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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

List Building: NOVA Madness

NOVA Registration opened last Saturday, and with it comes thoughts of what I will play and what I will bring.


One event that really caught my eye last year was the Trios team tournament in which you make a team of three and play three games. Two of the games will be 2on2 games, with each player fielding a 1,000 point force allied with their teammate. The third game is a one on one 2k game. The 2k game in particular is a bit more wide open, allowing Stronghold and Escalation, as well as double force org.

So, in addition to coming up with a 1k an 2k list to compliment my partners' armies (Ron and Todd from SinCain40k), I also need to come up with an 1,850 list for the GT. And they're not necessarily going to be from the same codex.

Right now I've been diving head first into the Tyranid book, and throwing lots of ideas around for that. I think the core of my list is really settling in and going to need some play-testing before I make many changes. And while that's my big focus right now, in the back of my mind, there's still my goal of having at least 1,850 painted for another army. The top contender for that is Eldar, though Tau could still present themselves, and who knows, maybe the new Orks will be sooner than later and really exciting.

One thing I like about the Trios is for the 1k list itself, I can use my store's monthly 1k Tournaments as a proving ground to some degree. So for the list builds, I'll start there. For my Tyranids, this is a tough point level. Whereas with the 5th edition book, I felt Tyranids were very strong at low points, now I feel like I don't quite have enough points to keep my list stable.

My core for a bigger list is the rule of 2, with 2 MCs from every slot but Elites. Obviously that will not fit in a 1k list, and I'm looking at having to cut that list in half. As a result, I end up with the following:

Flyrant: 2 TL Devourers, Electroshock Grubs
Tervigon
30 Termagants
Hive Crone
3 Biovores
Exocrine

The idea here is pretty straightforward, with my main prerogative being to keep the Tervigon alive. To that end, I could see dropping a biovore to give her Regen. Dropping them all together would give me room for a Zoanthrope and Venomthrope, with the former helping me stabilize my force, and the latter adding survivability, but at the cost of the Biovores' ability to decimate enemy troops. I could drop a single Biovore and the Grubs on the flyrant and pop a Zoey in that way as well.

I plan on taking something similar to this weekend's tournament, so will have some reaction next week. But moving on, as I mentioned, the core is the Rule of 2. So at 1,850, the list becomes more of what I want:

Flyrant: 2 TL Devourers
Flyrant: TL Devourers, Lash Whip & Bonesword, Electroshock Grubs
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Tervigon
Tervigon
Termagants
Termagants
Crone
Crone
Exocrine
Exocrine

The second flyrant is something I want to try out, with a few variations, but will probably end up as a standard flyrant, though he might keep the grubs. I would love to get some Biovores in here, but really don't have the points with the Exocrines and Crones. If I swapped to HVC Harpies and Mawlocs, I would free up 90 points, which would get me two of them.

Finally, there's taking on the challenge of 2k and Double Force Org. While it could free me up to do something crazy like having 6-8 FMCs, really there's not a whole lot of points getting freed up from the 1850 list. Honestly, I'm tempted to add Deathleaper and call it a day. Deathleaper adds a lot, allowing me to nerf Ethereal bubbles and Fortune farseers, but suffers from competing for a force org slot normally. With Double force org at 2k, I think he's worth a look. He could also be added by dropping a flyrant, freeing up space for maybe a third Crone and some Biovores.

I definitely want to get a bunch of games in to test out my theories before I settle on anything, but regardless, I don't think my painting list would be too ambitious, particularly compared to last year. Next time, I'll take a look at some of the other armies I could take instead, including an Eldar list I wouldn't have to buy anything for.

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