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I went for a different angle on this one. I don't trust Tervigons. They're fat, lazy, bullet magnets. You can't just field one, otherwise it'll get blown away in short order. You need to field them in packs for survivability and at 1500 that gets very expensive very fast. I wanted my dirty deeds done dirt cheap. I tried to come up with a cheap but effective horde list. More details after the list is posted. . .

HQ:
Tyranid Warrior Prime, Devourer, Scything Talons (80)

TROOPS:
Termagants x20 (100)
Termagants x20 (100)
Termagants x20 (100)
Warrior Brood x3, Barbed Strangler (100)
Warrior Brood x3, Barbed Strangler (100)
Warrior Brood x3, Barbed Strangler (100)

ELITES:
Hive Guard x2 (100)
Hive Guard x2 (100)
Hive Guard x2 (100)

FAST:
Gargoyle Brood x20, Toxin Sacs (140)
Gargoyle Brood x20, Toxin Sacs (140)

HEAVY:
Trygon Prime (240)

GRAND TOTAL: 1500

It's a walking wall of bodies. The Termagants screen the Warriors. The Warriors screen the Gargoyles. The Gargoyles wait for an opportunity to do some serious damage in CC. The primary concern is to get people out of their transports and what better to do that than 6 angry accurate hive guard, hiding behind some wall where no one can see or shoot them back! After I get people out of their rhinos and chimeras the horde descends in maddening waves of chaos. If possible the Gargoyles shoot over their friendlies and engage in CC, tying up some units. The Warriors thin the ranks with Large Blast Template Barbed Strangler goodness and hammer people with the devourers, hopefully breaking their morale and sending them running. I don't care what the Termagants do. . . For them, taking fire and irritating the enemy by blocking their movement or tying stuff up is just fine by me. If they manage to kill something or grab an objective along the way I'll be very happy that I paid so little and received so much from them The Trygon Prime will pop up when it does and cause mayhem and chaos in the enemy ranks, and hopefully kill/break alot of stuff along the way. Or, at least, absorb alot of fire. The Warrior Prime is just a cheap HQ that helps out some of his buddies.

So, Comments, Critiques please!


LIST 2

HQ:
Tyranid Warrior Prime, Scything Talons, Bone Sword and Lash (95)
Tyranid Warrior Prime, Scything Talons, Bone Sword and Lash (95)

TROOPS:
Termagants x30 (150)
Termagants x30 (150)
Tervigon, Cluster Spines, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst (190)
Tervigon, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst (185)

ELITES:
Hive Guard x3 (150)
Hive Guard x2 (100)
Zoanthropes x2 (120)

HEAVY:
Tyranofex, Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Shredder Shard Beetles (265)

GRAND TOTAL: 1500

The Warrior Primes join the Termagants out front and screen the Hive Guards and Zoans. The Hive Guard screen the Tervigons and the Tyranofex. The Tervigons give the Termagants some Catalyst juju to keep them going. The rest of the tactics are pretty obvious.

So, what do you think?

Looks solid enough to me. You got good cover from Synapse although you might struggle with keeping the Hive Guard in Synapse range unless they move up with the rest of the swarm.

Test it out and let us know how it goes. I keep bouncing from a deepstrike list to a Swarm list, from Zoanthropes to Hive guard so will be interesting to know how yours does in a few tests.

"The Warrior Prime is just a cheap HQ that helps out some of his buddies."

Oh, no he's not.

If you want this list to have any chance, you're going to put the Prime with a squad of Termagants, until they die. Then he'll go to a new squad of Termagants.

Why? You have no MCs (that start on the board). That means your opponent has nothing to point his anti-tank at except the Warriors. That mean your Warriors are dead in probably 2 turns, MAYBE 3. That means no synapse. Sure, your Trygon pops up, maybe keeps things under control for a turn, then dies to EVERY anti-tank weapon the opponent has.

I'd take another Tyranid Prime, actually.

Also, 6 Hive Guard probably ain't gonna cut it, as far as anti-tank goes. They can knock down transports, when they're in range, but I don't think they can do all the heavy lifting. You have literally nothing else that can do better than glance AV 10, except the Tyranid Prime and Trygon Prime. And the latter will die immediately.

One Land Raider could probably beat your army.

I'm not saying it's an awful list. You're decent against a foot army, and it would be fun to play. But man, you've got some gaps to fill!

Oh, and I'd try to find the points for Adrenal Glands on the Gargoyles. They're pretty good without them, and very good with (4+ to wound with re-rolls).

I had considered that and taken it as a glaring flaw in my list. I could handle 1 LR, but not 2 or 3. This just gives me a reason to reevaluate the army and make some needed changes. I always go through this with my lists, the first one is a little light, the second is a little heavy, and the last is just right My big fear about Warriors is that they're glass cannons; tough on paper but one lucky battle cannon shot and you lose the unit that cost you 300 points Not a pretty or enjoyable sight. I don't like to spend more than the minimum on them because if I lose them it won't be game breaking. And I plan on losing them. I'll have to drop the points for the Hive Tyrant. He's awesome but so very expensive.

I dunno man, running a Tyrant in this list? I see two problems.

1. It's gonna cost a ton of points, which will eat into your horde.

2. You might as well paint a giant red bullseye on him. If you take out the warriors and put him in, your opponent's anti-tank again has exactly one target. I still think you're better off with 2 primes, hiding in the horde.

And yeah, I just don't know how you get anti-tank in a Nid horde.

i would drop the hive guard for some zoanthropes. they pew pew tanks and marines with the nice aoe blast, plus give off the synapse! 3+ invuln save isnt to bad either

Zoanthropes can be good, but you need them in position. 18" range is poop and if they get hit by a battle cannon and fail their invuln save they're dead in a bad way. Another expensive glass cannon unit that's great in the right place, but you still have to make sure you can get them there. That would more than likely require a Mycetic Spore and some additional planning not to mention points the spend on it all. Hive guard are great because you cannot insta-kill them with anything. I really don't like to take some of the other Monstrous Creatures because of JotWW. I'm running into a bit of a wall at 1500. Tyrants are extremely expensive and very tough to squeeze in at this point level even with limited upgrades.

Don't knock Zoanthropes. I've had mixed success with them but they are still in my 10th re-writed list. I have 2 units of two now droped in pods, they do the business and even if somone does charge them they keep the enemy unit tied up for a turn or two.

If your going swarm then I would go with Hive Guard. Mainly to keep things cheap and more bucks on massing your horde are then handy.

Zoans are better anti tank, IMO. Hive huard shots are only S8 and warp lance is S10 and it's a lance attack. This meants that zoans will glance land raiders on a 3+ and glance on a 2+, this is much better than the hive guard's glance on a 6. Zoans are only 10 points extra and for that you get snapsyse, a 3+ inv save and an awesome blast attack, which is brilliant for taking out MEQs once all the land raiders have been vapourised.

i would still suggest the Zoans with a spore drop. 3 in a pod is a bit over 200 points, sorry dont have codex on me right now but thats pretty close to the points haha.

drop them, pop something big and scary and then all your little guys swarm em. Zoans are a great added support with the synapse cause you drop em where you want

Alright, I've been beating my skull into the wall for the last few days trying to figure out how to get this to work. FINALLY! ! ! I believe that I've found a solid 1500 point list that give me solid potential all around.

HQ:
Tyranid Warrior Prime, Scything Talons, Bone Sword and Lash (95)
Tyranid Warrior Prime, Scything Talons, Bone Sword and Lash (95)

TROOPS:
Termagants x30 (150)
Termagants x30 (150)
Tervigon, Cluster Spines, Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst (190)
Tervigon, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst (185)

ELITES:
Hive Guard x3 (150)
Hive Guard x2 (100)
Zoanthropes x2 (120)

HEAVY:
Tyranofex, Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Shredder Shard Beetles (265)

GRAND TOTAL: 1500

The Warrior Primes join the Termagants out front and screen the Hive Guards and Zoans. The Hive Guard screen the Tervigons and the Tyranofex. The Tervigons give the Termagants some Catalyst juju to keep them going. The rest of the tactics are pretty obvious.

So, what do you think?

I think its enough time for talk, your only going to see how this list performs by testing it out. You'll know what works well and what doesnt after a couple of games. Give it a spin at let us know how well it does and what changes you want to make and why.

The only concern I have currently is that you have a LOT of shooty for High AV. I would drop the Tyranofex for a Trygon Prime with Adrenal Glands, also Doom in a Spore is a massive distraction/pain in the ass for your oppenent. These are my personal favourites after many test games with Nids, not forgetting Zoeys

Second the desire for bat reps!

As for your second list, I want to like it, but maybe even it out a bit first?

I might try 2x20 gants, and with the points saved even out the hive guard to 3 each. I would also 'downgrade' the primes lash/sword to just 2 swords, and bring your zoans to 3 with the other points. 2 swords on a prime will really scare a lot of enemies, while 1 sword means a high LD enemy will most likely not worry about instant death.

In my testing, 30 gants are too unwieldy to be effective. For example, if you are using them as a screen, then you will need multiple lines of them to fit 30 models, which keep your units behind them further from the action and also increase the damage blasts will do. Also, 30 gants, when assaulted, will be pulled away and tarpitted quite easily, and with 30 models you will definately surround whatever is attacking you, meaning no support. I have had a dread charge the gants, near an objective, and basicly he becomes an untargetable contesting unit.

As for prime placement, dont just stick them in gant squads. They can be great in zoan squads or hive guard. Consider a shooty enemy with a metric ton of missile launcher squads. If you put both primes in the zoan squad, then you can soak a lot of instant death from them, keeping them in the game much longer.

Here's my critique:

Good amount of synapse, good body count, good load outs on the gaunts.

What's bad?

Warriors will be targeted by every AT weapon your opponent has because they are the only largish threat which means a whole lot of ID shots coming at their face. I also don't particularly like the loads outs. Good anti horde but you have that in 60 gants, I'd spend a few more points on them so they are a threat to MEQ. That means deathspitter and boneswords on the Prime, the Lash and sword is pertty poor the LD check on 2d6 makes the iD ability next to useless. Then deathspitters and rending for the warriors, barbed strangler is a good choice though .

You have no anti-tank weapons. By anti-tank I mean stuff that is a threat to AV13-14. Your Hive guard are ace against AV10-12 and are probably the best unit in the entire game for taking out Wave serpents, but against AV13 and above they just won't cut it. That means against the LR the ONLY threat you have is the Trygon Prime. You need to rectify that. You literally have nothing that can hurt a Monolith.

Finally we come to the Trygon. Dump him he's doing nothing for you except giving your opponents heavy weapons something to do once they've blown apart your Warriors. 1 Trygon is never enough you need at least 2 and ingeneral I'd suggest 3 DSing MCs or none. You want ideally 2 coming in at the same time as one arriving will just get nailed. Having 2 gives you some duel threat and 2 things that can worry Landraiders. So if you want the Trygon take a buddy, but in this list you need some ranged AT and more horde more deperately than you need the Trygon.

Wrong list, mate. It's the one below. However, do to confusion I'm editing the top.