Quick answers, I am sure Dave will fill in soon.

1) A synapse formation can only swarm creatures that originally belonged to it, but is able to exceed the starting number. So, for a formation to swarm back gargoyles, you have to upgrade it with at least one gargoyle from the start. The same goes for termagants and hormagaunts. Many players field their basic swarms with 5 termagants and 1 hormagaunt, just to have a tactical decision as the battle progresses.

2) You can purchase an extra warrior to get swarming bonus. Then you swarm 2 inside 30 cm (always round up). Two swarms with extra warrior and the Dominatrix give you a very strong swarming phase. I also play assault style, and rarely have any gaunts in reserve after swarming.

3) You count the WE total.

As for gargoyles, their movement makes them much more useful than termagants, and if they were available as an instead of gargoyles, I would do as Dave and pick them every time.

/Fredmans

These playtest proposals have done away with the restriction of only being able to swarm units that were originally in the formation. Probably to do away with needing to take a single stand of each type with your Dominatrix for example - didn't really match the intent of the rule.

I've found taking the extra Tyranid Warrior to be very useful in bumping your swarming allowance up to 2 when you're up close with the enemy - almost to the point of it being an auto include. Particularly if you're using pairs of formations, one of which contains a Hive Tyrant so you can carry out combined assaults using the Commander ability - that's potentially an extra 4 bodies in a subsequent engagement which can make a big difference...

Cool beans, erase #1 then. Still, the effect of swarming on brood creatures purchased as part of independent formations should probably be clarified (gargoyles and raveners).

And I do agree with you. The extra swarming is probably the best one of all the synapse swarm upgrades.

/Fredmans

How do people find fielding formations of Inf and only a few AV?

My initial concern is that unless I pimp out a swarm with 1 or 2 carnies then my tyrant just becomes a bullet magnet and essentially grants 'sniper' to all AT shots.

Cheers
Jim

Agreed. On bare-bones swarms, I go with Warriors instead of Tyrants, to let them hide in the swarm.

Yeah, definitely. I wouldn't take a hive tyrant unless there are a couple of other AV units for it to hide behind.

Indeed other AV are needed for extra body count. They're still easier to take out (the opponent usually only needs 3 or 4 AT hits) than two seperate inf units so I also usually take an extra warrior unit in the formation to not loose synapse (and for the added bonus of an uneven amount of spawning points with rounding up).

Okay gents Thanks.
I'm a bit concerned about putting too much into one swarm and may just run them as inf heavy with separate av swarms to avoid the formation being essentially a light vehicle.
Cheers.
Jim

Swarms from 300 to 350 is generally what I field. Mixed types.

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Dave

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Squats 2018-05-15 | Raven Guard 2018-04-23

Can you please post one of your lists Dave?
I'm struggling to know what is going to be an effective combo. I Need to get some playtesting done.
Cheers
Jim

In mixed swarms, I try to fit half as many AVs as INFs, in order to let the INFs get cover to-hit modifiers in the open (by cuddling up to the big bugs).

In regular engagement swarms, I waffle between Carnifexes (for Fearless) and Haruspexes (for a couple of decent short-range shooting attacks), and usually winds up taking a mix; Eg:

TYRANID SWARM (S) [300]
4 Termagants, 2 Hormagants, Hive Tyrant, Carnifex, Haruspex

or

TYRANID SWARM (S) [400]
4 Termagants, Hive Tyrant, 2 Hormagants, Tyranid Warriors, 2 Carnifex, Haruspex


A minimal INF swarm is also nice as a blitz guard; It can then sit in cover and swarm.

Okay great. Thanks StM!
That looks like a fairly balanced unit. With a good amount of spawning and some Mw attacks and some RA.
Haha I love the visual of the gaunts cuddling up the the AVs - but I guess that would be what it would look like... if aliens were real and all...
Cheers,
Jim

These are some of my typical swarms:



Maybe with a Zoanthrope added here or there. The Tyrant would do good enough in most of them. The Malefactor one could even drop a Malefactor as the transport wouldn't be needed.

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Dave

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Thanks Dave.

Sorry just to confirm - spawning allows you to exceed your starting unit strength or not?

I think ive read it both ways.
Cheers
Jim

Yes you can go beyond starting strength

cheers