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okay.. so my friend is starting to play 40k, im a sm player, I know nothing about tyranids, is there even a battleforce you can buy for them? It doesnt say anything on the gw site. also, what are their main units? i remember seeing those little dudes the small dinosaur looking things, but those also arent on the gw site? and also, whats the pros/cons of tyranids.

i heard from sm playrs that facing a tyranid horde is bruttallll, watcha say?

Hey. Welcome to Dakka!

Nids are getting a revamp in Jan/Feb so a lot of the rules and models are being redone/repackaged. If he is looking at starting out he would do well to wait a month or so until the new rules and models are out.

Because of the aforementioned changes, it is hard to predict how the new bugs will play. Traditionally they have been a swarm of small, cheap bugs such as gaunts and hormagaunts followed by harder hitting elite combat and shooting squads such as genesteelers and tyranid warriors. Then a few rock hard models are thrown in such as carnifexes and Hive tyrants. Some stronger builds have been based around more 'steelers or more monstrous carnifexes etc.

Overall they are a combat heavy race which needs to focus on staying alive while crossing the board before eating everything in close combat. They sometimes struggle due to a slight lack of long range anti-tank weapons and there are few units with long-term combat survivability.

Normally I'd say buy the codex to see if you like the rules, maybe even proxy some models before committing to buy but with the rules due to change so soon it might be better to go into your friendly local gaming store (flgs) and talking to someone there. I play Nids and they are very rewarding to paint and play. They are more than capable of matching some of the strongest builds by other races.

If he is desperate to start buying models, most current lists include tyranid warriors, gaunts, at least hive tyrant and at least one carnifex. For the moment, stay away from raveners and gargoyles, which are strongly suspected of being re-modelled and so will soon be much cheaper. There are plenty of 'beginning an army' threads around here which will mostly have similar advice.

There is also an 'introductions' forum for people starting out, so you might want to start a topic there too to say hi.

Hope that wasn't too confusing!

crzyHiPpQ wrote:okay.. so my friend is starting to play 40k, im a sm player, I know nothing about tyranids, is there even a battleforce you can buy for them? It doesnt say anything on the gw site. also, what are their main units? i remember seeing those little dudes the small dinosaur looking things, but those also arent on the gw site? and also, whats the pros/cons of tyranids.

i heard from sm playrs that facing a tyranid horde is bruttallll, watcha say?

Well, for one thing, there is a new tyranid codex scheduled for January so anything I tell you may very well change then.

That said, yes, there is a tyranid battleforce deal for tyranids. It's actually probably one of the best deals offered by GW. It's $90 and comes with termagaunts, hormagaunts, genestealers, tyranid warriors, and a carnifex. I bought two battleforces, two hive tyrants, and four tyrant guard and made a very effective army list. Also, you can use the scything talons that come with the genestealers to convert the termagaunts into hormagaunts. Ok, that probably made no sense, but just know that it's a great deal because it's an older battleforce and they'll probably discontinue it with the new codex. As for the conversion, your friend will have to figure that out with the help of his codex. Just know that it's a good idea if you're running hormagaunts.

Their troops are hormagaunts, termagaunts, and genestealers. Their main HQ is the hive tyrant.

A lot of people think that tyranids aren't very effective in fifth. They got weaker, mind you, but I still find them very competitive. Their only real problem is that they have problems popping high armor value at a range. Their strength is sheer numbers. Nothing like a giant block of alien insect death walking at you.

There's a tyranid tactics thread here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/265043.page

In it I posted the army list I use and a break down of what I do with every unit. Again, won't make much sense without a codex handy.

Please make sure to post with proper grammar and spelling - it makes your posts a lot easier to read for everybody.

Tyranids are great at overrunning their opponents with hordes of Gaunts, supported by bigger bugs like Warriors and Carnifexes. Alternately, they can have a really elite-heavy force of Genestealers supporting Carnifexes. They could also go full on Nidzilla and mass Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants.

The new codex comes out for them in two months, so much of this is likely to change. However, the first option (hordes of little bugs covered by a balanced force) will remain the same.

Brother SRM wrote:Please make sure to post with proper grammar and spelling - it makes your posts a lot easier to read for everybody.

Yeah, no problem. By the way, nice armies.