IMPORTANT NOTE THAT THIS SERIES IS NOW OUTDATED AS THE CODEX HAS BEEN RELEASED. Read about our first impressions here: The Hive Fleet Cometh
Hi Everyone, it's been an exciting week over here at The Crossroads with both the Tyranid Primer and Part 1 of the T'au Tactica going up and I've been personally inspired to apply the approach by Steve, to the Hive Mind.
Before I begin, a couple of items and disclaimers to go through first. The original table and formulas are from 3++ and the spreadsheet can be found here. As for the Tyranid data, you can find it in the first 2 sheets of the amended spreadsheet here: Tyranid mathhammer. You will notice that I've placed melee weapons in the same table as ranged weapons. That's because as Tyranids, we have a much wider range of weapon options at our disposal (both in list-building and play style) and are more comfortable in melee than the T'au. Now for the disclaimers. While I've gone through the numbers personally and manually cross-checked some of the entries to ensure accuracy, I did not reverse-calculate the formulas and assumed their accuracy from the get-go.
The aim of this tactica is to find the most efficient way to deal with the 5 main unit types (I added heavy infantry to Steve's list of 4) that we will see on the battlefield:
Light Infantry (Conscripts and other T3, 5+ save models)
Medium Infantry (MEQs - Marine Equivalents, T4, 3+ save models)
Heavy Infantry (Terminators, Lychguard, T4/5, 2+ or 3+ save, multi-wound models)
Transports/Light vehicles (T6/7, 3+ save models with 6+ wounds)
Heavy Armour (Imperial Knights, Land Raiders, other T8, 2+ or 3+ save models)
To note, I'm not factoring in shooting and charging in the same turn as you don't always get to do both as you might want to take advantage of weapon ranges and the random charge roll makes the calculation unrealistic.
1. Light Infantry (LI)
T3 with a 5+ armor save. We've also started to see a bunch of Razorwing Flock spam lists in some US tournaments, and at 7 points for T2 W4 models, they are some of the best screens out there as well. However, I will not be covering the T2 W4 class for the purposes of our look at Light Infantry. These are the best solutions to LI I've found thus far:
a. GSC Genestealers - 6.41 to 8.54 PPW (7.69 to 10.25 PPW for Hive fleet variants)
With the FAQ changes to Genestealer Cults 'stealers, reducing them to a mere 10 points per model (as their rending claws cost 0), there is very little reason not to bring these infiltrating organisms in Tyranid armies now. The lower (and better) PPW represents a 'stealer unit of 10+ models. 16 'stealers deal 24.96 wounds to LI per fight phase. Even when their number drops below 10, they still do 8.54 PPW and are the premier, melee, Tyranid unit for taking out Light Infantry.
+ve:
- 5+ invul save
- Fast. Movement speed of 8" and can advance and charge in the same turn
- Able to ride Cult Chimeras (giving an added layer of protection) - GSC variants
-ve:
- Must be in melee range
- Unaffected by Synapse - GSC variants
b. Devilgaunts - 10.2 to 11.9 PPW
A unit of 20 Termagants with Devourers comes up to 160 points and deals 13.4 wounds per shooting phase to Light Infantry. If you count their re-roll 1s to wound in unit sizes of 20+, the unit deals 15.56 wounds per shooting phase.
+ve:
- 18" range
- Fits in a Trygon/Prime tunnel for exact firepower when needed
-ve:
- Fragile. T3 with 6+ armor save
- Loses PPW when falling below unit size of 20
c. Raveners - 13.29 PPW
With dual scything talons (which I feel is the optimal loadout as it is a waste to pay 2 points for rending claws and lose 1 attack vs LI), a unit of 6 Raveners deals 10.38 wounds per fight phase to LI for a mere 138 points.
+ve:
- Relatively tougher than Gaunts at T4, 5+ armour save and W3 each
- Small footprint
- In-built deepstrike ability
-ve:
- Easy to kill with multi-damage weapons compared to large unit of gaunts
- Need to make it into melee range
Honourable mention:
Warriors with Boneswords & Devourers - 15.7 melee PPW
As an honourable mention, warriors with boneswwords and devourers are the most efficient LI killers with synapse in the Tyranid arsenal. While doing less wounds per fight phase to LI than variants with 2 pairs of scything talons (14.49 PPW), Devourers help with their usefulness while moving towards the enemy and providing forward synapse.
17.98 with Deathspitters
+ve:
- Provides synapse
- T4, 4+ armour save
-ve:
- Slow (only 6" movement)
- Priority targets due to having Synapse
For those with an inclination to the medium and larger genus of Tyranids for their list building, these are the more efficient multi-wound models vs Light Infantry that have not been covered above:
Tyrannofex with fleshborer hive & stinger salvo - 20.27 PPW
A surprising entry considering the cost of 225 points.
+ve:
- One of the most durable bodies in the Nids arsenal (T8 W14 AS3+)
-ve:
- Slow (6" movement)
- 18" weapon range. This is a negative here compared to the same range for devilgaunts because of the need for the Tyrannofex to stand still to fire all its weapons twice to achieve its 20.27 PPW
Pyrovores - 21.65 PPW
From being the unwanted step-child of the Swarm, Pyrovores actually have a use now in the Tyranid army. At 42 points per T4, W4, 4+AS model, their Flamespurt is a perfect 10" flamer ideal for targeting infantry (both light and medium) when arriving by Tyrannocyte.
+ve:
- Tough medium-sized organism
- Explodes when dies
- S5 Ap-1 flamer makes charging a unit of 3, a risky proposition
-ve:
- Requires Tyrannocyte for effective insertion, thus reducing efficiency
- Only 2 attacks per model in melee
Carnifex with 4 slimer Deathspitters - 27.4 PPW
Clocking in at 114 points for 2 pairs of Deathspitters with Slimer Maggots, these slimer-fexes most closely resemble the dakka-fexes of old when they wielded 2 sets of twin-linked devourers.
+ve:
- Durable T7 W8 3+AS body
- Decent in melee against light tanks (S6 A4)
- Can be kitted out with Bone mace and/or bio-plasma to increase effectiveness vs transport-class targets
- Drop efficiency. A single brood of 3 carnifexes only uses 1 deployment move thus increasing chances of going first
-ve:
- Susceptible to anti-tank weapons (takes only 2 missiles or lances to kill in unlucky cases)
- Bad at objective capping (only single model)
2. Medium Infantry
T4 with a 3+ armour save. MEQ (Marine Equivalents). Positives and negatives remain the same for units that have been covered above.
a. GSC Genestealers - 11.24 to 14.93 PPW
Not a surprising result as rending has always been one of the best MEQ killers in the game pre-8th edition.
b. Raveners with rending claws - 28 PPW
The dual scything talons loadout comes in at 35.38 PPW. We can thank the rending ability and base -1 AP for the difference of 7 PPW.
c. Warriors with Boneswords - 31.46 PPW
With Boneswords and devourers = 35.96 PPW (excluding the wounds from shooting).
As the top 3 units were melee options, I thought it would be good to include the top 3 ranged options in dealing with MEQ as well for those with a penchant for pew pew Nids and because close combat is not as easy to achieve as shooting.
d. Devilgaunts - 27.43 to 32 PPW
Similar to above, the lower and more efficient PPW is the result of re-rolling 1s to wound for unit sizes of 20+. Because the devourer's range is 18", it is much easier to bring 20+ models to bear compared to Fleshborers or Spinefists.
e. Pyrovores - 35.9 PPW
including Tyrannocyte with Deathspitter cost = 46.4 PPW
f. Tyrannofex with fleshborer hive & stinger salvos = 38.9 PPW
Even though there are similarities between top statistical performers for both groups above, rending claws (due to the rending rule) have an increased effectiveness against Medium Infantry.
Surprises
Having played at least 4 games so far with Nids this edition, I'm surprised that the Raveners have made it onto the list above as they were not performing that well for me in the 2 games that I brought them. Perhaps it was my choice of targets and in-game choices that have hampered their performance. The Tyrannofex also came as a bit of a surprise but it needs fairly strict conditions (not moving) to achieve its efficiency.
Moving forward
Compared to a few of the other factions, the Tyranids benefit more from a variety of units and cannot reliably spam efficient units (looking at you Stormraven spam) because of the need for Synapse and how our units tend to be kitted out for specific roles.
In the next article (Part 2), I will be focusing on PPW vs Heavy Infantry, Transports/Light vehicles, and Heavy Vehicles. Part 3 will focus on combining the various things we've learnt to put together a list that can hopefully take on all-comers.
A special shout out to Neil at 3++ and Kirby for the formulas and the initial Mathhammer document.
Cheers,
the BenCH
Bio: Benjamin Chia is an avid gamer and has been playing Warhammer 40k since its 3rd edition and collects Space Marines (of various chapters), Tyranids, Aeldari and Sisters of Battle. A trainer of Critical Thinking Skills, he buys more models than he should and is furiously trying to finish up his armies before more shiny models are released this 8th edition.