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I used to own a nid army back in 3rd but now only have a handful of stealers in a cupboard somewhere. Have the dex and when list building its always nids that intrigue me most.
So since I don't play nids i was wondering how effective this would be?
The theme is synapse in massive units so it can't be killed out, parasite obviously won't accept challenges.. The disadvantage of this is when the zoans are gone the will only be 2 12" synapse bubbles on the table. Fine for hormogaunts but crappy for the gargoyles.
The main advantage of this list is it can ignore flyers (barring a sythe spam with scoring units in 5 or 6 sythes) and can ignore av14. Purely because it has a 11.3/12.5ppm count. (Not inc spawned rippers)
Will it work?

Parasite

Prime
Bonesword and lashwhip, toxin, adrenal.

2x zoan

2x zoan

Doom
Pod

20 gargoyles
Toxin and adrenal

20 gargoyles
Toxin and adrenal

20 gargoyles
Toxin and adrenal

16 termagants

And EITHER

4 x 16 hormagaunts (64 total)
Toxin and adrenal (so every model apart from the terms can kill most tanks, also seen a unit speced like this absolutely GUT close combat specialists more than once.)

OR

4 x 20 hormagaunts / 5 x 16 hormagaunts (80 total)
Toxin (will the gargoyles and zoans be enough anti tank?)

Total: 1850pts
Model count: 164/148 not includding rippers.

Will armies have enough dakka for it? Am I going against the point of not giving the enemy anything juicy to shoot by including doom? The majority of this list will be in combat by turn 2 or 3 at worst, and models like jetpacks, bikes and serpents won't have enough room to manouver to avoid the charge. Is that too late though? Is t3 and crappy saves just too much of a disadvantage even en-mass?
As I say, I don't play nids so somebody please slap me out of this silly obssession with a swarm of little critters, because I really, REALLY, don'tbwant to have to glue and paint this many models!!!

If I played nids I'd do something around this, lots of gaunts and stuff, I like it, shouuld you be worried about synapse range stuff, maybe you should have more

Yeh that's my main worry. The only problem is that nids can only include 2 IC synapse under 2k. All the rest can be targeted easily.


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Facing mass snipers will be a risk, but who plays mass snipers these days? 30 sniper shots, 6 are directed onto the prime/parasite, 3 wound, 1 of those is rending, 1 saved. So on average every 15 sniper shots will take off a wound.


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Could swap the doom for 2 more zoans and give the prime regen? Bit more synapse there...

Hiding IC synapse creatures certainly is a difficulty. I will make a couple comments and you can see how you feel about them.

Termagaunts. These don't fit for me, unless they are cover for the Prime. Even so, he can run with a unit of Hormies. Sure, he'll slow them down a bit, but there are 3 other units rolling toward the enemy.

The Doom. Sure, it's awesome. But to me it doesn't fit. Nor does the Pod (which is a MC). I'd drop it and add some Ymgarl Genestealers. Assaulty and will get there quickly.

So if you drop the Termies and Doom (210 pts), add in 7 Ymgarls (161 pts) you've got 50 pts to beef up something else, preferably the Gargoyles numbers.

As for the Hormagaunt squad sizes, I'd actually do 3 squads of 21/21/22, with Sacs and Glands, but it's up to you.

As for whether this will be competitive, I'm not sure. You certainly have enough bodies to make maneuvering difficult for flyers, but Heldrakes will be bad news for you. I would probably trade at least one Zoan's powers (if not both) in a group for Biomancy, as Endurance would be money for this list. Against any kind of infantry based list, getting there will be difficult and you will get shot to pieces, but once there you can tear it up for sure.

Let's do some math on an Eldar serpent list for example containing 4 serpents and a 4 man Reaper squad. Serpents have 4 SLaser shots, d6+1 Shield shots. So on average 6 hits giving twin-linking and BS4. 5 Wounds, 5 dead gribblies. Times 4 = 20 dead/turn. Now you see why a bigger squad might be advantageous? Of course you add in the 8 reaper shots, 5 hits, 4 wounds and you've got 24 models biting the dust each turn. With ~150 total guys that means statistically in 6 turns your army is gone. Of course this won't happen, since you'll be hitting back and probably in CC by then, thus not taking hits, but you get my point, which is that of the number of bodies you are throwing down, if half make combat you might be ok.

Now, painting and gluing. Sucks. That is all. Unless you like repetitive painting, because 60 Gargoyles will be no fun otherwise.

Cheers for the advice!
Won't the ymgarls get shot off the board with nothing better to distract the enemies shooting?
Yeh i'll drop the doom and pod. The termies are really there just as bullet shields for the prime. I've realised since my synapse is so lacking, i don't want the prime in combat ideally, unless its to prevent shooting. So if i drop the terms down to 10 and drop the upgrades on the Prime i could afford 15 more fully upgraded gargoyles and 8 fully upgraded horms to run squads of 25 gargoyles and horm squads of 25/24/24. Would 10terms be enough or should I drop them too for 2 more horms and 30pts of upgrades on the prime, running him in one of the 3 squads?
Ok so you reckon biomany on the zoans?
Helldrakes im not too worried about, so they roast 5 each a turn, for say 3 turns each. Thats only 15 models. And if they have invested ~600pts in 3 that means I have only 1250points to kill on the table. Or am I totally missing their impact on this list like a blind fool?


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Im very impatient when it comes to painting :-p. There is a high likelyhood that ebay will be showing its face...