, 26 wounds, 9 failed saves, 4 dead marines. The benefit here is that you can use Single Minded Annihilation to shoot again and get another 4.5 damage to maybe wipe the squad. 

 

Obviously this gets much, much better if you're not playing against MEQ. 

Edited January 13, 2021 by Xenith