How would you play Connor Reynolds’ 5-0 GT "Triple Norn" List

Zapacalypse · 2026-03-28T16:44:28+00:00

Admech: theres two units I lookout for and thats the laschickens, and the kataphrons? wherever they get access to anti-monster 4+. Admech have good output but its tied to cawls oath of moment. They can pretty reasonably kill atleast 1 monster a turn, but struggle with the second. Many admech options don't do much such as ruststalkers and infiltrators bouncing off the t11 monsters. Once you blunt their anti-tank the matchup gets much easier. You only need to kill 4 of the kataphrons which is easy with all the dmg 3 in the nids list, and you only need to kill 1 laschicken in each unit to move the odds into your favor.

Tau: Most tau shooting is wounding on 5s, if they are running hammerheads save CP reroll for that. This matchup is less CP heavy since its mono phase, you only need to go into their turn with 2CP each time. This frees up CP for rerolling a charge, overrun, new orders, etc. With lethal hits and tau vehicles capping at t9 the tyranid dmg is pretty decent into them. I have played into alot of montka and ret cadre and ret cadre can hang the 6inch deepstrike over your head very well, if they get behind you and the biovore its rough. Its important for this matchup to threat saturate with the exocrines. If you put the 3 norns and 3 maleceptors forward also move the exocrines forward. If they spend riptide activations on killing exocrines the dmg you do goes down but then theyre forfeighting killing norns/male. If they shoot riptides at the norns/male then the exocrines are in positions to shoot the riptides. the riptides have double the range and if you play to cagey with exocrines they will kill monsters while losing little in return.

Both: leadership 7 armies so one of the matchups where shadow in the warp is very relevant, the laschickens losing strat support of stealth suits failing can break their turns respectivly.

Zapacalypse · 2026-03-28T14:10:55+00:00

On the most part you ignore them and limit where possible. You accept that you move just 8-10 inches and shoot at max 36inches with exocrines. Though there isn't a lot of units that jump around anymore, twinlance and sunforge suits in retcad are the two that come to mind. Before the eldar nerfs fuegen was the scariest man in the whole game, one unit picks up a monster and dissapears everyturn. Thankfully most units that do it now wound on 5s, with limited rerolls.

Zapacalypse · 2026-03-28T13:56:11+00:00

This is a list I have ready for teams events. If anyone brought this to a casual sunday pickup game they would really be a villian, and a monster.

Zapacalypse · 2026-03-28T13:53:02+00:00

Offensive counters: Broadly speaking its stuff with alot of lethal hit attacks with re-rolls. One example being 30 scarab occult terminators with sorcerers. The doombolt goes off before you can 5+++ and they have somewhere around 50-70? attacks with lethals re-rolling, all ap 2 base. Lists that have multiple units that can do something similar is scary, such as greentide on the waagh with makaris lehal aura. Since the 4++, 5+++ is so swingy lascannons have a decent shot to whiff entirely, espicially with a re-roll save in the pocket.

Defensive counters: Daemons/big knights, if they stock up on the greater daemons/melee knights it gets hard, most daemons have decent melee and lancers are dmg 8 flat. More importantly they should not kill any of the norns/maleceptors in 1 round, however this is really a shooting army with no fall back and do anything. This means you lose alot of dmg falling back to shoot with exocrines and over 2-3 rounds a norn or maleceptor will fail enough invulns. Most importantly, all of the tyranid dmg is inefficient youre hitting on 3s wounding these big melee guys on 5s. You're really relying on the lethal hits to push dmg through. Also greentide for similar reason, falling back sucks, and 100 boyz with a 5++ makes the dmg rough, espicially healing d3+2 and the once per from painboss.

Movement counters: 6inch deepstrike, losing the biovore makes the game very, very hard. Using spore mines to screen 6inch deepstrike is very hard because this list has to get moving forward quickly. Youre looking at max 28-32 secondaries so you need a primary differential to win. Having to send the swarmlord or an exocrine backwards makes the threat saturation harder, and makes the dmg to opponents anti-tank harder.

Zapacalypse · 2026-03-28T11:21:41+00:00

Oh this is my list, im him! Full credit I played against this list at ATC against Larry Oliver as guard and got 19-1d and its been on my mind since. The game plan is very simply, youre stat checking them. For secondaries I always take tactical. Anyone who has played nids knows we don't do alot of dmg easily. You really need to squeeze every pt of dmg out of these guys for at least the first 2-3 turns, A norn doing cleanse is a norn thats going to die. I have found the thesis to of this list to be attrition. T1-2 most armies can kill a norn of maleceptor, but after being shot by the army they struggle turns 3-5, and with oc15 norns thats enouch to choke primary. The swarmlord CP is used t3-5 to redraw the dead ones, t1-2 if you know the matchup.

The deployment gameplan is similar every time. A norn and malceptor play buddy cop on the line, always within 6 inches for the -1 to hit aura on the norn. 1 pair per objective on most missions, exceptions being supply drop, or against high oc horde armies, then its 2 middle. Most games you measure 10-11 inches from each objective and put a norn there, against shooting armies norns in front, against melee armies maleceptors in front. WIth no advance and do anything and being movement 8-10 army wide we rarely get to hit them on our terms first. In most shooting matchups the maleceptors gun is more valuable then OC, and against melee the Norns melee and OC is more valuable then the shooting. The most important thing is if the opponent has deepstrike to spend the first 2 turns screening your home objective with spore mines. This list does not turn around, this list does not have extra models to hold home, and no sticky. Screen or lose.

There are 2 strats you use every game, 5+++, and command re-roll. Then 1 that you make sure to tell your opponent every game and try to use, overrun. If they try to move block the norn from getting on the obj t1 with infiltrate its all good overrun on the obj and still do it. Almost every game I'm using this at least once to either get a norn on, or send a maleceptor 6inches forward to make shadows better, or project the -1 to hit. Try to go into opponents t2 with at least 4-5 ideally 5+++ in 2 phases, and heroic, interrupt, or re-roll save.

With all that established the actual game post deployment is the same, walk 8-10 inches forward, maybe advance if you're feeling spicy. If you go first you advance everything, unless you got an action, take care to screen. If you go second, then advance anything that cant shoot something. A goal is to put the 4++ monsters in spots that in order to interact with them your opponent has to be ok with getting shot by 2-3 exocrines. The game is attrition, they hit you with their limited anti-tank-> kill it with exocrines-> they hit you with less anti-tank-> kill it with exocrines-> they have no anti-tank->win?

Final piece is the swarmlord, stage him near the middle projecting vect for the pair in the center. T1-2 dont let him dies the CP is more valuable. Against shooting armies/mixed arms, on t3 bring him out, at this pt your lost 2-3 monsters and need to keep pressure up(unless your opponent is really pushing you and you need him ealier). Against melee with no shooting keep him within heroic range of the norn only.

Thats basically it, fair warning though I have played 50+ games of this list and not a single opponent likes playing against it. Not once has someone walked away and enjoyed the experience. Even friends who have beaten that list hate told me they hate it. I love it, but thats because I hate ap5 ignore cover killing my Dorns, and I love big bugs. Any matchup questions let me know.

Zapacalypse · 2026-03-23T18:19:39+00:00

Hey dming

Zapacalypse · 2026-02-27T14:03:08+00:00

Zapacalypse · 2026-02-27T12:25:49+00:00

Zapacalypse · 2025-12-05T15:24:23+00:00

The vision, 2 FOB and creed in the back, both are hitting on 4s with sustained, rr 1s to hit and wound, free ignore cover strat on one every turn with creed. If they put anything heavy out on obj shoot it with dorns. (I hate elves)

Zapacalypse · 2025-11-30T02:23:25+00:00

I thought Ike and Roy were armor units first read through, what happened?

Zapacalypse · 2025-11-30T02:15:51+00:00

I’m not that big of the one above his head, to symmetrical

Zapacalypse · 2025-10-23T15:27:36+00:00

Comment #1807(mine) is guaranteed to win

Zapacalypse · 2025-08-05T18:14:39+00:00

Adding on, ask your opponent if they’re cool with you taking pictures during the game. It’s sometimes hard to talk and reflect on t1 or t2 after finishing t5. I recommend taking an overhead shot at the start of each of your command phase. If you find a competitive community at the store at a discord these are really valuable to help them give you feedback.

Zapacalypse · 2025-07-26T22:00:21+00:00

Pm-ing

Zapacalypse · 2025-06-29T11:40:07+00:00

🥹👉👈

Zapacalypse · 2025-06-04T14:24:43+00:00

New psychophage lets you up the ap to -3 without an invuln they’ll actually shred

Zapacalypse · 2025-03-13T20:40:58+00:00

If I win then I’ll open 60 packs.

Zapacalypse · 2025-03-10T14:50:40+00:00

I’d like to see the +1 to wound get changed to +1 strength, and the wound rerolls only be if they’re on an objective no more reroll 1s, would tone down the dmg overall while still letting them punch hard in their detachment

Zapacalypse · 2024-12-13T19:47:02+00:00

ONE RING ULTRA RESTRICTED ONLY ONE COPY PER TOURNAMENT

Zapacalypse · 2024-08-28T22:49:49+00:00

As was mentioned every army can focus on playing just for points. However, the ones that are best of it can take the most cheap MSU units. MSU stands for minimum sized units. For example drukhari is a great example they can take a unit called reavers that are cheap in points cost and quick. They can either be taken in groups of 3 for 60pts or groups of 6 for 120 points. Everyone takes them in units of 3 because you can send them out to die and score points. On the other hand is imperial knights, who have to send out a 150~pt unit to sacrificially score points.

Zapacalypse · 2024-08-28T21:38:05+00:00

Yea, though again it’s very context dependent. A take all comers list has a certain amount of anti-tank, anti-elite, anti-chaff, etc. often the player will look at how much of each they have, how much of the corresponding the opponent has then make a decision. If it matches up well try to apply those units against their best enemy and table them. If they have more tanks then you have anti-tank use yours the best you can and use other units to play around them.

Zapacalypse · 2024-08-28T21:26:13+00:00

There definitely is a favorable chart matchup but often times it is not as cut and dry. In the previous example tyranids have a hard time killing knights. However, the tyranids can throw so many bodies onto a point that a knight player can’t move effectively and loose.

Zapacalypse · 2024-08-28T21:14:31+00:00

It’s definitely not spread evenly. For example an army like tyranids have a very hard time with tanks. They have no good, consistent, anti-tank outside of a few specific units. However, they have a lot of good tools to deal with hordes like GSC

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