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Here's the skinny: I am getting back into the game after along absence, and am going to start fresh with 'nids. I'll see a variety of lists, with a smattering of Eldar, Tau, Tau-dar, Eld-au, SM, and IG lists represented.

We are semi-competitive with this, so some of the choices are a bit of a passion project kinda thing.

Here is my first stab at a list:

Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL Devourer with worms (x2)
Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL Devourer with worms (x2)

Tervigon, Electroshock grubs
Tervigon, Electroshock grubs
Termagants x 30
Termagants x 30

Hive Crone (already bought the model, cause I love the way it looks)

Zoanthropes x 3

Trygon Prime, Regenerate
Exocrine

I know I have a problem with armor 13+ (looks to be a common thread with the 'nid codex). Othr than that, opinions?

KillerWabbit wrote:
Here's the skinny: I am getting back into the game after along absence, and am going to start fresh with 'nids. I'll see a variety of lists, with a smattering of Eldar, Tau, Tau-dar, Eld-au, SM, and IG lists represented.

We are semi-competitive with this, so some of the choices are a bit of a passion project kinda thing.

Here is my first stab at a list:

Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL Devourer with worms (x2)
Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL Devourer with worms (x2)

Tervigon, Electroshock grubs
Tervigon, Electroshock grubs
Termagants x 30
Termagants x 30

Hive Crone (already bought the model, cause I love the way it looks)

Zoanthropes x 3

Trygon Prime, Regenerate
Exocrine

I know I have a problem with armor 13+ (looks to be a common thread with the 'nid codex). Othr than that, opinions?

Mostly minor things...I'd split out one Zoey, to get a second roll on Powers of the Hive Mind! Tervigons are kinda pricey these days, so two might be too many. But your not looking for super competetive, so its probably "OK".

You're a little thin at the Heavy slot, but thats because you spent so much on Troops. Crones usually work best in pairs, but again, maybe in your meta its not a big deal. I say give it a go, and modify based on experiance

This lists looks really good. Only one suggestion. I would trade out regen for the miasma cannon on the prime. That way when it pops up, it can shoot 12 S5 shots and a template that's 2+ poison.

We play a lot of objective-based games, so troops wind up being pretty important. I have to have something survivable (not Warriors in today's world of S6+ weapon spam), and synapse is a plus. Though they are pricey, Tervigon's are tough and can spawn more troops.

Maybe a big squad of Termagants with a squad of Warriors behind them? That can get me a venom cannon (we have a few IG players, so tanks can be an issue) and synapse. I just fear that it will be 200+ points that will die too fast...

I see your point on the Zoeys. Originally I wanted two squads of 2, but wound up having to pare out some points.

The Prime is an affectation of mine. I love the model! Maybe drop a tervigon and add something like 'stealers to pop up from the Prime's tunnel?

Also, does the Prime come with a viable Miasma Cannon when ya buy it, or is it a kit-bash?

Big Wormy is a fav of mine as well. I am also partial to Tyranofex, with Adrenal, and a Thorax Hive...it runs 200 though... (1 Tervigon +5 ) I don't bother to model the Miasma, I just describe my Big Bug "vomiting" out vile poisons ....

^ Exactly as pinecone said. I modeled my favorite prime spitting a bunch of glowing drool and called it a miasma. There's no official gun for it, so I doubt any opponent would have a problem with it.

Dump the trygon prime and zoans, add a Tfex or Exocrine and another Crone

Okay, after a bit of advice from y'all, here is my second stab at this. It leaves me a bit short on synapse, but I won't be going long-range anyway so it may not matter as much.

Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL-Devo. + Worms
Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL-Devo. + Worms

Tervigon, Adrenal Glands
Termagant x 30
Termagant x 30

Hive Crone
Hive Crone

Exocrine
Tyrannofex. Rupture Cannon
Trygon Prime, Miasma Cannon

What'cha think?

Dump the rupture cannon, just stick with the torrent template it has, then put AGs on it = fleet.

KillerWabbit wrote:
Okay, after a bit of advice from y'all, here is my second stab at this. It leaves me a bit short on synapse, but I won't be going long-range anyway so it may not matter as much.

Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL-Devo. + Worms
Hive Tyrant, Wings, TL-Devo. + Worms

Tervigon, Adrenal Glands
Termagant x 30
Termagant x 30

Hive Crone
Hive Crone

Exocrine
Tyrannofex. Rupture Cannon
Trygon Prime, Miasma Cannon

What'cha think?

I don't like the Rupture cannon, myself I prefer Adrenal, and Thorax Hive for a Tyranofex. You might drop the Miasma, and get Hive commander to Outflank a big Brood of Termagants. If not I'd break the second Big Brood into two x15 Broods....

The Tyrgon Prime can Deepstrike in to provide Synapse for the outflanking brood, and is one of the baddest Big Bugs you can get
Combine that with 4 FMC, and you have the makings of a "Threat Overload" army

Late entry: Maybe swap the Miasma Cannon onto the Terv? And put Adrenal on the Big Wormey that looks like it would work better...Personally I would drop the Miasma, and just buy a Thorax Hive for the Tervigon, and spend the left over points on some thing else....drop the extra Adrenal, and you have 30 to spend, thats Hive Commander, and something else as well

Well, I just found out about the dataslates for the 'nids. Heck, I found out about dataslates AT ALL (I've been gone a WHILE).

Skyblight is just what I am looking for. I like modeling flyers, and the people painting the models like painting flyers. Win-win! I also found out the play group we have uses dataslates/allies/etc, so no worries there!

I think I will try:

Skyblight Formation:
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Hive Crone
Harpy, Venom Cannons
Harpy, Stranglethorn
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 15

The Rest:
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Venomthrope x1
Termagant x 30
Tyranid Warriors x 3, Venom cannon
Hive Crone
Trygon Prime, Adrenals, Miasma Cannon

Four points of synapse, lots of flyers to play with, plus Big Wormy for some later game shenanigans. It might not be uber-competitive, but it looks fun!

KillerWabbit wrote:
Well, I just found out about the dataslates for the 'nids. Heck, I found out about dataslates AT ALL (I've been gone a WHILE).

Skyblight is just what I am looking for. I like modeling flyers, and the people painting the models like painting flyers. Win-win! I also found out the play group we have uses dataslates/allies/etc, so no worries there!

I think I will try:

Skyblight Formation:
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Hive Crone
Harpy, Venom Cannons
Harpy, Stranglethorn
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 15

The Rest:
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Venomthrope x1
Termagant x 30
Tyranid Warriors x 3, Venom cannon
Hive Crone
Trygon Prime, Adrenals, Miasma Cannon

Four points of synapse, lots of flyers to play with, plus Big Wormy for some later game shenanigans. It might not be uber-competitive, but it looks fun!

Cool, don't forget a Tunnel marker, so regenerated Gargoyle Broods can pop out in the middle of the backfield

That's an awesome list.

Warriors are blah, Trygon prime has fleet already doesn't it? You'd be better off giving it toxin sacs so he can hunt down Wraithknights and Riptides. I generally think the miasma cannon is useless but a Trygon Prime with two weapons shooting on the turn it arrives is pretty hard to match.

Out of personal preference, I really like to run dual Tfexs and a unit of dakkafexen. Looking at your list though, if I find an event that allows formations, that's the one I'm taking!

My variation of your list would be:

Skyblight Formation:
Hive Tyrant, Wings ,Bone swords, scything talons, toxin sacs
Hive Crone
Harpy, Venom Cannons
Harpy, Venom Cannons
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 10

The Rest:
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Venomthrope x1
Termagant x 10
Termagant x 10
Hive Crone
Hive Crone
Aegis Defense Line

Total = 1845

With this variant you've got:

8 FMCS (only one of which is incredibly important, the Warlord)

24 TL BS 4 S6 shots a turn

12 S5 Haywire missiles that are twin linked against fliers

3 units making S8 vector strikes

2 TL S9 Small blasts, spore mine bombs to flesh out cover seekers, and a fun way to ensure you go first in assault (-5 to initiative)

Due to ADL and Shrouded from Venomthrope, you can mitigate alpha strike lists by being off the board with your fliers, you can mitigate beta strikes again due to Shrouded's effect on Jink, all the while having insurance against opponents who steal the initiative (even though you'd probably rather go second).

5 MSU scoring units, three of which respawn on a 4+ and are the scoring AUTHOR-I-TIE (until more units come out with the same scoring rule). This is exasperated by the fact that if your opponent shoots at your troops, chances are pretty good they come back, and if they shot at your other threats, they aren't shooting at your scoring!

The Skyblight Flyrant also doubles as a super MC assassin with 6 WS 8 S6 AP2 attacks on the charge that wound just about everything on a 2+ reroll 6's cause ID. But against other MCs wounds on a. 4+ reroll wounds 6's ID. Choose to smash and now you have 4 S10 attacks that all wound on 2+ rerolling failed, 6's cause ID. What's that riptide? Bye bye. What's that Wraithknight? We hold, but you'll die in your assault phase so you don't get to shoot me?

The best part, is that most of this list doesn't need Synapse, sure your gribbles do, but the gants won't suffer too bad because you'll have them camping backfield objectives. The Gargoyles do, but they should be keeping up with the Flyrants/providing mobile cover saves anyways.

Just a few things to point out. I know I missed other super cool parts about this kits, like hyper mobility, redundancy, and target saturation. Those are mostly bonuses....that are awesome.

Other than the broken Misslesides formation where you can field something like 18 or 20 along with 2- 3 Riptides, this is the meanest, baddest, and one of the most broken formations out there.

I was going to run 3 Flyrants with one melee, but I hesitate to do so. Here's my reasoning: this formation will not be allowed forever. And while I would like to have a third, melee-based Flyrant someday, I don't want to sheel out the bucks and spend the modeling and painting time on a third HQ choice. I can only run 2 normally, and if the rules change and X-out the formation, I am stuck with that third Flyrant that could have been money spent on different, easier to justify model. The third one is in the picture for later, though!

Also, and maybe some help from the peeps who have been playing the new 'nid stuff... why all of the love for the TFex? I am behind on the meta, but I don't see how something that pricey fits over other things within its points range. It has a really good Torrent weapon (template beats cover and 12" more range helps, but still short range), and a stinger salvo. Is it a pressure thing? Basically, with so much to shoot at, the enemy will forget him and let him get in range? Or am I missing something else? Because if I can be convinced of its use, I might have to drop my Trygon (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) for a TFex and a couple of Zoanthropes.

I am a big fan of Trygon prime with ymgaarl factor, get the plus armor the turn he pops up and then plus attacks versus infantry or plus str vs vehicles the following turn. Miasma cannon is nice but I like for my Trygon to really get stuck in the middle of the enemy.

KillerWabbit wrote:
I was going to run 3 Flyrants with one melee, but I hesitate to do so. Here's my reasoning: this formation will not be allowed forever. And while I would like to have a third, melee-based Flyrant someday, I don't want to sheel out the bucks and spend the modeling and painting time on a third HQ choice. I can only run 2 normally, and if the rules change and X-out the formation, I am stuck with that third Flyrant that could have been money spent on different, easier to justify model. The third one is in the picture for later, though!

Also, and maybe some help from the peeps who have been playing the new 'nid stuff... why all of the love for the TFex? I am behind on the meta, but I don't see how something that pricey fits over other things within its points range. It has a really good Torrent weapon (template beats cover and 12" more range helps, but still short range), and a stinger salvo. Is it a pressure thing? Basically, with so much to shoot at, the enemy will forget him and let him get in range? Or am I missing something else? Because if I can be convinced of its use, I might have to drop my Trygon (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) for a TFex and a couple of Zoanthropes.

Tyranofex is popular because its good I use one myself, and it never disapoints. What it brings to the table is Save 2+ (it kinda all alone in codex on this one) So T6, 6 Wounds, and Save 2+ means it can eat up fire like nobodies business, and as a Big Bad Bug (tm) it demands notice.

Once it closes in those Templates rip troops apart (I spend the extra 10 points for a Thorax Hive as manditory) and it is a MC so close is good

The price comparison I use is this one: Tyranofex: Thorax Hive, Adrenal Gland 200 points, Zoey Brood x2 100 points
Counter example Twin Dakkafexen (Carnifex Brood x2) also 300 points

I consider either set to be equivelent, but example 1 has durable Synapse, and ignores cover. (plus buffs and Lances/Blasts) Overall I like it better. But that is a preferance, either Heavy slot choice is a good one. (Arguably 1 is better, but it consumes 2 slots... )

I like Winged Assassin Builds, so I say go for it it does cost money though. Me I use one Winged Assassin, and one Winged Dakka'rant. I don't have the models to run a Skyblight, so I have not tried it out. But logic says its totally rawkin

Big Wormey is as good a Big Bug as exists, so don't hesite to use her But do look at other builds as well. My own "standard" build is Big Wormey, Tyrannofex: Adrenal, Hive, and a Mawlock. I've never felt like that was a bad choice...

The love for the T-fex comes along with the obession with Xenos in this edition. (especially Eldar and Tau). A Torrent flamer that is AP4 will ignore most of the saves on things that need cover to survive.

I personally like the T-fex because it is the Nids ONLY access to a natural 2+ save. This is our only MC that won't lose wounds to a standard Meq unit that has Krak grenades. Because those bastardly things are AP3 and wound on 4+ they can very easily strip wounds from those other MCs.

I also prefer the T-fex because with Adrenal Glands, you can put pressure on your opponents to force a decision between it and your other units on the table.

People who don't like it often point to it's rather lackluster damage output. These same people also point out that a 2+ save isn't that great.

IMHO, T-fex is best fielded as a offensive unit to remove things like pathfinders, strip a few wounds off of Wraithknights and other MCs. He will take tanks out without a problem and then be able to stand there and soak the wounds coming back at him from the contents.

A 2+, 5+cv, 5+ FnP is ridiculously hard to remove....

Krak grenades are ap4

roxor08 wrote:
That's an awesome list.

Warriors are blah, Trygon prime has fleet already doesn't it? You'd be better off giving it toxin sacs so he can hunt down Wraithknights and Riptides. I generally think the miasma cannon is useless but a Trygon Prime with two weapons shooting on the turn it arrives is pretty hard to match.

Out of personal preference, I really like to run dual Tfexs and a unit of dakkafexen. Looking at your list though, if I find an event that allows formations, that's the one I'm taking!

My variation of your list would be:

Skyblight Formation:
Hive Tyrant, Wings ,Bone swords, scything talons, toxin sacs
Hive Crone
Harpy, Venom Cannons
Harpy, Venom Cannons
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 15
Gargoyles x 10

The Rest:
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Hive Tyrant, Wings Dual TL-Devo+worms
Venomthrope x1
Termagant x 10
Termagant x 10
Hive Crone
Hive Crone
Aegis Defense Line

Total = 1845

With this variant you've got:

8 FMCS (only one of which is incredibly important, the Warlord)

24 TL BS 4 S6 shots a turn

12 S5 Haywire missiles that are twin linked against fliers

3 units making S8 vector strikes

2 TL S9 Small blasts, spore mine bombs to flesh out cover seekers, and a fun way to ensure you go first in assault (-5 to initiative)

Due to ADL and Shrouded from Venomthrope, you can mitigate alpha strike lists by being off the board with your fliers, you can mitigate beta strikes again due to Shrouded's effect on Jink, all the while having insurance against opponents who steal the initiative (even though you'd probably rather go second).

5 MSU scoring units, three of which respawn on a 4+ and are the scoring AUTHOR-I-TIE (until more units come out with the same scoring rule). This is exasperated by the fact that if your opponent shoots at your troops, chances are pretty good they come back, and if they shot at your other threats, they aren't shooting at your scoring!

The Skyblight Flyrant also doubles as a super MC assassin with 6 WS 8 S6 AP2 attacks on the charge that wound just about everything on a 2+ reroll 6's cause ID. But against other MCs wounds on a. 4+ reroll wounds 6's ID. Choose to smash and now you have 4 S10 attacks that all wound on 2+ rerolling failed, 6's cause ID. What's that riptide? Bye bye. What's that Wraithknight? We hold, but you'll die in your assault phase so you don't get to shoot me?

The best part, is that most of this list doesn't need Synapse, sure your gribbles do, but the gants won't suffer too bad because you'll have them camping backfield objectives. The Gargoyles do, but they should be keeping up with the Flyrants/providing mobile cover saves anyways.

Just a few things to point out. I know I missed other super cool parts about this kits, like hyper mobility, redundancy, and target saturation. Those are mostly bonuses....that are awesome.

Other than the broken Misslesides formation where you can field something like 18 or 20 along with 2- 3 Riptides, this is the meanest, baddest, and one of the most broken formations out there.

Hard to argue, but I'd suggest you find 5 more points and kit the Winged Assassin with a Thorax Hive. I'd go with Electro-bugs, it gives you one more answer to Imperial Knights, and Other vehicles, and it give you a big overwatch for anyone fool enough to charge your assassin. And it's always nice to hose down a unit before you tear into it