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Nids have allways been my main army, but the old style of swarm them while TMC's get close enough has allways seemed a bit plain.
I generally wanted to build an army based around the smaller nids this time so i can try a while new style of play.
This is what i have so far:



Tyranid prime: Lash + sword, rending claws, adrenal - 105
Tyranid prime: Deathspitter: - 85

3 Zoanthropes - 180
3 Zoanthropes - 180
3 Hive guard - 150

20 Stealers: Broodlord upgrade - 324
5 Warriors: 4 Deathspitters, barbed strangler - 180
9 Warriors: Lash + sword, rending claws - 405
30 Hormagants: - 180
30 Hormagants: - 180

10 Gargoyles - 60
10 Gargoyles - 60

3 Biovores - 135
3 Biovores - 135
3 Biovores - 135


2,494



Both Primes lead a unit of warriors.

The gargoyles simply act as a small shield for warriors and thropes. (am thinking of taking a single unit of 20, rather than 2 units of 10 though)

Thropes had to be in the list, since without them, my ability to hunt anything with armour lacks far too much.

Hives are in there simply to take pressure away from the thropes. They can deal with transports, leaving thropes to go for AV13+

Horms, i was reluctant to take at 1st, however 2 large units gives me a nice area to keep, and thier fleet means they should be in combat before long.

Stealers are there simply to perform thier ever old ways of acting as hard shock troops.
Never used a large unit before, so wanted to test out how they will play out in game.
Broodlord was a must, but chose no other upgrades as they really start to weigh in after that.

Warriors were a last minute choice for me.
Allways liked them, but never really used them enough in games.
They are mainly there for synapse, and to help out where needed.
Shooty unit will sit back closer to the fire line and babysit while the combat warriors run forward as quickly as possible, using gargs and horms as living shields. (with the swords they give me a unit for hunting down 2+ save units with more ease, and rending should help them pop a transport from time to time)

The Biovores are there to add some form of ranged support.
While they are wasted points when i get into combat, im hoping they will thin out units well enough so that horms, stealers and warriors can finish the job without being held up.




Main worries: Synapse is a bit of a pain in this one, so ill have to be a bit more careful (ive allways had a flyrant and tyrant wandering close enough, or trygon primes)
So keeping an entire army under control will be a bit more than im used to, which is why ive taken shield units to keep the synapse from being picked off early on.

Armour: Even with 6 thropes and 3 hives i still think its lacking.
Ive allways used these 3 units, but with TMC's able to hunt armour at the same time, but time will tell i guess.


Speed: While ive got a few units with fleet, i feel they wont hold off units long enough to get the rest into combat.
I have thought about ravs, but i would then need a fast synapse to babysit them.


Any and all C&C is welcome.
Model wise - I will buy what is needed for any/all improvements (it will end up part of my hive fleet anyway, so nothing is wasted)

I don't think the CC warrior unit is making the best use of the Prime his main ability is to buff your BS and with no shooting you're losing that.

I don't really see the point of the gargoyle broods and I don't like walking Zoanthropes particularly wihtout onslaught in the list. I'd spod them.

What is the point in the Stealers without toxin? All stealers should ALWAYS have toxin sacs.

I'm not a fan of adrenal generally but in this list I think it would be a good idea on the Stealers and/or CC warriors, that way you can pop tanks with them. At least that is something towards the AT so sorely lacking from the list given the lack of MCs...

Why use thropes as suicide though?
180 points, KP, dropped straight next to them.
Seems they will fire once each then die.
The pod will also give up a KP.

The prime is there to buff thier WS, and to be honest, i rather have them harder to hit in combat and hitting with ease than sitting back shooting, only to die when dragged into combat.

Gargs are there to act as shields.
I rather get some cover from them than having to rely on terrain on its own, atleast this way i can go where i want, rather than hugging terrain all the time.


Point taken with the stealers.
Ill work those in somehow.


9 warriors with a prime, all with rending.
Stealers with rending as standard and a BL.
6 thropes.
3 Hives.

The upgrades for adrenals on stealers and warriors would come in a bit heavy.
Stealers on thier own with suggested boosts would be 20 points each.


I was tempted to move towards pods for warriors and thropes, but that then leave sthe bulk of the army without synapse and out of control.

sinec ill be playing orks most of the time i really do want units in synapse so i can get them doing what i need.

Why use thropes as suicide though?
180 points, KP, dropped straight next to them.
Seems they will fire once each then die.
The pod will also give up a KP.

Well it would take a lot of fire power to kill the Zoes and I'd rather the distraction and having them fire once than walk them and have them never fire...

The prime is there to buff thier WS, and to be honest, i rather have them harder to hit in combat and hitting with ease than sitting back shooting, only to die when dragged into combat.

They're Ws5 Anyway so the Ws buff makes absolutely no difference to their hitting power in combat.

Gargs are there to act as shields.
I rather get some cover from them than having to rely on terrain on its own, atleast this way i can go where i want, rather than hugging terrain all the time.

Fair enough you could just use more gaunts/gants to acheive the same thing though.

9 warriors with a prime, all with rending.
Stealers with rending as standard and a BL.
6 thropes.
3 Hives.

The upgrades for adrenals on stealers and warriors would come in a bit heavy.
Stealers on thier own with suggested boosts would be 20 points each.

Yeah the adrenal is not my favourite upgrade and whilst toxin is a must on the stealers, I'd rarely advise taking adrenal. But as I said with the lack of AT in the army it is worth considering. At the moment someone brings 2 Landraiders and you are boned because he'lll nail the Zoes before they get into range of them and then you have literally nothing that can penetrate them.

I was tempted to move towards pods for warriors and thropes, but that then leaves the bulk of the army without synapse and out of control.

Don't pop the warriors as the Primes can't join them inside, thus they would be walking with the Gants.

No toxin sacs on Hormagaunts? Wounding mostly on 5+ is pants :( wounding everything on 4+ inc monstrous creatures is the nuts

Fling: Im starting to see your point now on the thropes.
Also, since they will get podded, is it worth swapping out hives for moer thropes, or would you think the ranged S8 is fine for popping transports?


The nobz however arent basic
I really dont like meganobz at the best of times, so the CC warriors were for taking them and ghaz out (ill keep away until after he launches the waaagh!, or if he holds off on it ill take the chance)
I rather not rely on shooting to go through ghaz and from what i know, 5-10 meganobz. (while they are slow and pose little threat, it seems like easy KP's if im ignoring saves with enough attacks)

Also, point taken on podding warriors.



I can include 1 more unit, but i like the speed of them as a shield.
also, venom makes them somewhat useful in combat if needs be.

Ill have a tinker with a few different layouts and added in biomorphs.
Got a RTT with "Twin lists" (bring 2 lists and all models, you can alternate between lists before a game starts) near me comming up i think, so ill try them as they are, and then with upgrades.




Mercer - it will be adding 1/3 extra cost onto them.
So in the long run, ill have to dig 120 points out of somewhere just for them.
Which could be another 20 horms.

True it does add 1/3 of the cost to them. But they can much better wounding on 4+ against a variety of targets instead of mostly 5+, even against T3 they usually need 4+ but with poison they get re-rolls. Very much worth it. If you cut down the Hormagaunts to 20 per brood you'll get those points in and have a more affective unit(s).

As for the Zoanthropes they're better for heavy armour. I'd take a single unit of two with a Spore and then go 2 x 2 Hive Guard for armour. Because the Zoanthropes are in reserve you need some anti tank straight away.

Your Genestealers could do with toxin sacs too.