Hive Fleet Leviathan's Revamp!

I realized that I talked a bit about how my army is going through a large "Revamp" at this point and I never really said how it was going to change.

When the 5th Edition Codex came out my army was very much built for the 4th Edition codex. My Carnifex's were set up to deal with tanks at range (and were really good at it), my Zoanthropes were used to help spread some synapse through the army, I had my shooty warriors with their str 6 blast weapons (aka what deathspitters SHOULD be...not the "devourers" they are now), etc. Pretty much everything in my list changed dramatically when the new codex came out and since then I have been finding myself playing an uphill battle. I am rapidly finding that the old holdovers really just DONT WORK anymore, which is a shame because I really liked how a bunch of my older models were set up. Ah well, such is 40k I guess, every edition for every army you pretty much have to take off all those bolters and put on some new weapon...and...er...oh right, that's JUST Tyranids lol.

ANYWAYS, now that I have 3 tournaments under my belt and a large amount of fun games I am finally hitting my stride with this army. I have been really working towards making it function as a cohesive unit, one where everything compliments everything else in the army. So here is my "Final" 5th ed army.

HQ

The Swarmlord

Tyrant Guard (2)

Elites

Venomthropes (2)

Hive Guard (2)

Zoanthropes (3) - Mycetic Spore

Troops

Hormagaunts (20) - Toxin Sacs

Hormagaunts (20) - Toxin Sacs

Termagants (25)

Tervigon - Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Cluster Spines

Heavy Support

Trygon

Mawloc

Mawloc

2000pts right on the nose

One of my biggest issues with how I was playing my Tyranids before (see the Calcon tourney report from March for the best example) was being able to get to those long ranged firepower units that just shred my army from a distance. I had to foot slog across the table, just getting hosed while I did it. One of the main things I complained about was the durability of the army and how it had none. So, this army is built to deal with Castling Guard armies or Space Wolf armies that Long Fang packs (the BANE of my existance).

How it deals with those forces is with my "Disruption" branch of the army. That branch consists of the Trygon, 2 Mawlocs and the Zoanthropes. The idea is to drop them in on turn 2 (the Mawlocs will automatically pop up on turn 2 and both the Trygon and Zoans have a 66% chance to come in turn 2 due to the Swarmlord) and to overload one of my opponents flanks. Having 18 wounds of Monstrous Creatures as well as the single most lethal anti tank squad in the game pop up in your deployment zone will ruin anyone's day. The thing with my play style and how this army works is it doesn't matter if the Mawlocs do any damage. Them just BEING there is point in taking them because if you don't deal with them, they will ruin your day (as they still are Monstrous Creatures).

The second aspect of the army is designed to deal with my second major issue and that is Durability. First off is the Swarmlord. Because he has his Tyrant Guard who AREN'T MC's he is now in the minority for being in cover, so this unit will be able to get a cover save even behind a basic unit of termagants, and the termagants will get cover from the Venomthropes combined with feel no pain from the Tervigon. All of those added together plus how fast this flank can be on someone due to the Hormagaunts means when they get to you they will actually do something and get there mostly intact. Another nice thing about how this is set up is my Hormies will actually be able to do damage to tanks as my Swarmlord can give any single unit within 18" either Furious Charge, Preferred Enemy or Acute Senses at the start of the Tyranid turn. So now my Hormagaunts will become str 4 on the charge and can threaten most tanks :)

This is all how it is supposed to go, but based on the test games I have played so far it is consitantly happening this way. I am really looking forward to getting it out in a tournament setting as there are some really tough lists that I would love to see if I can go toe to toe with. Once I finish painting everything for this army (still have to paint a Mawloc, 2 Tyrant Guard, 16 hormagaunts, a Tervigon and about 10-20 more Termagants) I will start something new (for realz this time lol).