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SO this is my final list after all my playtesting.

HQ
Hive Tyrant- heavy venom cannon scything talons hive commander old adversary paroxysm leech life 245

Hive Tyrant- heavy venom cannon scything talons hive commander paroxysm leech life 220

Elites
2 zoanthropes 120
spore pod- cluster spines 50

2 zoanthropes 120
spore pod- cluster spines 50

Troops
10 gants 50

Tervigon- catalyst toxin sacs cluster spines 185

10 gants 50

Tervigon- catalyst toxin sacs cluster spines 185

6 stealers 84

6 stealers 84

Heavy
Trygon 200

Trygon 200

Comments and criticisms are more then welcome!

I got my copy of the Nid dex over the weekend and I read it but haven't had a chance to do any play testing yet but this is what I think.

Sounds like a good concept with Tyrants giving +2 to reserves so you drop in turn 2 with most of the rest.

However, Tyrants are so expensive. Tyrants seem fragile without a 2+ save or some guard to increase their durability which are also really expensive.

Heavy Venom cannon really doesn't sound like its worth it. Strength 9 with a -1 to the damage table and as a template it scatters off small transports fairly easily. (I remember trying to kill Rhinos with my fire prisms when they made the template scatter rules in early 5th edition and how frustrating that was) Maybe try Stranglethorn cannon instead for some anti horde?

Have you thought about adding Deathleaper to help deal with Psychic hoods and Psykers. Most good Marine lists have a Librarian and with Zoeys range of 18 your probably inside the librarians 24 inch hood range. Getting your Catalyst hooded also is bad.

Not sure if it worth upgrading weapons on Spore pods. They must shoot at the nearest target which might be a land raider or something that their shooting is ineffective against and at toughness 4 pods die to a single strength 8+ attack.

Gaunt and Terivgon backbone looks good for troops. Regeneration might be worth considering on Tervigons.

What you think of Tyranofexes? Yeah they are really expensive but its the only long range anti tank you can start with on turn 1. You can shake or destroy Vendettas, Exorcists or las cannon preds that might otherwise put a lot of hurt on your MCs.

I like the tyrants because they synergize very well with the rest of the army. If the enemy has enough long range fire power to threaten the tyrants first turn I can just reserve them. They give their +2 to reserves even if they aren't on the table and if they are stuck walking up the field they do have a 36" gun to help out.

The heavy vennom cannons are good becauae they are more strength 9 shots which always help for something, and they are also long ranged. The give me a few more chances to pop armor at range which is always welcome.

I've been going back and forth about the death leaper but decided against him. He's circumstantial and by spamming psychic powers you get about the same benefit as taking him and a greater benefit in matches where they dont have a psychic hood.

It might not be the best use of 20 points but its something helpful when fighting horde orks and such.

I still haven't found regeneration usefuk but we'll se as time goes on and people start to focus on them more.

I tried a tyrannofex once and was underwhelmed, they just aren't worth the points.

As above I'm not convinced by the heavy Venom cannon not really good against anything. Won't really worry vehicles and too low AP to worry anything tough and over kill on anything weaker. Stranglethorne is certainly the better option.

I don't see the point in Catalyst or Old Adversary in this list you have nothing worth apply these to. 6 Stealers isn't the best use of a 25 point upgrade and whilst catalyst on units just 6-10 strong again seems a waste. I'd beef up the Termagant squad to 25+ and then catalyst is great and the stealers should be 10 with a Broodlord or 14+ without to take advantage of preferred enemy.

Tervigon + Gaunts seems the standard backbone for troops now and I like that. I like the Zoes in the pods.

For me I'd go with the Trygion Prime over the standard model everytime though. Gets Synapse further up the field and has better ranged firepower which can be crucial for actually getting it to survive that first trun after Dsing in.

I just feel you've thrown too many points into those Tyrants are they really worth it?

Preffered enemy can be given to everything not just stealers. Like my tervigons and gaunts. Super gaunts that re roll to hit are SCARY.

Catalyst can be given to anyone really and for only 15 points I think it's always worth it. Giving the trygons FNP the turn they deep strike is ridiculous.

I was unimpressed with the primes, synapse isn't much of an issue with the podding zoeys. And, the extra shots are nice but not really worth 40 points for jusst 6 more IMO.

Super gaunts that re roll to hit are SCARY.

not in units of just 10.

Giving the trygons FNP the turn they deep strike is ridiculous.

Generally useless to them as a lot of what will be fired at them will negate FnP.

And, the extra shots are nice but not really worth 40 points for jusst 6 more IMO. /

How do you gaurantee the Zoes come down first? Whilst Tau would pay 60 points for 6 extra shots with the same stat-line. However it is not the extra shots that makes the biggest difference more the extra range, that helps them stay alive far better than FnP.

I also don't like Stealers without Toxin Sacs.

Perhaps the gaunts could use a boost in size, i'll have to play with point to see what I can do there.

I think 15 points for FNP is always worth it. If my enemy is packing a bunch of high strngth low ap weapons then I wont bother casting it on a trygon because it wont do anything, but if they rely on volume of fire like orks or something then feel no pain is more then worth it. About as circumstantial as the deathleeper but infinitely cheaper.

I don't guarantee they do, but with plus 2 pretty much everything should be on by turn 2.

Just because tau have to pay an absure amount of points for 1 strength 5 shot doens;t mean I should. Thats not where the strength of the army lies. 80 could go a lot further than 12 S5 shots at decent range.

I'm sorry if I'm missing something, and that definitely may be the case, but if I didn't, you're using 4 HQ units. Each Hive Tyrant counts as one, and in the book I have the Tervigons count as an HQ. Again, I apologize if I just overlooked something.

Edit: Found the entry where you can take Tervigons, sorry, was looking all over for it.

Tervigons are troop choices for each squad of termagaunts taken check their entry in the army list for information.

Your list probably works better then mine with the 2 Tyrants. I tried out something similar to your list but with only 1 tyrant and trygons and raveners and it did horribly things arriving not all at once and getting shot. Guess my Raveners stay in my case.

Your 2 tyrant combo so everything shows up together probably is what makes it work but 2 tyrants is hugely expensive.

Still don't like heavy venom cannon and you probably want 20 + gaunts. 10 just dies a little to fast and isn't much of a threat.

Zoanthropes are really poor in my testing between librarians with hoods, rune priests, inquisitor mystic psycannon, failing the psychic test, missing, rolling bad on the damage table, they just didn't do much.

I think death leaper is a must take so your tervigons don't get jaws of the warp wolfed off the board. That happened in my test game vs space wolves.

I think death leaper is a must take so your tervigons don't get jaws of the warp wolfed off the board. That happened in my test game vs space wolves.

Yeah Deathleaper is the best anti-psyker in the 'Nid army (assuming you have plenty of shadow around) and with Hoods around he can also really help your psychic powers too.