Monday, November 15, 2010

Army List Ideas

The GW store here in Tacoma is doing a 3000 point tourney in January and to prepare for this onslaught not only am I painting but I have been throwing around list ideas in my head as well. The rules for the tourney are basically mini-Apocalypse games. You aren't allowed Stompas or Baneblades but instead you get 1 extra slot for each place on the force organization chart. (3 HQ's, 7 Troops, 4 Heavies..., etc.).

With the release of the Dark Eldar codex I have played a majority of my recent games versus this new threat and find that Tyranids and Mechanized armies tend to be slaughtered. I know that a large amount of players are going to be bringing Dark Eldar to the match up so I have been trying to develop a list using the Nids I have, primarily the ones I have painted, in order to combat these space pirates.

Any thoughts / ideas??? With 3000 points it is really easy to start to load up on particular units but those points tend to disappear fast.

9 comments:

Brewmaster said...

So I finally counted up my Tyranids and here are the estimates as far as numbers and points go...

Approx. 300 models

Point Value approx. 7750 points

Soooooo...... My swarm is pretty awesome! I have all the variety you would ever need.

J said...

At 3000 points you get a lot of choices.

What about a horde army backed up by zoanthropes? Close combat wise Dark Eldar tend to be really tough to beat. Additionally they specialize at closing the gap REALLY quickly.

Would there be a way to screen your forces with cheap, disposable units so that when the DE rush in the first thing they hit will be the disposables who break and run/get killed leaving the DE standing out in the open? Then open fire with swarms of lesser Nids and Zoanthropes?

Swarms would deny the supperiority of poisoned weapons. Superior numbers might give you the ability to survive the inital rush and counter attack.

What has your thought process been so far?

J said...

2935 points...

Lord with rez orb and veil
Deceiver

20 Warriors

10 Immortals with D fields

20 Destroyers

2 Monoliths
2 Tomb Spyders
1 Tomb Stalker

/shrug

I should probably go out and buy the Tyrannid and Eldar books at some point.

Brewmaster said...

The biggest issue with Tyranids is that many of our "cool" units are super expensive. Any monstrous creature is 200+ points and when you start to throw those big bugs into the mix the points tend to disappear fast.

I typically run a more swarm oriented force but again my points tend to be used up when I throw in units that I consider 'mandatory.' For instance I plan on running the Swarmlord (280 points), with 2 Tyrant Guard with lash whips to protect him from assault/shooting (130 points). For ranged anti tank firepower I will run 2 units of 3 Hive Guard (150 points per squad of 3, 300 total), 3 Zoanthropes in a pod (180 points + 40 points for Pod), and a Tyrannofex (265 points). That is 1195 points already used up... 1/3 of my force in the form of 14 models. The rest of my army is really up for grabs. I would like to run a few more big bugs but they really tend to eat up my points & with an additional force org chart allowed I wouldn't be surprised to see 2-3 Land Raiders in a marine force or 5-6 Battle Tanks in an IG army.

Brewmaster said...

You can check out "Scribd.com" they have tons of codexs uploaded so you can read them during your own free time.

Brewmaster said...

Here is my first go at a list for 3000 with the extra org chart requirements.

HQ:
Swarmlord w 2 T. Guard
Alpha Warrior with BS/LW & Deathspitter

Troops:
30 Termagants
Tervigon with AG, TS, & Catalyst
6 Warriors with Scything Talons & Deathspitters, 1 Barbed Strangler
10 Genestealers with Scything Talons
25 Hormagaunts with Toxin Sacs
10 Ripper Swarms

Elites:
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthropes with Pod

Fast Attack:
20 Gargoyles with Adrenal Glands
6 Raveners with Rending Claws & Spinefists

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon
Mawloc
3 Biovores

Brewmaster said...

Just ran the numbers via a spreadsheet and it looks like I have only 42% of my total nids painted and 88% of them completely assembled.

(facepalm)

J said...

You ran a spreadsheet on what you have, what you've assembled, and what you've painted?

That's a rather brilliant, albeit depressing, idea. You could almost make a workable timetable with such a spreadsheet. Curious, of the list you’ve created here, how much of it is finished?

As for me I’ve sculpted 2 fiends and am in the process of the initial molding. What I intend to do is mold the entire model and cast it as a solid piece. After demolding the original I’ll make a cast piece and then based on the result add or subtract details and then remove all the limbs in such a way so I can essentially make a spru of individual limbs and pieces. From there I’ll cast the spru so from that point on I can make as many fiends or fiend parts as I want and put them together for different poses.

In the meantime I will try to finish my Necrons which will involve painting the Immortals (10), Destroyers (10) and the damn Monolith.

J said...

By the way, I happened to be at Toys'R'Us on Saturday to get a birthday gift for a nephew and say your drop pods.

Is that big enough? I felt like it was a little small for a drop pod. Additionally THAT is something you could mold and cast with relative ease.