A Closer Look at the Bugs
In last week's update, I brought up 3 important problems with the list as it was... Slow-moving: Nothing in this list moves faster than 6+1d6 inches per turn or assaults more than 6". This means it doesn't react very quickly. Taking multiple objectives in vastly different areas of the board isn't a reasonable goal. Unfortunately, there aren't very many options for quick movers in a Godzilla army. It is possible to use Outflanking Genestealers to take outlying objectives, but I have to be very careful to either support them with my main wedge, or to make certain that the opponent will not be able to attack them. In addition, I can march my wedge forward, pushing the enemy away from central objectives and allowing my following Genestealers to take them while you keep your Wall between them and the opposing forces. I also have to try to keep the opponent focused on my central wedge and not on taking out those outlying objectives.

Scoring Units: It used to be that any unit could claim an objective, but now only Troops can claim, which is not what this list was designed to do. Because of that design difference, it doesn't have enough Scoring Units and they are not very robust. While I tried to solve this by using a brood of Gaunts Without Number, it didn't work very well. It is too reliant on Synapse and it screws me up in Killpoint missions. The only Scoring Unit left that has no reliance on Synapse would be more Genestealers. I'll need more units of them and larger numbers in the units as well.

KillPoints: With the demise of Victory Points and the rise of Killpoints, the structure of the list is working somewhat against it's original purpose. It has a bunch of small-point units that don't give much return each in terms of Victory Points, but that means that it has a bunch of Kill Points. The easiest fix for this would be to get rid of the Zoanthropes. That would let me drop 3 Kill Points right away. Sadly, that would mean the end of my Psychic Scream choir, as a -2 penalty to Leadership is just not enough to make a reliable difference. The next way to fix this would be to make at least some of my units tougher. One example would be to give my Gunfexen 2+ saves or an extra Wound, or both.

184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6 Sv2+ Psychic Scream VC/TL-Devs
174 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6 Sv2+ VC/TL-Devs

113 Devilfex 1:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 3:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer

120 6x Genestealer Brood 1 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
120 6x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
64 8x Spinegaunt Brood Without Number

195 3x Zoanthrope (Warp Blast/Psychic Scream)
148 Gunfex 1: Carnifex Bs3 VC/BS
148 Gunfex 2: Carnifex Bs3 VC/BS

1500pts

So, what now? I want to take the list to 1850 and 2000pts (2 planned lists, since a planned list will be more effective than simply adding or subtracting 150pts.) The first thing I want to do is get rid of the Zoanthropes to reduce my Killpoint issues. With the Zoanthropes gone, I can only take 1 or 2 Screams. As mentioned above, a few Screams aren't worthwhile, so I'll be dropping the Psychic Screams from the Tyrants as well. I can't change the number of MCs (Well, I could add one more heavy Carnifex, but I haven't got the model for it and I haven't got the time or money at the moment to rectify that. Thus, I'm stuck with what I've got.) In short, I want more Genestealers and I want to make my MCs more effective.

I decided to look through each of my options to try to make them the most effective. My typical response to this sort of consideration is to crunch a bunch of numbers. I like numbers because they can help me determine what to do even without a lot of experience with the issue in question. It occurred to me, however, that I have enough experience with the issues in question that I can make my decisions mostly without numbers.

Hive Tyrants
The first question is what to do with the Tyrants? They are currently each armed with a Venom Cannon and Twinlinked Devourers. The Twinlinked Devourers are excellent infantry mowers and the Venom Cannon is pretty good at keeping vehicles from shooting and doing light damage at very long range. These two weapons are not, on their surface, a good match. Generally, targets that the Devourer works well against are not suitable targets for the Venom Cannon and vice versa.

The other options, however, aren't very good. 2 sets of Twinlinked Devourers would make the Tyrant a great infantry mower, but would make it useless against other targets. There are few places in this list where I can get Venom Cannons. If Venom Cannons are worth having, I would be stupid to leave them off the Tyrants. On the other Talon, a Twinlinked Venom Cannon makes the Tyrants very expensive and doesn't give much back for the cost. It also makes the Tyrant nearly useless against a variety of targets. (One great target that I found in my last game was Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons teams. These consist of 3 multiwound bases. These will typically be far back in the enemy formation. The long range and high strength of the Venom Cannon make it well-suited to this kind of high-value target. Twinlinked Devourers have too short a range to effectively engage these targets before they've done their damage.) Thus, the VC/TL-Devourer is probably the best option for me and in this army.

Wings were the next consideration. Having a fast-moving, dangerous unit that can contest objectives is pretty handy. Wings are highly useful for getting into close range or for being behind terrain and moving out to shoot. The thing is, after the first turn, I'm generally in range for shooting anyway. In addition, very little terrain will completely block LOS anymore. Frankly, Wings are too expensive for me to use in this particular army.

Elite Carnifi
The next consideration is the Elite Carnifi. There's only one real question here. Boomfex or Devilfex. Basically, should they be equipped with Barbed Strangler/Scything Talon or should they have 2 sets of TL-Devourers? Basically, the TL-Devourers do more reliable damage, but the Barbed Strangler has a higher capacity for damage. In addition, the Barbed Strangler is better against numerous, lightly-armored targets and the TL-Devourer is better against smaller numbers of heavy infantry. At the moment, I don't have spare Barbed Stranglers for my Elite Carnifi, and the TL-Devourers are serving me well. If I start running into a lot of Imperial Guard or Orkz, I might have to look into switching, though.

Genestealers
Next up, the Genestealers. I need more Scoring Units that don't require synapse, and only Genestealers fit that bill. I've been very pleased with the addition of Scuttlers to my Genestealers, so the first question is should I spend the points on giving all of them Scuttlers, or just some of them? On those occasions that I need my Genestealers to Outflank, they'll be better off supported as much as possible. (For example, in my game against Imperial Guard, if I'd had a few more broods of Genestealers that showed up behind his army, they would have made short work of that army.) That being the case, I think I'll have to pony up the points to give them all Scuttlers. The next question is whether I should have broods of similar sizes or some small and some large. I think I'll lean toward larger squads, with a smaller one using up any leftover points.

Heavy Carnifi
This one will require some number-crunching. It used to be the consensus of the Tyranid community that most of the defensive upgrades for Carnifi weren't truly worth it, except for the extra Wound. Now that Lascannons and Plasma Guns are less common, a 2+ Save might be more useful. I'll use the IG weapons layout for comparison. For their effective anti-MC firepower, they had 6 Lascannon and about 3 Missile Launchers, 3 Autocannon and a squad of Ratling Snipers. Basically, about 25% of their firepower is AP3 and about 40% was AP2. That means 60% of their firepower would have it's effectiveness cut in half by using Extended Carapace on the Heavy Carnifi. While this would still leave the Elite Carnifi in danger, it would cut down damage significantly. In addition, I could then focus my damage efforts on the AP2 weapons, further reducing their effect. 25pts each is not a lot to pay for that, so I think that this is a worthwhile expense. Hmm, apparently I didn't need to do as much number crunching as I thought.

Okay, so what will my list look like now? Here's the rewritten 1500pt list, just in case someone wants to play at that point value...

1500pts
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6, Warp Field VC/TL-Devs
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6, Warp Field VC/TL-Devs

113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 3:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer

200 10x Genestealer Brood 1 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
200 10x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
160 8x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers

173 Gunfex 1: Carnifex Bs3 2+Sv, VC/BS
173 Gunfex 2: Carnifex Bs3 2+Sv, VC/BS

1500pts
Okay, I dropped a Devilfex in favor of a major Genestealer upgrade and the Warp Fields/Carapaces on the other Monstrous Creatures.
I think that's a pretty serious upgrade in ability for this list.

1850pts
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6, Warp Field VC/TL-Devs
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6, Warp Field VC/TL-Devs

113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 3:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer

200 10x Genestealer Brood 1 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
200 10x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
200 10x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
180 9x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers

173 Gunfex 1: Carnifex Bs3 2+Sv, VC/BS
173 Gunfex 2: Carnifex Bs3 2+Sv, VC/BS

1833pts
Okay, here's my shot at a list at 1850pts. 4 Solid objective takers.

2000pts
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6, Warp Field VC/TL-Devs
184 Hive Tyrant BS4 S6, Warp Field VC/TL-Devs

113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 2:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer
113 Devilfex 3:Carnifex BS3 2xTL-Devourer

200 10x Genestealer Brood 1 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
200 10x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
200 10x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
180 9x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers
160 8x Genestealer Brood 2 Feeder Tendrils, Scuttlers

173 Gunfex 1: Carnifex Bs3 2+Sv, VC/BS
173 Gunfex 2: Carnifex Bs3 2+Sv, VC/BS

1993pts
5 Objective takers at 2000pts, I think that's going to do pretty well.

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