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Quick history: I last played 40K about 10 years ago, then quit playing in favor of WHFB. I recently decided to take a break from WHFB and have decided to take up 40K again. I'm going to play Space Wolves, the only army that currently interests me. My son, 10 years old, is also interested in picking up 40K, and I think this will be easier for him to pick up than WHFB, so I'm going to be buying him an army. He has decided he likes Tyranids.

This is where I need help. I bought the Tyranid Codex with the intention of helping him design and army that we would collect and play together. Having read the book cover to cover, I am a little overwhelmed. The Tyranids appear to be the most flexible and versatile list I've ever seen in WHFB or 40K. If I were interested in playing them myself, I would have a blast experimenting with troops and equipment. I would use trial and error to determine what worked best for my play style and design an army that way.

However, the Tyranids do not interest me even slightly. (I play an army more for the "flavor" than the rules. I can enjoy having Wolf Brother Claudius leading an attack against heretics. I just cannot put myself in the place of Hive Leader Bughead.) So what I'm asking for is help to design my son an army. I'm not asking for you to give me an army list, though I will happily review any you're interested in posting. I just need some pointers as to what will be easy to learn and yet somewhat competitive in play.

This is what I'm looking for:
-An army that has to participate in every phase of the game. Moving, shooting, assault etc. I'd like him to learn all of the rules. So balance is important. For example, I was going to do 2 hive tyrants; one shooty and 1 for assault. The same thing with the carnifexes.
-A somewhat streamlined list without a lot of special rules.
-He likes the big monsters, but he also like the numbers you can get in squads, so I'd like a balance of big guys vs little guys. I was envisioning maybe a Hive Tyrant (or 2) with a bodyguard, a carnifex (or 3), and then genestealers, gaunts, and maybe even ripper swarms.
-And keep in mind, this is for a 10 year old, so simpler is better when possible.

Thanks a lot for any help you can offer.

Tyrant + Guard
Broodlords
Heavy Support Carnifexes with guns
Hormagaunts + Genestealers
Warriors with guns or close combat with wings.
I'd say Gargoyles if they weren't expensive money-wise.

No Spore Mines
None of those pesky Zoanathropes
No Deep-striking.
Rippers are probably a bad idea w/ the S6 instant kill and not relying on synapse.

Have fun explaining Synapse. It can be challenging enough for me understand myself. XD

Troops can fill points.

You can even use the Macragge starter missions. There were some nice WD supplements in addition to them a couple of years back that introduced ever more complicated rules eg vehicles.