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Hi guys

I've decided to come seek advice from the mighty T'internet for some advice.

I've decided after collecting plenty of blood angels, to start something new, and once pay day rolls around, I'll be picking up the Tyranid Swarm box set along with the Tyranid Get Started set and the codex. I figure they're 2 good points to start with, plenty of gaunts, of both flavours, plenty of gargoyles, and a few of the bigger beasts.

My advice is thus....... what do you guys typically arm your gaunts with, or given that I get 40 termagaunts and 40 hormagaunts, would you split them evenly across all the availble options in the box/codex? Same goes for the larger guys? what about the 'Fex, would you build old one eye, or just a regular 'Fex

Again, with the tyrant, I'm thinking flyrant maybe?

Beard Out.

Flyrant is the only real way to run the tyrant, as without Tyrant guard, he'll be eaten up quickly. Nobody likes Old One Eye. He is terrible for his points. Might as well run a carnifex with 2x Devourers. As far as gaunts, I arm Hormagaunts with Toxin Sacs, and I run 30 Termagants with 10x Devourers.

Beard wrote:
Hi guys

I've decided to come seek advice from the mighty T'internet for some advice.

I've decided after collecting plenty of blood angels, to start something new, and once pay day rolls around, I'll be picking up the Tyranid Swarm box set along with the Tyranid Get Started set and the codex. I figure they're 2 good points to start with, plenty of gaunts, of both flavours, plenty of gargoyles, and a few of the bigger beasts.

My advice is thus....... what do you guys typically arm your gaunts with, or given that I get 40 termagaunts and 40 hormagaunts, would you split them evenly across all the availble options in the box/codex? Same goes for the larger guys? what about the 'Fex, would you build old one eye, or just a regular 'Fex

Again, with the tyrant, I'm thinking flyrant maybe?

Beard Out.

Well, I use some basic "meta rules" for Nids. I reccomend staying away from upgrades unless you have a specific reason to take them, so I painted 30 Hormies as "vanilla" and converted 10 into Devilgaunts (Termagants with Devourers) and I painted my Termagants as "Spinegaunts" (spinefist, no cost) mostly for artistic reasons...other wise plenty of Vanilla is the way to go.

For the Carnifex, the current "gold standard" is twin sets of Brain Leeches, but if you're handy, magnatize new Codex just might change what load out is best.

For Tyrants the current "best" is Wings, and twin Brain Leeches, and a thorax hive. You might consider setting one up for CC ( magnets ) so you can use the "SkyTyrant" Formation. (One Winged Tyrant, and two Broods of Gargoyles who "Look out! 2+ ...)

I go with bare bones for Termagants and, if you don't want to turn the hormagaunts into more Termagants, give the hormies toxin sacs or just go bare. They're there to annoy and tie up things.

Carnifexes work with two sets of Devourers (so 4 of those arms), collectively known as the "Dakkafex". You put out something like 12 S6 shots each turn and twin-linked solves the Carnifex's average BS3 (and, in case you're wondering, this is enough shots to reliably deal with everything in the game short of AV13 or terminators. The stats is kinda bad, but you force a lot of saves or glances). Alternatively, if you want to play from the gold-ol days, just go with two scything talons. This costs nothing and makes for a decent distraction, but don't expect it to be very killy (namely a lot of things can outrun it).

And like everyone else said. Flyrants also with two sets of devourers. It's like the walking Carnifex, but flies and has better BS.

As far as the termagants go, decide what you want them to do. Shoot stuff up, but cost a pretty penny? Devourers. Want them to be a fearless tarpit to tie things up for most of the game? Fleshborers/spinefists.

I usually take 30 fleshborers to tie up deathstars I don't need to fight, and 20 outflanking devilgants (via Hive Commander on the flyrant).

Works for me! (usually...)

I'm in agreement that you should try to keep the upgrades to a bare minimum. Your nids will die often and in handfuls. But by keeping them cheap, you can still have plenty of bodies left on the table to overwhelm whatever your opponent has.

So for the guants and gants, I would recommend building the majority of them with fleshborers. I would run 30 terms with fleshborers, convert 10 of the horms to have devourers, and run the rest of the horms bare. That will provide a core to screen your big bugs and take objectives.

I won't repeat what others have said about the carnifex and the tyrant, as they are completely correct.

First I'd recommend you hop over to the Tactics subforum and check out the Tyranids thread- the first post has good reviews of most of the units.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/572843.page

As others have said a dakkafex and a Dakka Flyrant are your most competitive choices, but you'll only get two sets of Monstrous Creature Devourers(I'd recommend clipping up a set of Crushing Claws, Termagant Devourers, and greenstuffing them together similar to the ForgeWorld Flyrant Devourers- http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Tyranid-Twin-linked-Devourers?_requestid=1367780).


For your warriors I'd say keep them stock, and add a Barbed Strangler. They'd make a cheap babysitting unit for your gants and gaunts.

Thanks for the replies guys, Sinful hero in particular, the tactics thread was a great heads

Just bought the get started box set last ight but only had the time to build up 2 gargoyls due to other commitments. I enjoyed building them alot more than marines!

I can imagine that painting with arms/legs and claws in the way may be a pain mind!

Just got to get my grubby mitts ona codex now

 Sinful Hero wrote:
First I'd recommend you hop over to the Tactics subforum and check out the Tyranids thread- the first post has good reviews of most of the units.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/572843.page

As others have said a dakkafex and a Dakka Flyrant are your most competitive choices, but you'll only get two sets of Monstrous Creature Devourers(I'd recommend clipping up a set of Crushing Claws, Termagant Devourers, and greenstuffing them together similar to the ForgeWorld Flyrant Devourers- http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Tyranid-Twin-linked-Devourers?_requestid=1367780).


For your warriors I'd say keep them stock, and add a Barbed Strangler. They'd make a cheap babysitting unit for your gants and gaunts.