New member, new to game, starting new army

[hellosugaree]

Hey all,

I am new to the game and decided to start Tyranid army. This is my first foray into tabletop war games. To start my army, I scored a decent deal from someone on a current codex, a battleforce box, 19 gargoyles, hive tyrant, licthor, venomthorpe, and zoanthorpe. The gaunts were already assembled and partially painted. The gargoyles and zoanthorpe, lichtor, are assembled and unpainted. Everything else in the battleforce is unassembled. I really wish the hive tyrant was unassembled because I prefer the look of the swarmlord, but maybe I can get it apart since I have all the pieces from the box. In any case, my question is: of the remaining stuff in the battleforce box, what should I consider when assembling them? I know all the choices including what type of head you put on the genestealer affect that unit's play. I started building them with scything talons, but what else should I consider? For a new player, it's hard to get a grasp on what all the pieces are for. I don't want to assemble everything to later realize that I could have put some awesome weapon on something but I didn't because I had no clue what it was for. I should point out that I got a box full of sprues some complete, some with stuff cut and assembled, etc, so it is a bit overwhelming for me to figure out what options I have and what choices I have to make. I can definitely figure out how to put together each type of unit, but I may inadvertently miss a weapon or biomorph choice or something that I may later want. I'm open to any advice or suggestions.

Thanks!

-Tim

[carnogaunt]

I would say to just ignore the biomorphs. A lot of them aren't even available anymore in the codex. Put on whatever you think looks good, and bring a copy of your army list to show your opponent so there's no confusion. This leaves you with just the weapons to worry about.

The Termagants should probably stick with Fleshborers (the weapons that come with their frame) for now. For the Genestealers it doesn't make too big a difference whether they have Scything Talons or not. The Hormagaunts, Gargoyles, Lictor, Venomthrope, and Zoanthrope don't have options for changing their weapons, so no worries there. If you plan to build the Hive Tyrant as a Swarmlord, it won't have any options either.

So that leaves you with the Warriors. The most important thing to remember is that the brood can only have one of the big guns on the "monstrous arms" accessory sprue. Their best basic weapon for shooting is the Deathspitter (which comes on the Warrior sprue). Warriors usually have a mixed shooting/close combat role, but you can equip them purely for close combat if you wish. The Lash Whip + Bonesword is the most powerful close combat weapon available, because it ignores armor saves and helps the Warriors assault into cover.

[hellosugaree]

Thanks for helping to put my mind at ease.

[Deathnid]

yes, definately deathspitters, i usualy dont bother with Blast weapons, though if i did the BS is the best choice. if you are willing to fork out cash buy some boneswords, if not flip your scything tallons, then invert the blades to face outward.
genestealers usualy have regular hands at the back and rending claws but you can swap the regular hands for scything tallons if you wish. in this edition (soon to change, lol) genestealer heads dont mean anything unless you are running ymgarl, in that case use the feeder tendrils, but apart from that, basicaly just build what looks good.

[fnorrll]

i googled images of all the various weapons when i started out (ie look for images of "warriors with deathspitters" "termagants with fleshborers") to learn which weapon is which. There are some pics in the codex too. It is a bit confusing at first.

[pipsickness]

I did the same a fnorrll. Google images is a good way to not only work out what all the different weapons actually represent but also a good way of working out what looks cool. Personally I go for an almost exclusively CC (close combat) army with minimal guns and tend to only bring a barbed strangler if I'm up against oks or gaurdsmen otherwise it's spikey stabby death ahoy for me!

[NikosWorkshop]

How do you upload images? please help me.

[Lanesend]

Hi Niko, (I presume)
Welcome to the Hive.
Please don't hi-jack threads from others. I'll send you a message how to do this.

hellosugaree,
Also welcome!

Be careful when you take apart that Tyrant. If it was put together with plastic glue, you'll probably do the model a lot of damage.
For the other questions, I second the recommendations made by the previous posters.

BTW. I don't know what you paid for that army-deal, but it looks like a good start for a 'Nid force.