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Hi all,

Some friends are looking at getting into BFG in the next few months, so I thought I would join in and build a Tyranid fleet. We were looking to start at about 1000 points and then perhaps scale up from there.

I've looked through some articles here and elsewhere, and although some of them are (very!) dated it looks like a lot of the advice that was good in 2010 is still going to be good now because... nothing has really changed since then!

So taking that on board, I've come up with the following as an "all-rounder" list:

Hive Ship (320)
2x Pyro-acid (prow/thorax), 3x Launch bays (6 total)

Hive Ship (320)
2x Pyro-acid (prow/thorax), 3x Launch bays (6 total)

Vanguard Drone (25)
Feeder tentacle

Vanguard Drone (25)
Feeder tentacle

3x Kraken (120)
Pyro-acid

12 Escort Drone (180)
Bio-plasma

I really wanted to include some Claw Kraken, but I just cannot find the points to do a meaningful squadron of them, and I think having two Hive Ships is pretty important to help with Instinctive Behaviour. The only option I can think of is to change the pyyro-acid Kraken into Claw Kraken, but a S18 battery just seems so good...

Launch Bays also look to be a core of the fleet list, and I can have 24 tokens (?) worth of fighters/assault boats out at any one time in this list, which together with the huge swarm of Drones should look pretty impressive!

Anyone with BFG/Tyranid experience want to weigh in? I've built nothing yet, so am totally open to help/changes/suggestions/cries of "You're doing it wrong!"

At 1000 points you won't (probably) need another hive ship, just pimp the first one with some extra spores and hull points. Use those points to bust out some tenta-Kraken instead, I've found out they make most of your problems go away by either absolutely wrecking enemy weapons (and escorts) or forcing them to shoot at you with half effectiveness because of Brace for Impact. Also, at these points Vanguards most likely just get shot to bits without being too useful. Krakens as a whole are just objectively better than all other escorts in 'Nid fleet, at least in the Armada version. I usually run mostly tentacles and pyro-acids, as those mobile buggers can bring all hell with a sudden 30+ battery coming through an asteroid field to the enemy's flank.

If you want claws, a cheap Cruiser with few extra shields and double claws should be enough to rip cruisers apart before being blown to smithereens.

This should help you my friend!!

http://www.specialist-arms.com/fanatic/07tt.pdf

Thank you for posting this question, the tyrannies have always been difficult to wrap my head around, and a lack of play testing buddies makes it tough to pick a fleet! Any other advice guys?

I'm interested in where you and your gaming friends intend to get your ships from? GZG has some bio ship types in their Phalon range but I'm racking my brains for other options now that all the ship lines are so pricey on yon t'interweb.

Most of the time I see Nid ships made from spare ships, a good base for an escort is a Fex tail tip a little green stuff a adrenal gland a few spikes and BAM escorts

 Ragsta wrote:

I'm interested in where you and your gaming friends intend to get your ships from? GZG has some bio ship types in their Phalon range but I'm racking my brains for other options now that all the ship lines are so pricey on yon t'interweb.

Personally I decided to scratchbuild everything as GW's range was ugly.



This bigger Hive Ship is made of old camera film tubes.



This is a bottle of glue.



My Krakens are warrior heads and green stuff.

Man they are awesome

At the risk of sounding clique - hot DAMN those are indeed awesome!

Xyptc, please let us know how you get on with your Nids!