Totally New to 40k with 2 Tyranid Halves of Leviathan Box

[august]

Greetings fellow xenos,

I am totally new to the hobby and have been enjoying painting some Tyranids I found for cheap on eBay. I just moved to Austin, Texas and figured that getting into a hobby like 40k would be a good way to meet some new friends in my area. So, I decided to pick up two Tyranid halves of the Leviathan box set because it seemed like an inexpensive way to get me close to a 1k or 2k army of Tyranids.

My question for ya'll is this: what is a beginner-friendly 10e 1k list I can make out of my two halves of the Leviathan box? 

What is a stretch list at 2k points I can work toward if I stick with the hobby?

Thanks a lot for your help! Really excited to learn more about 40k.

Some of my hobby background:

off and on MTG player for about 10 years

Heroclix player when I was a kid

heavy Marvel Snap player currently

[yoritomo]

Sadly I have neither the time, nor the inclination to make an army list with the constraints you have provided. Besides, if you want to pilot your list properly you need to build it yourself. It’s kind of like magic and deck building, in order to play a deck property you have to build and/or modify it yourself.

Some things you should consider:

Point for point the barbedgaunts are the best models in the box. You have 10 of them, use them.

The biggest damage dealer you have is the screamer killers. They are also very expensive for what you get. Consider proxying them as carnifex. If you haven’t built them yet consider leaving the arms off to put regular carnifex arms (or even magnetize the model) at a latter date.

Carnifex should be taken as units of one when possible to avoid battle shock tests.

The neurotyrant is best synapse creature in the box. You don’t strictly need synapse, but it helps. If you have a problem with him dying you can always hide him in a unit of neurogaunts.

Don’t sleep on Von Ryan’s leapers. If you can get them into combat they will do work. (Rapid ingress near enemy units on the table edge is a good way to do this.


Build a list and we’ll be happy to give suggestions on how to improve it

[august]

Jun 29, 2023 21:40:40 GMT yoritomo said:

Sadly I have neither the time, nor the inclination to make an army list with the constraints you have provided. Besides, if you want to pilot your list properly you need to build it yourself. It’s kind of like magic and deck building, in order to play a deck property you have to build and/or modify it yourself.

Some things you should consider:

Point for point the barbedgaunts are the best models in the box. You have 10 of them, use them.

The biggest damage dealer you have is the screamer killers. They are also very expensive for what you get. Consider proxying them as carnifex. If you haven’t built them yet consider leaving the arms off to put regular carnifex arms (or even magnetize the model) at a latter date.

Carnifex should be taken as units of one when possible to avoid battle shock tests.

The neurotyrant is best synapse creature in the box. You don’t strictly need synapse, but it helps. If you have a problem with him dying you can always hide him in a unit of neurogaunts.

Don’t sleep on Von Ryan’s leapers. If you can get them into combat they will do work. (Rapid ingress near enemy units on the table edge is a good way to do this.


Build a list and we’ll be happy to give suggestions on how to improve it

Thanks for taking the time to respond, and apologies if I’m using this topic board wrong by asking for list ideas rather than posting my own. Like I said, super new!

Great advice. I have been eyeing the 2x carnifex + 1x OOE combo I’ve seen people mention. It seems fun, but expensive. My buddy is giving me his old Carnifex model, so maybe I can proxy the two screamer killers and try the trio.

I’ll think about what you said with keeping them solo.

It’s also kind of strange to me that OOE doesn’t have his own box to buy, just a different face plate and load out.

Really excited to start playing, and super open to more advice if anyone’s got it.

[goodbrood]

Also somewhat new here, but I will say that if you avoid gluing the whole kit together, having the heads built and magnetized makes it easier to use either OOE or a vanilla-fex depending on point budgeting.  

[piersonsmuppet]

22x Ngaunts w/ Ntyrant
10x Tgants
5x Bgaunts
5x Bgaunts
2x Psychopahge
2x Screamer-killer

965 pts leaves room for an enhancement of your choice on the Ntyrant, or dropping 11x Ngaunts for another 10x unit of Tgants and Perfectly Adapted on the Ntyrant.

The only wrong way to make a list from 2x Levi is to include 2x Ntyrants, severe diminishing returns running more than 1.