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HQ Choice

Hive Tyrant
2x TL devourers
Wings

Hive Tyrant
2x TL devourers
Wings
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Troops Choice

6 warriors
toxin sacs
5x rending claws & barbed strangler (dont have my dex I can do that right? have 5 with rending claws and 1 without in trade for the barbed or do ALL 6 have to have rending claws)

18 Termagaunts
devourers

18 Termagaunts
devourers

18 Hormagaunts
toxin sacs

18 Hormagaunts
toxin sacs
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Elite Choice

3 zoanthropes

Venomthrope

Haruspex
toxin sacs
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Heavy Choice

Trygon prime
toxin sacs

Trygon prime
toxin sacs miasma cannon***

Tyranofex
rupture cannon, thorax swarm.
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Fast Attack

Harpy
stinger salvo

Comes out to 2499...

Anyone use the miasma cannon? I know it takes an attack off my Trygon prime... but the weapon itself seems rather beast mode... undecided.... will do some test battles and see how it works, but would love input from those who have tried it.

I have toxin on most everything meant for combat. I took off the toxin on my tyrants in place of the miasma cannon on the trygon P. turning him into a vile gunship i can deepstrike without much worry. IF the miasma cannon seems like a fail, ill just revert to toxin on my tyrants.

Lots of comments, so I'll go section by section.
HQ:
Nothing really to critique here. These are the most efficient HQs point-wise that nids can run.

Troops:
Warriors - to answer your question, yes you can. However, you probably want to run warriors more shooty. They usually won't make it into combat. If you want to keep the TS, that's fine. Just run them with deathspitters instead of RC so that you can pump out 3 shots per model as you walk across the board.
Terms - This is a personal preference, but I rarely run devs. The reason is that you can have literally double the bodies on the table if you run them bare. A squad of 30 terms bare will do more in almost every game than 15 terms with devs: they will absorb more shots, they will survive longer, they can tarpit units better, and they have a better chance of holding objectives turn 5. I would drop all the devs and upgrade your squads to either 2 squads of 30 or 3 squads of 20. (Honestly, I would prefer 4 squads of 20 for this point value)
Horms - This is a tougher choice. Horms are definitely more effective with TS. The problem is that less will make it into combat because you've spent the points on upgrades instead of bodies. Personally, I use squads of 20 horms to screen my other troops and absorb overwatch. But to each their own.

Elites:
Fine choices. However because you are playing about 2k points, you have the ability to use a 2nd FoC. Use it! You need to spread your synapse and shrouded out more among your squads. Take 2 squads of 2 zoanthropes and 2 squads of 2 venomthropes.
I don't know much about the Haruspex, as I never use it.

Heavies:
Miasma on a prime is a very nice combo. Being able to pop up with 12 shots AND a 2+ template/blast is hard to beat. Not sure if the TS are worth it though.
Tyranofex - Looks good. Some people prefer the torrent weapon, but I like the rupture cannon for the S10 shots early game.

Fast Attack:
Upgrade the harpy to a TL heavy venom cannon. The S9 is worth it.

Hope this helps

awesome ive been kicking around the idea of the twin venom on the Harpy. just in the past been burnt pretty heavy with that gun (before they dropped its penalty vs non opened top vehicles anyway)
toxin on trygons 100% needed. Without it his failed to wound attacks are seriously grievous.


I will be honest. I want to pack a lot of punch without having swarm. I cant stand swarm. Aside from the buying, building and painting aspect..... I hate moving 200 models.
I use my hgaunts as cover/tarpit/mc hunters. As overpowered as that toxin is vs mcs (literally shutting down ANY T value for a 3 point upgrade... insanity... BUT shaving toxin off would shave me like 108 more points... thats some needed upgrades/ extra termagaunts... might have to look into that. run 4 squads of 20 2 as devigaunts and 2 as base horms... with tons of points left over? hmm would increase my tarpit ability but lower my mc hunter... curious if I have enough of that.. with the amount of MC spam these days.... im not sure if one has enough period. at 2500 points ive seen mc spam lists that scare a tyranid player lol. oh yay... 5 riptides... cute... oh 4 deamon princes let me just go hang myself.

My warriors were always shooty up until last night I converted them over to stabby. honestly only reason I did it I wanted a fun melee deathstar. I have so much shooty as it is and for 233 points it has 18 wounds which is nice (str 8 ap2 or better will seriously hurt them ) but with 5 of them being set up for melee slaying... thats on the charge 25 rending and poisoned attacks... with 4 attacks that are just poisoned. All I need is a delivery system and I have one I think. behind a gaunt screen with a venomthrope. thats 2+ mobile cover and can soak up some some fire or a charge. all in all that bullet which serves a few purposes is less than 500pts (ouch 20% of my army) but serves as;
1. a HUGE distraction, what are you gonna lay fire into harder? my mcs charging up the lines or the warriors with 2+ cover?
2. honestly.. what is gonna stand up to that? not a whole lot, sure some better matched units out there but not with 18 wounds and that many rending strikes. plus IF I take the objective its already a scoring unit. so that point isnt just contested or gone.. its MINE.
3. monster hunters, same as my hormagaunts. YES I will throw 18 hormagaunts up to an mc like dreadknights. those rends are what is gonna drop it with the unreliable tyranid shooting I needed something that was a failry solid choice to drop the enemy big baddies.
4. synapse I no longer HAVE to have one of my tyrants or trygons up in the fray.

I chose the tfex for durability over the exocrine. partly out of the fact I already HAD one built and painted and hes just so much more survivable WITH double the range. on a gun that can actually attempt to pop a land raider. he comes standard with the stinger salvo and for 10 points the chest flamer... amazing.

if the warriors fail ill just change them out for raveners loaded to the teeth with a good mix of both melee killing power and chest mounted deathspitters. now that they move 12" and upped their base attacks... makes them more than viable as well.

the Haruspex. everytime I have used him I have been more than pleased. his str 7 +2d6 damage to vehicles... ouch. Dont need to "smash" until av13+ because odds are better without halving your attacks. Amazing vs stuff like termies and other low model count units. tar pitted easily though.

I am desperately trying to NOT run a dual list. I dont want to take 2 focs. UNTIL after 3k pnts. after that its all gloves are off. and out comes the extra hqs and the carni broods.
not running a super competitive list, I have 2 armies in process that are 100% competitive no fun armies. Dark eldar and my shield core BAs with tlac spam. Just wanted a fun list with an annoying deathstar.

I will be honest. I want to pack a lot of punch without having swarm. I cant stand swarm. Aside from the buying, building and painting aspect..... I hate moving 200 models.
I use my hgaunts as cover/tarpit/mc hunters. As overpowered as that toxin is vs mcs (literally shutting down ANY T value for a 3 point upgrade... insanity... BUT shaving toxin off would shave me like 108 more points... thats some needed upgrades/ extra termagaunts... might have to look into that. run 4 squads of 20 2 as devigaunts and 2 as base horms... with tons of points left over? hmm would increase my tarpit ability but lower my mc hunter... curious if I have enough of that.. with the amount of MC spam these days.... im not sure if one has enough period. at 2500 points ive seen mc spam lists that scare a tyranid player lol. oh yay... 5 riptides... cute... oh 4 deamon princes let me just go hang myself.

Fair enough. Personally, I love swarm armies. But I can understand why others do not like them. If you want to avoid swarms, warriors are your best bet for troops, though you could also run a tervigon or 2 as troops to have some MC fun.
I'm surprised by your worry about MC spam. I've never been out MCed at my FLGS. Sure there's always the tau multi-riptide armies. But I'm usually more worried about their shooting ability.
A fun trick you could do would be to run a squad of 15 gargoyles with TS and have them seek out MCs. With TS, they blind on a 4+ and can absolutely neuter an MC, making it easy prey for your MCs.

My warriors were always shooty up until last night I converted them over to stabby. honestly only reason I did it I wanted a fun melee deathstar. I have so much shooty as it is and for 233 points it has 18 wounds which is nice (str 8 ap2 or better will seriously hurt them ) but with 5 of them being set up for melee slaying... thats on the charge 25 rending and poisoned attacks... with 4 attacks that are just poisoned. All I need is a delivery system and I have one I think. behind a gaunt screen with a venomthrope. thats 2+ mobile cover and can soak up some some fire or a charge. all in all that bullet which serves a few purposes is less than 500pts (ouch 20% of my army) but serves as;
1. a HUGE distraction, what are you gonna lay fire into harder? my mcs charging up the lines or the warriors with 2+ cover?
2. honestly.. what is gonna stand up to that? not a whole lot, sure some better matched units out there but not with 18 wounds and that many rending strikes. plus IF I take the objective its already a scoring unit. so that point isnt just contested or gone.. its MINE.
3. monster hunters, same as my hormagaunts. YES I will throw 18 hormagaunts up to an mc like dreadknights. those rends are what is gonna drop it with the unreliable tyranid shooting I needed something that was a failry solid choice to drop the enemy big baddies.
4. synapse I no longer HAVE to have one of my tyrants or trygons up in the fray.

Honestly, I doubt a warrior cc deathstar will ever make it into combat against a good opponent. It's just too easy to kill with ID to not get rid of, especially at that point value. It's fine if you want to run it, as you might get some fun if it happens to make it. But I think the points could be spent on much better units that will help your force out more.

I chose the tfex for durability over the exocrine. partly out of the fact I already HAD one built and painted and hes just so much more survivable WITH double the range. on a gun that can actually attempt to pop a land raider. he comes standard with the stinger salvo and for 10 points the chest flamer... amazing.

One of my favorite units in the new codex. The nice thing is that nid heavies are easily the best section this codex. You can take any of the heavies and use them pretty effectively. It's no surprise that when reading most of the nid lists posted to dakka this section is 1) almost always maxed out and 2) the most varied between players.

if the warriors fail ill just change them out for raveners loaded to the teeth with a good mix of both melee killing power and chest mounted deathspitters. now that they move 12" and upped their base attacks... makes them more than viable as well.

This would be what I would recommend if you wanted to run a nice medium sized cc unit. Raveners can pack a serious punch if used correctly, plus those models

the Haruspex. everytime I have used him I have been more than pleased. his str 7 +2d6 damage to vehicles... ouch. Dont need to "smash" until av13+ because odds are better without halving your attacks. Amazing vs stuff like termies and other low model count units. tar pitted easily though.

Interesting, I'll have to proxie one and try it out. Don't worry about tar pitting too much. As a nid player, that is your bread and butter. You should be able to tarpit anything that could either threaten or in turn tarpit your MCs.

I am desperately trying to NOT run a dual list. I dont want to take 2 focs. UNTIL after 3k pnts. after that its all gloves are off. and out comes the extra hqs and the carni broods.
not running a super competitive list, I have 2 armies in process that are 100% competitive no fun armies. Dark eldar and my shield core BAs with tlac spam. Just wanted a fun list with an annoying deathstar.

Fair enough. It will only really hurt you in the elites section. Unfortunately, it will force you to have to pack closer together to get the full benefits from the venoms. I would run 2 squads of 2 venoms and 1 squad of 2 zoeys.