Termagaunts

For most Tyranid players, gaunts form the bread-and-butter of any Tyranid army. Their strength lies in their capacity for rediculous numbers, and swarm-armies are very powerful.

Personally, I've always been a fan for variety. The idea of having nothing but gaunts makes me cringe, not only in a "boring" sense, but in a very daunting sense. Painting this many models becomes more of a chore than a hobby. Rather, I'm attempting to put together a 3,000 point Tyranid army that utilizes a variety of the different models, yet still retain some of those numbers.

For my theme, I disliked all the color-schemes I saw in books ... save one. In the old Warhammer 40k v.3 rulebook, there's maybe 2 pictures of some Tyranids colored with purple skin and black carapaces. This, by far, looked the coolest to me ... and it also didn't conflict with any color schemes I had planned for the other armies. (For example, I had considered making my Eldar Biel-Tan, but their color is green ... and I've got Dark Angels.)

When I painted up a few Tyranids back in v.3, I ended up liking the color scheme for the most part. My problem was that their faces weren't showing, and the Tyranid faces are the scariest part of the model! I want these guys to freak out their enemies! I tried a few tactics to bring the faces more to life and settled on using red as an accent color. It makes the faces vivid, and even implies that they're bloody. Awesome. Bloody awesome.

Fast forward a few years, v.4 has been out, I decide to make this blog and make all my armies using the new v.4 codexes and models.

Lots of my Tyranids bit the dust... and for the better. Pretty much across the board I like the v.4 models better than the v.3 or earlier. I did a search for the various Hive Fleets, and stumbled across a reference to a "Hive Fleet Harbinger" who are described as having "purple flesh with black carapaces." Awesome. So my 'nids are a splinter fleet from Hive Fleet Harbinger, distinguishable from the rest by their Blood Red faces.

Ok, back to the termagaunts (sorry for the back-story-rant). I have planned two broods of termagaunts, 8 models each. I know, this is small. There is a reason, though. Despite having the tools available to make a "shooty Tyranid" army, I felt their potential leaned much more towards the "close combat" side of battle. With this in mind, I built my army to maximize on close combat ... with very minor ballistic potential.

One Termagaunt brood will be equipped with Fleshborers, the other with Devourers. No biomorphs. I had considered "endless numbers" but the Termagaunts just aren't important enough to me. These two broods are available to me, mainly as backup and as tactical place-holders. Need to capture something (ala 'Take and Hold')? Why divert one of my costly units to hold something when I have this cheapy unit for that very purpose? The rest of my army rushes forward and ties my opponent in melee, while these little buggers simply play 'King of the Mountain.'

Don't think I'm making a huge mistake by sacrificing numbers, though. I am fully aware of that huge benefit and necessity to the Tyranids. I intend on filling those numbers with other units than Termagaunts, though. Hormagaunts, now that's more like it! In the works are two broods of Hormagaunts (16 each), one biomorphed and one not. 10 Ripper Swarms. 16 Genestealers. 16 Gargoyles. 12 Raveners. 6 Warriors. 3 Lictors. Tyrant with 3 guards. Broodlord. 2 Zoanthropes (with synapse creature as well as Warp Blast) and a bio-morphed to high-hell Carnifex. Seriously, this guy's The Juggernaut.

Striking Scorpions

Revisiting the topic of Specialization and Eldar, I give you a unit of Striking Scorpions.
One of only two aspects geared for melee combat, and even then specialized towards specific prey.

Thanks to their mandiblasters, the Striking Scorpions truly excel in the number of attacks they can generate in assault. While lacking the power weapons of their melee-sisters the Banshees, they do benefit from a very welcome +1 to Strength given from their Scorpion Chainswords.
These guys specialize in taking out high numbers with low armour (orks, Imperial Guard, gaunts, Dark Eldar, etc.).

On top of that awesomeness, they have a 3+ armour save, perfect for warding off those high number of attacks mob/swarms will likely through back at you.

Can anyone guess what it is about them that I like the most? Eh?
You can equip their Exarch with the ability to allow the entire unit to Infiltrate. That's the sweet spot.

Speaking of Exarchs...




Never satisfied with just one option, I made all three Exarch variants for my Striking Scorpions. The Chainsaber'd Exarch was a small conversion. He has the usual right handed Exarch Saber that comes with him (sword+claw has same sword) and the left hand was the arm from the Biting Blade, but with a normal Scorpion's sword attached (and cleaned up with a little Green Stuff). While reading through the entry, I found that the Chainsabers option comes with "gauntlet-mounted twin-linked Shuriken Pistols." Well damn. I fished some spare bits out of my bitz box for the two pistols, and Green Stuff'd a wrist-connection to look similar to what's on the Dire Avengers sprue for their Exarch. I think he came out looking pretty damn good.

You get a couple options here:
Chainsabers
Scorpion Chainsword + Power Claw (shuriken catapult incorporated)
Biting Blade

Similar to the Dire Avengers' Exarch choices, each one will gear you to excel in a differrent way.

When taking an Exarch with your Scorpion squad, you equip him in a manner to best suit the role you want your Scorpions to achieve. Also, each equipment set is better against different enemies. Low-med toughness and low-no armor? Chainsabers all the way. These guys allow you to reroll failed rolls to hit. Combine that with the twin-linked shuriken pistols and he greatly bolsters the effectiveness of the Scorpions. The Chainsabers set is great for low armor horde armies. Swarms of gaunts (even 'stealers, though you'll take heavy losses as well) mobs of Orks, Imperial Guard, Fire Warriors, other Eldar.

Sword+Claw. This is great against high armor enemies (though really, aim your Banshees at them), but because of the sword he becomes the best choice for versatility. He can do nearly anything, where the other two are a bit specialized. Something to be said for him also ... Gauntlet mounted Shuriken. He can fire that off and use the Claw same turn.

Facing high toughness, med-low armor? Biting Blade. This set sacrifices one attack compared to the others, but you get +1 Strength for each successive hit. Note that you already count as having a S4 due to the Blade itself. 1 hit? S5. Get 2 hits? They both hit at S6. Three hits? S7. Did you get all 4 hits when on the charge? You lucky sunuvabetch, that's 4 hits at S8. But, still no armor penetration.

This makes him viable against high Toughness enemies. Be careful, the rest of the Scorpions are still Strength 4 ... and won't be able to efficiently follow in what you're trying to accomplish with the Exarch's potential for 6 or more Strength. Those high Toughness models are better taken care of with firepower, like from Warp Spiders, or Wraithguard, or even the Rangers. Better to aim the Scorpions at a juicier target: mobs of cannon-fodder troops.

Autarch

Alaitoc Autarch: Al'tanoc Swiftsun




EDIT: I've revisited the Autarch, as well as making a minor adjustment to his equipment. See more about that here.

According to the fluff, these individuals represent the ideal Eldar. The pinnacle of what an Eldar can hope to be/achieve. I find this ultimately sad, given that he's nothing like the rest of the Eldar. The vast majority is deemed "not good enough."

Autarchs are said to have walked every path, and when he felt he mastered it, mustered the strength to turn from that path and take another. While most Eldar are currently walking one path or another, a good amount remain "lost" on these paths; becoming obsessed with a path to the point that it becomes an addiction is a very real danger to them. These lost addicts are better referred to as "Exarchs." Or, in the case of one specific path, "Farseers." While the Eldar society does find these individuals extremely useful (in that they gain in power along their path more than a normal Eldar would, and remain to teach Eldar currently traveling that path) they pity them. For the Eldar, life itself is a constant trial. They strive endlessly to keep themselves from descending back into the very depravity that brought about the birth of She Who Thirsts, and simultaneously heralded the decline of their species. Exarchs are a step away from Dark Eldar in the minds of the normal Eldar populace.

Autarchs are their antithesis. Where an Exarch is specialized to the extreme, having a kind of tunnel-vision view of life, an Autarch has had the wisdom to learn from all paths and take this learning with him through life. He combines his knowledge to make him a stronger individual as a whole. Because of this, the Eldar populace views him with awe, and gives a lot of weight to his words. Naturally, Autarchs take up leadership roles in their craftworlds, so that they can benefit from his more holistic view on life.

Having travelled every path, only an Autarch understands the role each Aspect plays on the battlefield, and this is represented in his special rule. Rolls for reserves benefit from a +1 while he's on the battlefield, allowing you to perform much craftier maneuvres with relative stability.

Following this description of what an Autarch is, I decided to equip mine with the equipment to enable him to join and help nearly any Aspect I field. I say nearly, because all is impossible. So I decided to weed out a few that would hinder his ability to assist the rest.

If I equipped him with a Reaper Launcher, his role would be shifted backwards, away from enemy lines. This would hinder his ability to bolster a front line by distance alone, so that was out. I decided, rather, to focus on the mid to close range Aspects so he could easily move between them.

Close Combat: Mandiblasters and a Power Weapon. The other option was a Scorpion Chainsword and Banshee mask. While highly tempting, I disregarded the Chainsword (and its +1 S) because it would specialize him more between Scorpions and Banshees. Scorpions are about high number of attacks against low armoured foes(the high S helps, but it's really about # of attacks) and the Banshees are about killing mid to heavy armoured foes. By giving him the chainsword/mask, he'd be a hell of a help to the Scorpions, but not so much to the Banshees ... the lack of an Armour-ignoring weapon decreases his effectiveness in their role. If I give him the Mandiblasters and a Power Weapon, now he has the high attacks to fit in with Scorpions, AND the ability to ignore armour like the Banshees. This was my reasoning behind this choice.

Mobility: Jetbike, Swooping Hawk Jetpack, Warp Spider Generator.

To be honest, the only reason to take a Swooping Hawk pack over the other two is if you intend on having him join the Hawks and benefit from 'Skyleap.' The Warp Generator does the same thing, with the addition of allowing him an additional move during assault if he's not assaulting. I guess people just like the flashiness of the wings, because I see this taken more than any other choice. I chose the Generator because it was simple and effective, while also giving me more options that the other two don't allow. Taking the Jetbike will hinder my ability to join other squads, adding my strength to theirs ... unless you have jetbike squads.

Gun: Shuriken Pistol, Reaper Launcher, Fusion Blaster

Ok, I'm gonna stop right there. I know there are more, but Fusion Blaster is all you need to hear. Adding the mobility from your previous choice, you would now be able to quickly take down that pesky tank that your Dragons would take another turn (maybe) getting to. Being that it's an assault weapon, it's also a nearly guaranteed kill before a charge. It's just too awesome to say 'no' to.

Farseer

Alaitoc Farseer El'toran Spiritwind:

Equipment:

Singing Spear

Runes of Warding

Runes of Witnessing

Spirit Stones

Mind War

Eldritch Storm

Doom

I plan on having him accompanied by a retinue of 4 warlocks. Three of which have the power 'Destructor', and the fourth has 'Enhance' as well as a Singing Spear.

Due to his lack of a ranged "Shooting Phase" ability, I decided to give him a Singing Spear so he can contribute to the short range combat with something better than his Shuriken Pistol.

Also, due to them providing a short range role, I decided to take Enhance to further better their chances of survival if charged. This ability gives them a +1 WS and +1 Initiative.

As far as El'toran, I like the idea of making him as dominating as possible in the realm of Psychic abilities. This is an individual who is not only most likely thousands of years old, but as a Farseer he is a kind of Exarch to the Warlocks. I gave him both sets of runes to boost his ability to cast, as well as to hinder his opponent's ability to cast. I have two damaging spells (both useful in completely different situations) and Doom, a "must have" in my book.

Eldar have a "common" strength and toughness value. I say common because I'm using a normal human as a basis for comparison. This can be a bother when facing enemies with toughnesses higher than 3. Marines, some Tyranids, Necrons, etc. The idea of a power which allows re-rolls to wound is amazing to me, and I intend on exploiting that as much as possible.

Spirit stones are another "must have" as they allow me to cast two spells per turn. That's a possible Doom AND a direct damage spell!

Mind War is good as a sniper-style power. The real benefit of this is that it can target an individual model. Want to get rid of that one Heavy Weapon, but have 9 of his companions basically in the way? Not with Mind War. The only thing to pay attention to here is that you have a Leadership roll-off with the target model. Choose wisely, or you'll be stuck with only a 50/50 chance of actually doing damage. A Farseer's Ld is 10, so make sure you know your enemy. Some things to remember: ALL Necrons have a Ld 10. Also, if fighting a Space Marine Army, if they have a Company Master on the field then ALL Space Marines use his Ld of 10 until he's dead. Imperial Guard officers have a lower Ld than most army commanders, ranging from 7 to 9. Exploit that. The only exceptions are the Commissars (Ld 10). Both Dark Eldar and Orks have officer/commander models with less than 10 Ld. Take them out. This attack ignores armour saves, even invulnerable ones! [EDIT:] I have been corrected. It does not ignore invulnerable saves ... but still ... ignoring armour saves is still cool. [/EDIT]

I took Eldritch Storm to balance out the Farseer's abilities. I had a great 'support' spell, a great 'one-target' spell, and now I have a great Large Blast marker spell. Sure the stats aren't great, but you're really not going to be using this on a squad of Space Marines ... you use this on Imperial Guard, or gaunts, or Orks. Armies where you need to score as many wounds as possible. Note that this spell also causes 'pinning,' so those cannon-fodder troop types generally are more susceptible to this as well. Another nice side-effect of Eldritch Storm is that it spins vehicles. This makes things interesting considering the possibility of a joint effort, in which you spin the vehicle around, then have your Fire Dragons (or whatever) hit it's sides/rear.