Need Advice moving to 1000 points and beyond

[gublyb]

Hey all! I'm a recent player in Warhammer that chose tyranids as their first army. Me and a group of friends made 500 point armies, and I came here back then to seek advice on making a 500 point army. At that time I made the following list which gave me a great spread of Tyranid stuff.

1x Hive Tyrant with Wings
10x Fleshborer Termagants
3x Tyranid Warriors
3x Hive Guard

We've all had a lot of fun at this level of play but we're ready to move up to 1000 points. I'm not a player who enjoys melee that much so I've been experimenting mostly with all the different possible shooting hive fleets and the one I've enjoyed the most has been Kronos, mostly for the Deepest Shadow stratagem which has been endlessly fun to shut down all my friend's chaos pyskers. So moving to 1000 points, I definitely want to go in the direction of Hive Fleet Kronos.

Beyond that though, I don't really know where I want to go. I don't know what the "good" models are to get. I know that Tyranids are expecting a codex sometime in the next 2 years, so what is good might change, but I'm looking to invest in some good, solid units that will be good across the majority of Tyranid army types. Warhammer models are difficult to get in my country, so I don't want to take time and money to get anything that turns out pretty useless. Overall, I am looking for any and all advice you might give to a newer tyranids player moving up to 1000 points and beyond.

Things I was considering:
- Exocrine 
- Zoanthrope/Neurothope combo
- Trygon/Mawloc
- Going up to a larger swarm of Termagants with devourers

Things I don't want to do:
- Add a huge amount of warriors. They're $expensive$ and actually really rare to find for me.
- Go into any hyperspecialized units at this point

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

[Bohxim]

Of course the first few things you should do, since you favor kronos, is to get 1-2 exocrenes and another 3 hive guards. 6 man HG units are prime targets for the SMA strategem.
Another 1-2 hqs are needed too. Another tyrant is always good. Probably a zoanthropes box for 1-2 neurothrope hqs. But if I were you, I'd get 2 boxes and make a neurothrope and 5 zoans (if you ever decide run zoans they're there). Maybe don't glue down the heads of the neuro so you have a unique head and a unique torso so you can swap them around and have a unique looking neorothropes if you ever have a list that runs 2.
Pity you're not looking for warriors, so. I guess that leaves termies and hormies.

I'd also get a lictor for objectives

That should be enough for you to mess around with a few diff flavors of 1000p lists

[gublyb]

Thanks for your advice! Are warriors really significantly better than termagants? A squad of 30 temrgants with devourers is almost the same price as a squad of 9 warriors with dethspitters and from what I can see the termagants will do more damage right?

If you were to run warriors what would you do with them?

[Bohxim]

They're not strictly better, I just favor them. Less models to move around, 51 points for bare minimum unit lets you have easy action stuff with small footprints. 51points for 3 models with t4, 9w total and a 4+ save is better than 50p for 10 termies with t3, 10w, 6+ save imo.
Also, Larger units are great for pulling multi damage weapons off your other threats too with physiologies and 1cp strat for -1 dmg. Takes some work to remove them. Plus if you have lash whip models, you can put them in the front line and prevent them from charging and consolidation shenanigans to contest your midfield objectives.

[piersonsmuppet]

I would say that 3 more Hive Guard and an Exo should top the list if youd like to stay Kronos moving forward. Neuro would be a great 2nd hq for this as well, and not a bad idea to buy 2 Zoan boxes just to have the 5-man for if/when you start larger games (playing only 3 Zoans atm is worthless). Not something to rush to though, as Zoans are too costly for 1000 pt games imo. I would also say more gants would also be a good addition, esp if equipped with devs. Will add good infantry clear to the above heavier guns. Right now DevGants are pretty good for the price, and I dont see them leaving the table as long as we have strategic reserves and pheromone trails. To add to that, 2 lictors are common in most lists, but you can prob just do 1 in 1000pt games.

[Bohxim]

I agree. Hive guards and exo are top priority.
Likely its better to field 1 blob of mixed devourer and borer gants then multiple batches of 10 I guess for board presence and actions. Getting more gants gets u more rippers too iirc

[gublyb]

Hey all, thanks for your advice. I've put together this 1000 point list as a concept for now, would appreciate feedback on it.

1x Hive Tyrant with Wings (HVC, MRC)
6x Hive Guard (Impaler Cannon)
1x Lictor
1x Exocrine (Dermic Symbiosis)
3x Ripper Swarms
3x Warriors (Deathspitter, Rending Claws)
30x Termagants (Devourer)

One thing I'm unsure of is the gun to put on the Hive Tyrant. My friends are playing Marines/Chaos Marines and so I was wondering what main gun is best to use against those lists, as I tend to use his swoop down ability to come down turn two to shoot and charge a unit. I've tried breaking down the math but I can't exactly follow it well lol so any advice is appreciated there.

[piersonsmuppet]

If you swoop, you lose symbiostorm T1 and if dropping to charge a unit, might not be able to use it at all. Kronos Symbiostorm is #1 priority unless a -1 to-hit is in play. only 1 synapse on the board T1 is also risky, if the warriors get shot off the board you are in for a rough game.

[gublyb]

True true, that could be an issue. It's probs better to keep him on the board for T1 then. What's the better option on guns for him in terms of beating marine statlines?

[Bohxim]

I'd put deathspitters and scything talons ( rending claws if low on points since they're free) but I guess an argument can be made for quad devourers. Though that 0ap hurts us so much against marines in cover.
When they're not in cover tho, casting pathological slime = 1 dead marine for each failed save.


Since most of your army is slow-ish, you'll likely be losing that flyrant pretty fast if you over extend. Just be wary of that, since it's your only option for resonance barb and psychic spells, you'll be losing a lot when you lose him. If you haven't built it or it's magnetized, I'd prob suggest a walk rant with cannon and death spitters so it can keep near your army to cast the supporting spells (catalyst + sybiostorm and occasional smite when they get too close since you can cast 3 with barb) then shoot at certain things while using LOS to protect it from certain firing lanes etc.
I suppose your 2 physiology slots will be allocated to the hive guards and exocrenes?