# My Swarmlord is the Slowlord ---All-Reserves strategy flaw---



## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

I went to a tournament yesterday to test out some new tactics and try some new things. My list was the same list from the one titled 2500 point Tournament List ~All-Reserves~

There were three rounds. In round 1, I was against Grey knights. I put everything in reserve except for the Swarmlord. It was Dawn of War deployment, so the swarmlord was less than 12" from a Rhino. This is still turn 1 when I assault his tank. My turn was first. I get in assault with the Vehicle and destroy it. In his turn I just die on bottom of round 1. 

This means that I lost my benefits of Alien Cunning, which is mostly why he is there in the first place. He is also there to grant Furious Charge to my Gargoyles. 


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After realising that starting the Swarmlord on the table was a bad idea, I decided to put him in reserves as well, coming from my table edge. Deployment was Speadhead.

This was a bad idea. All he did was slowly make his way up the table. My enemy was Chaos marines. I had everything show up except for my Ymgarls. It was an absolute mess. Half the board was covered with models. His Daemon Prince had an Icon, but there was so many tyranids that he had no room to deepstrike... LOL.

sorry if this is turning into a Battle Report. I just need to show you the atmosphere.

All the swarmlord did was get in combat with a rhino holding some chosen marines. These Chosen marines were in such a position because the Rhino went cruising speed over to gun down my Hive Tyrant with some kind of special weapons. 

400 points well spent... -.-


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Game three, I was against Grey kni.. uhh I mean.. _The Inquisition_, and I reserved the Swarmlord again. Deployment was Pitched Battle. This game was pretty epic. My outflanking genestealers showed up behind a Thunderhawk/Stormraven/whatever Gunship, the Swarmlord actually showed up to grant the genestealers Preferred enemy and actually... wrecked... the Gunship. 

He got pissed whenever I called his army Grey knights. He said it was Inquisition. I did not know what to think of that, but I call it inquisition now because I'm a nice guy. 

He had a ton of Armor. His other gunship was gangbanged by my Hive tyrant and trygon. Most of the other transports fell to the Genestealers. My devourergaunts showed up behind a Dreadnought and glanced its gun off and immobilized it, so it just had a CC arm left. He also had a Dreadknight, which died to my Doom of Malan' tai. I declared "It's After me" (from the deathleaper) on the dreadknight, so it was Ld8. It was a pretty amazing game. Lots of unbelievable stuff happened. I lost anyways though. Not that I cared.

All my Swarmlord did was Grant Preferred enemy to the Genestealers and give me Alien Cunning.


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So my question (finally) is that how can I make this model work effectively in this kind of list? If I start him on the table, he dies. If I reserve him, he is left behind to be out of range of the Gargoyles.

what should I do?

Keep in mind that when he started on the table, it was only Dawn of War. He had a shitload of other fancy stuff to tear me apart with. Psyrifle dreads, psyker missile launchers (OMG I hate those things now btw, killed my tervigon), and of course, lascannons. Ithink he just got me with psycannons and then charged me. He had some kind of stupid grenades that made me initiative 1.

Possibility: I could deepstrike the Gargoyles near the Swarmlord, but the whole point of the gargoyles is just to show up and make a mess on the table with their wings and chaotic appearance of "OMG they're swarming us from all corners" sort of thing. Just there for shock factor and to get in the way. They also are decent TEQ killers, strangely enough.

Random point on the devourergaunts in a Mycetis Spore: They are awesome. In Game 1, they did not do anything memorable, but on Game 2, they killed a daemon prince with mass firepower, and (like I said earlier) crippled a Dreadnought to pieces.

I recommend this strategy everytime. Especially if you are using an All-reserves list. It is extra juicy when you have onslaught, so you can deepstrike the Termagaunts, _spread them out_, and then shoot the hell out of anything you want.

Pointless note: I love going against Dreadknights! They are so easy to kill! can anyone say "Toxin Sac genestealers"? hah!


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## Lord Azune (Nov 12, 2011)

Personally, I like putting a venomthrope behind him and his 2-3 guards. Gives them the cover save incase I need it against AP 2/1.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

nobody is really shooting at him though, so that would just be pointless.

The enemy is busy with 2100 points of tyranids in their face


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## ohiocat110 (Sep 15, 2010)

It's tough to reserve the Swarmlord for the very reason you state. Walking him on from your edge takes a very long time to get into the action. Starting on the board is almost a necessity. If you're committed to an all reserve list, a Flyrant with Hive Commander might be a batter choice.

It seems counter-intuitive, but you almost want to use Swarmlord as a support unit. Make sure you're using Tyrant Guard and preferably another nearby unit like gants or a Trygon/Tryannofex/Carnifex. The other unit can give him a cover save, and benefit itself from the Swarmlord's synapse and buff powers. 

Basically, make it dangerous to ignore the Swarmlord and the units he's near. That's Tyranid Synergy, which many good tactica articles have been written about in the Tyranid section.


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## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

yeah, I almost always use the Swarmlord as Support. He is just is too slow to be an independent killing machine, so he just strolls around and grants buffs to the army. 

I also do not need a cover save for the most of it. If I were to use another Monstrous Creature to protect my Swarmlord, then the shield would just get targeted and die. That is not what I want my trygon doing. 

I thought about this: What if I have the 2 tyrant guard behind cover? I would get a cover save regardless of where the Swarmlord is, because 66% of the squad is in cover. you think it would work?


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