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Hi everyone. I've just started a tyranid army which i intend to keep going with into an apocalyptic scale . I own about 500 pts (Hive tyrant, 24 termagants, warriors) and am looking to make a giant horde to start of with and then increase it's tactical potential by purchasing more units and playing them in different ways (Nidzilla, genestealer heavy etc.).

OK back to the OP. I have recently bought a venomthrope to go with my horde (that I am in the process of making) but I don't know how to get the most out of it in my army.

Is it a waste of points or will it rock my horde?

I am hoping to be fielding it with a swarmlord, lots of gaunts, tervigon/s, hive guard and genestealers.
Help me DAKKA!

I'm not a Tyranid plater I admit, but Venomthropes can be very useful to a Tyranid army, they seem to be a much underrated unit that can provide significant bonuses. However, they do suffer from two problems:

- Competing with Hive Guard in the Elites Slot.
- Abundance of cover within 5th edition all ready.

If you can compensate for the loss of potential anti-tank then I would say they are well worth considering.

Packing 2 In one squad can be effective, as you can spread them out a bit more, and they can provide slightly better cover for your advancing units. They suffer from fragility themselves, but against orks, they are a must. Orks require the charge a majority of the time, and providing your gaunts/warriors with the ability to strike first, AND forcing them to take a Dangerous terrain test before entering thins their numbers, thats roughly 6 dead orks BEFORE you get your attacks.

they are good although you need to protect them by having them in squads and you need to avoid PKs and PFs in CC.

of course, once you are in CC you won't need cover much anymore.

the die very fast....let a Prime join so he can soak up sum instant kill shots.. (strenght 8) Best way to use them is to give a 5+coversave to your MC's.

Why on earth would you join them to a prime?

2 Krak missiles and 1 HAS to go to the Thrope.


stick them in with some Gaunts and they are practically immune to shooting death.

I don't think putting the Prime in with Venomthropes was about protecting the Prime, but as something to allocate attacks away from the Venomthropes so that They're the ones protected.

I do not think you need Venomthropes in a Horde list. A horde list should have at least one unit of 24-30 little bugs. That unit can spread out so far that at least half will be behind cover from any enemy unit that fires at it. That large unit can provide cover to anything in the bug army behind it.

I can see Venomthropes being useful in Tyranid armies that have lots of monsterous creatures. In that case the Thropes will give the MC's a 5+ cover save and the MC's can block LOS to the thropes.

Aduro wrote:I don't think putting the Prime in with Venomthropes was about protecting the Prime, but as something to allocate attacks away from the Venomthropes so that They're the ones protected.

Yeah, but if you get hit with more then 1 Str8 attack then some will go on the Thropes. it isn't like the Prime just prevents them from getting hit.

the same goes for Gaunts, but there are tons of gaunts to allocate to before anything can hit the thropes.

Throps cannot join gaunts as they are not an IC. The idea behind the prime joining is that he is an IC and can join them. You cannot just combine 2 squads together.

Ahhh, i was under the impression they were ICs.


it still doesn't improve their survival much for them to join a prime.

I dont bother with the throaps.l They are competing for elite slots with a bunch of really useful units. For the same point value you could get 9 gargoyle, or another 11 gaunts. while they wont give MC a cover save, they fight back and can hold or contest objectives. spend your points else where.

Grey Templar wrote:Ahhh, i was under the impression they were ICs.


it still doesn't improve their survival much for them to join a prime.

the work really well in a walking MC's list with sum hivegaurd. I put my prime in the middle of the squad and two venomtropes at each side to make the 5+ coversave bubble as big as possible. If you put your MC's in front of them (tervigons) the will recieve a 4+ coversave and the will last for a while. first S8 shot you can take with your prime and against the second one you got a 4+ coversave. If the are shooting with S8 shots at my venomtropes the are not shooting at my trygons. A lot of bolter shots can take them down but most armies need to be close to get so many shots (rapid fire). Most players underestimate the 5+coversave and rather shoot directly at my tervigons and trygons. My army got 2x 3hivegaurd and a tyrannofex and I rather give my whole army (also two tervigons and two trygons) a 5+ coversave then another tank hunter/Hive guard squad.

Footsloggin wrote:Packing 2 In one squad can be effective, as you can spread them out a bit more, and they can provide slightly better cover for your advancing units. They suffer from fragility themselves, but against orks, they are a must. Orks require the charge a majority of the time, and providing your gaunts/warriors with the ability to strike first, AND forcing them to take a Dangerous terrain test before entering thins their numbers, thats roughly 6 dead orks BEFORE you get your attacks.

My problem with this line of thought is, you should be charging into CC with Orks, against a horde style Nid list. Yea, I know that sounds counter Orky strategy here but its true. Boyz actually have a tough time with gaunts, because they go first, and have alot of attacks. Either way you slice it, against a horde nid list its just bad assaulting them. Ive found that shooting the piss out of a horde nid list first is the way to go. Infact alot of times, I shot and just let them assault me, by then their numbers are down enough to actually let you win in CC

really the only way to make sure Venomthropes survive, is to completely block line of sight, this usually involves a couple big bugs, and a healthy number of gargoyles or hormigaunts.

/if/ you can stop them from being shot at, they are very much worth it, ironically the units that benifit most aren't your little bugs, its the huge ones like trygons who don't have an invulnerable save and are very difficult to give a cover save to.
if you can't, they are a waste of an elite slot.