new to tyrannids, need advice on this 500pt army!

[desam90]

hi all,
i decided that i will pick up nids as my first warhammer army
anyways, i got the codex and putted together a 500pt list

but i would like some advice/hints/tips before i buy
and if possible a check if its a legal list,
thanks lots!

so heres the list:

- tervigon with catalyst and toxin sacs, and swap stinger for cluster spines

- 2x 10 termagants to accompany the tervigon and fill my support choices, maybe take objectives too?

- 1x mawloc

- 1x biovore



i think the mawloc will be hard to deal with at 500pt
i swap out stinger salvo for cluster spines to get as many blast templates as possible wich might be strong at 500pt too

i dont know tho!

[kirchoff]

Ok, for a 500 point list I would generally stay away form having more than one monstrous creature since it kinda consumes all your points and you don't have enough bodies on the board to contest objectives. But that is just me. (on the other hand, you will have less to paint).
The important thing though is to have fun, but more often I see myself placing units in my army that are more competitive rather than units that I feel I think are cool and would have fun with. Genestealers is one example. I love genestealers but in this current edition they are not as viable as to what they use to be.

But for now, the best bang for you buck would be to buy a tyranid battleforce that contains 3 warriors, 16 hormagants, 16 termagaunts, 8 genestealers and 3 ripper swarms. I think that two battleforces would just about equal what you have listed above. you can convert one of the warriors into a prime and myabe 2 others into hive guard. I done some conversions myself and I have to say, it is the most fun I have had when assembling Tyranids. Later down the road you can add a tervigon since you would have enough termagants to spawn with it.

The biovore is always fun to have. 45 points for a large blast barrage, people hate being hit by those things especially by something that cheap lol. I reccomend having atleast one just for the hell of it.
I would rather have stinger salvo since it is 4 solid hits rather than something that can scatter on your own troops.
If you decide to have a mawloc, consider going for a trygon rather than a mawloc. I never used one but I heard that the trygon is way better.
In a 500 point game, genestealers are a good choice (if you buy the battleforce). They still work well at that point level.

If you want to go with the list you provided then I would advise not switching out the stinger salvo, go for a trygon rather than a mawloc, and buy extra termagants for the tervigon to spawn. You would need atleast 20 extra termagants handy because you may never know what you might roll.

That's all I got for ya, good luck.

[Deleted]

I would skip the Mawloc, you need some more synapse. As you list stands you only have one source of synapse meaning you wouldn't be able to hold even two objectves that aren't close together as you Termagants would likely fail an Ib test and hide. Consider adding a Prime or a brood of Warriors.

[jahatch42878]

Having been in desam90's position recently (starting a tyranid force from scratch and looking to play 500-750 pt games to start) I can say that the hardest part is not being able to field all the cool stuff you want...

on one hand, your list has a good core with the tervigon and termagaunts, and yeah, in theory you can spawn more termagaunts as the game goes on, but realistically only have 20 T3 models that can claim objectives and that have to be within 12" of your tervigon to be reliable is not ideal unless you just plan on spearheading the mass of them into the enemy and seeing what survives...

the mawloc is a fun model, and when it works well, popping up underneath your enemy is great, but it is also kind of a fun support unit that you might want to wait till larger games to use.

also, as you have mentioned, the mawloc and tervigon may be a lot for another army to handle @ 500pts (they probably won't have a land raider or full devastator squad at that level) but they do take up a huge chunk of points... if you really want to run a tyranid-zilla army, then I say go for it, but strategically it may not be the easiest thing to do and any turn where your mawloc isn't on the table you know exactly where all the big guns will be aimed.

My first 500 pt armies were based on tyranid warriors and not monstrous creatures, so I had a tyrand prime, 3 warriors, genestealers, hormagaunts, 3 shrikes, a squad of gargoyles, and then for larger games added biovores and zoanthropes plus some upgrades to the other units... but obviously if you like the tervigon and monstrous creatures my army list isn't going to be very helpful!!!

The cost of most of the monstrous creatures makes them hard to squeeze into 500 pt games... so lots of people end up running tyranid primes and more units of gaunts or genestealers with some accessories (biovores, zoanthropes with their synapses are good in small games) but by all means try out the mawloc and tervigon and see how it works for you.

Oh, and as has been said before, the trygon is used more often because it is more reliable and more deadly in CC and has some shooting... the mawloc is more for disruption, but is still a big distraction for the enemy and nerve wracking when they don't know where it will pop up next!!

Good luck!

[swarmy]

Lictors are really needed to run a mawloc to any degree of accuracy. That being said, using lictors you need enough other threats to pull fire off of them. Those things are best used at higher point levels since that is a big chunk of points to throw out that 1-2 punch. Even when you have all you need for that it's tough to pull off every time.