Starting Nidzilla

[gkp]

So, I was listening to the podcast "The Heroic 28's." One of thier guys runs an almost all deep striking, MC/FMC list. Something about this appealed to me, and due to my other Army, (Templar) being heavily nerfed, I decided to look into a MC/FMC list of my own. The hallmarks of the list that inspired me include: lots of Deep Striking MC's, Flyers, and lots of big models. I hope that you Tyranid players can give me a hand, and maybe give a brand new Nid player some guidance.

[rick]

Can you give an example of the list? I would be quite than kful

[gkp]

I can't give you a complete list, as I haven't really thought about it, bought the codex, or anything. I know that the list that inspired this had flying Hive Tyrants, Either Hive or Tyrant Guard, and I know for sure it had a Trygon Prime. I'm not sure, as I don't have a transcript, but I believe it had Zoanthropes as well.

[carnogaunt]

Is this the army you are talking about?
theheroic28s.blogspot.com/2012/09/tyranids-vs-dark-eldar-battle-report.html

The army list looks something like this (some guessing involved):

1850pts

Swarmlord & 2 Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whips (410)
Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, 2x TL Devourers (260)

2 Hive Guard (100)
2 Hive Guard (100)

10 Termagants (50)
10 Termagants (50)
Tervigon w/ Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst (200)
Tervigon w/ Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst (200)

Trygon Prime (240)
Trygon Prime (240)

It actually only has 3 units which can Deep Strike. You could easily have a lot more. What kind of guidance are you looking for exactly?

[gkp]

I play a Black Templar Black Tide, so I'm looking for a MC/FMC type list, not the small bugs. I know very little about Tyranid stuff, so I'm wondering what current Tyranid Monstrous Creature builds look like. I am buying the Codex this weekend, but I wonder what HQ would be a good choice, as I want to buy a MC to paint. I am under the impression that the Tervigon is one of the better choices, but I would be interested to see what other HQ choices look like.

[dakkathrope]

The only HQ that are MC are the Tyrant/swarmlord and the tervigon

[biorivera]

Tyranid MC builds(and many army lists) tend to focus around our hive tyrant(or swarmlord).

The swarmlord has an interesting build you can run if you want to make him a "deathstar" and load him up on biomancy powers, a guard or two(probably with lash whips for survivability) and probably add a tyranid prime(warrior HQ unit, not an MC but useful for "Look out sarge!"). Can make for a very bulky(and points heavy) CC oriented fear unit(which does of course pack a punch).

You won't be able to run an all MC list. Period. I'm not sure if that's what you explicitly wanted but I don't imagine this would be a deal breaker.

You can run a single MC(tervigon- normally only an HQ option) for every squad of gaunts you have. So essentially for every squad of non-MC troop you take, you can take an MC troop.

-Heavy support is pretty much all MC's.

-Fast attack has a FMC as an option that most people don't feel is worth the points(harpy).

- Elites have no MC options. You could potentially use this slot for some AA power with zoans....but flyers are so hard to hit not using our devourers as a shooting weapon(available to some heavy support and some HQ). If you're doing a deepstrike list though, all our elites have some way of entering the board via deepstrike or some other similar rule.

There are variations of MC build(for example, you could very well do dual flying FMC HQ's that are actually our best AA weapon from what I can gather).

Models you can probably safely invest in: Hive tyrant/swarmlord box. At least one squad of gaunts(since if you plan on running tervigons as a troop MC you'll need at least 10 gaunts per tervigon troop choice), tervigons, and I'd probably take a long hard look at the codex before you committed to a carnifex, trygon, or tyrannofex(the heavy supports) because they all get used fairly differently.

[gkp]

Hmmm. I really like the sound of dual FMC's. my local meta is flyer heavy, and BT aren't exactly equipped to deal with that. That is a Flying Hive Tyrant, correct? Can they take Psychic Powers? I think Zoanthropes, and Hive Tyrants(assuming they are Psykers) would be a neat core to build around.

[biorivera]

Hive tyrants can take psychic powers, but fewer than the swarmlord. The tyranid FAQ on the GW site is also important because it lists the psyker levels and whatnot.

Edit: also genestealers have two versions the elite choice "ymargl stealers", and the vanilla troop ones.

The elite stealers see a lot of table action. Troop genestealers, not as much. I mention this cause if you invested in a box of stealers, you do have options with them.

[carnogaunt]

Its kind of inevitable that you're going to have some small bugs in your list because of the Troops requirement. But if you don't want big hordes, you have some options:

1) Use Tervigons, which are Monstrous Creatures that spawn Termagants (a little over 20 average per game IIRC). You can take one as Troops for every brood of Termagants you have as Troops. So you'll need just as many small bugs, but they don't all have to be on the table at once.

2) Use Warriors. Warriors aren't especially favored by Tyranid players because they are vulnerable to Instant Death. However, they are about as durable as Terminators against basic infantry weapons.

3) Use Genestealers. They aren't as scary as they used to be, but they're still more powerful and durable (on a per-model basis) than Termagants and Hormagaunts, so you won't need as many small models. You can also take a Broodlord with them. The Broodlord has some psychic powers available, but he has more utility for destroying vehicles.

4) Any of the above (except the Tervigon) can buy a Mycetic Spore, which lets them Deep Strike (like a Drop Pod).


There are two Flying Monstrous Creatures in the army, the Hive Tyrant with Wings (which will be your HQ choice), and the Harpy (which is a Fast Attack choice and doesn't have an official model yet).

For regular Monstrous Creatures, the Trygon and Mawloc can Deep Strike (the Trygon is a better choice). A brood of 1 Carnifex can also deploy from a Mycetic Spore. All of these are Heavy Support choices.

[gkp]

Well, I'm going to my LGS this weekend. I'll invest in the 'dex, and possibly the big pile of 'gaunt sprues they had in the "used" bin. I'll hash out a color scheme, and build some fluff. Once I get all that finished(I have little hobby time) I'll buy, build, and paint a Trygon.

[rpricew]

Here is a Double FOC Deepstriking FMC/MC list

HQ:
Hive Tyrant (Wings, 2 sets TL Devourers, Hive Commander) - 285 Warlord
Hive Tyrant (Wings, 2 Sets TL Devourers) - 260

Troop:
Tervigon (TS/AG/ST/2 Powers) - 205
Tervigon (TS/AG/2 Powers) - 200
10 Termagants - 50
10 Termagants - 50

Heavy:
Carnifex (2 Sets TL Devourers, Mycetic Spore) - 230
Carnifex (2 Sets TL Devourers, Mycetic Spore) - 230
Trygon - 200
Trygon - 200

2000 points

Start with the Two Tervigons and two sets of Termagants on the board. Everything else comes in on a 2+ usually on Turn 2 due to Hive Commander.

Have fun!

$33.00 Codex
$57.75 * 4 = $231.00 USD (2 Trygons & 2 Tervigons)
$53.75 * 4 = $215.00 USD (2 Carnifex & 2 Hive Tyrants)
$29.00 * 6 = $174.00 USD (6 Broods of Termagants)
$5.00 *2 = $10.00 (2 Styrofoam 6" eggs from Arts & Crafts store)

$663.00 retail for your army! Plus painting

[biorivera]

you can probably use a single carnifex box to build 2 fexes if you're creative/efficient about it. I made a fex that has 4 scything talons for legs(sorta like a spider), then used the legs and some carapace plates that come with the box to build another(since they also give you a bunch of heads).