1500 pts, new to tyranids

[Squire]

A list I hope will be semi-competitive (it contains the units I like and will enjoy playing with, while hopefully doing reasonably alright on the table). I collected about 600 pts of nids about 12 years ago back when their codex was in the BRB of the time. I never used them and have always been keen to have another go.

Anyway, if you have a moment let me know what you think!

Flyrant (twin devourers, LW/BS)

Tervigon (scything talons)

Tervigon (scything talons)

5 Warriors (barbed strangler, deathspitters)

Zoanthrope

Zoanthrope

12 Termagants (spine fists)

12 Termagants

12 Hormagaunts

10 Gargoyles

6 Raveners (rending claws)

2 Biovores

1444



So that leaves 56 points to play with. I think regeneration for one of the tervigons and 5 more basic termagants should be good, but perhaps there's a better idea.

Having never played with (or, strangely, even against) tyranids I don't know how the synapse rule will work in practice, so my list is heavy on synapse creatures. It also has few good anti tank options. The zoanthropes can do their bit, but otherwise I'll just kill troops and other infantry and let most vehicles do what they want. Could that be a practical strategy? Any advice and opinions would be gratefully accepted!

[PumpkinHead]

I have been trying other things then the traditional 2x TL (twni linked) Devourer on my flyrant, because I like the options of getting stuck in with my crazy expensive HQ. But the TL 12 shots always seem to be the better options. You will have to see how your flyrant does in your area. Give your tervigons adreanal glands and toxin sacs. They buff all the gaunts around them and make the gaunts do the heavy lifting. My opinion is that heavy weapons in warriors are normally not worth it. 3 shots a piece from the deathspitters do just fine. You need more then 1 zoan in a unit for them to be useful. Spinefists are worthless. Stick with normal termaguants. The TL shots from the fists aren't worth it compared to the S4 shots from the fleshborers. Hgaunts need to be in larger numbers. They will need to survive at least 1 round of shooting, plus overwatch. 12 of them won't get the job done.

You are light on anti tank. If you can fit in some hive guard you will be much better off.

[Squire]

Oct 30, 2012 16:00:40 GMT PumpkinHead said:

I have been trying other things then the traditional 2x TL (twni linked) Devourer on my flyrant, because I like the options of getting stuck in with my crazy expensive HQ. But the TL 12 shots always seem to be the better options. You will have to see how your flyrant does in your area. Give your tervigons adreanal glands and toxin sacs. They buff all the gaunts around them and make the gaunts do the heavy lifting. My opinion is that heavy weapons in warriors are normally not worth it. 3 shots a piece from the deathspitters do just fine. You need more then 1 zoan in a unit for them to be useful. Spinefists are worthless. Stick with normal termaguants. The TL shots from the fists aren't worth it compared to the S4 shots from the fleshborers. Hgaunts need to be in larger numbers. They will need to survive at least 1 round of shooting, plus overwatch. 12 of them won't get the job done.

You are light on anti tank. If you can fit in some hive guard you will be much better off.

Thanks for the advice

I wasn't planning on TL devourers for the Flyrant. One set of devourers and then LW and BS. The devourers idea is appealing but aesthetically I don't like it, and I'd hope to get him into combat at some point. The only really killy unit I have for combat are the raveners

Interesting idea for the tervigon. Would you prioritise adrenal glands/poison sacks over regeneration?

The warriors point is noted. The barbed strangler seems pretty cheap for its potential but I'll reconsider that

I'll keep the zaonthropes together and see how they do. The idea was that they'd widen the synapse web and if I'm very lucky possibly even take out two vehicles on one turn occasionally, but keeping them separate wouldn't be much good when each dead unit awards a victory point.

Actually you're right about the spinefists. For the same points you get 15 spinefist terms and 18 fleshborers. Against T3, the spinefists average 5.625 wounds, with the fleshborers averaging 6. Against T4, spinefists are 3.746 and fleshborers are 4.5. In combat there are fewer models, so there is no justification for them at all from a gaming point of view. I like the models and it'll be easier to tell units apart if they are armed differently, but otherwise there's no reason for termagants to be given spinefists

The hormagaunts comment is noted too. I could kill two birds with one stone and exchange the spinefist terms for the same number of horms and just make one big unit

I know I'm light on anti tank stuff. The idea is the zoanthropes are the primary anti vehicle unit. Alternatively I could use the flyrant, or if I'm desperate the raveners. I'm not too worried about that. The general idea is to prioritise enemy infantry and if the zoans don't deal with the most threatening enemy vehicles, so be it. The army was deliberately designed to be anti infantry

Thanks again

[Lanesend]

Hi Squire, welcome to TTH,
A lo of good points by Pumpkinhead, not much I would advice differently.

Regen is mostly a waste of points (way too situational), except for the Tyranid Prime. Regen on the TP is cheap, and because he's an independant character he can take some wounds, then hide in a squad and have time to actually regenerate some. Though a smart opponent will always shoot a regenerating model until it's dead.

I normally do take a barbed strangler on warriors, because of the bigger threat-range and the off-chance of pinning a unit.

Also you should take a look at the psychic powers in the rulebook (if you didn't already). The Hive Tyrant and Tervigon can benefit greatly from swapping psychic powers. And the good thing is, you don't have to decide IF you want to do that until you know what your enemy brings.

Even the Zoanthropes, who are normally bought for anti-tank, can be geared for anti-infantery (Psychic Shriek from TP) or a role as buff/debuff unit with Endurance or Enfeeble from the biomancy table.

[PumpkinHead]

I would prioritize toxins sacs then adrenal glands. I also like to buy the extra psychic powers and then switch all 3 powers for biomancy. Iron Arm is freaking awesome for keeping it alive as well as endurance. Endurance will do the same thing as regen and more.

[wolfchild]

The benefits of the nu psychic powers are surely offset by the unreliability of which ones u end up getting.
If u get a poor roll, you've just wasted some perfectly good powers.
On the hive tyrant tho, most of his powers are quite poor or very situational where biomancy or such like would be much more usefull.

Unless ur playing vs mainly Imp guard or equivalent, then I wouldn't bother with biovores. They just don't really do much.

COnverting spinefist points to a big hormagaunt brood sounds like a great idea tho

[Deleted]

The only thing Biovores fall behind on are SM. They are great at laying waste to Necrons, Eldar, DE, SoB, IG, Ork, Tau and Tyranids. Unless your club is SM-dominated I think 2 Biovores is an excellent choice. Another thing to keep in mind is that many SM are now taking non-SM allies like IG for AA/Flyers/Psykers so your Biovores can still come in handy.

[Squire]

I still quite like this list but I'll do away with the spine fists and replace them with more hormagaunts, and then probably drop one of the raveners and use all of my remaining points to buy more termagants/hormagaunts

Alternatively, as a practical consideration, I may swap the flyrant for a normal HT. I just can't see how I'm going to pack this whole army up to head out and play games with those huge wings. If I take away the wings I'll likely give him two tyrant guard and a longer ranged weapon to compensate

I have another idea that involves no biovores, only 5 raveners and then using all of my remaining points to put down a screamer killer. Just an idea.

Oct 31, 2012 15:38:01 GMT Lanesend said:

Hi Squire, welcome to TTH,
A lo of good points by Pumpkinhead, not much I would advice differently.

Regen is mostly a waste of points (way too situational), except for the Tyranid Prime. Regen on the TP is cheap, and because he's an independant character he can take some wounds, then hide in a squad and have time to actually regenerate some. Though a smart opponent will always shoot a regenerating model until it's dead.

I normally do take a barbed strangler on warriors, because of the bigger threat-range and the off-chance of pinning a unit.

Also you should take a look at the psychic powers in the rulebook (if you didn't already). The Hive Tyrant and Tervigon can benefit greatly from swapping psychic powers. And the good thing is, you don't have to decide IF you want to do that until you know what your enemy brings.

Even the Zoanthropes, who are normally bought for anti-tank, can be geared for anti-infantery (Psychic Shriek from TP) or a role as buff/debuff unit with Endurance or Enfeeble from the biomancy table.

The point about the regen is noted.

I like the potential of the alternative powers but I haven't explored the idea too much up to now. Some of them look interesting, to say the least. I can't see myself swapping the zoanthropes' warp blast though. I've never used a S10 shooting attack, so the idea gives me goosebumps

Nov 1, 2012 16:14:53 GMT PumpkinHead said:

I would prioritize toxins sacs then adrenal glands. I also like to buy the extra psychic powers and then switch all 3 powers for biomancy. Iron Arm is freaking awesome for keeping it alive as well as endurance. Endurance will do the same thing as regen and more.

I don't like the thought of not getting iron arm, and I'm not one for spending on wargear and upgrades in the first place. I've got a lot of time to think about it so maybe I'll change my mind later

[Squire]

Nov 2, 2012 15:17:43 GMT wolfchild said:

The benefits of the nu psychic powers are surely offset by the unreliability of which ones u end up getting.
If u get a poor roll, you've just wasted some perfectly good powers.
On the hive tyrant tho, most of his powers are quite poor or very situational where biomancy or such like would be much more usefull.

Unless ur playing vs mainly Imp guard or equivalent, then I wouldn't bother with biovores. They just don't really do much.

COnverting spinefist points to a big hormagaunt brood sounds like a great idea tho

I'm of the same mind about the new powers

If you've found biovores to be useless against Meq in the past then I'll possibly write up a similar list to use against those sorts of armies, but exchange the biovores for a basic unit of 8 genestealers. I'll likely order the battleforce in the next few days so at least it'll be good to know I could get some use out of the stealers

Nov 2, 2012 15:43:08 GMT @60mm said:

The only thing Biovores fall behind on are SM. They are great at laying waste to Necrons, Eldar, DE, SoB, IG, Ork, Tau and Tyranids. Unless your club is SM-dominated I think 2 Biovores is an excellent choice. Another thing to keep in mind is that many SM are now taking non-SM allies like IG for AA/Flyers/Psykers so your Biovores can still come in handy.

If you hadn't mentioned it, the allies point probably wouldn't have occurred to me. Thanks.

I love the idea of biovores because I've never had a large blast shooting attack in my previous armies and the spore mine models are so cool. They'd also be firing from turn 1. Like I mentioned, I think I'll use the biovores against anything that isn't Meq, unless their allies would be a worthwhile target

Thanks for the advice, guys. It's given me a lot to consider