# Hive guard: shockcannons vs impaler cannons



## Shadowz-Demon (Jun 5, 2012)

So I've been thinking about getting some more hive guard in order to have more anti tank in my army and I am wondering if shockcannons may be worth it. I currently always bring a unit of 3 with impaler cannons and they normally do pretty well against enemy tanks but I'm wondering if anyone uses shockcannons and if so how well they can handle enemy armour, I imagine having anti tank and reasonable anti infantry is nice but is the reduce ranged worth it compared to the impaler cannons also is losing ignores cover and homing a problem?


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

The nerf from BS4 to BS3 with the most recent dex made most Nid players I know stop fielding Hive Guard, honestly, so I don't know which would see more success: I haven't really seen them, this edition.


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

With the so many cover saves floating around and the boost given to Jink, i really really suggest to go for any ignore cover you can. You should have other antitank than the hiveguards, imo.


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## Shadowz-Demon (Jun 5, 2012)

Mossy Toes said:


> The nerf from BS4 to BS3 with the most recent dex made most Nid players I know stop fielding Hive Guard, honestly, so I don't know which would see more success: I haven't really seen them, this edition.


Yeah BS 3 isn't ideal but still tyranids need ranged anti tank and hive guard can fill out the role reasonably well even at BS 3


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## Shadowz-Demon (Jun 5, 2012)

neferhet said:


> With the so many cover saves floating around and the boost given to Jink, i really really suggest to go for any ignore cover you can. You should have other antitank than the hiveguards, imo.


Yeah ignores cover is great on impaler cannons especially with all skimmers having the option to get 4+ cover. The other anti tank nids can take aren't as good as hive guard I believe, devourers are great on carnifexes and hive tyrants (I always take a winged tyrant with 2 devourers for anti air) but any armour value of 12 or more I think devourers will struggle with/do nothing and the only other option tyranids really have for ranged anti tank is warp lance which is also nice for dealing with russes and other armour 13/14 but with the new psychic system it's a lot less reliable to get off, realistically you have to throw 5 dice at it to get a reasonable chance of getting it off and even then a bad roll can mess it up and even after that you could fail to do any damage. That's why I think hive guard are a good choice, filling out the role of resonably realiable anti tank in a nid army is pretty important now obviously they aren't my only plans for dealing with enemy armour but they fill to role better than anything else in the army I think


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Of course they are good at antitank. What i meant is that they have more immediate targets (skimmers, those pesky nurgle daemon princes...). Also, about warp lance..why 5 dices? is it Warp Charge 1 or am i wrong? it is a reliable antitank, i daresay!

EDIT: also, do you find that ranged antitank is more reliable than cc antitank with tiranyds? I've never had probles VS the bugs in ranged confrontations, while i struggled to stale them in cc.
What do you normally use, out of curiosity?


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## Shadowz-Demon (Jun 5, 2012)

neferhet said:


> Also, about warp lance..why 5 dices? is it Warp Charge 1 or am i wrong? it is a reliable antitank, i daresay!


No unfortunately warp blast is warp charge 2 so at least 5 or so dice are required to get it off


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## Shadowz-Demon (Jun 5, 2012)

neferhet said:


> EDIT: also, do you find that ranged antitank is more reliable than cc antitank with tiranyds? I've never had probles VS the bugs in ranged confrontations, while i struggled to stale them in cc.
> What do you normally use, out of curiosity?


For close combat anti tank I'd recommend carnifexes with adrenal glands, with a 6" move a turn +run and fleet then a fleet charge they can usually get to enemy tanks fairly quickly and then when they get into combat they can inflict D3 strength 9 hits per model before getting 4/5 attacks at strength 10. But as long as you're not going up against walkers or land raiders then really any monstorous creature (tyrants, trygons,etc) should be able to deal with enemy vehicles without too much trouble as most other vehicles are 10/11 rear armour which should be enough with 5/6 strength 6 attacks


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Shadowz-Demon said:


> No unfortunately warp blast is warp charge 2 so at least 5 or so dice are required to get it off


Jeez that suck, also becuase 5 dice means lots of chances to peril!!

About antitank stuff, yes, totally, a mob of carnifex is just what it takes!


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