New to 40k and Tyranids - Starting out with a Swarm box

[zen]

Hey guys.

I'm new to 40k and therefore, new to Tyranids. I know quite a few people are downhearted by the new codex but I want to test myself and I've never been afraid to throw myself in at the deep end, so to speak.

I went out today and picked up the Codex, a Tyranid Swarm box, and an additional box of Gargoyles. I also own the 40k rulebook.

That leaves me, model wise, with the following.

40 Termagants
40 Hormagaunts
20 Gargoyles
4 Ripper Bases
and 1 Carnifex.

I know it's very early on in the lifespan of the new codex, but I'm basically asking for some help tailored to a complete noob.

Is there any obvious way of assembling my small Tyranids that'll leave me in good stead for my first few games? What kinds of guns seem best on the Termagants? And which upgrades seem viable on the Hormagaunts and Gargoyles?

At the moment I'm completely at a loss on the Termagants. The Devourers seem the standout choice but almost double the cost of the model itself. I'm gonna split the 40 into two broods of 20 so advice tailored for unit sizes around that to start would be best.

As for the Hormagaunts, I like the idea of the Adrenal Glands on them, but the Poison Sacs in addition to the Glands would make them pretty expensive from my beginners point of view for T3 troops. Are both upgrades worth it? And if not, which do you see as most important?

I'm not entirely sold on either upgrade for the Gargoyles, but obviously who am I to say!

As for the Carnifex, I intend to magnetize him in the long run, but are there any early front runners regarding builds for him? I prefer the idea of getting them into combat rather than shooting, but I don't mind changing that preference if necessary.


Last question; what would you recommend as my next purchases after I've got this mountain of plastic assembled and painted? Synapse is the obvious issue, so I was thinking of a Hive Tyrant. I don't however see a lot of positivity towards a walking Tyrant, and I get the feeling that a Flying Tyrant would either get dragged out of position due to my inexperience, or would get shot to pieces as the most obvious target early on.


Any additional beginners advice, whether Tyranid related or just general 40k advice, would be greatly appreciated too guys.

Thanks,
Zen

[tylertt]

Welcome to the Hive! Don't worry so much about all this doom and gloom, keep a positive attitude and enjoy your army! Sure things are rough, but it is what it is, so no point in misusing your energy.

So to start! You have got a good base for starting a Tyranid force. Here is what I would recommend next to really get you off the ground.

- You will need a HQ. I HIGHLY recommend getting a Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord kit and building yourself a Flying Hive Tyrant. They are durable and our best HQ option at this time.

Termagaunts
- Splitting the weapons 20/20 is a good idea as it lets you play around with what options you have so you can then figure out what works for you. Naked Gaunts are good too as they let you invest more points elsewhere into your swarm.

Hormagaunts
- Have not got to try these guys out yet in the 6th ed dex, but based off what is on the paper, I would run these guys naked as well. Flooding the board with more wounds will do you better in the end. Again this one will come down to preference.

Gargoyles
- I use them naked as well as their primary role is as a screen for the rest of the army.

Carnifex
- Magnetizing him is the absolute best option. This will allow you to customize the Fex to your own style and findout what build you enjoy the most. Right off the bat the TL Dev builds are the strongest as of now.

Next Purchases:
- Read the codex over and findout what your swarm needs. We can definitely help you make an informed decision, but play the Tyranids the way you like best.


Best of luck and if there is any other questions just let us know!

[seethe]

I agree with vanilla hormies and gargs, i do not believe the points in upgrading them are well spent as they will likely just get shot up before an effective assault.

for your termagaunts, i would make about 1/3 of them with devourers. This is what most of us call a devilgaunt. with the old codex you could not mix biomorphs, but with this codex you can have say 13 vanilla termies and 7 devilgaunts or more depending on what you have points for. the vanilla termies provide some ablative wounds and soak up fire to give your devilgaunts a better chance to fire their sweet gun on the badguys.

I agree with the HQ choice tylertt said as well. flying hive tyrants are just one of our best options currently with twin linked devourers. they have huge damage projection, and if are not taken care of quickly will wreck our opponents. you need to play with on and get used to keeping him alive and using him effectively...unless of course you want to use a different choice

something that might work with a big ole swarm army, buy yourself a warrior box, and just use two of the warriors for tyranid primes, tucked into some gaunt swarms.

[raziel69r]

Jan 13, 2014 18:16:19 GMT tylertt said:

Welcome to the Hive! Don't worry so much about all this doom and gloom, keep a positive attitude and enjoy your army! Sure things are rough, but it is what it is, so no point in misusing your energy.

So to start! You have got a good base for starting a Tyranid force. Here is what I would recommend next to really get you off the ground.

- You will need a HQ. I HIGHLY recommend getting a Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord kit and building yourself a Flying Hive Tyrant. They are durable and our best HQ option at this time.

Termagaunts
- Splitting the weapons 20/20 is a good idea as it lets you play around with what options you have so you can then figure out what works for you. Naked Gaunts are good too as they let you invest more points elsewhere into your swarm.

Hormagaunts
- Have not got to try these guys out yet in the 6th ed dex, but based off what is on the paper, I would run these guys naked as well. Flooding the board with more wounds will do you better in the end. Again this one will come down to preference.

Gargoyles
- I use them naked as well as their primary role is as a screen for the rest of the army.

Carnifex
- Magnetizing him is the absolute best option. This will allow you to customize the Fex to your own style and findout what build you enjoy the most. Right off the bat the TL Dev builds are the strongest as of now.

Next Purchases:
- Read the codex over and findout what your swarm needs. We can definitely help you make an informed decision, but play the Tyranids the way you like best.


Best of luck and if there is any other questions just let us know!

Everything tylertt says it right on the money! Although I would also purchase some LOS blocking scenery in that list as well! Tau gunlines hurt like a bugger :-p

[coredump]

I think I am just agreeing:

Vanilla HGaunts
10-20 devilgaunts, rest fleshborer. (I think spinefists are okay now too)
Gargs: probably vanilla... have not run the numbers again.
Fex:magnets, otherwise TLDevs (which I don't think you get in that box. You will need to buy gaunt Devs and make some, check out the conversion board)


Also, people tend to not care much about Nid biomorphs, the guns being accurate is really all you need to worry about.

[lictor534]

Welcome to 40k/tyranids and possibly the hobby? Nice to have you here

you've got a great start and what others have said is pretty much on the money.

hobby aspect i'd like to point out also possibly magnetizing the gargoyle flying bases as the models are light, and its so much easier to transport them when you can remove them from the bases.

I personally have not modeled a single model with AG or TS, just because i guess I don't have a reason, but don't sweat the small details if you like them put them on, if you don't, then leave them off. I don't go to tournaments much but i can't recall hearing people complaining that models don't actually have the TS or AG on them (though understand they would be completely in their right to complain as most tournaments are what you see is what you get - poor sportsmanship!)

Skip the walking tyrant at the moment, flying is the best build, swarmlord is nice i guess..but used to be better last week =p

I would pick up a box of warriors for synapse nodes, flying HT box, and at least one venomthrope. Then you can round stuff off like buying another 2 carni's, an exocrine/crone or maybe another HT. I would probably avoid buying a tervigon/tyranofex box anytime soon. I'd imagine these will probably 2nd hand pretty decently when people start unloading their 5+.

Also, knowing if you have a regular opponent (and what they play/what they play with) would be helpful for tailored suggestions

[thorgut]

I also ordered a Swarmbox that should by making its way here next week, along with a set of Warriors and as a new player this topic is very much of interest to me.
Thanks zen!

Jan 13, 2014 20:55:06 GMT coredump said:

Fex:magnets, otherwise  TLDevs (which I don't think you get in that box. You will need to buy gaunt Devs and make some, check out the conversion board)

Pardon my ignorance, but what are TLDevs?

Also, are shooting Carnifexes viable looking at the current codex. I've played about with magnetising models before and I'm not entirely sure it's worth the hassle.

[infornography]

TLDevs are Twin Linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms. They are pretty much the best monstrous creature gun aside from the ones only a single MC can take like the acid spray.

Most people put together an unused Stranglethorn Cannon or Heavy Venom Cannon and a couple of termagant devourers to make one.

Carnifexes with two pair of twin linked devourers are quite competitive right now.

[zen]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys!

I'll definitely look into getting a hive tyrant kit. What else is a good source of synapse for a beginner?

As for the Gaunts, I'll split them into 20 devourers, and 20 with fleshborers.

Can anyone suggest a good close combat carnifex build? I was thinking of swapping a pair of talons for some crushing claws, and giving it adrenal glands. I really love the image of these guys crashing into melee so would love some suggestions on melee builds!

Thanks again guys, its all greatly appreciated!

[tylertt]

Zoanthropes and Warriors are some of our other choices for synapse. I would go for the Zoanthropes over the Warriors however as you currently have a strong troop base.

I typically run two zoans minimum in a unit.

[infornography]

We have synapse in every slot.
HQ has Swarmy, Prime, Tervigons, and Tyrants.
Troops has Tervigons and Warriors.
Fast Attack has Shrikes.
Heavy Support has Trygon Primes.
and Elite has Zoanthropes.

Of those units Tyrants, Warriors, and Zoanthropes are our best picks. Tervigons in a pinch. Only Tyrants are a real power unit this codex.

I would say on average you need at least one synapse unit for every 500 points round down. That estimate may be revised toward more synapse as this codex is tested out, but that I think is a decent starting point recommendation. Try to have redundant synapse in both the front line and the backfield. That is challenging at low point values though.

[nidcron]

I took a bunch of hormagaunts and threw the devourer on them to make my devilgants. Standard termagants are your meat shield so I recommend having a lot of them. You could do 30 standard gants, 30 hormagaunts and 20 devilgaunts with what you have if you don't mind your devilgaunts being 1/2 and 1/2 different looking.

I would go out and grab a Hive Tyrant and some Zoanthropes just to get yourself some Synapse, a warrior box wouldn't be bad if you proxied one as a Tyranid Prime just to get some more synapse, but overall Warriors are unimpressive IMO. If you like the idea of more Monstrous Creatures then you could get a Trygon Prime.

[slug]

Regarding synapse, Warriors are troops and can therefore take and hold an objective as well as synapse. Tervigon's can be troops if you start with a unit of 30 termagants on the board, and holding an objective with a MC is always a good option. They can also spawn more termagants which is a source of free troops/points a your army builds. Zoanthropes are synapse as well and are one of our best options against vehicles with the Warp Blast. They also have a 3+ invul save which is something sorely lacking in our army. Tervigons and zoanthropes will also advance up the board providing synapse in the assault phases, and will benefit from the cover of the troops in front of them. As advised above, the Flying Hive Tyrant with TL Dev is undoubtedly the best HQ option we have, but it'll be off doing other things up the board and can't be relied upon to provide synapse.

Slightly off-topic, but another option for holding an objective is Genestealers. They don't provide synapse, but don't need to test for it either. A unit of 5 is only 70 points which is cheaper than the troop choice Tervigon and Warrior options mentioned above.

Confused? It ultimately depends on your playing style and you don't have one yet. My suggestion would be to play a few games with friends and ask them to ignore synapse for the first game or two while you work out the mechanics of the game The next step would be to use proxies for the units mentioned above to see what works best for you. Most people will allow those sorts of thing for a newbie.

A for your upgrades, take them all vanilla. Gargoyles are a great anti-infantry unit. Deep Striking behind that annoying enemy unit and getting 20 shots off will disrupt their plans nearly every time. Next turn they can move 12 inches and have Hammer of Wrath attacks on the charge, which amounts to three attacks each.

[nidcron]

For carnifex magnets, I got a bunch of magnets for relatively cheap and I have both of my carnifex magnetized as well as my Hive Tyrant (magnetized wings on it too before there was a kit that came with wings).

www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=ZD1

These fit perfectly into the sockets of the MC's and are pretty easy to attach to MC arms too.

Edit - quick FYI on the magnets, that is for a pack of 100 - should be more than enough to magnet up a few MC's

[shrike]

Tylertt nailed it.

I think your Gargoyles will be good. Time will tell but Hit and Run plus Blinding Venom can wreak a lot of havoc.

You definitely need an HQ. Either a Hive Tyrant or a Warrior kit for flyrant and prime respectively.