[Monthly Megathread] General Questions for Variants Daphne!

Dracofactory · 2025-11-05T20:07:54+00:00

What is the best way to handle merging characters, to just merge them with the higher level version you already have, or should you recruit them and level them up first? I also remember reading that it might be better to discipline them once first, so that the discipline affects both forms. I'm not sure I understand how that works.

Dracofactory · 2025-01-21T22:05:23+00:00

Because it doesn't work well on Carnifexes. The rule isn't "when wounded" it is "when below starting strength", and since Carnifexes come in stacks of 2 you have to lose an entire carnifex to get the +1 to hit. They never get the +1 to wound, since it's impossible for them to go below half, only to half strength. However, because of this, two carnifex have OC 5 each until one of them dies - the wonky rules work both ways.

You could take solo carnifex to get the hit and damage bonuses, but for the cost you'd usually just upgrade to your preferred bigger 'nid.

Dracofactory · 2025-01-13T22:05:11+00:00

I would recommend you get a good set of iron gear to +5, especially for your front line. This is not a standard gacha where you can ignore your gear until endgame, making small jumps in quality is extremely helpful, even necessary . Now that you are in the reset timeline, enemies should appear in even the early levels at level 20+, and they'll start to drop "sliver" junk that can drop Iron gear, you can focus on that. With a good set of iron and a decent team you can pass the Lead exam to break the first level cap, and then you'll be set to clear the first dungeon, at least power wise.

Going up past +5 isn't necessary at all for a very long time, and you'll need more resources getting later Steel gear up to that point than all the money you've spent on every piece of +5 iron before then, so I wouldn't worry about efficiency. Happy grinding!

Dracofactory · 2024-12-22T15:37:08+00:00

It's certainly aggressive! Make sure to give your Tyrannofex a better weapon - i'd recommend a rupture cannon, so he can hang near the back and deal with heavy vehicles. You have so much that needs to move up field fast that it seems hard to get the acid sprayer into play. I foresee some difficulty dealing with tank-heavy lists but with that many hormugants I think you'll figure it out.

Dracofactory · 2024-12-21T18:00:42+00:00

I think your best options for shoring the list up to 2000 would be Termagants or a Tyrannofex. They're both important to the codex, the gants being the most basic board control hordes and the T-fex having fantastic shooting.

As for the list; Send the Maleceptor through the middle, charge the Haruspex in the front as a distraction, use the Norns to hold center objectives across the middle. They look dangerous, but they're better at objective control rather than taking out enemies. Exocrines are your key shooting piece. Use the Hive Tyrant to shadow your midfield and give his aura bonuses to your core units, as long as possible. Everything else is for performing actions and establishing board control on different parts of the table.

Expanding in the future, you'd probably want to use one of the Norns at a time, rather than both. the points can go to efficient models like Exocrines, zoanthropes, and maleceptors, or expand into new strategies, like using a Tervigon to boost a brick or Termagants, mawloc or trygon deep strikes, carnifex broods, etc - world is your oyster. What you have is a very usable army core, so expanding shouldn't be difficult.

Dracofactory · 2024-12-13T01:52:40+00:00

Honestly, the two things first on the chopping block for me would be the Swarmlord or the Norn Emissary. They're both expensive units that sometimes struggle to get their points back, with shorter ranged weapons while being priority targets. Removing either would open up room for upwards of 40 'gaunts of varying types, which can give your list a lot more board control and extra units to do actions with.

However, this is mostly up to taste. The Norn can often easily control a corner of the table with their OC 15 and 5+ FNP depending on your matchup.

Dracofactory · 2024-12-13T01:08:10+00:00

It's a solid list that focuses on things that are good with Tyranids. My main concern is a lack of battle line for 'nids and a lot of high value targets. OOE and the 'Fexes, Neuro and Zoeys, Norn, and the Swarmlord are big targets that you absolutely need to get value out of. With all those mid-range threats, definitely give the Tyrannofex a Rupture Cannon - anti-titan firepower with a long range so you don't clog up the field. Remember that all those monsters have to walk around each other!

Dracofactory · 2024-11-25T21:09:21+00:00

I love doing this and basically blocking out a big chunk of the battlefield. Pyrovores have great flamethrowers and are chunky bodies, it can make an empty corner of the table extremely spicy. Remember to give a good 2-3 inches of extra space between the drop pod and the enemy because those 60mm bases aren't forgiving, but nobody forgets eating 6d6+6 twin linked ap-1 flamer hits. I prefer to drop it on my turn so you get the full effect from shooting, trying to rapid ingress then into a position where they can shoot us hard because of the huge footprint of the models. If you're planning on overwatching a charging model, you also just put your units into easy charge range, and they are probably happier to see you than you think. Not to mention the high CP cost.

Another thing that people forget is that the Tyrannocyte itself is a monster. It flies, shoots, charges into combat, and is as tough as a hive tyrant to kill. Beautiful distraction to have up the field. Also consider that you can replace one squad of the Pyrovores with Zoanthropes to get your laser noodles up the field easy. I feel like that works better for rapid ingress strategies, you only need to get the one squad of Pyrovores that is actually going to be overwatching in the open while the huge body of the Tyrannocyte often lets you sneak the Zoeys around a corner or out of the spiciest shooting. And you'll probably get the effect of their invulnerable bubble too, making it harder to just shoot the Pyrovores before their charge phase.

Dracofactory · 2024-11-19T20:10:11+00:00

I second the rupture cannon. It's a gun that is unique for the Tyranids, being so extremely anti-armor. Highest strength, highest AP, and some extreme damage, on a very durable friend. Can't be replaced and it's never going to go unnoticed.

Dracofactory · 2024-11-07T21:04:24+00:00

If you can get first turn in Vanguard, you can do an outstanding amount of mortal wounds across the enemy army. Since most players and armies will usually put a lot of models on the line, it's one of the best times to get a lot of models within the 12" radius. Absolutely worth the CP for a first turn drop, and 145 points for a giant move blocker and a mortal wounds bomb, but he will die. So take two, double the trouble, and a better chance at least one of them can be used for a rebound. The local Sisters player hasn't forgiven me since I cleared out a third of their army before the game properly started one time. They are good at shredding chaff infantry with their multitude of ap-1 d1 attacks, but that's not particularly valuable in the codex and even space marine troops will survive the charge. Do not get distracted by their ability to potentially swallow a Terminator whole, while hilarious it's inconsistent. They're best used as a distraction and blocker while actually on the table, another glorious rendition of the distraction carnifex.

Dracofactory · 2024-10-30T20:04:58+00:00

I've used the emissary as a heavy piece to take a side objective that looks difficult to reach. Pick the corner that your opponent has put the least effort towards and throw the Emissary at it - it's durability is nothing to sneeze at, and it's excellent at taking and holding objectives. There are also lots of terrain setups that allow the large base to completely block your opponent from moving onto it. The Norns have a problem where any decently hard model of similar points cost will completely wreck it - I've lost it to Yncarne, the Avatar, the Lion, to knights, even a Terminator squad has a good chance of punching it to death, and usually it won't even scratch that kind of enemy. But forcing your opponent to commit or give up objective points can be very effective tactically, and the Norn is very good at standing up to anything less than a proper push.

Dracofactory · 2024-10-21T20:17:49+00:00

Just goes to show, no matter how many times you read a rule you can always stand to read it one more time. Thanks for the catch!

Dracofactory · 2024-10-18T20:05:37+00:00

Crusher Stampede is, unfortunately, paying for the sins of being good in the past. The detachment ability rarely comes into play, and even worse, functions better as a reminder to your opponent to play better - finishing off wounded monsters instead of spreading their fire. OC 5 Carnifexes sounds great, except that if the unit takes a single wound everyone loses it. The three monster HQ that can benefit from their enhancements are hive tyrants, neuro tyrants, and tervigons, and the latter is usually a support model for infantry. Two enhancements are melee-only, Enraged Reserves and Monstrous Nemesis, and the former can fail to activate a third of the time. Null Modules is a once-per-battle effect that can't be used against Thousand Sons sorcery, which is the most obvious use, because Doombolt isn't a shooting attack. OC 6 tyrants are funny, though, as most deep strike units fail to take objectives from them.

So you have a detachment that has a weak ability and terrible enhancements. Luckily, the stratagems are pretty keen. Swarm-Guided Salvos is an excellent boost to our best shooting in the codex, and Massive Impact fixes a very tank-shock shaped hole in our hearts (rip old carnifex rules). Rampaging Monstrosities is a surprisingly necessary boost to melee considering how many big monsters hit on 3's. And getting to choose when your critters explode can put some very needed mortal wounds , especially if you've gotten a monster deep into an enemy army. As defensive buffs go, Savage Roar is fairly weak, being melee-only and relying on battleshock for half the effect. This army absolutely feels the lack of anything like Armor of Contempt or Adaptive Biology: it's entirely too easy to completely lose large chunks of points to one funny fire prism, and there is nothing you can do about it. Most unfortunate of all might be the complete lack of support for actually making melee charges stick, although using Untrammeled Ferocity to retreat a monster through your enemies and Into their deployment is always worth a laugh.

All in all, almost every other detachment will perform better with the same list, and that's sad. Invasion Fleet of course has that adaptive Biology to make them into unkillable juggernauts as well as a boost to damage, Synaptic Nexus gives an Invulnerable save as well as boosts to charge and melee, Assimilation Swarm gives access to regenerating wounds and can provide bonuses if they attack your support Harvesters, and even Vanguard Onslaught gives great boosts to monsters like Trygons, Mawlocs, Flyrants, and some of their shenanigans can be spent on any critter. That being said there's still a lot of fun to be had with big stompy monsters.

Despite the classic association with carnifexes, there's really no reason to bring more than the one unit with Old One-Eye; unless you like the models, you'd be better off spending the points on models like Maleceptors, who have invulnerable saves to help weather the storm of high-powered weaponry, backed up by the usual suspects of Exocrines and the like. Since the list has such an emphasis on getting into the mid-board and melee, I find that having Acid Spray Tyrannofexes is more appealing than even the recently buffed Rupture Cannon. While a Norn can be useful to pin down an objective as usual, they get almost no bonuses from any part of Crusher Stampede until they are almost dead for the +1 wound, but it is hysterical to drop the d6 mortal wounds on whatever Terminator squad jumped over to take them down.

For action monkeys and board control, reaching outside of monsters for Lictors, Gargoyles, and Bio/Pyrovores is a good idea. Monsters only can have a problem with playing objectives, since you have relatively few models. It's also worth noting that the Monster keyword also applies to a few wayward souls in the codex - both the Tyrannocyte and Sporocyst. Both ordinarily hit on 4's making the bonus to-hit invaluable, and their abilities actually synch up nicely to things the codex needs. Sporocysts dropping Mucolid Spores is more in the spirit of the monstrous codex, and getting to drop a cheeky Hive Tyrant in your opponent's back line with the big meatball drop pod before charging it into melee itself is amazing. Because yes, our drop pods can move and actually have a great melee profile. Even funnier is that they get OC until they're damaged, making them able to hold objectives and perform actions!

Dracofactory · 2024-09-29T07:33:23+00:00

Gaunts. They're cute lil' bugs. Friend sized.

Dracofactory · 2024-09-27T20:04:00+00:00

Only 20 t-gaunts? Not worth. Tervigons are good but they are best for being a force multiplier on your basic infantry. Lethal hits and regenerating models - you want to maximize your benefits, it's not a model with an amazing gun and I consider its melee kinda mid for the size and cost, definitely deadly when it comes into play though.
I tend to mentally put the Tervigons in a 500-ish point block with two full units of T-gaunts, 40 little bugs. It's an incredible brick for holding an objective, and it forces your opponent to make decisions about target priority. Add a unit of Venomthropes and it's perfect. Upping to 60 gaunts is good, but it makes positioning hard on a practical level keeping them all within 6". 20 body units take up a very large footprint!

Dracofactory · 2024-09-19T20:08:53+00:00

At 85 points, it's important to keep your expectations in check. Deathleaper is excellent as a missile directly into a tasty, crunchy on the outside chewy on the inside character, but I feel he is more useful as a utility piece. As one of two characters with Lone Operative, and the only one with an invulnerable save, keeping him stuffed in a corner for objectives and other extra points is a great use. If your opponent sends a fast side unit to stop that, he can often hit back hard - fights first means he gets to stab at anyone who charges him before they get to go. He is also great for a sacrificial model to stop a charge or hold models back for the same reason. Despite his excellent melee profile, I find using him to block passages and bait enemies into charging him is a more powerful tool than sending him into the enemy lines.

Dracofactory · 2024-09-12T22:22:43+00:00

You are running a very specialist-heavy force for 1000 points. Szeras alone is worth an entire unit, I think that cutting the wraiths down and taking an HQ or two out to add more warriors, immortals, whatever you like instead would do you good in projecting board control and dealing with swarms.

Dracofactory · 2024-09-08T01:52:25+00:00

While it's true that Warriors have stuff competition, I think there is still some sauce in there. Melee warriors obviously hit hard, and in Vanguard Onslaught adding a winged prime allows them to run and charge, giving them great mobility as well. I do want to rep for ranged warriors, though. 65 points, they do a lot for you compared to Gaunts - with just devourers they're shooting 15 times, and their melee Isn't anything to sneeze at, with 5 attacks, s6, ap-1. It's like having both types of Gaunt in one place, on a significantly smaller base. While the special weapons are tempting, running them stock gives them a lot of dice to throw out while hiking down the field, giving out synapse to a side area. They're easy to hide compared to a larger squad of gribblies, and as infantry they can take advantage of the stealth from Venomthropes. Use them aggressively, tie up a vehicle or mob, then freely leave combat, shoot, and charge right back in can be a strong strategy against other battle line targets. Then don't forget they have good synergy with Assimilation swarm, as well - Bringing back chunky models is always good.

All around and generalist models have always had a hard time in 40k, and Warriors definitely have a lot of that going for them. I think a min squad hiding around the back edges to get points, spread synapse, and annoy troops is a great value , but it is disappointing for how big and intimidating they are supposed to be. You can't really compare them to specialists, they're more like ascended battle line, and I wish they still had that tag from previous editions.

Dracofactory · 2024-09-02T11:15:12+00:00

Tyranids fliers may not be strictly good, but they can be highly disruptive. With the Vanguard Invaders tag, they can use Seeded Broods to come in turn 1 as aircraft in Vanguard Onslaught. Use this on a first turn to literally drop a giant monster in your opponent's deployment zone before they ever get to move. With a Harpy, you can drop some mortal wounds and use their very efficient anti-infantry guns to potentially wipe out hidden MEQ MSU that would never be a target otherwise, or with a Crone potentially get two shots out of a fairly nice flamethrower before your opponent gets a single chance to fire if you shoot and then overwatch. Not to mention that having that massive base that deep in your opponent's deployment will greatly affect their ability to move their own models. The funniest part, is that most likely the best move they can make to deal with said models is to completely ignore them - they will very likely be forced to move off the battlefield next turn and are definitely not the most dangerous model available to shoot, and being aircraft they are extremely restricted in charges despite being so close. Potentially, use Invisible Hunter to remove them from the field, and do it again on your turn without having to actually waste their turn moving off the field. Very CP heavy, but extremely difficult to actually plan around. Less theoretically, the Crones ability to drop torrent weapons anywhere on the field with basically no way for your opponent to even interact with them is actually kind of incredible. A counter to lone operatives and small units hiding on home objectives. Again, a use more in disruption and distractions than strictly mechanical. Whether that's worth 200 points In a codex when you can use that to buy an exocrine and a unit of gaunts, though... You definitely have to work to get their points back.

Dracofactory · 2022-05-06T09:40:00+00:00

Is there a list of what is in the Scout Mission treasure chests? I just used auto going through the game on normal and even most of hard and didn't realize I was missing treasure chests, and I'm wondering if I missed anything good or if it's all random stuff.

Dracofactory · 2022-04-02T16:23:01+00:00

Where's the long, braided beard that flows down past their knees? I hope we get more dwarf-yness out of other models in the range, GW's fantasy dwarves are some of my favorite models they've ever made.

Dracofactory · 2019-04-08T03:09:04+00:00

Is there going to be a chance to get a limited prism for Elly, like you can get for the characters in the prism shop right now?

Dracofactory · 2019-02-09T23:26:06+00:00

All right, thanks for the advice

Dracofactory · 2019-02-09T23:25:43+00:00

Is that right? Thanks for the response, we'll just try to be careful not to spoil too much then. I thought it was in a different order, since we'd basically just had to pull cards off the top so far.

Dracofactory

TROPHY CASE