Tyranid Tactica 10th edition - Detachment- Assimilation Swarm

[Brother Nathan]

 

Tyranid Tactica 10th edition - Detachment- Assimilation Swarm

 

 

 

 

Requested in another thread to bring these in so starting in with the assimilation swarm.

 

 

●how have you found the detachment and its bonuses.

strengths and weaknesses.

●has there been much differances as a result of it or was it negotiable

thoughts on the enhancements

breakdown the stratagems.

●how strong it is over all. Dont be afraid to rate it(S super, then A to F)

Edited March 24, 2024 by Brother Nathan

[Brother Nathan]

seems to be doing fairly well in 10th, is this due to its bonuses and strats or because few are ready for hordes when everyone gearing up for tanks?

[Darwhine]

Good morning.

 

The assimilation detachment is very strong for several reasons:

1) It is little known because until the recent dataslate it played little role compared to the others.

2) Its army rule adapts to any type of list (swarm/monsters or infantry) as long as you have a sufficient harvester base.

3) The army rule is a unit regeneration which is basically a strong rule and which is further accentuated by stratagems.

4) The latest dataslate greatly relaxes the conditions for using the army rule which was the main weakness of the detachment. You first had to control an objective and have a harvester on it to be able to launch the detachment rule, which was not easy to do since you had to control it at the start of your command phase (therefore holding it for at least one turn in often exposing its harvester during the opposing phase).

It also forced us to play in a "castle" and we couldn't have an offensive game plan because of that. Now the army rule can launch anywhere within range of the harvesting unit, which itself may be out of range, hidden behind a ruin.

The icing on the cake: the assimilator Norn has become a harvester, which provides a new very resistant harvester input that we did not have before.

 

Some examples of what it is possible to do with this detachment:

- With gaunts you can use "feed the swarm" to repop figurines and go flying or reach an objective by gaining distance with placement at 2 inches of the 3 figurines, for a total of 9 inches (3x1 inch of bases + 2x3 inch of separation between each base). It also shortens the loads for swarms.

 

-The "feed the swarm" rule allows you to bring back an entire infantry figure, it is very strong on certain entries with several hp, notably the tyrant guards: which are endurance 8, 4 hp sav at 3+. As in the detachment there is a stratagem which allows you to launch "feed the swarm" once PER PHASE each time a unit is destroyed near a harvester (we will see how later) and another which allows you to launch it if the unit kills an opposing unit, it is possible (depending on the number of PCs) to revive 3 or even 4 guards PER TURN.

The "reclaim biomass" stratagem (the one which regenerates when a unit is destroyed nearby), works with spore mines: a spore mine self-destructs near an enemy unit when it finishes a movement near an enemy or she charges it.

This therefore allows the stratagem to be triggered in the movement and charge phase, in addition to the "normal" trigger in the command phase. T

o this we can add a regeneration with "rapacious hanger" if the unit kills an opposing unit in melee. With good placement, a swarm lord or a neurotyrant accompanied by 6 guards becomes almost impossible to fall into this detachment. It also allows you to raise 9 (see 12) gaunts or regenerate a monster up to 4D3+3 hp (average of 11).

On an assimilator with 16pv in sav 2+ and FNP5+, that again makes it almost indestructible.

 

-To further add to the resistance, it is possible to use the "ablative shell" which gives an fnp of 4+ on an objective for 2cp to a harvesting unit.

It's expensive but a hive tyrant can reduce its cost to 1 pc per turn. On a harvesting unit with several PV it is very strong: it “doubles” their PV.

The haruspex obviously, with its 14 hp but also the pyrovors which total 15 hp per unit of 3 (we will see a trick with them later) or even a squad of 3 swarm rippers which total 12 hp.

 

-In the same logic of resistance, it is possible to play swarn with tervigons and termagaunts. The tervigon will bring back 3D+3 additional gaunts per turn (i.e. potentially 14 to 17 termaguants per turn), these same termaguants whose resistance can be improved with the presence of a psychophage (fnp 6+) - who has the good taste of 'be a harvester endurance 9, 10 hp and fnp 5+ for only 95 points -, stealth ability and benefit cover with venomthrops (very effective on gloves).

 

In terms of statistics, the 6+ fnp "adds" 16% of hp to a unit. On 20 Termagaunts this allows you to have "23 hp of figurines" in 4+ sav, -1 on shooting... which will be able to come back with the stratagems etc..

 

-Other tricks for pyrovores: the detachment rule only works 6 inches from a harvesting unit, it is quite restrictive since it requires you to stay close to these units. Pyvorores have a significant advantage in this regard: they have very large bases. Each base is 3 inches, each 2 inches apart; a unit of 3 pyrovores can therefore cover a distance of 13 inches to which we add 6 inches of "aura" in which the unit must be to benefit from the rule.

Which makes 19 inches.

We can further improve the range with the “biophagic flow” optimization which increases the “aura” to 9 inches. That is 24 inches of range for an infantry unit which can stay on an objective (in order to have the ablative carapace if necessary) and cross the ruins to "stretch".

 

-In terms of lethality, it is possible to have monstrous regeneration on a Broodlord or a winged tyranid prime, which adds further regeneration in the command phase, increasing the repop of the figures to 4 or even 5 per turn (see the tricks of the spore mines) on genstealers or warriors (again keeping in mind the repop at 2ps to gain charge distance).

We also have the "intinctiv defense" optimization which will give the fight first near the harvesting units (and heroic intervention at 0pc).

But also the "parasitic biomorphology" which adds +1 strength to melee weapons and +1 attack near a harvesting unit if they destroy an enemy unit. This can give genestealers with 5 attacks in 2+ F6 PA-2 D1 (devastating wounds, reroll of 1s) or tyranid warriors 7 attacks in 3+ F7 PA-2 D1 (twin-linked, lethal hit).

 

Another VERY important "trick" which is not specific to the detachment but which gives more mobility to warrior units: the winged tyranid prime movement. T

he prime moves 12 inches while the warriors only move 6 inches. But in this edition it is entirely possible to move the prime with its entire movement as long as the latter remains in unit cohesion.

In short, if a unit of Tyranid warriors starts at the edge of deployment and we leave the primate at the rear of the unit, the warriors will move 6 inches forward, but the prime will be able to make its movement 12 inch to iron in front at 2 inch in cohesion.

The unit will therefore have gained 2 inches + the size of the prime's base (2 inches) or 4 inches for a final movement of 10 inches instead of 6.

And this will always be the case subsequently when the movement is done "from a warrior base" since the winged prime will "gravitate" all around the unit in the movement phase to gain 4 inches. 10 inches of displacement is as much as the raveners.

 

All these were tricks of a competitor known before dataslate. Now that the conditions for "feeding the swarm" have been relaxed, this opens the possibility of other potential combinations in enemy territory (notably with the deep strike of ripper swarms etc.).

All this means that from my point of view, at the moment, the assimilation detachment is probably the strongest of all the Tyranid detachments available due to the diversity of play through the diversity of army lists that it propose.