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5. Flying Hive Tyrant w/ TL Devourers
Positives: dead killy, highly manueverable, 2 psychic powers
Negatives: easy kills for anti-air or high volume(WaveSerpent).
4. Venomthrope
Positives: can make half an army more survivable
Negatives: easily killed by high volume firepower(keep him out of sight as long as possible!)
3. Carnifex
Positives: cheap and killy, can buy squads of them
Negatives: needs, nay demands synapse(only LD 7)
2. Mawloc
Positives: super cheap and killy, can wipe out whole squads in one go, doesn't fear mishap
(most of the time he goes back in reserve and get to try again next turn!)
Negatives: Rolling a 1 on the mishap chart, taking coveted Heavy Support Slot(but sooo worth it)
1. Tyranid Prime
Positives: independent character allows him to lurk in squads and switch if the unit get chewed up too badly.
Provides relatively save Synapse and is good as warlord because he is hard to target.
Negatives: Eats up a HQ slot, that prevents you from fielding 2 Hive Tyrants until you get 2 Force Org/Tyranid DLC allies(coming soon I hope)

The prime is pretty nasty put with the miasma cannon and two carni, a good way to relieve the synapse strain for the carni and most of your marching army. I really wish we had the 3 HQ slots too, that would really multiply the power of our lists.

I think that the Prime is way too pricey for what he brings, and the Mawloc just isn't good against Vehicles anymore, which in my mind lowers value. If there's an Invulnerable save in the group, hitting it with a Mawloc is risky. Sure, he's good for that Tac squad alone, but I prefer other units. Honestly I feel like the TFex and Biovores both deserve to be in that list.

All of the heavy support options have their place and are decent to great given circumstances.

It's the rest of the slots that are questionable.

Biovores. Number 1 forever.

It depends on which kind of army you are playing. I am focussed on a pure CC army without any guns. So therefore my top 5 are:

1. Hormagaunts --- cheap and quick. You can field lots of them and build up some nice pressure on youre opponents.
2. Prime --- hide him in one of your full Hormagaunt Units to have a reliable Synapse
3. Raveners --- damned quick and lots of attacks... really nice
4. Hive Tyrant w.full Guard --- Give regeneration to the Tyrant and play some wound allocation games.
5. Cannot choose between Mawlock and Carnifexes

Well, in my opinion:

1. Hive Tyrant: cheaper wings and better guns is a win for me.
2. Venomthropes: They make the army tick through shrouded.
3. Biovores: Cheaper better tougher than before? Yes please.
4. Tyrannofex: 75 points less... that'll do it. Tough and tough with a nasty flamer is just win.
5. Termagants: cheaper than before with cheaper devourers means you can use these as cheap fearless swarms to outflank and kill, or retain and score.

Flyrant and Carnifexes for sure. I'm slightly less certain about these choices, but I'd say pick and choose between Biovores (they need some serious FAQing), Venomthropes (great, but too much Ignores Cover these days), Mawlocs (very risky), Exocrines and Tyrannofexes.

The reason I have not listed the venomthropes is that i am often playing against Tau and smartmissiles dont care about LOS or cover, so they wont last long.

1.Flyrant
2.Venomthrope
3.Biovores
4.Mawloc
5.Carnifex

Not a single troop mentioned....Yup pretty much sums up the Nids...

 Red Corsair wrote:
Not a single troop mentioned....Yup pretty much sums up the Nids...

A complete reversal from last edition...

But gants aren't bad. Neither are Tervigons, and Genestealers as part of the Dataslates can be nasty.

HQ - Flyrant
Troops - Still Probably the Tervigon...
Elites - Venomthrope
Fast Attack - Gargoyles / Crone tie
Heavy Support - Biovores

Overall
Flyrant
Venomthrope
Biovore
Dakkafex
Exocrine/Tyrannofex tie

MasterOfGaunts wrote:
It depends on which kind of army you are playing. I am focussed on a pure CC army without any guns. So therefore my top 5 are:

1. Hormagaunts --- cheap and quick. You can field lots of them and build up some nice pressure on youre opponents.
2. Prime --- hide him in one of your full Hormagaunt Units to have a reliable Synapse
3. Raveners --- damned quick and lots of attacks... really nice
4. Hive Tyrant w.full Guard --- Give regeneration to the Tyrant and play some wound allocation games.
5. Cannot choose between Mawlock and Carnifexes

I would say the Raveners are abit dissapointing. If you compare them to flying Warriors (shriekers?) you will see they are basicly the same unit.
But one have synapse, more weapon options and hammer of wrath, the other have one more attack (if you compare both with a devourer) and Red terror.
Raveners fail most of the time compared to the Warriors.

Mawloc does not have a k in it.

Vombat wrote:

I would say the Raveners are abit dissapointing. If you compare them to flying Warriors (shriekers?) you will see they are basicly the same unit.
But one have synapse, more weapon options and hammer of wrath, the other have one more attack (if you compare both with a devourer) and Red terror.
Raveners fail most of the time compared to the Warriors.

As I said i am focussed on a pure CC list, so the weapon options aren't an argument for me . The good thing about raveners is, that they pass all the terrain-test and wouldn't be slowed down. I think they are quiet nice for a second turn assault, if you can keep them out of LOS at the end of turn 1. Sure if you Need some Synapse flying Warriors would be first choice.

Zande4 wrote:Mawloc does not have a k in it it.

whoops... in german most c are followed by a k but thx for the hint

 Zande4 wrote:
Mawloc does not have a k in it it.

I keep seeing this on forums & resisting the urge to correct it.

My pick:

1. Hive Tyrant w/ wings, tl devourer, very dangerous.
2. Dakkafexes, very threatening in units.
3. Venomthropes, since shrouding increases survivability.
4. Biovores, since floating spore mines are nasty.
5. Harpy w/ heavy venom cannon, the more FMCs the better.

 somecallmeJack wrote:

 Zande4 wrote:
Mawloc does not have a k in it it.

I keep seeing this on forums & resisting the urge to correct it.

I'd seen in it 400 times too many and today was the day I snapped! On top of that the occasional "Venonthrope, Termagaunt and Trevigon" didn't help either.

 Zande4 wrote:

 somecallmeJack wrote:

 Zande4 wrote:
Mawloc does not have a k in it it.

I keep seeing this on forums & resisting the urge to correct it.

I'd seen in it 400 times too many and today was the day I snapped! On top of that the occasional "Venonthrope, Termagaunt and Trevigon" didn't help either.

I'm guilty of throwing in the "K" but my defense is that I only play Orks (not Orcs) so force of habit?

After comparing Raveners and Shrikes again, I have to agree Vombat. They are better most of the time. Almost same stats. Raveners have +1 I. They are little bit more mobile than Shrikes due to the fact, that they wont be ever slowed down by Terrain. Therefore Shrikes can get Adrenalin, Toxinsacs and are Babysitters instead of needing one. Number of attacks are also equal, if they get the same weapons, but the Shrikes have HoW...

So thx to Vombat for mentioning this. Gladly i havn t bought the Reveners yet. Instead I ll buy some Warriors and Wings from FW.

1 Flyrants
2 Biovores
3 Carnifex
4 Venomthropes
5 Shrikes


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MasterOfGaunts wrote:
After comparing Raveners and Shrikes again, I have to agree Vombat. They are better most of the time. Almost same stats. Raveners have +1 I. They are little bit more mobile than Shrikes due to the fact, that they wont be ever slowed down by Terrain. Therefore Shrikes can get Adrenalin, Toxinsacs and are Babysitters instead of needing one. Number of attacks are also equal, if they get the same weapons, but the Shrikes have HoW...

So thx to Vombat for mentioning this. Gladly i havn t bought the Reveners yet. Instead I ll buy some Warriors and Wings from FW.

I have 9 Shrikes, they are probably my favorite unit but hard to get in a list that works.

I used maxmini wings.

Shingen wrote:
1 Flyrants
2 Biovores
3 Carnifex
4 Venomthropes
5 Shrikes


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MasterOfGaunts wrote:
After comparing Raveners and Shrikes again, I have to agree Vombat. They are better most of the time. Almost same stats. Raveners have +1 I. They are little bit more mobile than Shrikes due to the fact, that they wont be ever slowed down by Terrain. Therefore Shrikes can get Adrenalin, Toxinsacs and are Babysitters instead of needing one. Number of attacks are also equal, if they get the same weapons, but the Shrikes have HoW...

So thx to Vombat for mentioning this. Gladly i havn t bought the Reveners yet. Instead I ll buy some Warriors and Wings from FW.

I have 9 Shrikes, they are probably my favorite unit but hard to get in a list that works.

I used maxmini wings.

Well I dont want to be hypercompetitive with my nids, just want to have some fun. Fielding 120+ CC-bugs seems to be a lot of fun^^, especially when lots of them can assault in the second turn without having synapse issues