Tyranid Synergies: Tell Me More

[Chris Copeland]

Troops, I've been working hard to up my game as a Tyranid player. The days of simply sending wave after wave of Genestealer across the board (with a couple of Carnifexes backing them up) seem to be behind us. I keep hearing that the Bug codex relies on synergies. The folks saying that seem to be earnest and well informed.

I see some obvious synergies: use the Swarmlord in conjunction with your reserve forces for reserve acceleration. Buffing Warriors with a Tyranid Prime is another example of synergy in the Bug codex.

My question to the Hive Mind community is this: what are the synergies YOU rely on? What other synergies exist and are sitting there waiting to be exploited by the savvy Tyranid player?

Thanks in advance. Cheers! Copeland

[MaltonNecromancer]

I quite like using cheap, scything claw only Carnifex in a "Fire-And-Forget" capacity; advance with a Tyrant, staying within Synapse range, then moving the Tyrant and the rest of the forces off while the Carnifex go mental and kill everything. They're not that many points, but for sheer terror (and the fact that while you can lead them off, it usually takes an important unit to do so, (because I only move the things near important units) they're totally worth it.

You can't argue with a squad of warriors with Deathspitters and a Prime. Everyone talks about how they're overpriced, but if you combine them with a massive squad of Termagants (which is easy to do), they're another terror unit: the aim is to force your opponent to make a choice. Do they go for the horrible unit of easy-to-kill Termagants which, if left unchecked, will dogpuile into their men and win through sheer force of numbers, or do they go for the (relatively) fragile unit of Warriors that will utterly ruin them with str 5 shots when they're in range? If they take out the Termagants, they eat horrible amounts of ranged firepower.If they take out the Warriors, they get swarmed by a vastly numerocally superior force.

Yeah, I quite like that one.

Especially when the Trygons hit.

[thecactusman17]

Numerically superior means little with Termigaunts. That is one fight that anybody except Tau want to get into, will win, and quite possibly will stick just long enough to protect from the Warriors.

Genestealers still work quite well. Don't outflank them unless you are reserving several squads of them. Warriors can be decent, but not great. Tyranid Prime is.... interesting but he dies to anything that reliably kills lone characters.

Swarmlord is great for Paroxysm. Screwing with your opponent's statlines is a great way to rapidly improve the odds in your favor. Paroxysm on a huge shooting unit (such as the dreaded 50-man guard) or Long Fangs is a great way to swing the game in your favor. My opponent once locked down Duke Sliscus and a big squad of Warriors which should have ruined Tyranids easily using Parox and it really threw my game off when combined with one or two lesser errors.

[Necron_Lord]

There's the Zerg rush, where you have lots of MCs stampede toward the enemy with Catalyst from Tervigons and cover saves from Venomthropes reduce the shooting casualties so you can get your bugs into the opponent's backfield. This doesn't work very well against DE, however, because their splinter weaponry nerfs T 6 and they have enough AP 2 to negate the FNP from Catalyst. Against other armies it can do well.

[Tynskel]

Foot tyrant with lots of shooting, lash n' bonesword. old adversary. Throw in a squad of sky slasher swams with adrenal and toxin sacs-3 bases for 69 points. Makes a great mop up unit for the tyrant.

[PaperclipBadger]

I've always been curious as to how to most effectively use a Tervigon. When looking at the tiny squads, I tend to lean towards Hormagaunts (which of course don't benefit the from the Tervigon as much). However, the Tervigon will spawn Termagants that it can buff at full capacity. Is it worth fielding extra squads of Termagaunts when the Tervigon can generate them all on its own?

[Sonikgav]

I've always been curious as to how to most effectively use a Tervigon. When looking at the tiny squads, I tend to lean towards Hormagaunts (which of course don't benefit the from the Tervigon as much). However, the Tervigon will spawn Termagants that it can buff at full capacity. Is it worth fielding extra squads of Termagaunts when the Tervigon can generate them all on its own?

Id say yes because then your Tervigon can be a Scoring unit, and nothing says Scoring like a T6, 6W Monstrous creature with a steady flow of lesser tarpits sat in cover on an objective.

[BS FADE]

Tyrants making Troop units outflank. Nothing says hello like 30 hormagaunts hitting your support units.


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[Warmaster Primus]

Tyrants making Troop units outflank. Nothing says hello like 30 hormagaunts hitting your support units.


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You have to be pretty careful with that, and pick your targets. If you're assaulting into cover, even with pumped up gaunts, you may not win the combat. At ld 6, I've had several units run and get wiped.

[Tynskel]

walking tyrant with old adversary, lash whip (tyrant guard with lashs, too). Then Sky Slasher Swarms with adrenal and toxin sacs. They can act as cover (hurray for tyrant guard) and they pack a nasty punch on the charge with Old Adversary (as well as the lash whips). Re-rolls to hit n' wound.

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[Gir]

4 Tervigons with 3 termagant squads all covered by 3 vemonthropes is one of the most annoying things ever.

[thecactusman17]

Actually, that is really easy to counter. Hit any number of gaunts and a tervi in cc. Kill the gaunts. The tervi will take fearless wounds, possibly several. If you can link up several multi charges, you can create a scenario where the tervis will be taking over a dozen wounds each. Did this once with hellions and wyches, wiped out 75% of my opponents army in one turn of combat all in the combat rez. And that force was a lot harder than 50 guants and their spawners.

[candlehand]

This may go without saying, but one of the most simple mechanics I couldn't live without is using my Gants/Gaunts as cover for my Warrior squads. The cover save you get from the enemy having to fire through another unit has saved me more times than I can count from those pesky Str. 8 missile launchers. A lot pf people online say they run their entire army in a kind of stair pattern, with gants->warriors->MCs to provide cover. It's good in theory, but it can get pretty tough trying to get %50 of your MC covered up by nothing but units. Especially with the size of those new kits that just came out.

[Cavematt]

I've been toying with the idea of a big brood of t'gants and h'gaunts leading a couple venomthropes. Use the gaunts for 4= cover for the venoms, then use their cloud to hide a tyrant, a trygon, and a shooting fex. With ymgarl and outflanking genestealers. Oughta be fun to see how it works.

[trygonprime]

I have found trygon primes and 5 to 7 raveners with deathspiters are a great combo Deepstriking inwith the doom and ymgarls. the what do you shoot first look is sometimes comical.

Mixs that with a wing hive tyran with pre-fured bubble or swarmlords gift make a nasty combo.

[Gir]

Actually, that is really easy to counter. Hit any number of gaunts and a tervi in cc. Kill the gaunts. The tervi will take fearless wounds, possibly several. If you can link up several multi charges, you can create a scenario where the tervis will be taking over a dozen wounds each. Did this once with hellions and wyches, wiped out 75% of my opponents army in one turn of combat all in the combat rez. And that force was a lot harder than 50 guants and their spawners.

If you could get into combat with the tervigons with only infantry, your enemy hadn't set up properly.

[thecactusman17]

I used vehicles, and the hellions had plenty of cover to approach with. It's not hard to do this vs. an army that has nothing but none-vehicles, the only question is can you do it to a force that has so many models that are significantly easier to kill than the big nasty ones that are hard.

[dragonkain]

I like to run a flyrant with Hive Commander, bringing in 3 squads of toxin genestealers to outflank, along with 2 deepstriking trygons. Mix in liberally with shrikes, raveners, hormagaunts and some zoanthropes in space potatoes, and it is quite flavorful.

The Genestealers with their toxin sacs usually end up shredding units like no ones business, and I still want to play with the idea of the Hive Commander effect of outflanking a single troops choice (use it on a Tervigon and just start spawning Termagaunts and chucking them at the backfield, chaos simply everywhere)

Another good synergy I've found is taking Broodlord commando units (1 broodlord and 4 to 6 genestealers). use them to blanket enemy forces and bring a Doom of Malan'tai screaming in aboard a spore. The Broodlord's aura psychic ability to lower leaderships mean that you can quite easily make Guard cry with the Doom. Link that in with the Hive Tyrant with Commander and/or a Lictor squad and you'll have your buggies showing up quite easily while the fast movers come pounding up the center. Even if they hide in their metal bawkses, the Broodlord can tear open the vehicles while his buddies give him cover. I've had one wrestle the lid off a Landraider before, and its nothing like using that one little infantry unit to grind up a big vehicle to make your MEQ opponents want to tableflip.

[muggins]

Having the tervigon kit out makes it a lot easier for newer players to create 'synergy' without having to buy lots of bits and kits.

[Senger285]

I love using paraxyum in combination with an assault by hormogaunts who get buffed by old adversary off the tyrant and are poisoned.

[Senger285]

Oh hit the little buggers up with feel no pain from a tervigon. nasty combo. Also, if you can take lash whips on them(warriors, tyrants,guards) give them lash whips. They are amazing.