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I've always loved the idea and aesthetic of Tyranid armies, and I imagine they'd be a blast to paint, however, I know next to nothing about them.
If i was to run an Tyranid army, I would probably want to swamp the field with as many bodies as possible, and I suppose my question would be, what would be the best way to get started on that?
Thanks!

Do you like flying nids? Walking MC spawning nids? Tervigons are the core of my army and most. Flying Tyrants are so cool and having a wall of gargoyles in front of them looks awesome. Plus it's pretty good on the table gaming wise.

Trygons are beasts but if you want tons of little critters go with a few tervigons and spawn your troops.

I think I would go with the horde of foot troops given the option

Your more man than I am going for full horde.

You want to look at a couple of Tervigons as the basis of your army then and build up from there.
These guys can be taken as troop choices if you take units of Termagaunts.

See you next year once youve finished painting 100+ Termagaunts

I've been running two tervigons with solid success, But I have ran out of painted gaunts, a few times. I'd reccommend having about 30-40 per tervigon on hand.

I'd love to run maxed out hordes of hormaguants, with Tervigons spewing more termagaunts as support.

What makes viable Anti-armor? Hive Guard? Zoanthropes? Venomfexes?

i would avoid tyranofexes. They have their use but I prefer the far cheaper hive guard. Doom is a best as well (drop pod him).
Zoans are pretty sweet two. The more powers the better.

For my elite I usually do 2 units of hive guard and then either the doom or some yrmgrl stealers.

How do the Ymgarl Genestealers work? I've never really seen them fielded. Do they at the beginning of the game just come out of a piece of terrain you choose like a reserve?
Can they....assault after arriving?

Hive Guard for anti-light to medium armor, and zoanthropes for the heavy stuff.
You could, indeed, run two Tervigon HQs and 180 hormagaunts as your troops. Depending on how much you upgrade stuff, that could be anywhere from 1250 or so points on up to maybe 1750.

180...hormagaunts w/ poision sacs and FNP from the Tervigons....that sounds....awesome....eat your heart out Orks

Ymgarls: Before the first turn, you decide what piece of terrain they're going to come in from, and they deploy inside that piece of terrain on the turn they come in from reserve. Because their rules specifically say they can move, run, and assault as normal after arriving, they can do so.

So if i did indeed come loaded for bear and go full horde, how would be best to make sure I actually get into assault? Hugging cover? Good Spacing? Spore Pods maybe?
I was thinking of maybe dropping Termagaunts in with spore pods as close to the enemy as possible to tie them up when the main horde advances. Is there any merit to that? Or would they just get shot off the board immediately?

The only reason I would put termagaunts in a pod would be if they had devourers. They are NOT assault units. Plus you cannot charge after you drop in so you will get shot up after they drop. Termagaunts are fodder.

I mean, they're intended to be fodder that will last long enough to distract an enemy from the varitable wall of death advancing towards them.

Are the devourers expensive? I'd like to keep them cheap as possible ideally.

They aren't cheap no but well worth the points when shooting a good target.

If you're planning on having tons of TS/AG hormagaunts with some tervigons you'll need anti armor, Hormagaunts are awesome against things with back armor 10 if they have adrenal glands but you'll need hive guard for stuff like land raiders or flyers. Genestealers are effective as well for meq armor saves and for back armor 12 or lower

I was thinking Zoanthropes for more psychic shenanigans, with warp lance, they should be able to tackle most everything right?