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Hey all,

So I recently started playing Tyranids. About a week ago, I purchased the Battleforce (16 Termagants, 16 Hormagaunts, 3 Warriors, and 8 Genestealers), and a bunch of different paints. Now, I'm only about a quarter of my way through the Battleforce for assembly and painting currently. I'm off and on about what color scheme I want to be using on them. But I'm having an issue where I'm thinking waaaay into the future, and how the Tyranids will perform on the table-top (despite I only have Troops, currently).

I picked the army that I know I'm going to most enjoy overall. I love the Zerg race in the Starcraft universe, I love the idea of constant bio-mutating aliens, I love the idea that they're basically locusts from outer-space. I'm having a blast painting them, and I find them to be the "prettiest" army when fully completed. They just look... Well, no words. I just love the whole army.

However, I'm really looking forward to the strategy part of this game. And even though I know you can field Tyranid in a bunch of different ways, I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I picked the weakest army. I just keep thinking about how good of shooting Tau has, or how much more swarmy Orks can be, or how fast the Dark Eldar are, etc. I just keep thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, and until I actually complete a full army to field (may take a bit of time since I started the hobby a week ago), I just worry I'm going to keep feeling like I got the short end of the stick in terms of which army to pick.

Any similar stories or tips on how to overcome this?

Thanks

Tyranids are pretty solid ATM. I won a tourney with them last month and am taking them to another next week.

That said they are my B army and for July I will be switching back to my DE, the more games I play in the current meta the more I miss my BDSM pointy ears with buckets of poison and lances. So yep grass may always be greener.

In my opinion, you've started in exactly the right way. I've got 5 fully painted 2k+ armies, with my Eldar and IG both being well over 5k+. Not a large collection by some standards, but enough to keep me active and interested.

By starting out with an army that you like the fluff of and appreciate the aesthetics of, it will enable to you identify with your army and will keep you plugging away in the hobby when things aren't going so well on the battlefield. When you finally start playing games, it will be tough and you're likely to get your ass handed to you quite a few times. This is particularly true with Tyranids as I understand them to be a good army in veteran hands, but quite unforgiving on the 6th edition battlfield for less experienced generals.

The trick is to persevere. You will get better and each of your victories will be all the sweeter for being attained with an army you love. There are arguably two or three 'point and click' army builds available at the moment, but to be honest, where's the satisfaction in an easy victory? Give me a Turn 7-got-to-make-that-5+ Jink Save-to-snatch-a-draw type battle anyday!

I really wouldn't be too worried if I was you. Tyranids are still a completely viable army and can be very competitive when played right.
You've certainly made the right choice in picking an army whose fluff and appearance appeals to you as you'll be more likely to actually get the army onto the board.
When you start playing you will most likely lose the majority of your early games not because Tyranids are weak but because you are still learning the game.
The grass does always seem greener on the other side. It's easy to get envious of my Tau opponents when they get to field Riptides, but then I am taking for granted that they have to deal with my Heldrakes. Don't stress it too much now that you've only just started the hobby.

Nids were a bad army in 5th edition because they were hard countered by some of the more popular codices. A number of factors in 6th has made it so that Nids are a very, very viable army. HOWEVER....

There is a pretty standard template of virtual auto-includes for Tyranids. For your standard 1850-2K game, I'd start with a core of:

Swarmlord (or Flyrant)
Flyrant
Tervigon with 3 Powers, Adrenal, Toxin
Tervigon with 3 Powers, Adrenal, Toxin
Tervigon with 3 Powers, Adrenal, Toxin
3x10 Termagants

The above is running between 1300 and 1320 points, but it gives you a really strong list to build on. By swapping between 2-4 powers for the ones in the rulebook, the list is quite formidable.

From there, the codex has a number of really good options including Gargoyles, Trygons, Doom in pod, Ymgarl Stealers, Zoanthropes, and Biovores.

I only take 2 Tervigons myself and prefer 2 Fly rants to swarm. The spare points let me buy harpies.

I feel your pain. I bought an ork army, then thought tau seemed cool. Now I feel like giving the necrons a try. I played a guy who proxied his entire army, using nids to represent demons. I'm thinking of doing that.

The grass always looks greener until you learn your armies strengths and weaknesses and have played a few games with them.

I much prefer my Nids to my DA, despite DA having a 6th ed codex and probably being the more powerful army overall.

I love the aesthetics of my nids, and ive found that I can build some pretty good lists with them, and not all identical. There are always similar units in each list, but unfortunately thats the case until we get a new dex.

Here is my breakdown of nid units usefullness -

The almost auto-takes:
Flyrants - big FMC's with awesome options. Nothing bad to say about them!
Tervigons (as Troops with Termagants) - Scoring MC funtimes hooooooooo!!!!
Hive Guard - An awesome unit for their cost, if sadly short ranged
Zoanthropes - some many viable options for powers. Shooty or Support? You choose!
The Doom - Drink your opponents tears (usually....)

Others that are not auto-takes (and are generally added based on personal taste) but are pretty common are:
Ymgarls - One of 3 units in the game that can deep strike and assault, and have stat altering shenanigans
Gargoyles - flying gants, but cheap, a great screen and HoW.
Biovores - Great range, barrage, and cheap!
Trygon/Mawloc - BIG. SCARY. DISTRACTING.

Units that are rarely used, but still have a role to play:
Swarmlord - Whats not to love about Swarmy? Give him a single guard to still benefit from Iron Arm, and hope he makes it across the board!
Carnifex - several people will give them 2x TL Devourers and Spore them
Raveners - see almost no use, but I have a lot of fun with a brood of 6 with RC, these will rape whatever they make it into combat with, especially when out of Synapse range for Rage fun times
Stealers / with a Broodlord - again, not a very common unit, but they do crop up now and then
Hormagaunts - do see occasional use, but suffer from being outclassed by Tervigons/Gants
Harpy - desptie being an FMC, they only really bring more anit-infantry shooting to an army that doesnt really need it. I would like to use them more though.
Venomthropes - see occasional use in Swarm list, but take slots away from Zoans, Guards and the Doom!
Parasite of Mortrex - very rarely used as there are better HQ's, but does see occasional non-competitive use. The only way to make Rippers a viable choice
Prime with Warriors - the prime is a solid cheaper alternative HQ. When paired with Warriors he makes them worth their points by boosting WS and BS, and mitigates their ID problem a little

Units almost no-one bothers with, and often for good reason:
Pyrovore - has no place in any army. Its utterly useless in almost every way, even when Spore'd, but has the potential to be made useful in a future codex
Old One Eye - His fluff is awesome, but he is utterly overcosted for his stats/abilities. And his name sounds like a euphemism
Lictors - too squishy, cant actually ambush like their fluff suggests, reserve roll bonus is better served by Warlord Trait, Hive Commander or Swarmlord
Deathleaper - same problems as Lictor, at twice the cost for little extra goodness
Rippers - lots of fun to see, but almost useless without Morty


Im sure ive forgotten some units.....

 JGrand wrote:


There is a pretty standard template of virtual auto-includes for Tyranids. For your standard 1850-2K game, I'd start with a core of:

Swarmlord (or Flyrant)
Flyrant
Tervigon with 3 Powers, Adrenal, Toxin
Tervigon with 3 Powers, Adrenal, Toxin
Tervigon with 3 Powers, Adrenal, Toxin
3x10 Termagants

The above is running between 1300 and 1320 points, but it gives you a really strong list to build on. By swapping between 2-4 powers for the ones in the rulebook, the list is quite formidable.

From there, the codex has a number of really good options including Gargoyles, Trygons, Doom in pod, Ymgarl Stealers, Zoanthropes, and Biovores.

That is scary. A very effective scary force. Five MC in less than 1500 points? There's still 500 points left to play with for 1850.

You've started right in collecting an army you like the look of - especially when you're new to the hobby, it can be hard to keep up motivation to paint and assemble things, and having an army you like is a great boost.

The 'meta' (what is relatively good and bad overall in the game) changes constantly, every time a new book or set of rules is released. If you want to play 'the best' army, you're going to have to sell it every couple of years to buy the latest cool thing, until that cool thing gets nerfed etc etc. It's an expensive road to go down. Far better to start with an army you LIKE, and spend the time becoming good with it. When you start to win, it'll be because you've become a better general, and not because you've just bought the latest cool netlist...

Nothing weak about Tyranids. The battleforce is a shaky choice somewhat, given that Warriors, Hormagaunts and Genestealers are all middle of the pack choices (actually they can all be outstanding, but need a bit more finesse than a Tervigon).

On the whole, Tyranids are in a very strong place at the moment with a fair amount going for them. Don't get me wrong, they have weaknesses and in order to be successful there are a few things you can buy that will greatly improve your chances, but weak? Not at all.

By choosing the army you like the look of you've also helped keep yourself interested long-term. You're going to be looking at those models for quite some time, so you may as well be looking at models you enjoy the look of.