First Spawned 1500 pts ''starter'' army

[Draezymous]

Hello to all, I am fairly new to the game, but for starters I wanted a 1500 pts army to get ready to play some games soon. My area mainly consists of Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Tau, the occasional Dark Eldar,and Necrons. However, I expect to face either the Tau or the Space Marines first. I have no knowledge whatsoever of what the opposing forces will be fielding, so I try to have an consistent army list as possible (with flexibillity in mind). Here's what I came up with:

HQ

Hive Tyrant 305 (0305)
Hive Tyrant 170
Leech Essence
Paroxysm
Lash Whip & Bone Sword
Twin Linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms
Toxin Sacs
Hive Commander
Old Adversary
Wings

Hive Tyrant 285 (0590)
Hive Tyrant
Leech Essence
Paroxysm
Lash Whip & Bone Sword
Twin Linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms
Toxin Sacs
Old Adversary
Wings

Troops

Termagant Brood 050 (0640)
Termagant x 10

Termagant Brood 050 (0690)
Termagant x 10

Tervigon 265 (0955)
Tervigon
Crushing Claws
Cluster Spines
Adrenal Glands
Toxin Sacs
Regeneration
Catalyst
Onslaught

Tervigon 265 (1220)
Tervigon
Crushing Claws
Cluster Spines
Adrenal Glands
Toxin Sacs
Regeneration
Catalyst
Onslaught

Heavy Support

Trygon 275 (1495)
Trygon
Toxin Sacs
Regeneration
Trygon Prime

Total Points: 1495

Alright, before I explain everything, I just want to say keep in mind I'm a complete rookie when it comes to (competitive) gameplay.

The idea with my list is to let the Trygon and one Tervigon start in reserve. The Trygon will enter via Deep Strike to harass my enemies backlines and draw some firepower away from my smaller creatures that are still advancing. My Tervigon will use the Outflank abillity from the Hive Commander abillity and will enter to surprise catch an objective, or simply provide some Synapse if needed in a tight spot. Best of all for me is that once it has arrived, it can immediately spawn to possibly force my opponent into an corner of the field.

My Flyrants are there to fly around the battlefield to wherever they may be needed, either challanging opposing HQ units and hopefully kill them (with a little help from Paroxysm, a Bone Sword, and a Lash Whip), or lay death with his Twin-Linked Brainleech Worm Devourers from afar. And there's alwas all the goodies from being a Flying Monstrous Creature.

The Termagants are simply there because they help me with a small force to begin with, which will also immediately receive the buffs from the Tervigon starting with them on the field. This ''main force'' is mainly meant to claim objectives, or hide in cover (for as much as possible) while it steadily advances until they can shoot or assault. I'd like to see it as a small, but slowly expanding ''island'' from which the other elements within the army will launch assaults on crucial points to ''surround'' the enemy for absolute board control?

Well, that's all I could think of for as far as a newb can go I guess, but I must tell you I haven't sen the errors yet of this list, so I'd like to get some pointers on if I made any mistakes, or am I overlooking something crucial to my army? Thanks in advance!

[Squire]

Before I respond, I think you'll have to remove the individual points costs of those upgrades. Maybe it's this forum, maybe it's another, but I don't think you're allowed to list that sort of thing. Giving an overall points value of the unit is fine though

Okay, I've had a look at the list. I'm not a competitive player myself, but the crushing claws and regen typically aren't recommended for tervigons. I'd definitely consider removing these upgrades on the tervigon starting on the board, because there's a good chance it will draw a ton of fire early on if the opponent doesn't want to shoot at swooping FMC's.

I don't think the prime upgrade is considered very important for the trygon either. I'd probably recommend getting ride of the tervigons' crushing claws and regen, and downgrading the trygon to the basic version (your 2 HT's could keep it in synapse range if you want). With the points you'd be saving you could put a whole new unit down. Hive guard perhaps.

[pipsickness]

Also a Tervigon counts as moving when it comes onto the board from reserve and wouldn't be able to spawn that turn. At least that's my understanding of the rules. (I believe it's something like "units entering from reserve count as moving onto the board as though they were positioned just off the table edge?) As the Tervigon can only spawn before it moves this would mean that after entering from reserve the tervigon would have to wait until it's second turn on the board before spwaning...?

[FTGTEvan]

Pretty sure pipsickness is right; think the terv will lose too much of its effectiveness if you put it in reserves. Also agree with Squire; should probably take out the options' point values.

Definitely take some BRB powers for your psykers. Generally, Biomancy is awesome for 'nids; Iron Arm on an MC can make it nigh unkillable for some opponents.

Overall, I'm more of a swarm guy than a Nidzilla type, so your list scares me with just how small it is. I would drop some/all upgrades on the Trygon and some on the Tervs, and maybe one of the HTs to get more bugs out there. For less than your second tyrant, you could add 20 devilgants in a spore, for example.

That said, I understand that you're getting started and might not have a lot of models/funds for models. As it is, you're going to want ~40+ extra gants for spawning.

[commandersasha]

I'm going to have to disagree with Squire over the Crushing Claws: in 5th they were poor, but combined with Smash are now fantasticl

As per the BRB FAQ, if you choose the double strength attack, you halve BEFORE adding bonus attacks, so with CC you get a basic 3 halved and rounded up to 2, plus D3 for the CC, and maybe one more for the charge, all at Str 10.

CC Tervs are now assault monsters, which they definitely WEREN'T in 5th.

The only reason NOT to go CC, Adr and Tox on a Terv now is if you REALLY want to use it as either a suicide screen charger, or a home objective camper, both roles for which ot is overpowered and overpriced.

[FTGTEvan]

Dec 13, 2012 16:06:20 GMT commandersasha said:

I'm going to have to disagree with Squire over the Crushing Claws: in 5th they were poor, but combined with Smash are now fantasticl

As per the BRB FAQ, if you choose the double strength attack, you halve BEFORE adding bonus attacks, so with CC you get a basic 3 halved and rounded up to 2, plus D3 for the CC, and maybe one more for the charge, all at Str 10.

CC Tervs are now assault monsters, which they definitely WEREN'T in 5th.

The only reason NOT to go CC, Adr and Tox on a Terv now is if you REALLY want to use it as either a suicide screen charger, or a home objective camper, both roles for which ot is overpowered and overpriced.

Also, on the charge, you get HoW I believe, so an extra I10 S6 hit.

[Draezymous]

Thank you all for your replies!

Squire: I edited the first post to avoid any hassle, thanks for the tip! About the CC, I however have to disagree on removing the upgrades and CC from my Tervigon. While they all might be a little on the expensive side, they will help beef up other units as well as the Tervigon itself. It is a little costly, but I think the points will be earned back well. I must admit I doubt the regen, but I think my Tervigon will attract a LOT of firepower, so I thought that for a minor investment it could possibly buy the Terv another turn (I however have no game experience for this, so maybe Tervigon aren't so easy to take down even with consetrated firepower)?

The reasoning behind the Prime upgrade is because I intend to Deep Strike with it, and after that it's a sitting duck which cant assault. While I don't think it will die first turn, I don;t want it to just stand there, so I want to use the upgraded shooting attack? Maybe I could cut some points from it, I'll see what I can come up with..! Thanks for the pointers!

pipsickness: Really!! That's quite a lid on my nose when it comes to planning strategies! I actually don't think I'll be Outflanking the Tervigon then, and I might even drop the Hive Commander abillity as well. Thank you very much for pointing that out! I also see your logic when stating the models ''moved'' unto the board, and agree with it completely.

@ataeries: Thank you for pointing the Outflank penalties, I will no longer Outflank my Tervigon, as I'd rather spawn with it right away. I'm not too fond of removing any upgrades from my Tervigon, since I think the points will be earned back well. The only doubt I have is regen, so I might drop that. The prime upgrade was taken to improve the Trygon's appearance turn, but maybe it can be cut to add some more models. I intend to give my Tervigon Biomancy as a default, and maybe even one Tyrant (or I might experiment with Telekenisis a bit).

I'm not really sure of what my playstyle is yet since I have little to no experience, but I still remember from older games that Space Marines are tough as nails, and their shooting hurts too without good cover. Tau, from my experience, hide away behind towers, walls, etc, and then fire their 72'' Railguns at you, or you can expect some (smart) missles coming from somewhere. In both scenarios I remember my Hive Tyrant and Carnifex doing the most against these armies, as they could actually take a few shots to get into Close Combat. As I see the codex now, I see lots of options to take ''big things'' in a small point army, alongside a small force of ''foot soldiers''. On average I suppose each Tervigon will spawn 15 gants before expiring, which means a minimum of 50 gants, and 5 walking/flying/crawling tanks. it might be small, but I expect it to have the biggest chances against Space Marines and Tau? Or could you please share me some info on how to beat these armies with sheer weight of numbers when you cant advance reasonably (we usually play with minimal terrain)?

commandersasha: Thanks you, the way you explained all the buffs for the Tervigon were kind of like my reasoning why I put them there! From my point of view, you invest a mere 25 points to receive D3 attacks in every round of Close Combat, which is huge since you could possibly get 6 S5 hits (with possible re-rolls from poison), or up to 5 S10 hits, and that's not counting charge bonuses. Striking at I1 (with the exception of HoW at the charge) isn't really all a let down when you only get the +2I on the charge.

As for anyone who is curious about my other options, or wants to make suggestions to swap in/out from my other models, here is a complete list of what I own:

2 Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord
3 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthrope/Doom of Malan 'Tai
8 Ygmarl/Genestealers
40 Hormagaunt
56 Termagant (40 with Fleshborer, 16 with Devourer)
2 Tervigon/Tyrannofex
9 Ripper/Sky-Slasher Swarm
18 Ravener
2 Trygon/Mawloc
3 Carnifex

You see, I really am clueless on where to begin, so I decided to fill up my Force Organisation Chart up as much as possible, with the units I really like and want to try out. I only got everything within the last month, so nothing is really finished. I painted 10 Hormagaunts and a Trygon already, and I'm currently working on the 40 Fleshborer Termagants which I paint as a whole. My Favorite units are the Hive Tyrant, tervigon, Ravener, and Trygon, but I find all of these units quite expensive (especially the Ravener unfortunately!). As stated in my original post, I want my ''starter army'' to truly be a ''First Spawned'' army by my freshly born Hive Fleet Draezymous, as I intend to do the battles with a sort of setting that it will be the starting of the fluff for my own Hive Fleet. So essentially I want the army to be flexible (as they need to search out enemy weaknesses viia combat) and consistent (because the new Hive Fleet needs biomatter, it must overcome the enemy with sound attack waves to quickly gather resources). But since I haven't found my playstyle yet, Im not sure on what army I should make. Should I build a ''swarm'', fielding up to 80 Ga(nts/Gaunts, and 2 Gant making Factories? Or should I take more beef to take a severe beating and that will hopefully outclass my opponent(for this purpose I could also include the 3, over priced compared to earlier editions, Carnifex)? Or balance them out a little, and take some other specialised units like the Hive Guard and/or the Zoanthropes?

My main ''starter goal'' is to defeat Space Marines and Tau, so what do you guys suggest for a 1500/2000 pts battle against those armies?

Once again, thank you all for your replies, they're really helpful!

[brianb9999]

I like crushing claws on tervigons, at least if you plan on getting into combat with them. Your army is relatively small, so I think it would be wise to give them claws...regeneration, on the other hand, can end up being a large waste of points. Also, old adversary and hive commander are not that necessary, and neither is the trygon prime upgrade, at least in your army. I would try to get those hive guard in somewhere to pop tanks, and/or the zoanthropes for tank busting or psychic support.