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A Natural Tyranids Force

Hi Guys,

A couple months ago I decided to pick up the hobby again and build myself a new army. It was a hard choice because I had so many armies to choose from. Previously I built a Space Wolves army and a Soul Drinkers styled Marine force. This time I made the right call and went for Nids. Man, it felt like playing an entirely new game. I understand there’s lots of disappointment in the current codex, but for me it was a massive improvement moving away from them canned arrogance. My local gaming community is very small: 4 adults and bunch of teenagers. There’s no need to build a terrifying list because that would kill it all. My aim is to create a dynamic, resilient and entertaining army that is both challenging to play with as against. So, no Flyrants.

I’ve decided to construct my army around two main themes: swarm and psychic power. My reasoning is that Nids are supposed to be a horde of creatures controlled by an almost supernatural mind. Therefore, my force should reflect that. In addition I also added some minor themes to the force: there’s some spore mines (biological warfare) and long ranged firepower (bio cannons). These two elements will put pressure on my opponent from the beginning of the battle and therefore increase the feeling of fighting an dangerous alien horde. Leaving this elements out would leave a slow moving blob of meat that starts doing something in turn 3.

The core of my army looks like this:

1 Hive Tyrant, Heavy venom cannon 185
4 Warriors, Adrenal glands, Rending claws 160
20 Gants, 10 Devil 120
16 Hormagaunts 80
1 Tyrannofex, Rupture 205
3 Spore Mines 15

750

This 750 points army will slowly grow into a 2000 points force as we are all expanding our armies. The majority of players here have never played the game so that is why we are starting so small.

My questions are simple:

1. What do you think?
2. What units, related to my theme, do you suggest I should add when I increase the size of my army to 1000 points.
3. What other themes should I add?

As for a fun list, this would be fine. If you want to ACTUALLY be swarmy, throw a belly on that Fex and spawn some gants! Tervigons are key to the swarmy swarm. As many as possible.

I'd definitely think about tossing a Barbed Strangler on the warriors. If you want to really give the aspect of a horde charging, pinning down your opponent is a great way to do that, as it forces your opponent to sit still and watch you run at him.

Run Sporefield. Do it. You know you want to. And Endless Swarm. Be the horde you were meant to be.

Are you looking to win as many games as possible or have a thematic list that's fun to play?

 eauxlune wrote:
As for a fun list, this would be fine. If you want to ACTUALLY be swarmy, throw a belly on that Fex and spawn some gants! Tervigons are key to the swarmy swarm. As many as possible.

I'd definitely think about tossing a Barbed Strangler on the warriors. If you want to really give the aspect of a horde charging, pinning down your opponent is a great way to do that, as it forces your opponent to sit still and watch you run at him.

Run Sporefield. Do it. You know you want to. And Endless Swarm. Be the horde you were meant to be.

You are right about the Tervigon and he was alway there in my original lists. I dropped him after watching the Tyrannofex perform again DE, soaking about so much firepower that I actually was allowed to win. I will reintroduce him into my list. He will add synapse, character and psychic power.

The Sporefield is just what I need! Good one. So, cheapest variant would be 90 points. Or, do you recommend me to take bigger units?

My only concern with going all out on the swarm is that I won't have any control over what my opponent is doing. I never liked single-minded armies (hehe, how would you describe Nids?) that try and reach the other side ASAP. The psychic phase and bio-cannon shooting phase allows me to affect my opponents to some extend. My main concern is being able to stun heavy vehicles and crack open transports. Any recommendations here?


@ Deraiderspam,
I don't need a killer list. I rather watch my local club play beautiful soccer than watch them crush the opponent 10 to 0. In order to play beautifully the army needs to be dynamic, organic and colorful.

If you want swarm and psyker, I'd run something like this it feels like it has character:

HQ:
Winged Hive Tyrant, Twin-Linked Devourers x2 230

Here is some psychic power, and lots of early S6 shots to open transports which may be very useful as it is something the rest of your list lacks, may be very beneficial:

Troops:
Tervigon 195
30 Termagants, Spinefists 120

Here is the swarm element, mummy wants to make babies and then the 30 allowing her to be a troop too. Giving one of the toughest Ob Sec units in the game and also the swarm you were looking for.

Elites:
Venomthrope 45

This is a must have for your list if you plan on running swarm, it will give your gants a minimum of a 5+ improved by area terrain and night fighting, along side also giving your hive tyrant cover turn 1 and also your tervigon at least a 3+ Cover Hiding behind a wall of termagants.

Fast Attack:
Harpy 135
5 Spore mines 25

Here are where your spores come in, giving you a nice squad of spores to deep strike and have a field day, and also your harpy can make more with her Spore Mine Cysts.

I'd like to think I've covered all bases with this, you've got Psychic in the form of a ML2 + ML1 Psykers, which is good for any 750 point list. A swarm aspect with 39 Models, a tervigon which spawns more and a Harpy that also spawns more, so another good load for 750! And also contains all the things you should need to hold your own to so that you're not walked over. Hope this is helpful, let me know if you want to discuss any aspects of the list!

As you move up in points look at adding a formation endless swarm could be a very fluffy add on. Misanthrope add plenty of psychic power. Then add some venothropes for durability.

@Pinecone, What's a Misanthrope?

@Deraiderspam, I won't take either Flyrants or Venomthropes. The former because I'm sure the hive depleted it's 'wings bio-plasma' by now and the latter because I rather spend the 45 points on more models. I know the Venomthropes are really good, but again I rather stick to a few themes and invest a lot of point in those. I like the idea of a harpy spawning extra Spore Mines! What about a Sporocyst? He is cheaper and produces more that the Harpy. My only concern is that in an offensive army half its spores don't reach the enemy.

Also, this is a unrelated question: a unit of 30 Gants makes a Tervi troop or the combined total of all Gants? I've seen lists where they take 3x10 Gants and say the Tervi is a troop.

Right now I've got:

1 Hive Tyrant Heavy venom cannon 185
1 Tervigon 195
10 Gants 5 Devourers 60
4 Warriors Adrenal glands, Rending 160
12 Hormagaunts 60
12 Sporefield 90

750

Something like Terminators might be really hard to tackle. I'm not so CC heavy. Maybe the Sporefield is to pricy for 750? I swap it for two or three Spore Mine units and spend the rest on Hormagaunts or more Warriors?

A misanthrope is a sort of "super" Venothrope 85 points, t 5, St pass, and a bunch of rules, including Shrouding.

Sounds like you have no need for one. With walking Tyrants, and no Shrouding, I can only hope your local " meta" won't be too daunting.

Good luck, and Welcome to the Hive Mind.

You need a full squad of 30 gants to field a tervigon as a troops choice, at least that's what it says in the codex, and the two tervigon-including battles I've seen (one of which I played). If your looking for more than 10/20 gants as meatshields for your MCs, then you NEED a tervigon, which you thankfully have. Good job! They are hilariously good at spawning waves of objective grabbers, until you roll double of course, which really sucks.

If I'm totally honest, Deraiderspam completely summed up my advice before I could type it out - venomthropes and the flyrant with TL devourers, are the gak in this edition, playing tyranids. Of course I can understand themed armies, and I even encourage this, it can certainly make things interesting!

I would suggest harpies as well, although they're not always top on my priority list when list building. Zoanthropes are a great source of warp charges, reliable (although short ranged) and powerful anti-armour psychic powers, being s10 and LANCE for christ's sake, and IF YOU ARE CONCERNED FOR TERMINATORS (which is understandable ) it is ap2. However I repeat, it is only short ranged (18" I think...)

In summary, zoanthropes are good ap2, and anti everything tank-like (lance, s10, ap2) although only 18" range, and as someone said, harpies are great scaring the enemy with spore mines, threatening light vehicles and terrifying infantry with large blasts of s6 goodness, and let's not forget cover-ignoring vector strikes as you swoop over people!