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Hi,

I have been playing tyranids for years now on and off. About a year ago I decided to start again and I wanted to see what people think of this army list before I finish it?

Hq: 335pts
swarmlord 285
tyrant guard 50

Troops: 360pts
52 hormagaunts, 260
3 warriors with scything talons and death spitters and one with a strangle thorn cannon 100pts

Elites: 285pts
3 zoanthropes 150
3 venomthropes 135

Heavy Support: 520pts
Mawloc 140
Mawloc 140
Trygone prime 230

It's a fairly simple army and the idea behind it is that I will hide the swarmlord in cover to start and keep him with that mob of gaunts and the warriors and the thropes, all shrouded, all kept as safe as possible.

Then at the start of the second turn with a little luck the swarmlord's ability to bring in reserves on a 2+ will mean that the mawlocs and trygon will pop up and cause carnage and distract from the horde giving it a chance to advance.

I am also considering swapping the trygon for a flying hive tyrant with a heavy venom cannon.

What do people think?

Looks nice! Swarmy is not considered "top shelf" in the current meta, but that does not stop him from being fun to play. A winged Dakka'rant is a very good purchase. 3 to a Brood for the Thropes is likely a poor use of points...I personally like x2 Broods as a ballence between durability, and cost control.

Tyrgon Prime is also a bit high costed for what you get, down the line you might want a less expensive Big Bug (my Heavy slots are usually Mawloc x2, Tyranofex w/ Thorax Hive) Carnifexen are back in style as well.

Welcome back to the Hive Mind!

I agree with Pinecone about the Thropes. I think you will find much more use out of either:

Malanthrope x1
Malanthrope x1

Or (what's I'm starting to incorporate into my lists)
2x Venomthropes
1x Zoanthrope
1x Zoanthrope

(I like the Venom/Zoan set up as it gives more Warp Charges for Powers of the Hive Mind, however, the Malanthropes are more durable but cost more and it is up to personal preference.)

Switching the Trygon Prime to the Flying Hive Tyrant is a very good purchase, as pinecone said, although you'll want two sets of Twin-Linked Devourers with Brain Leech Worms and if you have points, Electroshock Grubs. At this points level, Tyranid HQ's are filled with Flyrants with this loadout (best HQ in the book).

For your troops, I am starting to run them as the bare minimum, reason being is that it creates more targets for your opponent, meaning you can continue creating cover.

The Heavy Support looks fine, I would try and find points for 2 Carnifexes or an Exocrine. Keeping one Mawloc is fine, it creates fear and disrupts your opponents deployment as they know it can instantly gobble up something and make it's points back. Although not necessary, Adrenal Glands to give it 4 S7 AP2 attacks on the charge might be useful (remember it has Hit and Run, so it can't be tarpitted once it comes up!)

Hope this helps you out

Excellent thank you both for the help. What is a malanthrope btw?

A Malanthrope is essentially a better Venomthrope and is available from Forge World.

For 40 points more you get Synapse, S5 T5 W4, Regeneration and Prey Adaptation, where if it destroys a unit in combat, it give Preferred Enemy to every Nid in it's Synapse range - and these are only some of it's rules.

A great unit and potentially the best Elite unit Nids have.

Ok so that is great advice thank you. I will take the flying Hive Tyrant instead of a Trygon. What I am now wondering is whether or not I should take one brood of 2 zoanthropes instead of 3 zoanthropes and then take a big group of termagaunts or whether I should take 2 groups of zoanthropes. Any thoughts?

If you've got the Elite FOC places free, split your Zoanthrope. Warp Lance isn't reliable AT as you roll so many dice for it and if you're running, say Carnifexes with Twin Linked Devourers, you're more likely to roll blessings such as Onslaught and Catalyst.

Not to mention it grants an additional two WC (a group of three Zoanthrope only generate two WC overall due to Brotherhood of psykers) so you're more able to cast and deny.

Thanks Frozocrone, so would you suggest 2 individual zoanthropes and a bunch of termagaunts? Rather than 2 x 2 zoanthropes?

Japab wrote:
Thanks Frozocrone, so would you suggest 2 individual zoanthropes and a bunch of termagaunts? Rather than 2 x 2 zoanthropes?

That's my favored loadout. But if you have 3, I'd say run Zoey, x2, Zoey "solo", that still gives you two sources of Synapse, and 4 WCs. Just keep the solo Zoey out of LOS as much as possible.

Japab wrote:
Thanks Frozocrone, so would you suggest 2 individual zoanthropes and a bunch of termagaunts? Rather than 2 x 2 zoanthropes?

Personally I would go for 2 units of 1 Zoanthrope and minimum points on Troops (like 2 units of 10 Termagants) and spend the rest of the points on other FOC.

But if I had to pick, I would probably take more Termagants, two Zoanthropes in a unit makes it quite expensive (100 for two Warp Charges). Granted, two Warp Lances could pop a vehicle...but you have to pass the Psychic Test first (Partly why I like Carnifexes a lot).

Other than that, agree with pinecone about solo Zoey's, keep them out of LOS. Remember, they get Psychic Focus so can have an 18 inch Synapse range if you desperately need it.