Hormagaunts, Drop Pod, and Tac Marines! Oh My!

Well as I don't have a bunch to show this week I thought that I may share some of my Hormagaunts with you. I will show what little progress I have made this week on the Celestial Lions later in the post.

Well the Tyranids were my first army for 40k  when I started 10+ years ago. Unfortunately they are quite a bit out of date as I did not touch them at all during 4th edition and only really got the 5th ed codex and have not gotten any of the new units at this point. One of my favorite Tyranid units of all has always been the lowly Hormagaunt. In this edition they have really come into their own. With proper upgrades the Hormagaunt can destroy most vehicles, kill Monstrous Creatures, and wipe out groups of infantry in 1 turn of combat.

At this point my favorite unit load out for the Hormagaunts with my old 3rd ed list style is the Super-Gaunt with Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands. The reason this load out work well in my build is because I have very few units that can deal with tanks, and fewer that can take care of MCs like Wraithlord that are common in my area. I have read allot of forums about how useless Adrenal Glands because most people believe that Gaunt should never be assaulting vehicles. I feel that in a more of a "Horde" style list that everything needs to be able to damage vehicles as you don't want to be left out in the open with your opponents Marines, Orks or Dark Eldar staying in their vehicles and using fire ports or open topped rules to destroy you while staying safe in their boxs.

I have had several games where the Hormagaunts have paid for them selves several times over. Recently a couple of these scenarios have been game changers. In one game I was able to have my 1 unit of SuperGaunts outflank (thanks to Hive Commander) and by the end of the game vs Space Marines they were able to destroy 2 Rhinos, each with 10 man tac squads and a Whirlwind tank. In my latest 1,000 point game vs Eldar half of my gaunts were destroyed by flamers from a Wraithlord in 1 turn. But due to taking my casualties from the front I was able to deny my opponent the charge. In the following turn I was able to charge 2 Wraithlords, killing 1 on the charge and killing the 2nd in my opponents turn leaving me able to charge a unit of guardians in my next turn and wiping them out on the charge. In the last turn of the game I had the SuperGaunts back track and charge the Avatar, killing him as well.

I find it interesting that an opponent my spend 2-3 turns shooting a some Hiveguard while leaving the Hormagaunts to do far more damage then the HG could dream up. In the end I think you need to give some respect to the lowly Hormagaunt.

Celestial Lions Update:
I finally received my Battleforce from 'Ard Boys. I spent a day or 2 cutting out all the pieces off the sprue and organizing them in smaller bins. I was disappointed in the amount of ranged and melee special weapons. It looks like I am going to have to put my Instant Mold and Green Stuff skills to use. Anyway I was able to build 5 tac marines, I was also able to pick up some Mud Wash and Ultramarines Blue to put some finishing touches on the Drop Pod and Contemptor Dread. I have also started cleaning up the 2nd Contemptor Dread so that I can get it build so that I no longer have to use a Chaos Dread to stand in for it during games.

Pics!