New Player with questions

[ironcobra52]

Hey! I'm a new warhammer 40k player, and I have no idea what to get.
I found this set on 'games workshop'. But I'm not sure if it would be good to start.
I'm pretty low on money so I'm open to suggestions.
it has:

3 tyranid warriors,

8 genestealers,

16 hormagaunts,

16 termagaunts,

& 3 ripper swarms.

reply!

[swarm492]

Its a start, you will need much more with nids, personaly I would start with the codex.

[ziyousansz]

Welcome to the Hive, and welcome to 40k!

The battleforce is probably your best bet starting out, though you can often get it cheaper on Ebay or Amazon. You'll want access to the codex and the core rules, obviously, but the battleforce will fill out troops for a starter army a bit cheaper than buying piecemeal will. You can turn a warrior into a prime, since you'll need an HQ unit to run games with. Note, though, that the other two warriors won't count as a legal brood - they'll either need another warrior, or you can convert them into other units if you're adventurous. I turned mine into a broodlord and a hive guard. If you convert, or if you buy a spare warrior from Ebay, you should be able to start up 500 pt games with the battleforce. Heck, you might be able to do it without depending on how many biomorphs you give the units.

At that point, look at what you're wanting to play, and then work towards that goal. Like running a swarm? Pick up another battleforce. Want to run huge monsters? Save up for some of the bigger models. Prefer melee over shooting? Shooting over melee? Once you have a better idea of what you're doing and what your opponents are doing, it becomes easier to build up a force.

If you ever need advice or ideas for conversions, look up the Converting / Terrain thread. I'm often broke m'self, so I tend to do a lot of conversion work just to get the most out of my cash. Warriors go a long, long way for that.

Likewise, the Painting thread is full of advice on selecting a color scheme and painting models.

Right now's a good time to jump into the game - 6th Edition just launched, so we're all sorting it out together. You have a benefit in that you don't need to 'forget' an old ruleset. So read up, ask questions, and let us know if we can do anything to help you get into the game we all love.

[wisdomseyes1]

Welcome to the Hive.

Normal sggestions for how to start are

The Rulebook, The Codex: Tyranids, the battleforce (as you have seen it seems) and One Box of Warriors.

You will Model one of the warriors in a way that is different than the rest of them to make it your HQ, A Tyranid Prime(I am currently using a D&D piece as a Tyranid Prime because it looks bad ass, but that is just me)

So, you would have a 500 Point army that is roughly

Tyranid Prime
- Dual Bonesword (or LW/BS which I prefer for the most part)
= 90/95

4 Tyranid Warrior
- Dual BS
= 120

15 Termagant
- devourers
= 150

15 Hormagaunt
- Toxin Sacs
- Adrenal Glands
= 150

== 500

Not the most powerful list, but it allows you to begin to learn how ou army works. Corherency is key. Our army has to work as a whole to function and unlike other amies iit does not forgive mistakes nearly as much because we dont have armor.

Our armies strengths:

-The highest access to high toughness models anywhere outside other Monstrous creatures and daemons of Nurgle (and other monstrous creatures are very rare outside of our codex)
- The cheapest infantry units in the game. The only other army that can compete with our units prices is orks.
- High Volumes of attacks. Space marines (the most common army) can usually only shoot 1 shot each unless they are close, in which case its 2 shots. and they can only really get 2 attacks outside special characters on the charge. This, is coupled with the fact that that there are 3 of our units to every 1 of theirs. Most guns in our codex fire more than once if not a blast.

Drawbacks:
- We dont have very good armor. We have a very low armor save, which means we dont usually get our armors protection due to the power of the opponents weapons. It is usually dealt with by adding cover and buffs from other units
- We, outside of Monstrous creatures and boneswords in close combat, will almost never penetrate the armor save of the most common armies. But thats okay, for the most part, because their armor isnt always going to protect them. the number of attacks we have is, a way, to ignore armor (if you are rolling 18 dice and expect all of them to not be a 1, your mistaken)
- Low leadership: If a unit isnt synapse, it is likely a mindless drone. In which case it isnt going to be very reliable. Thankfully the power of the hive mind is augmented thrugh synapse creatures, making the leadership f our models negligible

Synapse used to be a con, but now it seems with half of our units it became a good thing (so long as you remember to keep them in synapse for the most part to maintain fearless)

Thats all I have for now, take from it what you will.

[coredump]

If you are short on cash, and have access to the rulebook via a friend or shop... I would try getting by without it for a few months. Around September a mini-book will become available on eBay for about $10-20.

You will want to get the codex.

Also, ebay can be your friend. Since you can use almost anything, it means those 'bulk' auctions will give you stuff you can use. Watch for a bit to get a feel for how much things are going for.

It may mean you get stuff already painted, well or poorly... but it will help with the money aspect. Then you can buy 'new' stuff to fill in the gaps.

[wisdomseyes1]

Right, one thing I forgot.

Magnets are your friends. You will ignore me, and you will regret it. I know, I did and I do :/

[TheContortionist]

Get your codex and rule book. The battleforce is a great buy. Make sure to put all fleshborers on your termagants. Save your warriors. you will need them to make hive guard. you need an hQ with that box set to play a game. Get a flying Hive tyrant. would be a great start.

1 Winged Hive tyrant with 2 sets of devourers (get them from the battleforce and convert!)
16 Termagaunts with Fleshborers
16 Hormagaunts
8 Genestealers (i recommend no Talons)
3 Hive Guard (converted From the Warriors)

If i had to start again This would be best. good luck.

[ironcobra52]

do having wings limit the melee attacks of the enemy?

[coredump]

Wings (mostly) let you move faster. There are some other effects, but nothing to limit enemy attacks

[ironcobra52]

oh. well, thanks you guys. I mean, for all the directions and such.

[bredkooler]

I'm in about the same boat, my wife doesn't like to see me spending money on "toys". Get the codex, forget the brb. When I have a rules question I phone up the lgs where I do my shopping Magnets are good. I got in a hurry to assemble my battleforce and now I have 2 warriors w/ hvy weapons codex would've prevented this mishap, magnets would've made it a non-issue. I bought a 2nd box of warriors and call the strangler armed war a prime :T But, I can play 750pt games with what I have so its a start. I want to buy a tervigon, but that requires me to buy a bunch more gaunts so I doubt that will be my next purchase, but a hive tyrant might be fun... I'm just as unsure where to go next as you are

[Bot]

Jul 24, 2012 12:31:03 GMT bredkooler said:

I got in a hurry to assemble my battleforce and now I have 2 warriors w/ hvy weapons codex would've prevented this mishap, magnets would've made it a non-issue.

Brings back memories... yeah... I did the same back when I started tyranids... Ah well...

But yeah, go Magnets. I've only magnetized one of my fexes... But I regret I didn't mag' the rest of my army... Although, with the size of my army, that had been quite a lot of work... xD

Btw, you should might consider getting yourself some Hive guards (after you've gotten yourself a tyranid Prime of course). At some point, you will see enemy tanks coming right at you. Hive guards are pretty good at dealing with that problem.

[edit]

oh, and before I forget...

Welcome to the Hive, ironcobra52 and bredkooler.

[bredkooler]

Hey thanks bot! I'm actually very pleased with the community attitude display here at the hive, the usual forum trolling, whining and complaining is noticeably absent can't say if its just good moderating or a more mature user base but whichever it is, I like it. Hive guard are totally on the list of "must-haves" but for the moment I'm more in need of a real hq unit. Plus, with my budget being limited to $30/week I'm looking at a 3 week wait to obtain them so they're probably going to have to wait just a bit. I do mostly play against CSM's and 'crons tho so a little extra firepower cannot be a bad thing. I gotta say tho, the flyrant is hands down my favorite 'nid sculpt so he's probably going to end up being my next major investment. Yeah he's not the best choice, but I just can't resist. One question tho, flyrant isn't modeled with a lash whip and bonesword, do the wings replace them or is it just kind of assumed he still has them in like his pockets or something?

[Lanesend]

Hi Bredcooler,
(Just wait for a few days, we are Tyranid. We can whine like no other )

About the Flyrant, the wings do not swap for the LW/BS or ScyTals. I've already seen people model those on the wingtips or legs of the flyrant, but it is a matter of taste.
You can assume he still has all the weapons you bought for him AND the wings.

[nurglitch]

The legs on the Winged Hive Tyrant model are Scything Talons. That's why I used Ravener bodies for my Shrikes, so that their Scything Talons would be apparent, in addition to their Boneswords and Lashwhips.

But yeah, it's generally presumed that a model has all of its basic wargear, and that you're only required to model on upgrades for the sake of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).