2k List: The Invasion...

Shadows passed over the hive city, much larger and deeper shadows than those cast by the thick chemical pollutants belched forth from the inner forges.  This time, the immense quivvering hive ships of fleet Colossus blotted out the murky daylight.

Rain fell from the skies over the hive city, but the saturation took the form of a floating sea of living spores.  As they settled and began to float, the spores exploded, shredding the curious onlookers and spreading chaos through the masses.

Shelter from this storm was not to be found.  The dark and sheltered places of the hive city already housed other beings.  Crouching man-beasts with four clawed arms and bulbous heads emerged from the shadows, their soulless eyes glittering in the failing light.

Thunder rocked the streets, not from the storm but tremendous explosions sending spires and towers toppling.  Gargantuan things of nightmares, ambling batteries of living artillery, sent entire sections of the city back to the soil from where it was born.

A flood washed over the hive city.  A living wave of skittering beasts shoulder to shoulder swarmed through every street and alley.  There was no place to weather this storm.  There is no Ark to safely carry life from this flood.

Despite what some may think, there's more to this hobby that brings me joy than winning games.

Anyways, we all daydream fluff to go with our various lists and the little piece above goes with this list.  In my own little fantasy world, the miraculously awesome leafblower style army list that I finally arrive at with tyranids will also feel "right" with the fluff.

On to the list...

Tyranid Prime
Tervigon (HQ) + toxins, adrenals, catalyst, cluster spines
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Termagants x10
Tervigon + toxins, adrenals, catalyst, cluster spines
Genestealers x18
Genestealers x18 + toxins
Spore Mines x3
Spore Mines x3
Spore Mines x3
Tyrannofex + rupture cannon, cluster spines, shreddershard beetles
Tyrannofex + rupture cannon, cluster spines, shreddershard beetles

I know, you started laughing when you saw the spore mines, but follow me here.  This list uses a core from my previous one with several changes.  These changes were to address a few weaknesses.

#1.  A couple people pointed out that two synapse points might not be enough or easily taken out.  My kneejerk reaction was "no way!".  I can count the games on one hand in which I've faced someone who can kill two tervigons, and when they're gone, synapse is usually the least of my problems.  So I added a naked tyranid prime.  What does he do?  Join a unit of hive guard to keep them on target or a spawned unit of termagants for durable scoring.  At 80 points, I'm not using him for anything except taking synapse pressure off the tervigons and maybe lend some wounds to the hive guard.  Eric pointed out in our match "if I had only targetted the tervigons..."  Just think of how much pressure it will take off of them.

#2.  In the recent games I played, three hive guard per unit was often overkill.  I prefer them in two's, but I was pressed for elite slots in the past.  Three units mitigate the overkill and allow me to stun one more vehicle per turn if things go well.  I dropped the doom for this list opening that slot up.  It's not so much his effectiveness as my utter lack of luck with reserves in tournaments.  Things like my ymgarls and lictors not arriving until the last turn of a tournament match happen regularly for me, which is strange because my luck with cover saves and armor pen's is typically above the curve.  So I made a list where everything starts on the table.

#3.  Raveners are really fast and fun to play with, but power fist sarge's ruin it for me.  And powerklaw nobs.  I consider our codex and my playstyle weak against orks in general, and bringing assault units that get krumped by klaws is setting me up for a nightmare match up at a tournament.  Genestealers on the other hand kill more orks and lose less when those klaws start pinching.  I lose some threat range with genestealers over raveners, but they start in better position.  Very few armies can deal with 36 genestealers in their face, hopefully with cover and FnP.  They're pretty much always infiltrating in front of my main swarm.  This also allows me to deploy hive guard the maximum distance forward for best firing position, then infiltrate their cover/bubblewrap.

#4. The icing on the cake?  Spore mines haha!  I'm losing most of my anti-fang/loota ability, so I need some trick up my sleeve.  Each unit creates a 36" no-deploy bubble in DoW games.  If my opponent also has infiltrators, I use the mines to block out an area for my genestealers.  Since you can't infiltrate closer than 18" in LoS of an enemy, 3 units of spore mines pretty much removes my opponent's infiltrate abilities.  Even if the game isn't DoW or my opponent doesn't have infiltrators, they are still a tool to affect the game.  I can drop them to threaten or deny cover for lootas or encourage reactionary placement.  Everyone knows they blow up harmlessly on tanks. If I face a mech opponent, why not place them to encourage vehicle proximity or physically block good deployment positions.

So there's the latest draft.  As always, I'm open to feedback and dialogue.