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New to 40k game wise, so before I start blowing money on units that are broken for my 'nid army. Was wondering if anyone could give me a general synopsis on how useful some units are.

Generally speaking the FAQ has reduced the options of the Nids but they still have several strong lists.

But in general, Tyranids can be either geared for close combat or shooting

HQ
CC list--Hive Tyrant
Shooting--Tyranid Prime--Warrior kit

Elite
Both lists--6 Hive Guard

Troops
Shooting--2 Tervigons--Carnifex kit
80-100 Termaguants

CC --Hormaguants

Fast Attack
Shooting--Harpy--Carnifex kits + Wings

CC--15-45 Gargoyles or Shrikes --Warrior kit + Gargoyle wings

Heavy Support
Shooting--Tyrannofexes --Carnifex kit or 2xTL Devourer Carnifexes

CC--3 Trygons

Check out the Competative living Tyranid tactica in the tactics section for how it should work

2000 pts ~400$

EDIT
A swarm list is very interesting but difficult to play

HQ
2 Tyranid Prime

Elite
6 Hive Guard

Troops
30 Termagaunts
max Hormaguants

Fast Attacks
45 Gargoyles

Heavy Support
Tyrannofexes or trygons

Ignore the people who whine about how tyranids are supposedly weak. They just take some skill to use.

What exactly are you interested in? Do you want to see a huge horde of scuttling terrors, or a few big ones? Or a mixture?


Monstrous creature spam, by the way, can actually be pretty damn weak.

Melissia wrote:Ignore the people who whine about how tyranids are supposedly weak. They just take some skill to use.

What exactly are you interested in? Do you want to see a huge horde of scuttling terrors, or a few big ones? Or a mixture?


Monstrous creature spam, by the way, can actually be pretty damn weak.

Mixed, but I'm not looking for an exact list, what I'm after is what units are considered good or bad and why.

I don't know dick about rules at the moment, so can't tell all that well what does or does not work. I'm starting the army up next month, once classes are out for the winter, wanted to get a start now though on planning my purchases.

Generally speaking, the only truly "weak" unit would be the Pyrovore. It has uses, but it's very difficult to use. Speaking as an opponent rather than a user of the army, here's my reviews (not including special characters):

Hive Tyrant: A very useful HQ unit, a bit expensive with Tyrant Guard but definitely worth it.

Tervigon: Not a good HQ choice. Some people like to spam them as troops choices, but they aren't really very good at that either from my experience. Still, some people swear by them.

Tyranid Prime: Cheap, efficient, and useful in almost all situations. One of the best HQ units in the game for its price.

Lictors: Unfortunately rather poor performing compared to the other elites choices.

Zoanthropes: Very effective anti-tank, and anti-MEQ when there's no tanks to kill. Usually deployed by spore-pod.

Venomthrope: Effective support MC, lots of special rules that allow it to support a horde very well, and tie down or even destroy strong assault units.

Hive Guard: Very useful anti-tank, able to take down most transports with ease.

Pyrovore: Flamer unit, acid blood (harms attackers), explodes when killed. Counts as power weapon but is I1. Very difficult to use without harming your own units.

Ymgarl Genestealers: Very adaptive in mid-fight, able to change their stats once per turn allowing them to change as is necessary for their target. Often outshined in the elites slot by hive guard and zoanthropes, but still useful.

Warriors: Effective troops choice for granting synapse, especially effective with a Tyranid Prime attached. More durable than it appears against anything that isn't S8 or better.

Genestealers: Just as effective as always, very fast, mobile troops choice which don't require synapse. Broodlord squad leader is a useful psyker.

Ripper Swarms: A lot more useful than they appear. Lots of attacks, good amount of wounds, rather cheap, can deep strike, can have spinefists which shoot four times per model (up to nine models per squad, for 36 shots-- enough to make almost any squad nervous even at their low BS score).

Hormagaunts: Seem to have suffered in this edition, but only compared to everything else which just got better while these kinda didn't. Still can be quite useful, given their increased initiative and attacks compared to termagants.

Termagants: Cheap, efficient shooty troops choice. Benefits from having a Tervigon nearby.

Harpy: Useful, yet it's a rather large monstrous creature and thus a big target. Effective against high initiative enemies or enemies weak to pinning, however.

Shrike Brood: Basically flying warriors. Very expensive, but same use as normal warriors save they aren't scoring.

Raveners: Deep striking light anti-tank, quite useful against transports-- three strength five shots apiece means a squad will probably glance or penetrate the rear armor of most transports (or the side armor of IG transports) more than once per turn.

Sky-Slasher Swarm: Flying Rippers basically, same use as rippers though their spinefist upgrade is more expensive so it's probably best to use them to assault.

Spire Mines: Each one is a large blast which can decimate anything that isn't wearing power armor or better. Quite cheap, too.

Gargoyles: Flying termagants basically, same use, save they don't score and aren't effected by tervigons.

Tyrranofex: Shooty monstrous creature, including some rather ridiculous shooting options (such as an Assault 20 weapon), but costs as much as a Land Raider. It might very well be more durable than one though, depending on your opponent's anti-tank.

Trygon: Basically allows all units to deep strike around it when it arrives. A lot of people swear by trygons, despite the expensive points cost. May upgrade to be a synapse creature and double its number of shots per turn.

Mawloc: Special deep strike rules, basically an assault trygon without the deep strike support for the army. May re-enter reserves if it's not in combat and has hit and run.

Carnifex: Adaptable monstrous creature. Useful for most purposes, but a bit expensive.

Biovore: Shoots spore mines, is relatively cheap, but requires synapse to really be reliable.

Basically, just avoid the Pyrovore. Maybe Lictors as well, since their pheromone trail rule is pretty crappy. Anything else, it depends on how you're going to use it.

The downside is some of the more popular monstrous creatures right now don't have official models - Tervigons and Tyrannofexes.

You'd be better off asking in this thread.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270/319613.page

-Loki- wrote:Basically, just avoid the Pyrovore. Maybe Lictors as well, since their pheromone trail rule is pretty crappy. Anything else, it depends on how you're going to use it.

The downside is some of the more popular monstrous creatures right now don't have official models - Tervigons and Tyrannofexes.

You'd be better off asking in this thread.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270/319613.page

Thread linked looks to me to be a tournament min/max thread.

I'm not looking to shame people I fight with a uber-optimized build, I'm looking to use one I make, just don't want to gimp it to hell and make it unable to win.

Also, looking forward to making some units, 'speccially the Tyranofex, already got various green stuff tools, with green stuff itself coming in this week (razors and carving kits, looks like I'm preparing to be a dentist )

Well good luck with that. There's plenty of options for customizing your Tyranid force while still staying competitive. It's a well put together codex, the only reason people complain is because it's not perceived to be as overpowered as many people think the Space Wolves codex is.

Namica wrote:

-Loki- wrote:Basically, just avoid the Pyrovore. Maybe Lictors as well, since their pheromone trail rule is pretty crappy. Anything else, it depends on how you're going to use it.

The downside is some of the more popular monstrous creatures right now don't have official models - Tervigons and Tyrannofexes.

You'd be better off asking in this thread.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270/319613.page

Thread linked looks to me to be a tournament min/max thread.

I'm not looking to shame people I fight with a uber-optimized build, I'm looking to use one I make, just don't want to gimp it to hell and make it unable to win.

Also, looking forward to making some units, 'speccially the Tyranofex, already got various green stuff tools, with green stuff itself coming in this week (razors and carving kits, looks like I'm preparing to be a dentist )

it kind of is, but they do generally talk tactics and stuff as well. They're not going to bite if you don't want to run a tournament ready army, but they will offer advice.

If you don't want to go all out on a Tervigon, chapterhouse studios have a metal conversion kit that works with the Carnifex model. Looks pretty decent painted up too.

Namica wrote:

Melissia wrote:Ignore the people who whine about how tyranids are supposedly weak. They just take some skill to use.

What exactly are you interested in? Do you want to see a huge horde of scuttling terrors, or a few big ones? Or a mixture?


Monstrous creature spam, by the way, can actually be pretty damn weak.

Mixed, but I'm not looking for an exact list, what I'm after is what units are considered good or bad and why.

I don't know dick about rules at the moment, so can't tell all that well what does or does not work. I'm starting the army up next month, once classes are out for the winter, wanted to get a start now though on planning my purchases.

Emphasis mine, as it's the right idea. What you've said there is one of the things about 'nids, in that they work best when there's a whole bunch of units working together that compliment each other. It's less about the abilities of each unit as an individual as it is about what they can do in concert. Just keep that in mind and you'll be fine.
Hope the army building goes well!

Melissia wrote:Well good luck with that. There's plenty of options for customizing your Tyranid force while still staying competitive. It's a well put together codex, the only reason people complain is because it's not perceived to be as overpowered as many people think the Space Wolves codex is.

This. Bottom line is that the tyranids codex is a good 5th edition codex.

Nids are scary they are great CC and also have some pretty nasty guns to back it up. i played a game with my sisters boy friend he used the nids from the macgragge i used my marine army about 2-3 tactical squads... he won

No I know that the mega creatures have some great stats and all, but as a marine/non nids player, all I can say is that there is nothing more frightening than unending hordes of infantry, in range of synapse, so the only way to stop them from eating your troops is to completely finish them off. In order to do this we need to combine firepower. If, say, one squad has a poor shooting phase, more squads must shoot at this large brood, letting other broods get closer and closer, scott free. Best thing is to make, say, a trygon or mawloc(I'm not sure which is better for this) pop up in the middle of my defensive positions and completely screw up my plans for dealing with the oncoming horde.

While it's okay to have a few big creatures, don't go all nidzilla. The tides of teeth and blades, that's where your win is. Just look out for templates.

Indeed, seriously-- nidzilla is one of the weaker lists the codex can produce, despite its popularity.

micahaphone wrote:While it's okay to have a few big creatures, don't go all nidzilla. The tides of teeth and blades, that's where your win is. Just look out for templates.

Completely agreed. I personally don't think standard 40k is meant for 'Nidzilla'. It also has another name in the fluff, a heavy assault swarm, something employed by the Nids when their normal forces (ie waves of smaller units) aren't working. The problem is, a heavy assault swarm utilizes creatures only covered in Apocalypse - Heirophants and Heirodules, in addition to multitudes of Carnifexes.

Leave this for Apocalypse. In 40k, swarm your opponent and use other tactics, which I think is what the codex was going for.

Okay, I'll just give you my thoughts as Tyranids are all I have played.

I love them, I really do. People who say they are weak don't know what they're talking about. I don't feel like they're an easy army to use, but in the right hands, they are merciless. They're my first army and I wreck with them, I love it so much. And no, the people I play against don't suck. Space Wolves, over-powered you say? I beat my SW buddy all the time. Has he won? Yeah. Is he good? Definitely. Does he put up a hell of a fight? You betcha, but my guys are still the ones standing at the end of the fight.

I personally use neither a zerg nor an MC based army. My Hive Fleet is pretty balanced, mostly assault crazy with some definite shooty backbone. I'll give you my thoughts on the units I've used.

Hive Tyrant: This beastie is...well, a beast. Give him some upgrades, don't be too wreckless, and watch your enemies be crushed under his...hoof?

Genestealers: I love these guys. I thought they would be "meh" in the beginning and they are now my absolute favorite infantry. They're surprisingly resilient and just carve waves of death through the enemy. Give them a Broodlord and they're even nastier.

Hive Guard: *Cue evil laugh* My friends hate these guys, but I love them. Being able to blast people away while safely behind a solid wall is pure win.

Zoanthropes: Awesome looking, hard to kill, and nasty to boot. They'll pop just about any tank and they won't die easily.

Warriors: Love them. Whether they're shooty or geared for assault, they'll bring the pain. Make them melee Shrikes and they are ridiculous.

Termagants: Cheap and effective. Die easily, but that's why you take a ton of them. They can hold objectives down with ease, give them Devourers and that many shots will intimidate just about anyone. Also, keep in mind that those are worms they're shooting at you. Ick.

Hormagaunts: I personally don't like them. They're geared for melee but they can't do a whole lot (at least not what I've experienced). I refer to them as cannon fodder.

Trygon: Beastly. Can carve through enemy infantry and even strong enough to topple some vehicles, be careful with them, though.

Also, we have some awesome special characters. Deathleaper is a very strong assault unit, and Doom of Malan'Tai is soooooo ridiculous. Against anything (but Orks) there's a good chance he'll open up a giant can of rape on all of your enemy's infantry.

Good Series of articles on all the Units in the Tyranid Codex over on 3++

http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/2010/05/abusepuppys-tyranid-review-part-1.html

I'm goign to promote Hulksmash then
http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2010/11/can-tyranids-compete-part-4.html

He's also responsible for starting this amazing thread
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/319613.page
Which has already been posted