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Hey Everyone; My friends and I are starting to play 40k. We, however, want to see how we like the game before we make the big plunge into buying/painting our armies. We have bought a 7th Ed. Rulebook and our respective Codices. Personally, Tyranid appeals most to me, but doing some research I have heard a lot of salt about current Tyranids. I realize most of this is probably just whining, and it can't be all that bad or people just wouldn't play Tyranid. My friends and I are planning to play some proxy battles with pieces of paper or other miniatures over the next week to see how we like the game/our armies. This is What I came up with:

HQ
Hive Tyrant 215 points
-wings
-Twin Linked Devourer with Brainleech Worms

Troops
Termagants 120 Points
w/ 20 extra termagants

Ripper Swarms 52 Points
w/ 1 extra Swarm

Tervigon 195

Elites
Venomthrope 45 Points

Heavy Support
Carnifex 135
-Twin Linked Devourer with brainleech worms


Some extra notes:
-I'm very clueless about what upgrades to buy. I figured more figures that do stuff for my army (giving synapse, shrouded, extra gaunts, etc) would be better than paying 60 points for a slightly better gun for some termagants, but It's very possible I'm wrong.

-I was trying build based off the Tyranid Swarm box from GW (40 Termies, 40 Hormagaunts, 10 Gargoyles, 4 ripper swarms, 1 Carnifex)as you can get it pretty cheap on ebay and it seems to be a good value. I didn't know how to include the hormagaunts and Gargoyles; most battle reports I see don't use hormagaunts and only a few use gargoyles. It seemed better to spend the points on more units that have some sort of utility, but I could be wrong; if you could make a better list out of stuff in that box, that would be cool, if not, it's fine too.

Hello dude!

Welcome to the hobby!

Nids are great- you'll hear people crying about nids because they did take a bit of a beating in their newest codex as there is little to no auto include like tau have with a riptide and eldar have with a wraith knight.

That being said, there are some insanely good units.
The Flying hive tyrant is rad and you should equip it with ( I say should, you can if you want too I mean!)
2x devourers with brain leech worms
Wings
And if you have the points spare put some electro shock grubs on him for haywire on vehicles. (It's awesome vs skimmers!)

With Rippers you only want them if they are deep striking so you can steal objectives later on in the game.

Carnifex's a with 2X devourers are great too. Put adrenal glands on them if you have a spare 15 points for strength 10 combat attacks and a speedier method of getting further up afield.

A special shout out goes to the Mawloc. I love them so much, they are so cheap and can really hurt infantry units!
Take them vanilla or with adrenal glands if you have the points spare!

You've made an awesome choice going for nids man. I've had some very good games with them myself and have dominated a large majority of them!
Read my blog if you're interested as there's a lot of tyranid battle reports in there and I've also gone over some tactics and unit reviews.

Good luck mi amigo!

What army is your friend planning on using? We can suggest the best advice possible to help you win but it's not going to be fun for your friend if they keep losing.

The only salt from Tyranid players is that we have a tough time in the current meta...we don't have a power codex like Eldar or Tau and struggle against Armour.

How do you feel about using Forge World? Tyranids have some pretty nice models from there

Thanks for the help. I didn't realize you could take 2 tl devourers. I assume you forgo both sets of scything talons by choosing devourers? I 86'd the rippers for 2 tl devourers on both the Fex and flyrant. I had exactly 10 points so I threw grubs on the flyrant as well.

My friends will be playing imperial guard, necrons, and either eldar or sm for the last guy. I'm not against forgeworld units, but we would all have to agree to use them, and I've heard the malanthrope is probably the best nid unit right now, so it may be that they would be against it.

Am I right in my list to forgo using gargoyles and hormagaunts? I tried following whats in the box but it seemed like if my flyrant took a few unlucky hits, I was just dead because I had no synapse. I didn't really know what to do to add synapse, so I was going to add warriors but they seem like a pretty big investment for 3 units, so I threw in a tervigon since I had 30 termiies anyway. From what I understand venomthropes are almost mandatory. In fact I posted a small thread on teamliquid (Starcraft forum) and Incontrol (a highly rated nids player from the west coast) said his recommendation to start a team would be 2 flyrants and 2 venomthropes and adding from there.

Yes, that's right.

Considering your friends are playing Vehicle-based Armies, Carnifexes are a good buy.

In your list, not using Gargoyles and Hormagaunts is a good call. Reason being exactly as you stated - only one source of Synapse. For Gargoyles it's not as bad but Hormagaunts are just dreadful when outside Synapse. I'd only consider them if I ran two Fyrants or some Shrikes (Shrikes is a dubious call).

I'd still get the Tyranid Swarm box since all the models are usable in the right builds and you save around £50 (~$80) if you were to purchase them all separately.

Not got much to add...in place of the Tervigon you could have two Zoanthropes in seperate Broods to help against Psykers(Eldar) and vehicles with Warp Lance (Imperial, Necrons, maybe Space Marines) as well as provide Synapse, another Venomthrope to back you up incase your first one goes down and a Ripper Swarm to sit on objectives (even if outside Synapse and start eating themselves, they are naturally Fearless so they have to be completely destroyed before your opponent can claim that objective). If you did replace the Tervigon, might be ideal to split the Termagants into two units of 15 for target saturation.

Just my thoughts, if when proxying the Tervigon it works out for you, keep it

-pariah- wrote:
Hey Everyone; My friends and I are starting to play 40k. We, however, want to see how we like the game before we make the big plunge into buying/painting our armies. We have bought a 7th Ed. Rulebook and our respective Codices. Personally, Tyranid appeals most to me, but doing some research I have heard a lot of salt about current Tyranids. I realize most of this is probably just whining, and it can't be all that bad or people just wouldn't play Tyranid. My friends and I are planning to play some proxy battles with pieces of paper or other miniatures over the next week to see how we like the game/our armies. This is What I came up with:

HQ
Hive Tyrant 215 points
-wings
-Twin Linked Devourer with Brainleech Worms

Troops
Termagants 120 Points
w/ 20 extra termagants

Ripper Swarms 52 Points
w/ 1 extra Swarm

Tervigon 195

Elites
Venomthrope 45 Points

Heavy Support
Carnifex 135
-Twin Linked Devourer with brainleech worms


Some extra notes:
-I'm very clueless about what upgrades to buy. I figured more figures that do stuff for my army (giving synapse, shrouded, extra gaunts, etc) would be better than paying 60 points for a slightly better gun for some termagants, but It's very possible I'm wrong.

-I was trying build based off the Tyranid Swarm box from GW (40 Termies, 40 Hormagaunts, 10 Gargoyles, 4 ripper swarms, 1 Carnifex)as you can get it pretty cheap on ebay and it seems to be a good value. I didn't know how to include the hormagaunts and Gargoyles; most battle reports I see don't use hormagaunts and only a few use gargoyles. It seemed better to spend the points on more units that have some sort of utility, but I could be wrong; if you could make a better list out of stuff in that box, that would be cool, if not, it's fine too.

Welcome to the Hive Mind! Yeah, I recommend the Swarm Box, a Tyrant, and down the line a box of Warriors, they are expensive (in cash ) and not exactly overwhelming, but they are a reasonably durable source of Synapse, and they are often a key part of a Formation.

Gargoyles are lightning fast, good at screening (because they are tall) and good at "tarpitting" (tying up a unit in inconlusive close combat) I reserved 10 of the Hormagaunts, and converted them into "Devilgaunts" (Termagants with the Devourer upgrade) using the extra items on the sprues. If you can swing it, I recommend you do the same.

I like both Zoanthropes (Zoeys) and Venothropes, they both function as "force multipliers" and are not too expensive. So it will be easy to add those in as you go. After you play a few games, you'll start to get a feel for what "style" suits you, then you can make large purchases with confidence, because you know you'll use what you get.

A Tervigon is not a bad choice, but some (like say...me) don't much like them, so try it out before you purchase one. If you don't like it a Warrior Brood can provide some extra Synapse at a much lower (game ) cost.

Late entry: here is a basic list, as a suggestion. This uses Warriors, but they can often be found at a discount.

HQ: Winged Dakka'rant, Thorax Hive 240 (Tyrant, Wings, TL; Brain Leeches x2, Thorax Hive (Electro-bugs, or Shredder beatles)

Troops: Warrior Brood, x3 Strangle Cannon 100 you can add other upgrades like x2 Deathspitters, or x2 Rending Claws for a low cost (+10)
Troops: Termagants, x20 80 (I built mine as "Spinegaunts" for the same cost, -1 S, but Twin Linked)
Troops: Termagants, x20 80

Fast: Gargoyles, x10 60

Heavy: Dakkafex 150 (Tl: Brain Leeches, x2)

That should run 700 to 730 depending on some upgrades, that still leaves a little more if you want more upgrades, or more figures in each Brood. Later, if you decide to add a Tervigon, you just add the 10 Devilgaunts into one of the Broods to get x30 figs, and the Tervigon counts as Troops. Add Hive Commander and you can Outflank her. Once you have a decent amount of Synapse, you can add the Hormagaunts in as well.

So, in a small list like this, Should I be looking to use my psyker powers? I have 1 tervigon and 1 Tyrant as Psykers, but they're my only synapse. Without having played a lot, I'm just dead afraid of rolling into perils of the warp and really screwing myself over. When using psyker powers, what ones should I be prioritizing?

-pariah- wrote:
So, in a small list like this, Should I be looking to use my psyker powers? I have 1 tervigon and 1 Tyrant as Psykers, but they're my only synapse. Without having played a lot, I'm just dead afraid of rolling into perils of the warp and really screwing myself over. When using psyker powers, what ones should I be prioritizing?

Depends on what you roll.

The Witchfires and Nova powers are entirely dependent on the situation.

The Blessings and Maledictions you want to prioritize to cast since their going to benefit you most - but generally not Dominion. (but hey, if you have a spare dice, might as well )

When I say prioritize, I mean as in the power you really want to get off. if you can threaten a Vehicle with Warp Lance and your opponent denies it, you've got less dice to worry about when you start rolling for, say Catalyst and Paroxysm.

With experience playing Nids, you'll figure out the best times to cast certain powers.

-pariah- wrote:
So, in a small list like this, Should I be looking to use my psyker powers? I have 1 tervigon and 1 Tyrant as Psykers, but they're my only synapse. Without having played a lot, I'm just dead afraid of rolling into perils of the warp and really screwing myself over. When using psyker powers, what ones should I be prioritizing?

I don't think you need to worry, one nice thing about Nids is our Psychers have multiple wounds I greatly prefer buffing powers, it's one reason why I tend to run so many Zoeys. But you can't control what you roll, again, Nids are nice because we're ML 2+ most of the time, so we get plenty of rolls. My favorite use for Dominion is to spoof the foe into using up his WC for DTW. Then I can cast what I wanted to...