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In a previous thread, I got advice to buy the codex and a small force to start Tyranids. Is the Tyranid Swarm bundle the most cost effective way to do this?

Its definitely a bargain for the models in it. the termagants are a must have, the hormagaunts can be proxied for more terms if you wish, rippers are always useless but not bbreaking the box so. carnifexes are good again and im not sure about ggargoyless. weather their in the box or good. all in all if i still nndidnt have all those mmodels I would definitely buy. you'll still need an HQ unless you just run old one eye, which i dont suggest. so swarm box, aand a hive tyrant should start you off nicely

Wooh, I helped someone start 40k! Lol, anyway I agree with the above post. Welcome to 40k! Be ready to suffer from plastic crack!

The swarm bundle is one of the best savings on the GW website, if you bought the contents separately it would cost you 258 dollars, opposed to 170. Thats a 35% discount, which you would be hard to find even on any other online store that offers discounts.

The thing is, you then have to build an army around the contents to capitalize on the savings. So it depends on what you want to play with as an army.

Unfortunately the higher model count armies tend to be more expen$$$ive to play as the cost in dollars for the model is often the same as models with a higher pts cost for their units.

That said if you pickup the swarm box the models without any upgrades come to 592 points if you use all of them from the box.

I would reccomend picking up either a HT box and 2 zoanthropes, or 2 Hive tyrants, for synapse. This will give you the basic synapse you need and round your army out to about 1000 points if you use all the included models. The HT and 2 zoanthropes costs about as much as 2 Hive tyrants, which is a total of about 100 dollars.

This total force would be ~270 dollars, which is quite cheap for a 1000 point army but you might find it lacking in anti armor options.

I'm going to just have to jump in and say don't buy the swarm box. Go on the Tyranid thread on the tactics section and look at what people are playing there. "Swarm" is not a very effective play style at the moment. Nidzilla and FMC-based lists are the flavor of the month. Generally, you want to field as many MCs and as few little gribbles as you can get away with.

The Swarm box would be a good value if all the units in it were very useful. Sadly, they are not, and the box lacks a Hive Tyrant, which is required to play the army. Caveat emptor.

I agree witrh blaktoof, but dont let the anti armor part steer you away! This is a starting force, a way for you to get your foot in the door and see how fun 40k can be!

 TyCorny wrote:
Its definitely a bargain for the models in it. the termagants are a must have, the hormagaunts can be proxied for more terms if you wish, rippers are always useless but not bbreaking the box so. carnifexes are good again and im not sure about ggargoyless. weather their in the box or good. all in all if i still nndidnt have all those mmodels I would definitely buy. you'll still need an HQ unless you just run old one eye, which i dont suggest. so swarm box, aand a hive tyrant should start you off nicely

I'm going to have to disagree with the Ripper comment, too. Rippers figured in most of the top-placing Tyranid armies at the BAO. No gaunts to be seen except for Gargoyles. Deep Striking, objective secured rippers are about as good as Nid troops get, and they're dirt cheap and really hard to get LOS on because they are so small.

Asmodas wrote:

 TyCorny wrote:
Its definitely a bargain for the models in it. the termagants are a must have, the hormagaunts can be proxied for more terms if you wish, rippers are always useless but not bbreaking the box so. carnifexes are good again and im not sure about ggargoyless. weather their in the box or good. all in all if i still nndidnt have all those mmodels I would definitely buy. you'll still need an HQ unless you just run old one eye, which i dont suggest. so swarm box, aand a hive tyrant should start you off nicely

I'm going to have to disagree with the Ripper comment, too. Rippers figured in most of the top-placing Tyranid armies at the BAO. No gaunts to be seen except for Gargoyles. Deep Striking, objective secured rippers are about as good as Nid troops get, and they're dirt cheap and really hard to get LOS on because they are so small.

I've heard of people taking minimum troop choice of rippers and then MCs. Would this be a good route to go for competitive lists?

My friend does this, and its a pain in my marines sides! Very good list

It needs a creature with synapse! If you use old One Eye he gives his leadership to anyone (unit) within 12"

I dunno about you guys, but Rippers and Spinefists? Mmmmmm, love it.

 Wargamer24 wrote:
In a previous thread, I got advice to buy the codex and a small force to start Tyranids. Is the Tyranid Swarm bundle the most cost effective way to do this?

It is a good buy. You should be able to use every figure in the box...I reserved 10 of the Hormies, and converted them to Devilgaunts though... You also need a HQ, and extra Synapse is a "must". I suggest you toss in a Tyrant box, and add a Warrior box on down the line.

I'd personally recommend watching ebay for a week. While the swarm box is surely good, Ebay often times has way better deals. Sure, you may have to strip some paint (not terribly difficult) and some of the models may be already assembled (generally not hard to solve either), but due to that bit of 'extra work' you'll usually get everything way cheaper.

In simple terms get biovores or whatever that thing is in heavy support that drops barrage pieplates

 Alienoid wrote:
In simple terms get biovores or whatever that thing is in heavy support that drops barrage pieplates

Exocrine. Very good unit. Team it with three Warriors with a Venom Cannon for Twin-linked pinning goodness