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The title says it all. I'm looking at participating in my first tournament in a month and would like to take my nids instead do my Tau but as I've only played 1 game with them I have no idea what's competitive. Normally I would play test a bunch but I only have a month and need to paint all of them and I just won't have time to play around with the list too much. I figured if I got help here I could buy what I need and get strait to practicing building and painting.

The tourney is 1750 points, no data slates, BRB fortifications only.

This is what I have to start with

HQ:

Hive Tyrant 1 - wings, 2x TL devs w/ blw

Hive Tyrant 2 - wings, 2x TL devs w/ blw

Troop:

Hormagaunts(20) - Toxin sacks

Termagant(30) - fleshborer

Tervigon - Miasma Cannon

Warrior Brood(3) - 2x dev/scytal, 1x Barbed strangler

Elites:

Venomthrope(2)

Zoanthrope(1)

Fast Attack:

Gargoyle brood(10)

Hive Crone

Hive Crone

Heavy Support:

Tyrannofex - Fleshborer Hive

Lands on 1750 points exactly.

I'm open to hearing any suggestions and changes you guys might have.

Also if you have tips on playing in tournaments I'd be happy to hear them

Thanks for the help

Brutal Viking wrote:
The title says it all. I'm looking at participating in my first tournament in a month and would like to take my nids instead do my Tau but as I've only played 1 game with them I have no idea what's competitive. Normally I would play test a bunch but I only have a month and need to paint all of them and I just won't have time to play around with the list too much. I figured if I got help here I could buy what I need and get strait to practicing building and painting.

The tourney is 1750 points, no data slates, BRB fortifications only.

This is what I have to start with

HQ:

Hive Tyrant 1 - wings, 2x TL devs w/ blw

Hive Tyrant 2 - wings, 2x TL devs w/ blw

Troop:

Hormagaunts(20) - Toxin sacks

Termagant(30) - fleshborer

Tervigon - Miasma Cannon

Warrior Brood(3) - 2x dev/scytal, 1x Barbed strangler

Elites:

Venomthrope(2)

Zoanthrope(1)

Fast Attack:

Gargoyle brood(10)

Hive Crone

Hive Crone

Heavy Support:

Tyrannofex - Fleshborer Hive

Lands on 1750 points exactly.

I'm open to hearing any suggestions and changes you guys might have.

Also if you have tips on playing in tournaments I'd be happy to hear them

Thanks for the help

Not bad, but,

I think you'll be happier, if you fill out you heavy slots more. I'd drop the Toxin sacks, and maybe the gargoyles. That is 120. Drop a Veno (a hard choice!) and you get 165 that gives you several options...

1) Adrenal for the Tyranofex, add 1 Dakkafex 150+15
2) Mawloc,Adrenal on Tyranofex, Toxic/Tail for Mawloc,Dakka'rant or other 140+15+10
3) Lose two Hormagaunts, add an additional Tyranofex (I love Tyrano's, but this might be too much ) If you do this, I'd lose 6 additional Hormies and put a Thorax Hive on each (you won't regret it )

Another possible source of points is losing the Miasma Cannon, though, its a pretty good fit as is....

That's all that "jumps out" at me on first blush...

Looks decent, but there's some minor synergy issues. You have a decent flyer list, but the hormagaunts, tervigon and tyrannofex are going to be threatening your opponent at different times than the crones/flyrants.

I always love taking tyrannofexes, they always perform for me with the acid spray. Drop the fleshborer hive, absolutely, no question. Acid Spray is always better with BS3.

I'd replace the hormagaunts with gargoyles, most likely, as well.

Good luck in the tournament!

@pinecone
why would 2 Tyrannofex be to much? which of those options do you think would work best for the list?

@SBG
Is the loss of a scoring unit worth getting the Gargoyles?

I've made some of the changes you guys suggested so the list now looks like this.

HQ:
Hive Tyrant 1 - Wings, 2x TL devs w/BLW
Hive Tyrant 2 - Wings, 2x TL devs w/ BLW

Troop:
Termagaunt(30) - Fleshborer
Tervigon - Miasma Cannon

Fast Attack:
Gargoyles(15)
Hive Crone 1
Hive Crone 2

Elites:
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope 1
Zoanthrope 2

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex 1 - Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands, Thorax Swarm
Tyrannofex 2 - Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands, Thorax Swarm

I'm a little worried about Synapse saturation and whether or not I have enough to accommodate my force.

The other thing I'm a little worried about is Tank heavy armies and AV14, It seems that my only way to deal with AV14 is to get into assault and I can make use of vector strikes. Do you think that will be enough?

What Thorax Swarm should I have equipped on my Tyrannofexen? I'm leaning towards the Dessicator one (wounds on 2+).

This is similar to what I take, currently comes to 1720.

HQ:
Hive Tyrant 1 - Wings, 2x TL devs w/BLW 230
Hive Tyrant 2 - Wings, 2x TL devs w/BLW 230

Troop:
Termagaunt(30) - Fleshborer 120
Tervigon 195

Fast Attack:
Hive Crone 1 155
Hive Crone 2 155
Hive Crone 3 155

Elites:
2x Zoanthrope 100

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex 1 - Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands 190
Tyrannofex 2 - Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands 190


Could potentially drop the adrenal from the fex's and put in a venom which leaves you 5 points for a devourer
Or take three Zoanthropes and not bother with the venom which will be an easy first blood target for anything that ignores cover.

Do the Venoms perform well enough to take competitively in this world of ignores cover?

Brutal Viking wrote:
@pinecone
why would 2 Tyrannofex be to much? which of those options do you think would work best for the list?

@SBG
Is the loss of a scoring unit worth getting the Gargoyles?

I've made some of the changes you guys suggested so the list now looks like this.

HQ:
Hive Tyrant 1 - Wings, 2x TL devs w/BLW
Hive Tyrant 2 - Wings, 2x TL devs w/ BLW

Troop:
Termagaunt(30) - Fleshborer
Tervigon - Miasma Cannon

Fast Attack:
Gargoyles(15)
Hive Crone 1
Hive Crone 2

Elites:
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope 1
Zoanthrope 2

Heavy Support:
Tyrannofex 1 - Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands, Thorax Swarm
Tyrannofex 2 - Acid Spray, Adrenal Glands, Thorax Swarm

I'm a little worried about Synapse saturation and whether or not I have enough to accommodate my force.

The other thing I'm a little worried about is Tank heavy armies and AV14, It seems that my only way to deal with AV14 is to get into assault and I can make use of vector strikes. Do you think that will be enough?

What Thorax Swarm should I have equipped on my Tyrannofexen? I'm leaning towards the Dessicator one (wounds on 2+).

This looks nicer to me, if you're concerned about Tanks you can use electro-bugs for the Thorax Hives, brutal short range, but you have Adrenals, and Smash is your main answer for vehicles in general. (the Rending beatles are a good all round compramise as well)

You look to have 5 durable sources of Synapse, so while it is a weakness, I suspect it's something you'll be able to manage.

Two Tyranos is twice the Awesome! But it depends on your personal "style", so I say try it. But you Might decide it's not for you

To my eye you are short on Troops, but plenty of good lists run like that, even at higher point levels, again, "style".... I'd reccomend taking Dominate(?) to boost your synapse bubble(s) if you get less useful Powers of the Hive Mind!. Good Luck!

Late entry: Both Crones and Electro bugs are also good answers for Knights, and you may be seeing those as well...another argument in favor of Electro-bugs I suppose

I wasn't even thinking about knights; I haven't had an opportunity to fight them at all and haven't read their book so I know next to nothing about them besides they have 2 large blasts a turn and a 4+ invuln

F1end, how does that list work for you? notice any holes?

My usual army is Tau so I went nids to change up the style a bit. I wanted to play something that was more aggressive instead of hanging back and shooting (that got really boring). I do like the second 2+ armour save with having the second Tyrannofex. I ran him into melee that last game and he held his own pretty well against CSM with a lord. I also like that there's 4 vector strikes (attack in the move phase) that can still shoot after. silly question but what is nids best bet against serpent spam (I hate that list so much but since its a tourney I just know theres gonna be at least 1 of TFG.)

I know I'm not going to go in this thing and win it with nids but it would be nice to put up a bit of a fight lol and besides it's all for fun anyway.

Thanks a bunch for all the help by the way keep it coming

1750 is actually quite hard to do i think. My list above is a cut down version of 1850.
Theres so much stuff out there that can just decimate your Crones pretty fast.

Best way to run Crones is with a bastion and Comms Relay with a Venom inside the Bastion for 3+ jinks/cover.
Relay helps you get them in (sit a tervigon next to it) if you dont have first turn and cant afford to place them in deployment.

This is what I run at 1500 currently:

HQ
Flyrant 2x Dual Brainleech Devs 230
Flyrant 2x Dual Brainleech Devs 230

Troops
Tervigon 195
30 Termagants x1 devourer 124

Elite
2 Zoanthrope 100
2 Zoanthrope 100

Heavy
Tyrannofex, Adrenal, Acid Spray 190
Tyrannofex, Adrenal, Acid Spray 190
Mawloc 140

1500

Although this looks durable and pretty scary at 1750:

HQ
Flyrant 2x Dual Brainleech Devs 230
Flyrant 2x Dual Brainleech Devs 230

Troops
Tervigon 195
30 Termagants x1 devourer 124

Elite
3 Zoanthrope 150
3 Zoanthrope 150
2 Zoanthrope 100

Heavy
Tyrannofex, Adrenal, Acid Spray 190
Tyrannofex, Adrenal, Acid Spray 190
Tyrannofex, Adrenal, Acid Spray 190

1749