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** My apologies if this question doesn't fall under the General Discussion **

I play Space Orks; I love my lads; the only armies ever to make me think MAYBE were the Dark Eldar and the Tyranid.

Earlier today, I caught up with an old friend. He used to play Eldar, but plays Fantasy now. However, he has a huge army of Tyranid on hand, mostly in spurs, that he's willing to sell me for very, very little. We have no Tyranid player in our game group in Berkeley. The consensus there is that Tyranid suck, don't bother playing them, they can't win, etc. Harsh! Unfortunately, I don't have the acumen to cosign or refute this opinion. I only really know my codex well, and have finally gotten to know how to win with them.

So my questions are: Is my game group right? What's wrong with Tyranid? Can their weaknesses be overcome?

I think the stars are aligning right to let you get a sweet Tyranid army! Tyranids don't suck, but they've become a more "precision" army. It's harder to win my just taking a bunch of big things and pointing them in one direction. Now you need a little more synergy with Hive Guard and Zoanthropes popping enemy transports, gaunts/gants assaulting the contents, and Tervigons giving said little bug Feel No Pain and counterattack. It's still a decent army, but a lot of 4th ed builds aren't so hot anymore.

Tyranids have weak units, and as Brother SRM said, you need a bit more synergy between units to make them work.

That said, the bad units are easy to see, and some units others call bad will end up working for you in your local meta (well, not Pyrovores). They by no means 'cannot win'. If you want the army and the price is fair, grab them and give them a go.

Orks need synergy to work too. How do the two armies differ in that regard?

** Edited for small typos **

Used right Nids can be lethal.

The attitude that Nids suck is due to the recent codex change, that admittedly added soem fairly lousy units, and overcosted some favorites. It also added some new units and rules.

I'd say go for it If you don't like them after playing them sell them on here

I've a few friends whom want to start a Tyranids army. Though, they're still waiting on the rest of the fething models.

Tyranids are a finess army and arn't very forgiving of mistakes.

take this as a challange.



tyranid players can help more, but in general terms.


Warriors are good, but are very vulnerable to Str8 weapons.

Ravenors should never be deep struck. they should use their movement, fleet, and 12" charge to get into CC sooner and be less vulnerable to fire.

Fexs got a little nerfed, but still have their usefulness. the Dakka Fex seems to be the best.

Hiveguard are awsome. the ability to bypass LoS means no vehicle is safe and their gun can pop most vehicles which are a real threat(LRs are dealt with in CC)

thunderingjove wrote:Orks need synergy to work too. How do the two armies differ in that regard?

** Edited for small typos **

Well, the simplest example is Orks don't have synapse. To stop the majority of your army hiding in cover or mindlessly assaulting the closest enemy, you need something with synapse within 12".

Beyond that, as Brother SRM said, you'll want units supporting each other. From having Hive Guard behind cover pop transports so your Gaunts can assault the units inside, Tervigons nearby to cast FNP and give Termagants counter attack, toxin sacs and adrenal glands. Depending on your meta, also Venomthropes which will give nearby units defensive grenades and make anyone assaulting said nearby units take dangerous terrain tests.

Units in a Tyranid army are all specialized, kind of like Eldar, so you'll want a mix of units that work well together.

I say go for it. Tyranids are not an easy army to play, but they are a lot of fun. You should be used to the horde element already from orks, and the MCs will give you something new to play with.

As far as synergy goes, the best example I can think of is toxin/adrenal gargoyles + a flyrant with old adversary, and a catalyst tervigon.

- The gargoyles provide an assault screen to the flyrant.
- Gargoyles provide cover by obscuring the flyrant, and possibly the tervigon.
- The flyrant provides synapse and fearless to the gargoyles.
- The flyrant also gives the gargoyles prefered enemy through old adversary allowing them to get more use out of their blinding venom rule (to-hit rolls of 6 are automatic wounds, no need to make a wound roll)
- The tervigon provides either the flyrant or gargs with FnP through catalyst.
- The flyrant and gargs clear a path and provide some target priority issues for the tervigon and it's broods of termigaunts, both of which are scoring.

Tyranids are a great army to play, admittedly, however, they arent as forgivng of mistakes as Orks can be sometimes. However, when pulled off well, I've heard of Tyranid players becoming outsandingly devastating, even beatsing some SW Tourney builds.

One of the most important things is not to have an army that ahs just a few deadly units. Every lat unit has to be carefully chosen to make sure you are having them work together well and give synergy to your overall army. When you get great synergy, though? Its awesome.

Ok, thanks for the thoughts, fellas.