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I am trying to decide between these two armies. I have played both in 5th edition, but dropped them in favor of Daemons a long time ago. Now that the Daemons don't work like I'd prefer (and I just need something different), I am switching armies. I am not a super-competitive player, but I would like an army that has a chance to compete in tournaments and win games.

=== Tyranids ===
Pros:
Cool models
Monstrous Creatures
Psychic Powers
Psychic defense
Conversion opportunities
Participate in all phases of the game

Cons:
Perils of the Warp
Runic Weapons
No Eternal Warrior
Lack of models for some things
Only a handful of useful units

=== Dark Eldar ===
Pros:
Cool models
No Perils of the Warp
Fast vehicles and units
Lance weapons

Cons:
Low saves
T3
No big models

Well, those are my thoughts on the two armies and what I think makes them good or bad.
Help me make a more comprehensive Pros/Cons list to help me decide where to spend my time and money for the most enjoyment of the game.

Thanks!!

New Daemon codex doesn't do it for you? How come? What changed that made you not like it?

Don't forget, Cons for Tyrandis, Can't use allies and can't use emplaced weapons.

Not sure what you men Perils of the Warp as a negative. Any army using psychic powers will have this problem.


I don't know much about DE, but I love Tyranids. I love the minis as you have said. Sorry couldn't be any more help.

Dark Eldar models where the appeal for me to start an army with them. It does get expensive as the majority of the units need transports which can get expensive quickly.

Another plus for the Dark Eldar is aircraft, they have both a bomber and fighter which is something I think the Tyranids lack. Also as Davor brought up if you choose Tyranids you cant ally with anyone. Granted Dark Eldar can only be desperate allies with most people but its better than none at all.

I vote for dark eldar. More variety. Tyranids are very uniform, plus you won't need as large an army for DE.

Personally, I'd say go with Tyranids.

- Perils of the Warp happens very rarely (less than 10% of the time)
- Runic weapons are a problem, but that's a single unit in a single codex that stops only one thing that the Nids have (psychic powers).
- Nids don't really need EW, aside from the 3 wound models. Our psykers can get Iron Arm, our monstrous creatures can't be insta-gibbed by high strength, and we even have Shadow in the Warp to help against force weapons.
- We really only lack models for the Harpy and Shrikes. Would be nice if we got them, but that just opens up more conversion work.
- If anything, I'd say Nids have more useful units than most books...Flyrants, Swarmlord, Tervigon, Tyranid Prime, Hive Guard, Zoanthropes, Doom of Malan'Tai, Ymgarl Genestealers, Gargoyles, Biovores, and Trygons are all very playable. Even things like Carnifexes and Hormagaunts are ok in a casual game.

I picked Nids after looking at both the Dark Eldar and Nids. I think both are fun and powerful. With the D. Eldar I'd take the fortress and as many dark lances as I could. The Nids I do love their drop pods w/ Twin death spitters. I can't tell you how many kills a game they get. (Even tho they have no pod model.)

DE hands down. Tyranid codex at this point is so poor you have 1 list you can bring to competitive settings. The army gets boring very quickly. To cap that off, they are incredibly weak to about 1/4 of the armies you will see (DE, SW, air guard, GK) and pretty much auto-lose versus a competent player.

DE have a great model line, 4 or 5 army lists that are competitive, even more than are semi-competitive, and enough abilities and wargear to keep you playing different lists for a while just for the experience. They are the best written codex that GW has ever done. Most lists have at least half the codex useless. DE has 5 units that really shouldnt be used, then good stuff from there on.

@Davor: I miss the Daemonic Assault, the Horrors being able to shoot regardless of passing a Ld check, Daemon Princes being Heavy Support (so I can use my three that are each aligned to different gods and painted as such), etc.. Not to mention, I just want to look at different models.


- No allies: I know this might sound silly, but I am a "purist" and don't use allies anyway. In my WarmaHordes army I never use Mercs either.

- No emplacements: Unless I converted one to match the army, I wouldn't use one anyway.


Dark Eldar do indeed have more variety in their models and viable army lists, so two Pros for them.

You can always start DE now, and wait around 2014 for the new Tyranid codex to come out. So you can have both.

Or strat your Nid army now, so by the time around 2014 you will have a good sized Tyranid army lol.

Another negative about Nids, is I hate Gaunts. Well I mean I HATE painting gaunts. So many of them, it gets dull and repetitive to paint them, almost like a chore. So unless you have a good strategy for painting horde armies, DE might be for you since you will have less of them.

So if money is not an issue, start DE now, and then start Tyranids in 2014 or when ever they get a new codex. DE will be a while before they get a new codex (hopefully not another 10+ years).

They are both horde armies. (Though tyranid's moreso) though tyranid's are generally more geared to assault, while dark eldar are generally more geared towards shooting.

Tyranid's, play like a more reliable version of the old daemons, instead of eternal warrior and INV saves, they get more models on the table.

If you want something different to daemons, dark eldar are the way to go, they are a glass cannon (Very hard hitting, but can't take a hit as well.) And they are brilliant shooty. Plus, they are very -very- cool looking, particularly the vehicles.

Plus plus, they can have allies if you so choose (Including daemons, meaning your models may still find a use there)

Plus plus plus, they are less common than tyranids.

Plus plus plus plus, there are less to transport (But the vehicles are flimsy as hell, so transporting may be harder)

IMO, I say go with DE. But, the main thing to consider, is which you prefer at a glance.

Dark Eldar for sure.

The models look great, the playstyle is great, and they're a real prestige army because of their difficulty.

Then again I hate horde armies due to the logistics involved. Spending a few hours moving two hundred gaunts across the board or whatever is not my idea of a fun game, while NidZilla isn't very fluffy in my book.

After choosing between another army and nids myself I would suggest another army right now.

For the swarm!!!!

Well, mixed feelings here.
DE is rather hard to pull off. We have a local player playing DE and experimenting a lot with them. His placements in our monthly RTTs were rather bad. Nevertheless, there seem to be some viable builds out there even without allies (Eldar).
Can't comment about Nids since all players here have shelved them.

I'm like you and prefer to keep to a single dex.

DE will take a fair amount of patience and experimentation to learn what style you want. The good news is that there are several different types of builds that work pretty well AND it's very easy to learn most of the shooting rolls (hint: 3 to hit, 4 to wound on almost everything). Early on I started wyche heavy, then moved to having lots of trueborn with blasters. Lately I've found a really good mix of various unit types that work well together; with only one unit in the 'dex I would never bother with. Also, the battleforce is a good deal. I bought 2 as a starting point and that worked out very well for my style. Of course, the key with a T3 army with horrible saves is to be in your opponents face as fast as possible.

I'm not sure nids are good enough right now. In my last 4 games against them, I've tabled them by the end of turn 3 at the latest. I wouldn't say the players I went up against were top tier but the armies certainly didn't help. They really need a new dex. That said, they can be a fun army. Popping out new units with Tervigons and watching genestealers rip apart just about any other unit in CC is pure entertainment.

Both are viable... they are both aggressive, Tyranids can dominate the psychic phase with access to 9 spells without resorting to genestealer brood lords... The problem with them for me is it is a hoard army. You will be painting a lot and using your basic 3 color scheme forever...

As far as cost, the Tyranid - most viable force- is 2 Tervigons and they mean needing at least about 80 extra flesh gaunts.

To me that offsets the cost of transports for every DE. BTW they do have access to MCs, Chronos Engines and Talos. (As a matter of fact, I think they have access to pain tokens???!!)

My vote would be DE. If you need a crutch, buy one Eldar Doomseer(Eldrad??) and a unit of Pathfinders or a cheap unit of Dire Avengers and go to town dooming every target that you are going to fire poison weapons at. (Evil Grin)

You also have the option to go hybrid with wyches... the vehicles do all the shooting while the wyches to the assaulting. Venom spam or raider spam both have their place. 3 Razorwings or 3 Reaver Jet Bikes are both good options... DE have strong HQ, Troop, Fast Attack, Heavy and even useful Elites while IMO tyranids have good HQ, Troop (tervigons), Elites and Fast Attacks... the ony thing I think is that tyranid Heavy Slots are wanting and Elite choices have a lot of pressure on them... (Carnifex is overcosted, Trygon/Mawlocs may be useful but a big points sink, Tyranofex (the overcosted AT gun) and Biovores
(useful for harassment but not that great.)

Well.... I did both hah.

Personally I've found either have around the same ability to win / lose. I know many lists require x2 Tervigons, but I've never ran more than 1, Win / lose on Nids I'm probably about 50/50, with different lists.


DE army will be cheaper RRP new, but your unlikely to make any great savings off ebay.
Tyranid MC's are expensive, a small saving can be made on ebay, you'll find the lower infantry to be quite cheap.

Well, if you go with DE, then Venoms and Warriors with splinter cannons are a good choice. Ravagers and flyers compete for the HS slots. Taloi and Chroni were suggested but are simply too slow. Beastmaster units are decent in assault, but watch out for S6 flamer templates (from Helldrakes or Dreadknights).