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So... my 6-year-old had decided he wants to build a Nid army. He's been playing 40k for a year or so... mostly orks but occasional forays into marines and eldar. So he's pretty conversant with the game even though he can't quite read yet. Something about the 'nids has caught his imagination... and it'd be fun to have a new army in the family.

With his birthday on the horizon... I'm looking for ideas on getting him a small, legal army that he can at least field and have some success with. I have a bunch of the old plastic gene stealers from the original Space Hulk game... and I might have one of the original Carnifex models as well.

Given that as a starting point... what do I need to make him a decent, legal army and is there a more efficient way to get it (i.e. a battle force or something). I know I can always get things off the web, but I need at least something in-hand in a couple of days, so I guess I'm looking for some recommendations of things I might be able to buy at a hobby shop. Figure he'll get a codex, gene stealers & the fex if I can find it... what else should I look for to get him a decent, small but legal army?

OH, and he really wants one of those things that spawns termigaunts or whatever... Do they even make those? I think the only one's I've seen have been conversions.

Thanks!

Gits

Sorry, they don't make tervigons :( Look at the Blue table painting youtube channel for some conversion ideas though, they're pretty good. I would look around, the battle force is a good start if he wants a horde-y army but isn't lgal with the newer rules...I just want nids for the close combat anyway...probably won't ever get them though

Imp. Monkey

Genestealers + Alpha are quite nice, for fast-hitting, deadly HtH Troops...

The new Gargoyles add a bit of movement to the Army (+ they're in plastic!)...

You won't be able to bypass the Termagaunts / Hormagaunts, I guess... 16 of each could be a good start, with a small Warriors squad & a winged Tyrant?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and Zoanthropes as well... Not that effective, but I love them anyway!!

(And they can serve as Anti-Tank)

Personally i like trygons, theyre a bit pricey (as in $$) granted but can also be around 250-300 pts.

Some warriors, hormagaunts, zoeys and hive guard imo. I find tyrants a waste of money so i run tyranid primes (which you can make from warriors) as HQ.

Hope that helps a bit!

A Doom of Malanti is a great addition. The best way to convert it is from a zoey with additional pieces. Zoeys only have the one real use of popping tanks but that role can also be fullfiled by a carnifex.

Lots of Termagaunts is a good start, then some 'stealers and a Broodlord.

Well OK... that's a lot of good info.

For now... this is what I came up with... for now.

He had his heart set on a Tervigon... so I picked up a 'fex for the conversion. Not sure if I'll do it all on my own or cheeze out and use the Chapterhouse upgrade kit.
Got a box of termigaunts.
"Sergeant" thing for his gene stealers.
Codex

That's over a c-note... and enough for now. Add 2 squads of 'stealers to that & maybe an old-school 'fex and it should be enough to get him started at any rate. Bloody hell these things are expensive! Think we'll use his other b-day $ for some Hive Guard. I might try to steer clear of masses of small infantry because, well... he's only 6 (7) and I don't want to end up painting another 100 figures (I have orks for that). He likes to paint though, so we'll start him on the antique 'stealers and let him build on that while I'm converting the Tervigon.

Maybe you could go for a NidZilla-type army: Hive Tyrant as HQ, 2 genestealer squads as Troops, the rest consisting of various Carnifexes as Elite & Support Choices... Only a few models to build & paint, but large in points!

Ok, Carnifexes aren't that cheap, I'll give you that...

That's kind of what I was thinking... I mean... he's a little kid. What's he going to get a bigger kick out of... a million little crappy things or a dozen huge beasties?!

Consider some trygons then, probably the best value TMCs out there.

Yep, they definitely fit into the plan. He's got enough to paint as it is that he'll be able to save up for that I think.

Oh crud... now I have to figure out how to do nid basing & objectives... *sigh*

If you like i could put some pics of my nids up?? Jungle basing is most fitting fluff-wise imo.

Please do, I'd love to see them!

Hey Git,

I dont want to clutter your thread up with 5+ pics so heres a link to the Nid gallery, hope you find it useful!!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-15358-10927_Hive%20Fleet%20Goliath.html


The plants are GW jungle plants, with GW jungle trees. They will all eventually get the brown mud like the hormagaunt in top left smeared on the base. The objectives are just random bits i had and some greenstuff/milliput.

Those are great Vitruvian, thanks! Gives me some good ideas...

No problem! Glad i could help in some way

Trygons are great fun to use.

If you are going for the Nidzilla list then instead of stealers go for two broods of warriors, that way it remains incredibly elitist. Or even two broods of rippers, that way he has even more points to blow on nasty creatures

For a MC heavy/ Elite list

HQ:
Swarmlord
Tervigon

Elites:
Doom of Malantai/or Deathleaper
3 Zoeys
3 Lictors

Troops:
2 Ripper Broods (6 bases)

Fast Attack:
-Harpy

Heavy Support:
3 Carnifexes
A Trygon
Another Trygon or a Tyrannofex (converted from a carnifex)

That means he gets tons of monsters to play with.

That looks like a really fun list GS! Thanks for the suggestions, I know nothing about the nids (though now that I bought him the dex I can start reading).

The only reason he was going to use the gene stealers is that I already OWN the gene stealers, freeing up money to spend on other things. I really like forgeworlds ripper swarms though... so I suspect a couple of groups of those will eventually appear in his inventory.

Boy that's an expensive list though... *gulp*. Ah well, he's got years to save up for the various parts & his birthday and Christmas to help out.

I would definitely take genestealers, theyre too awesome imo, I run:

2 Primes (converted from warriors)
Hive Guard (1)
Hive Guard (1)
2 Zoeys
12 stealers (broodlord)
12 stealers (broodlord)
10 stealers
20 hormagaunts (toxin sacs)
21 hormagaunts (toxin sacs)
Trygon
Trygon Prime
Tyrranofex (rupture cannon, only use cos i converted it!)

edit: Oops, just saw you said 1.5k That list is 2k, for 1500 i would drop the tyrranofex, 1 Prime and the 10 stealers.

Actually 2k is fine... the point value is just to try to get an army he can field with relative ease. At this point any feedback is good feedback.

I love the focus of Gathering Storm's list...

Only 2 ripper swarms as Troops!!

"Over-specialized" would be an understatement!

Yggdrasil wrote:I love the focus of Gathering Storm's list...

Only 2 ripper swarms as Troops!!

"Over-specialized" would be an understatement!

I've run a similar list to this list only once.

I only own a Trygon Prime MC so that was the only model of mine (other than the rippers). It was a Planetstrike game run by the store (a Tyranid themed one) and I was the only nid player there. I was given a Mawloc, 3 carnifexes, 3 lictors (they helped make my deepstriking beasts horribly accurate ) and Gargoyles. I then aquired a Hive Tyrant (with wings off of the store) for the battle. Bar the Gargoyles it was complete Nidzilla madness, I had more MC's in my army than the 4 oppostion plyers had MC's and Tanks put together.

That match has made me want to make that list for myself, I'm still saving the money (and selling my stealers for money to buy a second Trygon).

That looks a really fun list to play! Git, for the bases I would just use the stuff that comes in the genestealers box with some other bits added on!

Imp. Monkey

Don't forget that with 'Nids you have the option of getting him to basecoat them relatively basically, then dip them. That will also hide the inevitable 6-year old lines. Bone and red with a dark wash will look very good on the table.

Oh, the other option would be, as you have the old genestealers anyway, would be to go with the old fashioned black basecoat with grey highlights, purple/pink detailing and bone claws with red eyes.