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Ok so I was looking to do a semi-competitive 1200 tyranids list, but having never played them, I don't know whether this is any good?

BTW I am aware there are no flyrants.

HQ
Tervigon w. 1 more power
- 175pts

Tervigon w. 1 more power
- 175pts


Troops
10 termagants – 50

10 termagants – 50

10 termagants – 50

Tervigon w. 2 more powers
- 190pts

Tervigon w. 2 more powers
- 190pts

Tervigon w. 2 more powers
- 190pts


Elites
Doom of Malan'Tai w. mycetic spore
- 130pts

It's relatively tough to play against. It will be boring to play and slow as hell.

So, competitive = Yes
Fun to play with or against= unlikely

Thanks for the quick reply!

I didn't think it would be bundles of fun but that's why I took the doom (to spice it up a bit come turn 2 or 3)

Anything I should watch out for?

Needs Adrenal and Toxin for fighting elite melee or rear vehicle hits, other than that no comments.

What would you recommend I take out for said upgrades?

Tactical_Genius wrote:
What would you recommend I take out for said upgrades?

An HQ Tervigon. Five is overkill at this point level by my estimation, and you'd get some benefit of using the extra points in an Elite choice of your discretion.

Any advice as to which elites choice(s) are good? As I said I've never played nids, but I did know the Doom was good having faced one myself before! (hence why it is in the list)

I think its alright, though Tyranids are still one of the least competitive army's and against many of the newer Codexes you will have a hard time. But your list looks pretty solid.

What makes you think I'll have a hard time? I can't see any obvious holes except flyer defence.

You forget that fliers are an extremely popular area of the the games meta in general, many competitive builds will have 4+ fliers at this points level.

I strongly disagree with that analysis, as the only army likely to take that many would be necrons or CSM (I'm not worried about vendettas)

Only necrons can do this. 3 Drake at 1200 is eating almost 1/2 of points. Also only necrons can take 4 flyers easily.

I wrote a CSM list at 1200 which featred 3 drakes and 2 winged DP. But it's not a great list which is why I agree with you!

Not terrible, tyranid are in a rough spot right now thOugh

Tyranids are hardly in a bad spot in the meta right now. They actually do fine against all the 6th edition so far except Tau (and we'll see about Eldar). Definitely Tervigons are where to be, but 5 is not needed. Drop a Troops one and gants, then throw an extra power on 3 of the 4 others. Then, I'd add Toxin/Adrenal to all 4, and throw in 2 Hive Guard.

You'll have some anti vehicle, good assault, excellent objective holders and very tough units. Vulnerable to Flyers and long ranged units or tanks. Tau, Crons, CSM, and DEldar will trouble you.

Was thinking of doing exactly that, but wouldn't it make more sense to drop an HQ one, so that I have more scoring units?

I'd take Zoan vs Vehicles or a bovore or 2.

Was considering some biovores. I love zoanthropes but the only way to get them up reliably is with a mycetic spore, and then they die like so much rice paper because they're on their own.

I probably wouldn't even play against this list. It's everything that's annoying about Tyranids, has the odor of min-max twitchyness, and is boring. Redundancy is one key to success in 40k, but nobody likes playing lists like this except for other people who play lists like this.

Thank you, that was very helpful.

Tactical_Genius wrote:
Any advice as to which elites choice(s) are good? As I said I've never played nids, but I did know the Doom was good having faced one myself before! (hence why it is in the list)

The Doom can be a slight gamble, but far more often than not he provides fantastic results for me. Alternate Elites of merit: Hive Guard, Zoanthropes, and Ymgarls if played correctly.

Tactical_Genius wrote:
Was considering some biovores. I love zoanthropes but the only way to get them up reliably is with a mycetic spore, and then they die like so much rice paper because they're on their own.

Normally I would agree, but do not discard the value of a Zoanthrope squad whom swaps Biomancy. That's four rolls for a squad of two in which you may receive Endurance / Enfeeble both of which play into your Tervigon tactic. Biovores aren't bad, but I feel they're goal would be redundant of what the Tervigon / Termagaunts can achieve on their own, you lack anti-vehicle or mobility deterrents. If you're looking for Heavies, consider a Mycetic Devourer Carnifex or Mawloc.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
I think its alright, though Tyranids are still one of the least competitive army's and against many of the newer Codexes you will have a hard time. But your list looks pretty solid.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
You forget that fliers are an extremely popular area of the the games meta in general, many competitive builds will have 4+ fliers at this points level.

Dalymiddleboro wrote:
Not terrible, tyranid are in a rough spot right now thOugh

I disagree with all three of these statements.

Thanks for the advice. I did wonder whether S4 AP4 from the biovores would be enough... I hadn't actually thought of biomancy zoanthropes... It's a good idea... My original 1200 did have a mawloc in but I took it out for more tervigons as I thought one on its own wouldn't be enough.

You'll die to Dark , but be OK against most other things.

Even against poisoned I have a 3+ save, then (usually) FNP, and 6 wounds, so it'd take a LOT of shots to drop one

2/3 hit
1/2 wound
1/3 fail armour
2/3 fail fnp

4/54 cause a wound

71 shots to drop one, that's 6 venoms. Which at 95 pts including 3 wracks to crew each one is 570 pts. They will kill one a turn with less than half an army.

Add in other venoms (5-9 is normal at 1250) and other firepower such as lances and trueborn, or war walkers and you are easily losing 1-2 per turn, thats assuming you can beat through the RoW anti psyker stuff with no perils.

Indeed, DE will kill it. No amount of Monstrous creatures will withstand 2 or 3 turns of a full army of DE shooting, and you'll be moving too slowly to catch up to them.

Though not a lot can be done to remedy that, without Flyrants or Hive Guard to hit them earlier.
Against most other armies, however, I think it'll really ruin your opponents day.

Prepare to become really popular at your local gaming establishment /sarcasm.

The list works, but you'll gouge your eyes out from boredom and it's not very sporting. No one wants to play a 3 hour game of counting out gaunts and moving 15 units around.

If money is on the line, go for it. If you value your friendships, restrict yourself to two tervigons and field a better variety.

I'm only actually going to be using this list for one game so boredom isn't a problem

As said its a ugly boring list . But as a Nid player myself it's a list that's worth trying once .