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got an overlord and the codex for christmas, painting up a test tyranid model. anything I need?
The only person I have to play against is my brother, who plays tyranids.

Well, if you have an overlord you might as well get crypteks.
But DO NOT buy the finecast versions. You can get a better deal getting a box of lychguard and a box of immortals and making the crypteks outta those.

Since you are fighting nids, you might want to get a bunch of warriors and stick them in Ghost Arks, and the annihilation barge is a good choice at low pt games.

I would go for an overlord and a court of at least 2 crpyteks, depending on how big a force you want maybe 20-40 warriors and for larger points about 20 Immortals or mix them up how you want, an annihilation barge is nice and cheap but effective as well, maybe 2 of those? And probably a medium to large quantity of scarabs and maybe get a command barge for the overlord.

thank you so much. I'll try that. any particular harbinger you would suggest?

Well...You are fighting against nids, right? I would go for the guys that get that abyssal staff and VoD.
Or transfiguration, since they get blast weapons that slows enemies down.

in this case, yeah I agree Cthulus spy, basically inflifcting loads of casualty's in the tyranid ranks and VoD when they get too close, because warriors and Necrons in general fail in combat, so escaping is probably a good idea, and with two all Tesla barges, thats gonna cut down loads of Tyranids, I mean 6 shots ( correct me if I'm wrong) that can usually turn out as something like 12 hits a turn with some luck that tyranids just fail at surviving with their 6+ save, and then spreading onto another unit within 6 of the original target will seriously wither the wave down, honestly if you only play against Tyranids, go for Tesla as much as possible.

also, what size army does your brother have?

We're just proxying heroscape right now while we gather figures, but we are generally playing 1750 armies

Then you should be able to fit in most of the suggested units then, good luck!

Thanks. composing list now.

Another good combo for forcing mass wounds is a triarch stalker (or two) and a couple of immortal squads with tesla. Rerolls boost tesla dramatically and increase the chance of extra 6's; the carbines are aslo assault 24" so you easily stay out of his charge range while dakka'ing him.

Whenever I play Tyranids, I always regret not bringing more tesla weapons (I don't have any immortals yet!)

It's a good trick to buy the deathmark/immortal box and the lychguard/praetorian box to make some crypteks as youve been told, and after that you can make a bundle of tesla wielding immortals with the rest.

Those hearty anti infantry machines won't let you down and will have at least a chance of mowing down tyranids big or small. You might want something to get in between or distract your enemy though.

Might not get to do anything really tricksy but you'll learn a good deal about the race you are playing.
Some lords with war scythes and scarabs can also be made with this mix of boxes and they go a long way to making your close combat hating troops feel more comfortable

Lucre wrote:...
Some lords with war scythes and scarabs can also be made with this mix of boxes and they go a long way to making your close combat hating troops feel more comfortable

Lucre, I get the lords, but the scarabs comment has me scratching my head... please explain (or point me to a tutorial).

Anpu-adom wrote:

Lucre wrote:...
Some lords with war scythes and scarabs can also be made with this mix of boxes and they go a long way to making your close combat hating troops feel more comfortable

Lucre, I get the lords, but the scarabs comment has me scratching my head... please explain (or point me to a tutorial).

I'm pretty sure that he is referring to Mind Shackle Scarabs, not Canoptek Scarabs.

Also, consider making Crypteks with Leftover Deathmark heads on Warrior bodies. You get more per box, and while it may not look as good, It fits with their profile better being they are a 4+ unit like the Warriors.

Sasori wrote:
Also, consider making Crypteks with Leftover Deathmark heads on Warrior bodies. You get more per box, and while it may not look as good, It fits with their profile better being they are a 4+ unit like the Warriors.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion, Sasori.
BTW, does anyone have pictures of warrior based Crypteks? That is the direction that I'm leaning as well.

I glued a staff of light to my overlord, but I want to equip him with a warscythe. do the plastic parts on a model really matter? if so, what should I do?

For that, you may want to have a look at the WYSIWYG threads.