I am so lost! Please help!

[Halollet]

I HABE NO IDEA WHAT IM DOING WITH MY NIDS AND I NEED HELP!

Sorry for being dramatic, but I do need some advice or guidance as I keep making lists and I'm not happy with any of them.

I've been playing Nids since 3rd edition and they're by far my favorite army. Miss the days of leaping warriors! I missed 5th edition because life happened and they were so lack luster in 7th I rarely pulled them out. So I think I'm really out of practice. I don't have a lot of the new models either. No crones/Harpies, tyranocytes, or even gargoyles, hive guard. It's really lacking in some interesting things, but I'm short on cash so I have to work with what I currently have.

I've made lists trying out different things, but none of them stuck with me. They all lacked something. Tried a Brigade formations with all stealers but that's a terrible idea as I would go second most of the time and probably get wiped out. I tried just tossing a list together of just the things that seems to be good so far (stealers, exocrine, hormagaunts, etc) but just turned into an incoherent mess.

I have two lists I want to try out but now I'm hesitant as I feel like I'm missing something.
First is a nidzilla list in two spearhead detachments; flyrant, OOE, Malanthrope, 5 carinfexes, exocrine, 2 trygons, 2 T-fex. Would look terrifying and I would need to find an OOE, but might be good? I guess?
Next is a warrior heavy list because I always wanted to do one! Malanthrope, broodlord, prime, two units of 12 dev-gaunts for the trygons, 18 warriors, 9 Shrikes, 2 trygons, t-fex.
Picked a T-fex over an exocrine because the synapse is moving up but I guess I could leave 3 warriors behind, I dunno.

Here's a list of my collection, if anyone has any thoughts on my other lists or something I could do with the models I have, please let me know! I'm really lost.

HQs
Flyrants x2
Swarmlord
Malanthrope x1
Tyrant Guard x2 (This isn't even legal anymore.)

Troops
Warriors x24
Genestealer x95
Broodlord x4
Termie with Flesh x33
Termie with Dev x21
Termie with Spine x25
Hormagaunts x107
Ripper Swarms x11 (I can make more if I can get bases)

Elite
Zoanthropes x6
Neurothrope x1
Venomthrope x3
Lictors x4

Fast Attack
Shrikes x6 (I can throw more warriors in here)
Raveners x8

Heavy Support
Trygon/Mawloc x2
Carnifex x2
Melee only carnifexes x3 (screamer killer conversions)
Biovore x3 (could also be pyrovores as they're conversions)
Tervigon/Tyrannofex x3
Exocrine/Haruspex x1

[gigasnail]

Have you actually played 8th yet? I threw a bunch of random (please do not swear) in a list and it's 3 for 3. Proxy some warriors for hive guard, put some stealer units down, and go to town. The swarmlord will slingshot the stealers a stupid distance forward.

[Halollet]

I have played 8th. One game against another person but I've had a few solo hammer games as I work out what to do with all my armies.
It's worked for my guard, I'm getting happier about my grey knights, Tau is a head scratcher, it's my Nids that I'm feeling rather clueless about.

I could proxy, kind of a tease as I have no idea when I would be able to get the actual models though.

Trying to build a foundation of a list might be a good place to start. Sling shotting stealers seems to be the name of the game, so Swarmlord, Broodlord, and a Malanthrope with 20 stealers to start. I'm looking at what I have to take out super heavies and it's not much. Trygons? More stealers? Or even taking out any tanks or dreadnaught for that matter...

[gigasnail]

i've been using two units of 13-15 stealers along with two trygons, a broodlord, a flyrant (rending claws + deathspitters), and the swarmlord as the base for my list. it's worked real well but my opponents have been noobs so far. i dont' have a tuned up list yet.

[Halollet]

So, something like this? Though I'm scared that we went from Codex TL Devourers to Codex Stealer Sling.... I do like all the Psychic powers though!

1999 pts, Battalion
Broodlord - Catalyst
Flyrant - Claws, Deathspitters, Onsalught, Horror
Swarmlord - Catalyst, Horror

20x Stealers - ST
15x Stealers - ST
Termagants - 10x Devourer, 10x Fleshborer
Termagants - 10x Devourer, 10x Fleshborer

3x Tyrant Guard - BW+LW

2x Carnifexes - 2x ST, AD, Bio, Scythe
Trygon - Toxinspike
Trygon - Toxinspike


I tried out a Nidzilla list. Rupture Cannon was terrible though Fleshborer Hive created a zone of fear. Throwing 48 dice at str 5 is scary. One good roll would devastate something. Took out more wounds off a Devilfish then the Rupture, Things were too slow, no idea how to get OOE there in one piece. Give him a personal Malanthrope? More hormagaunts?

How, okay is swarmy without guard?

[nidzy]

I think this is a strong start and it is something I would play several games with against different opponents. One of the best things I can say about how I write lists and play test lists is that I always try to play it against several opponents with only minor changes. I often used to discard a list based on a bad game and then realized I just didn't play it right or that the list I played against was a super bad match up or I got unlucky.

Anyway, I think this is a solid starting point and something to build from.

A couple of notes: I have only had success with swarmy without guard when taking him in a tcyte.

Are you planning to put both stealer squads with trygons? I think devilgants are an option to consider for sure but stealers have worked for me as well.

[gigasnail]

if no guard, then SL needs the pod. there's no way i can see around it.

[Halollet]

Okay, so while that list was okay, it doesn't feel like mine. But it gave me something to work off of. So here's my version. Termagants go with the trygon, stealers can go with the other one, but I can play that by ear. Mini death ball in the middle with the characters and tyrant guard.

Battalion +3 cp

Swarmlord
Broodlord
Malanthrope

Genestealer x16
Ripper swarm x5
Termagants x20 - devourer x12, fleshborer x8

Tyrant guard x3 - lash whip and sword

Trygon - adrenal glands, toxinspike
Trygon - adrenal glands, toxinspike

Outrider +1 cp

Tryanid Prime - AG, bs, ds, fh, ts

Shrikes x5
2 with 2x talons, 3 with B's and devourer, adrenal glands
Shrikes x5
2 with 2x talons, 3 with B's and devourer, adrenal glands
Shrikes x5
2 with 2x talons, 3 with B's and devourer, adrenal glands

I'm just wondering if I should swap out one Shrikes for 6 raveners, thoughts?

[Halollet]

Okay, so I got to test this list out and made some changes.
I swapped out the termagants for another stealer unit to go with the trygon. I like keeping them off the table for alpha strikes. Also helps with the bad touch tactic.
Dropped the prime, he's too slow for Shrikes, I really wished he could take wings.
So now I have 534 points to spend on Shrikes. That's about 16-18 of them but I'm not sure the best way to equip and organize them. I need at least 3 units for the detachment but other than that, I'm open to suggestions! Should I do MSU? 2 smaller one large? 2 big CC units and then one small one for objectives?

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

[kazetanade]

I'm a believer in "everything equal". Not because i believe spamming is good (although it is), but because you do not want to create a situation where 1 target becomes immensely more important/higher priority , unless you have contingents for it getting shot off tube board. This is hard to balance vs "specialization", where a squad is reaaaally good at doing 1 thing, but essentially what you'll need to do for your shrikes not just amongst themselves, but against the rest of your army as well.

[jaigo]

With your models I would play something like:

HQs

Swarmlord
Malanthrope x1
Broodlord

Troops

Genestealer 20
Genestealer 20



Fast Attack
Shrikes x6 (I can throw more warriors in here)
Raveners x8

Heavy Support
Mawloc x2
Melee only carnifexes x2
Biovore x3

Exocrine


For points, play with unit sizes. If needed you can lose broodlord if you have swarmlord along.
Malantrophe with exo and biovores in the back.
Mawlocs as 1st turn pressure.
Walk the stealers en CC fexes forward and your opponent has a problem.

Raveners and shrikes are fillers. Fun but I'd drop them myself... I would just add more stealers....

[Halollet]

Sat back and thought about my list and my last game had a Storm Ravens flying around and there wasn't anything I could do about it. So I think an Exocine is needed. Tweaking my list again and I think I got it, I'm sad about not taking lots of Shrikes, but as I get used to Nids in 8th I'll try new things! Something to look forward to!

Battalion +3 cp

Swarmlord
Broodlord
Malanthrope

Genestealer x16
Genestealer x16
Ripper swarm x5

Tyrant guard x3 - lash whip and sword

Shrikes x6
3 with 2x talons, 3 with B's and devourer, adrenal glands

Raveners x5
2 with talons, 3 with claws

Exocrine
Trygon - adrenal glands, toxinspike
Trygon - adrenal glands, toxinspike

6 units held in reserve and I deploy 6. I can get all 6 in 3" of the malanthrope for turn one. Is that too much in reserve? Or is that a good thing as I can surround my opponent really easily, especially if they get first turn.

[Jabberwocky]

Split 1 of the HQs and the 3 heavies into a spearhead detachment for a free CP and it looks good!