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So I am brand new to warhammer and plan on buying my fair share of models! I am excited to get into the hobby, but have no real experience with anything like this. I was wondering if I could get an idea on how to build my first army.
The army that I was hoping to play was Tyranid and am glad to hear they are gonna get some love from GW soon. I've been reading their codex and looking around at army color schemes and trying to get an idea on which direction I might take. I have heard of two different ways to build an army quite frequently. One is the Stealer shock and the other is a fex based army. I was wondering what the builds were for those army lists and which would be more effective for a brand new miniature player.

First, welcome to Dakka, but skip the red text next time. It's rather difficult to read.

Second, it looks like you're operating off old information; the 'Nids got an update relatively recently, and if they're going to get another new Codex it's in line behind Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Eldar, Tau, Black Templars, and Dark Angels, so you'd be waiting a couple of years for it.

Under the current Codex, the Tyranids are not the most competitive army in the game, so expect to lose games while you're learning the ropes. From what I've read, the prime objective with the Tyranids is to ensure your soldiers survive long enough to make it to close combat. There are three major routes to accomplish that: mycetic spores, you will have to convert models for them but you ensure that your units will suffer at most one turn of shooting before getting to grips with the enemy; Trygons, they limit your deployment of Monstrous Creatures since their tunnels can only carry infantry, but an army built around Hive Guard, Genestealers, and Warriors could do well there; and the Tervigon/Venomthrope theory, which uses the Tervigon's Catalyst power and the Venomthrope's spore cloud thing to make your units tough enough to weather the fire they take.

well that kind of blows my general ideas out of the water...... (apparently i need to pay closer attention to dates on post sites)

I dont mind losing games i just dont want a flawed army to start with. and i want something i can build on.

Ty!

TBH, if ou want a soon to be loved on/ already loved on army then go with Grey Knights, Space Wolves, SM, CSM, or ELDAR!!!!
All of the have their own perks and quirks, but you can never go wrong with marines. Plus with all of the color schemes out there, you are sure to find one you will like. Eldar will allow you to experiment much more with colors and it is a vibrant and extremly varied army. Lots of fun to paint.

Space Wolves are also a lot of fun to play. Nothing like Drunk, Viking Space Marines with Missle Launchers!!!!
No matter which way you go, you need to remember this.
You will be painting a lot of damn models so it is in your best intrest to pick models that you like and a color scheme you enjoy painting.

Take your time. This is by no means an inexpensive hobby and you want to be sure that when you do make the investment that you will enjoy all of its aspects.


Study the armies and get into the story and mentality of the army. After all, the army is as much about the player as it is the game.
Most of all, remember that it is JUST a game. It is not very easy to learn (you are not playing Battleship any more). Just go and play and have fun. Fun is why you bought into the game in the first place.
I have made so many friends in this hobby and love it dearly and i hope you will come to love it also. Welcome to Dakka and welcome to the 40k community

Tervigons/gants, hive guard. There's a good start for you - from there you can go in a number of directions.

Do tyranids. They may not be the strongest army, but they still have some powerful builds.

I throw up in my mouth everytime somebody recomends power armor armies because they are easier to play. If you love the tyranid model line, you would be doing yourself a disservice to start a marine army- especially if you find the line aesthetically boring. Marines are especially bland compared to nids who have some incredible models.

Play what you want. People on dakka can help you to master any army. You want an army you enjoy building and painting too.

I agree with above, Tyranids are not easy, but they are way too much fun.

People say they don't do well at tournaments but with practice you can do it. Check out here for an example of Stealer Shock with 5 Monstrous creatures taking 2nd best general at a tournament. Same list has gone 3-2 at a GT too.

Don't listen to what the internet says (contradictory thing to say on said internet), do what you want because this is your hobby. Never forget that.

One thing to consider if you go all fex/MC is that you will have several huge models on the board. If you go horde, expect to paint a near endless number of small bugs. You may want to paint some to get the feel of the models first.

as far as SM go I generally find them bland as a model goes. But I appreciate the input. I really like the models that the Nids offer, and i am up to the challenge. I am not experienced beyond risk or any other games of that nature... but I am a gosh darn good chess player and love strategy and skill based games. At 26 i am far from a battleship kid anymore. I am at work currently and will check the link that has been posted.

One question i had thos was the suggestion to use gants, i thought it was gaunts that were better for a general horde type army?

I am looking forward to painting my whole army actually little or big i dont care i have tons of spare time while my wife works so i dont care if it means hours and hours.

As far as expenses go i am pouring some of my income tax mula into it so it should give me a jump start of 200$ to start with

Gants and Gaunts really depend on the make of your army. Hormagaunts work well with Tyranid Primes or if you want a really fast army Gargoyles and Raveners. If you plan on using Tervigons than the buffs to Termagants can be indispensable.

Honestly with Nids buy whatever looks fun/good to you, anything (yes even Pyrovores) can be made useful.

i was thinking mawlock, raveaner, gargoyle, and gaunts something fast and in ur face the whole time.

ill try to put together a list of some kind on my next day off.

Gargoyles are awesome models and great for screening your big units. Trygons are my personal favourite model and they are terrific in the game too. Termagaunts are great for adding in Tervigons for troops but other than that I don't use them expecting they make or break my army. Hive guard in my opinion are almost a must as Tyranids lack serious AT shooting and hive guard are the cheapest and best use of your elite slots. Zoanthropes are pretty good too.
Just make sure when you buy your models you get ones you like. The battleforce isn't too bad if you like a variety of things. Not the best bang for your buck and warriors are not great IMO unless you use them for other models like primes or hive guard.

Do what you like, tyranids should also be getting a tervigon model next month which will be a great buy for you as the are great at what they do.

Tyranids arent exactly a beginner's army. but if you're willing to go through the frustration of learnign to use Nid while learnign to play the game it can be super rewarding.
I play 4 different armies, and Tyranids are by far to most fun to me.

whats great is they can do so many different builds and styles of lists.

heavy CC - Masses of Hormagaunts, Genestealers, Tyrants and Trigons

Swarm lists filled with tervigons and gaunts

Shooty lists loaded with carnifexes, hive guard and Devourer armed gaunts

fast lists with ravener, Flyrants and gargoyles

mass Reserve list though use of Outflank, burrowing and Mycetic spores.

great thing is you can also usually combine alot of these style into Hybredized lists.

I typically play fairly Shooty based with powerful genestealers and trigons in reserve.

stuff to avoid
- Mawlocs
- Close combat equipped Carnifexes
- Pyrovores
- Venom cannons, Spine fists & Spike rifles

so i have been mia, but i appreciate the feed back. after extensive reading i got burnt on my Nids for a bit and started reading into warmachine, Cryx to be exact.

This is what i am thinking

tyrant
2 broods of gaurds
2x brood genstealers 9 each with one broodlord
brood of raveners
2x gan brood with 10 in each
2x trygons

i have no idea the points yet or any add ons, just fishing for some general information that might nix this on the start

Not to sound hostile, but there´s some rather questionable advise in this thread.

For example, before most of the armies in line for a new codex will get one, there´s going to be a whole new edition of WH40K out, which will obviously change the game quite extensively...if the real deal looks anything like the leaked Rulebook, it will boost Tyranids a whole lot, so don´t let it discourage you that they´re not the internet´s favorite army right now.

There´s some units that will always be solid with the current codex: Hive Tyrant, Tyrant Guard, Genestealers and Gaunts, as well as, to a lesser extent, Warriors and Carnifuces (which is the correct plural for Carnifex, according to my latin dictionary at least) .

If you want to play competitvely and don´t want to end up with useless models I´d hold on until the new edition is out.
If you´re playing for fun (or have deep pockets), I´d buy a core of the models mentioned above, and then either buy what you like or try out what else you want by substituting the rest of the models with other models (a friend´s Space Marines, or whatever) until you make a decision on what to buy.
Or, if you´re like me, you just buy the stuff that looks cool and worry about competitiveness when it´s to late.


EDITED BECAUSE THE "PREVIEW" BUTTON IS MY FRIEND, YET I IGNORE IT.