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So I have been out of the hobby for good 3 years, haven't played more than 3-4 small, fun games with various friends. I have however seen quite a few games over the years.
Now I am back to digging out my Hive Fleet, and for starters, I am not interested in doing Godzilla list. It simply holds no appeal to me, I used to love my (now old-style it seems) 120+ model swarm.

So while looking through the current codex, I have been thinking about some medium sized army, for I need something which isn't fully min/maxed to get myself back on track. Not going to go into tournaments with this army, I simply need to learn rules and how things work now, before I start doing tourney list. This is slightly themed around being a bunch of medium sized critters for the field, different from the huge swarm I used to have.

Here's the list, comments and thoughts under them in italics;

228 - 6 Warriors with ST, RC, Leap, +I, +Save
228 - 6 Warriors with ST, RC, Leap, +I, +Save

I have always liked assault warriors. I hear they suck now, and I can see that from the points they pay for things like Leaping. Atleast they can't be insta-killed anymore by PFs. I am basing my army on different layers of Rending Claws, hoping it's enough for downing marines and other power armored troopers, possibly tanks too.

145 - 5 Warriors with TL Devs, +BS, +Save
145 - 5 Warriors with TL Devs, +BS, +Save

This is more for the fact I wanted something which shoots, and the fact I see a lot of Ork armies. Not to mention how many more people talk about building one. Figured this configuration would help thin out the Ork hordes a tad. Can't hurt vehicles though, at all.

180 - 9 Genestealers with +Save
160 - 8 Genestealers with +Save

Rending Claw platforms, old favourites. Hoping that with them, the RC Warriors and Raveners people will have some troubles picking targets atleast.

96 - 16 Gaunts with Fleshborer

Have to have Gaunts, sorry but I like them. Fleshborer is more for the fact I don't have Spinegaunts.

40 - 1 Ravener with ST & RC
40 - 1 Ravener with ST & RC
40 - 1 Ravener with ST & RC

I am hearing only Troops will be counted as scoring units in 5th edition, making these nothing but another Rending platform, but expecting this army to change a lot by the time 5th Ed comes out.

65 - 1 Zoanthrope with WB & Synapse
65 - 1 Zoanthrope with WB & Synapse
65 - 1 Zoanthrope with WB & Synapse

More Synapse and my actual tank busting units. Could possibly drop the Synapse in order to free some points.

1497 pts altogether.

Main idea is to have the gaunts surging as first wave for targeting priority checks. Big guns shouldn't have any clear target, except the Zoanthropes (for AP2 guns that's), though Heavy Bolters will have a field day with this army.
So gaunts in first, followed by warriors and genestealers in second wave. If non-engaged enemy units try to pull away, use the shooty warriors and the Zoan's to harass them.
I am sure I'll have troubles winning with this army against any serious min/max army, but that's partially what I wanted, I need to learn the ropes, and best way to do it for me, is to try and do it with slightly handicapped list, so I have to actually think.

While I do want critique for the list itself, its effectiveness and just how bad it in general is (Dakka has always been a good place for it, especially the latter, no offense intended to anyone with that).
I also want to know people's opinions about building a serious army around the medium sized buggers/critters. Or how to make a swarm work again, considering I am not interested in making a Godzilla list.

Thank you beforehand Dakka community ^.^

EDIT: Bad spelling mistake, bad!

Like yourself, I just got back into 40K after about a 5 year exile and it's 'Nids again for me. I'm playing shooty 'Nids atm since in the past I had went w/ the horde of termies and steelers; thought it might be fun to have shooty 'Nids for a change. I don't like assault warriors myself since steelers and raveners should be enough. 4th ed seems to favor shooting so much so that I think if I had your list, I'd scrap the asslt warriors and get a bit more shooting for a more shooty/rending combined arms list. Leave the rending to the ravs and the steelers and support them w/ shooting from Dev Warriors and a Dakka Tyrant or two. You would do well to split your gaunts into 2 units of 8 for junk deployment. Along those same lines, your dakka Dev Warriors will serve you better as 3 units of 3,3, and 4 respectively. More drops means stalling to drop your crucial units until you've seen almost all of the enemies' army. With such cheap troops at your disposal, it's a piece of cake to fill the FOC and probably something that you would want to consider. Happy rending.

the gaunts seem useless. Everything else looks great, single purpose and cheap.
~dan