1000 Point Tyranid List: Need Helpful Suggestions.

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**Grunt_For_Christ**

Lorgar's_Blessed wrote:It kind of dissapoints me that I have to buy as much of a useless unit as a needed unit, just to use half the box. Why can't gaunts be seperate?

Anyways, this all has helped a lot, especially RustyKnight and your long list of beauty. From what I have understood, for a 1000 point, I'd set it up like...

6-9 Warriors

A squad (maybe two) of stealers

Gaunts, Gaunts, and more gaunts

A few rippers purely for cover saves.

A fex (a second if possible).

Some zopes to help add synapse and AT.

Is this a good backbone, probably only use six warriors, but nonetheless.

Just keep a few things in mind when putting your list together:

-SYNAPE for gaunts. Having one synapse creature is never enough because you'll always have the zoanthrope pulled to one side to go against a tank and the gaunts will be too far away and become useless. Warriors are great for this as they're immune to ID and can be taken in large squads.

-Carnifexes, rippers, hive tyrants, warriors do NOT fleet. They can only run, which will force you to carefully consider where they are placed during deployment.

-Buy the box of gaunts, buy a few extra gun arms (or use the ones from the warrior box) and then sell the hormagaunt talons on ebay. People love to buy those so you won't be losing any money and having 4 different poses instead of 2 will make things look more visually appealing.

-Remember feeder tendrils. They have become one of the best upgrades we have. If you drop a lictor onto terrain with a group of warriors or a fex or even rippers and converge them onto a unit of anything, all units gain within 3" reroll their hits... With carnifexes that is absolutely invaluable!

You'll do great, and just ask around your local game shop and I can guarantee you can get extra weapons and bases from someone so you won't have to spend nearly as much as you think. It sounds like you already have a decent 1k list put together. Now you just need to play them and tinker with the upgrades that will take your good list into an excellent one!

**Grunt_For_Christ**

It's all about numbers. Godfex's just don't work anymore, even at the 1k level. If you have a devastator squad or even 2 obliterators that one godfex will go down quickly.

Lorgar's, it is absolutely smart to have 2 fex's @ 1k. You'll most likely be facing at least one AV14 tank and support units that'll wound on 2's or 3's and allow no save. My recommendation is to take 2 and have warriors (if that's your playing style). Hello cover save!

The key is to make them cheap so that you can replicate one type. Then if one goes down you still have another, forcing the enemy to focus on one, thus leaving the other bright & shiny!

**Grunt_For_Christ**

I like the list! You're definitely on to something here, but definitely don't forget what Mattlov has said. With such a small list you won't have lots and lots of things competing for heavy support slots, so I'd seriously consider biovores. Otherwise, good list all the way around. It's low on AT, but all bug lists are. Excellent choice for the gunfex too.

**Grunt_For_Christ**

Let me boost your confidence with leaping warriors...

I give mine rending/scything and devourers. They get to run for 1-2 turns, maximizing both their abilities. They shoot for one and then get into assault. I got in a squad of those warriors (there were 5 of them) with a unit of stealers that had feeder tendrils and they destroyed an elite 7 man unit of chaos terminators and a chaos tactical squad as well over the course of 3 turns. Their shooting took out 2 terminators before they got there, which was invaluable. You're playing a balanced list with them, and I think they do moderately well against everything. Have fun!

**Grunt_For_Christ**

Oldgrue wrote: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Oldgrue_on_Tyranids
Here's a recent overview article you could look into. My observations, YMMV.

Biovores are a waste *specifically* for the kill points they deliver, the utterly uncontrollable deployment of their spore mines, and their ridiculous cost. 165 points of Carnifex or Zoanthrope consistently perform more roles effectively than a unit of Biovores. Given their low BS and relatively long range, a battery of biovores can be expected to surrender 6+ KP in a game without reliably impacting a MEQ squad. Their unreliable return on investment makes them a liability, rather than a hope to eliminate MEQ squads.

Warriors in units of 3 are probably too small. If you must use Warriors consider 5 to force a significant investment of fire into them and look into using several weapons to maximize your ability to allocate wounds.

As for the Venom cannon... forget it. The Carnifex already achieves maximum strength and Enhanced Senses is far too expensive to provide a return on investment. I'm not convinced of its utility even on Tyranid Warriors.

Carnifex almost need Bio Plasma. There's little reason not to have it.
If you *must* have the Dakkafex, at least get spine banks and have three weapons to pound on a unit. Its not like you've got range to be concerned with.

On The gaunt box: Buy several boxes. With a unit of Leaping warriors, you can deliver them effectively even when surrounded by the hormagaunts and possibly even eke out some cover saves. While the Hormagaunts are expensive points wise they are fast as all get out.

On Lictors: Never. Save a few points and use a Carnifex.

I like the three large broods of Termagaunts and have to warn you that larger units can be a bit unwieldy for the first few games. You might want to consider two broods of both Genestealers and Termagaunts as well.
I might suggest a Hive Tyrant and a Carnifex so you can deliver your force in a more distributed manner or Zoanthropes to help ensure you have synapse.

edit: cleaned up an ugly URL and formatting.

You make a convincing argument for most everything, but I'd like to give a few rebuttals:

-Kill Points on spore mines: There are 3 other threads discussing this right now and the concensus leans towards spore mines not giving up KP as the codex entry says specifically that they are not scoring. This is debatable I think.

-Venom Cannons: If you're facing a land raider or predator it's important to prevent it from shooting because we basically have nothing that'll wreck it until turn 3 at least. Having a S10 gun with at least 2 shots is sometimes invaluable. And against dark eldar it has been so, so, so good to me.

-Spine banks on a dakkafex: As an MC can only fire 2 weapons per turn, I don't think that it's really worth it, especially since frag grenades do nothing for fexes in 5th.

-Biovores: They are expensive but I can't tell you how many marines I've killed (thus forcing a pin check also). Also in 4 of 6 games I wrecked a predator and or dreadnaught on turn 1, thus saving a LOT of gaunts...

-Lictor: Having an extra re-roll for an outflanking genestealer army can be invaluable (and with feeder tendrils lictors can help a lot).

-Hive Tyrants and zoanthropes: You are so correct it's not even funny...

**Grunt_For_Christ**

I know what you mean... I never have a problem getting my spore mines to hit, so I like them just like you. For me, lictors reserve help does a lot for me--always does. And the rending claws, well, they're rending for me. Every single game he's been in he's taken out a tank, so I would have to admit that I'm a little biased.