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Apologies if this is the wrong section of the forums but I couldn't seem to find another place for it.

I recently bought 3 Tervigons to form the core of a new Tyranid army. I'm yet to play a game and have no Idea how many Termagants I'll roughly need to supply them with spawning? What’s a good number? I'm guessing I'd like enough to be slightly above the average spawn rate to cover myself if I'm rolling well.

Obviously I'll need the 30 Termagants to make the 3 of them troops. Is there some magic number beyond that which should be enough to cover the spawning for the rest of the game.

I know this is a pretty ambiguous question that could depend on how many I’m taking off a turn, if the tervigons spawning each turn or out flanking but I'm hoping someone could provide me with a rough number that has worked for them?

Well, a friend of mine plays 1 tervigon and has yet to make fewer than 44 against me. this is obviously not very likely, but it still happens. I seem to remember him saying that after his trials around 27 to 30 was average per game for his one Tervigon. Maybe have 50 in reserve for your creations and get more if you find that you roll higher than average?

I usually only take the min. number esp. if you are using 3 Tervigons you'll have plenty of gants about. In an army w/ 3 spend your other points on Zoanthropes and Hive Guard to punch thru armor. Hive Guard being my favorite w/ str 8 assault 2 weapons that shoot around cover and don't need los.

What you might want to consider if you have Zoans in a drop pod is taking 20 of those gants and giving them devourers in a pod. I Put a flying Hive Tyrant in with Old Adv. in and fly him over to the gants and Zoans when they drop in. That will give your Tyrant, Zoans, and gants all re-rolls on 1s for to hit and wounds. That is 60 shots of gants re-rolling 1s on hit and wound.

Mythra wrote:
I usually only take the min. number esp. if you are using 3 Tervigons you'll have plenty of gants about. In an army w/ 3 spend your other points on Zoanthropes and Hive Guard to punch thru armor. Hive Guard being my favorite w/ str 8 assault 2 weapons that shoot around cover and don't need los.

What you might want to consider if you have Zoans in a drop pod is taking 20 of those gants and giving them devourers in a pod. I Put a flying Hive Tyrant in with Old Adv. in and fly him over to the gants and Zoans when they drop in. That will give your Tyrant, Zoans, and gants all re-rolls on 1s for to hit and wounds. That is 60 shots of gants re-rolling 1s on hit and wound.

All of that might be good advice, but has nothing to do with his question. he wants to know how many extra gants to have for his Tervigons to make during the game.

The more you have, the more people will shoot them... Which gives you extra models as old ones die. I personally "only" have 32 extra for 3 Tervis, however I start with 40 on the board, so I never spawn turn 1 (Relic excepted). I usually just limit my spawning to cases when I'll be assaulting in to help something, or for late objective grabs. If I have a 1 wound Tervigon I'll usually spawn as she's about to die.

27-30 per Tervigon. Ok!

I'll probably outflank one who won't spawn till turn 3 so around the 70-80 mark should do it. I'm assuming some will die during the game too. My heart sunk at the thought of painting 120 when you said 44 per one at first haha.

Soild advice as well Mythra! I've orded a couple of pods to try out different builds with similar ideas to what you mentioned in mind.

Edit: Just saw you're post Jifel, so 70-80 would be a bit excessive? I think I have 50 coming at the moment so if thats sufficient I won't have to get more.

It really all depends on your rolls. My friend always rolls above average when he plays me and when i have tried out his list i roll a 2, 2, and 3 and am done turn one. That's why i suggested the 50 extra gants. That should cover most of your spawning including any that die during the game.

Opps read that wrong my bad.

I would still prob have 20 models w/ devourers and 100 or so gants w/ flesh borers. That is on the low side.

You have to start w/ 30 on the board and will spawn 9d6 on turn 1(31.5 avr.), 6d6 on turn 2(21 avr.), and 3d6 on turn 3(10.5 avr.). I think it is a 1 out of 3 chance of running dry.
Looking at 30+31.5+21+10.5= 93

When I 1st started I only had 60 so I waited turns to spawn. You don't have to spawn every turn. There is even good reason to space them out more and not spawn all you can every turn. With that many gants on the board they can and will get in each others way.



EDIT: Just saw your post. Did you try the base coating them bone or white and doing the wash? Works well. I think I saw the mass orc/gant base white with a wash on Utube. Someone at our store did their orcs that way looks good.

I'm pretty accurate with an airbrush so I undercoat white, spray a bone color on most of the mini with a red carapace, white teeth and an orange strip down the tail, some green for the poison effect. I have to hand paint the eyes on each one which is quick. Then I dip them using the Army Painter products.

I painted about 1500 points worth in a single 5 hour painting session haha.

I could get a much better quality by hand but I'm not doing the nids as a painting project, just as something different to play in an upcoming tourney with some mates.

Here's a pic of some infantry and a MC, not based yet but you get the general idea (terrible photos I know but it was just to show a mate how things were coming along). I was pretty happy with how they turned out for the time spent really.

Nice Airbrush does make the army painting go faster -- I have to get new hose for my air brush gun b/c my cat has chewed thru mine. he also ate 3 mic cords for my computer. Doh!

I have to make a devourer brain leech worm Hive Tyrant myself, but I think I'll use lash whip and bone sword w/ that.

Generally you want to have the Termagants you're starting on the board plus at least 20 per Tervigon. If my opponent doesn't mind, I'll proxy Hormagaunts or devilgants if I roll especially well.