Unit of the Week: Hormagaunts

[Xenith]

++HORMAGAUNTS++

 

 

We have a new unit of the week! This week it's Hormagaunts, one of the Iconic Tyranid troop choices, and tarpitter supreme. What are you thoughts here folks? How best would you use a unit of them?

• To compliment a list, or to build a list around? Will the beta rules affect your list(s)?
• What size unit? Will you be running multiple units?
• What Hive Fleet Traits, Adaptations and Stratagems do you prefer and how much does it depend on the above choices?
• Are you buffing this unit? If so, how?

Over to you.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Xenith

[Xenith]

I think these guys always need Adrenal Glands. It increases the cost of the unit by ~16%, but I think the extra 1" to advance and charge is great, especially if you're running Kraken. These guys are used as a tarpit for me, and the extra inch to engage more enemy units is great. One game I used them in recently, they charged a Land Raider turn 1. Had no hope in damaging it, but it meant it had to shoot the gaunts in T1 as opposed to my large beasts. Those lascannons (hitting on 4+) killed 2 gaunts, as opposed to maybe knocking ~11 wounds off my monsters. 

 

I've still not got the hang of 9th ed pile in and consolidate moves yet, however I think we're a bit more restricted. We can no longer use the bounding leap to totally wrap around stuff and are forced to move nearer to the nearest enemy model.

[WarriorFish]

Things are a bit tough for squishy models like gaunts in the current game as it is so deadly with shooting If you want to take some Hormagaunts you need to suitably cover numbers for the "light infantry" bracket or they'll get blasted off the board easily. I think squads of 10 are viable if you're taking multiple squads to spread numbers out. A single large squad seems a bad idea to me as you might be able to give them suitable buffs but they'll make for an easy target for enemy small arms. I reckon such a larger squad needs supporting smaller squads too, but I'm not sure how this could look for decent results.

 

The numbers game helps them get into combat where they need to be as they'll drop like flies on the way in so you need to weigh cost and reward for how you get them there - do you take minor detours for cover benefits or go straight for gold? Aside from not having guns their main use is locking things in to combat as they don't hit particularly hard so aren't much of a threat to anything beyond other light infantry. It's good if you can get a juicy target locked in so it can't use it's guns to good effective but that's not always possible, so they're usually the anvil for something more capable.

 

Tyranids are quite diverse with how you can play, so I'll be interested to hear other experiences with using Hormagaunts. I like to use them in number where the cost of upgrades is less optimal but they certainly kept the enemy busy

[INKS]

I like these guys en masse. 60 is a good starting number, 120 is better. They are going to die in droves so just expect it. get them into CC and tie those units up

 

Edit: I wanted to add to this that I think I am just going to build mine basic with no additional add on. I've considered the 1" to move but it's 1". If I am short by 1" I'll kick myself but I don't know how often that is going to happen. Maybe I'll learn to regret that.