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So I'm relatively new to warhammer, and I wanted to make my first serious tyranid list to destroy my friend who plays eldar, yet always wins (even though he has no strategy). Judging by what other people have said, I put together this list of kind of dakka-filled tyranids that get across the board fast enough to kill some before he shoots me. Help is very much welcomed and needed.

HQ
2 Hive flyrant with twin-linked devourers

Troops
20 Termagants, 10 with devourers (In Tyrannocyte with five venom cannons)

Fast Attack
10 Gargoyles

Elites
1 Venomthrope

Heavy Support
3 Dakkafex

1 Tyrannofex with regeneration

1 Mawloc

 Honthor wrote:
So I'm relatively new to warhammer, and I wanted to make my first serious tyranid list to destroy my friend who plays eldar, yet always wins (even though he has no strategy). Judging by what other people have said, I put together this list of kind of dakka-filled tyranids that get across the board fast enough to kill some before he shoots me. Help is very much welcomed and needed.

HQ
2 Hive flyrant with twin-linked devourers

Troops
20 Termagants, 10 with devourers (In Tyrannocyte with five venom cannons)

Fast Attack
10 Gargoyles

Elites
1 Venomthrope

Heavy Supportquote

Well...just some off the cuff things...one always add thorax hives to anybody who can take them (Tyrants, and the Tyrannofex) and two, you don't have a CAD, that takes two units of Troops. You can split out some of the Termagants though.

One tactic that is helpful vs a very shooty army like Eldar is using cover saves, so you'd want sources of Shrouding (Venothropes, or Malanthropes) and screening units (Hormagaunts work best, Gargoyles work well also) So you might want to add some more Gaunts, and trim a Carnifex to make up the points.

One "Dakkafex" can pay for two x15 Broods of Hormagaunts, and you can trim Termagants, and/or the Tyrannocyte to pay for some Venos. If you get the box of three 'Thropes, you can build a Veno, a Zoey, and have one more to build based on your "style"


One Veno might be enough, or you may find two work better for you. I like Zoeys for a durable source of Synapse, with a nice psycher boost rossed in.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
P.S. this should have been in the Army lists section.

I just took the one venomthrope to provide cover for the dakkafexes, and most of my army will be moving up fast like the gargoyles, flyrants and termagants, so the eldar can't shoot them up, that is the reason I didn't really put much screening units there because there isn't going to be much more units that will need screening.

A battle forged CAD formation is at least 1 HQ and 2 Troops, so currently as is your list is unbound and you will struggle hard on maelstrom.

Split up the termagant group into two and take them stock, drop everything on them (if they are screening units no need to waste points on shiny gunz.

Have the tyrannofex in the Tyrannocyte, he will drop in and cause a big distraction, plus termagants cant screen if they are not on the table.

also maybe on the tyrannofex swap regeneration with electroshock grub for some anti tank, they are also good on flyrants

If I took all of your advice (which I will, it was good) how close would it be to competitive ?

Screening doesn't work. The things that need protection won't get it except from Gargoyles. The dominant threats in the game don't care about that though. Ten Gargoyles will not be enough of a screen to keep three Carnifex and two Flyrants safe. If they can, then you're talking about bunching them up to a ridiculous degree.

You have the equivalent of no Synapse. If your Flyrants have to babysit your entire army, they're not doing their job of being the primary damage dealers. If they're dealing damage and swooping around and being awesome, your Carnifex, Termagants, Gargoyles and Venomthrope will wander off. And heaven forbid you come across an actually competitive list, because the Flyrants will die FAST. Only two should be killed by Turn 3, Turn 4 at the latest. And then what? You're hostage to Leadership rolls.

I'd drop the Tyrannofex and Tyrannocyte completely and continue building your core units. Zoanthropes or a Malanthrope (Forge World model) would be very appropriate with the style of play you appear to be swinging for. Adding the Tyrannos back in at 1850+ would be fine, but here at the start you should be covering the bases of every Tyranid swarm, not just grabbing a beat stick.

You're a long way off to competitive. Dakkafex suffer from being a relic of the past. T6 3+ Save used to be awesome. It's not anymore. I've had horrible things happen to my Carnifexen too often to count in anything even remotely approaching competitive. There's no answer to AV13+ yet, there's no Objective grabbing potential, there's only three targets that can be engaged with Str 6 Spam (since all three Carnifex have to shoot at one target) and there's no Synapse redundancy. These are all things that have to be addressed to be able to even start talking about competitive.

You've made good choices in some of these units, and you have a clear idea of how you want the battle to unfold. Focus on that core for now though and then add in more beat sticks later on. Make sure you have the ways to not lose before you try to throw in the things that win, if that makes any sense.

Damn... Brutally honest but thanks. What should I take for synapse? Warriors maybe?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alright, here it is: the altered list:

HQ
2 Hive flyrant with twin-linked devourers

Troops
20 Devilgants (In Tyrannocyte with five venom cannons)

3 Tyranid Warriors (one with venom cannon)

Fast Attack
20 Gargoyles

3 Tyranid shrikes (one with venom cannon)

Elites
1 Venomthrope

Heavy Support
1 Dakkafex

1 Tyrannofex

1 Mawloc

Warriors aren't a good choice these days because of how easily they're handled. It's weird, but if an enemy army can kill three, they can kill nine without any effort. If they can't kill five Warriors, they wouldn't be able to kill just three. Either they survive like bastards or they get wiped from the board as easily as if they were dust. I never take them anymore for that reason, and I really tried to make them work. Competitively, skip them. Less than competitively, give them a try.

The Shrikes have even worse armor than the Warriors. But, they actually fit in pretty decently with what you're trying to do. They can move around quickly to support what needs it and hide with Gargoyles all around them to give them a cover save. Not a bad idea. But, I have to ask if you have an idea on how to build them. Shrikes don't have a model anymore since FW stopped making wings for the Warrior kit. You'd have to build something from scratch for that.

Typically, you want Zoanthropes as your home Synapse pillars. Adds Psyker levels, they can run every turn, 3++ Save, and the oh so awesome Warp Blast. But, to do that here in this list, you'd have to drop the Tyrannofex, add another Carnifex and you should be able to include two Zoas. Then you can also change the Troops Warriors out for a different and better choice (which there really aren't any...) and rely on the Zoas. That would be ideal, but it looks like you like the Tyrannofex so I'd encourage you to give it a go both ways and see what works better for you. I consider the Tyrannofex to be pants and would rather take a Screamer Killer Carnifex and something else. You might have better luck.

Alright so I'm going to drop the lone dakkafex, the shrike's venom cannon and warriors, to replace them with 3 biovores and 3 zoanthropes. Is that a better choice?

Now you're back down to one Troop choice. Two Zoas is plenty and spend the 50pts on another Troop Choice. With your Shrikes, you should prolly grab Hormagaunts to keep the speed up. Maybe drop one of the Biovores too and add that 40pts into the Hormagaunts as well. Gives you a good sized brood and should give you some decent board control.

Hello,

All if if I can to adjust your list.


Post 2016/01/28 22:21:51 Subject: 1500 pt. Tyranid list *needs help
Damn... Brutally honest but thanks. What should I take for synapse? Warriors maybe?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alright, here it is: the altered list:

HQ
2 Hive flyrant with twin-linked devourers

Troops
20 Devilgants

3 Tyranid Warriors (rending claws /devs) -- If you can take more gaunts, but warriors are ok if you can't.

Fast Attack
20 Gargoyles (break into 2x 10 units)

Drop shrikes and take more gargs or gaunts, you need objectives in maelstrom)

Elites
1 Venomthrope Stick him behind the gargs/gaunts first turn. Foot slog him and the gaunts, again, try to take more than 20 gaunts if you have access, 60 minimum is a decent swarm.

Heavy Support
1 Dakkafex

1 Tyrannofex -- Put this guy in the pod, take the 2 flamer templates (acid spit/electroshock) and watch him walk through vehicles and infantry alike.

1 Mawloc -- hit or miss for me, i run 1,2,3 and if you can't abusive pheramone trail it might not be worth it, especially if you fail rolls -- put the points you save on the mawloc into a tervigon.


That is my take on the whole thing, the tervigon / all gaunts / gargs get shrouded first turn, deploy in/around cover to abuse up to a 2-3+ depending on night fight.

Tervigon spawns gaunts each turn to further increase your count which means easy objectives on your side of the map, the gargs will enable you to dive for objectives on the other side (break the 20 up into 2x 10 mans).

Let me know what you think.

i will add a third hive tyrant and/or hive crones right now one of best potential of Tyr are FMC.
leviathan detachement

3xhive tyr TL devourer electroshock grubs
3x mucolyd spores
20 gargoyles
2x hive crones with stinger salvo
2 mawlocks

1495pts
you have decent anti tank firepower good anti infantry fire ,5 FMC and the mawlocks to hit the rear of enemy lines

The biggest issue you're going to run into is that you have no way to secure objectives in maelstrom matches.

Also, if I am not mistaken you are unable to ally with yourself, you would have to take dual cad (meaning another troop choice). The mawloc is not reliable to bring in in the slighest, atleast in my experience.

I would run something like this (this is what i've assumed you own from the posts).

2x Flyrants w/ twld + electroshock grubs (for haywire flamer)

1 Tyrannocyte Drop Pod w/ deathspitters - Tyrannofex goes in the pod.

2x Venomthropes in their own brood

2x 30man gaunt broods (20 devs/10 fleshborer) - put the fleshboreres in the front to soak shots for dev gaunts.

2x 10 man garg broods

1x Hive Crone (standard) - You'll mostly be using this for the drool cannon, haywire missiles and str 8 vector strike.

1x Tyrannofex w/ eshock grubs

1497 (if you need more points just drop 1 gaunt from one of the broods).


I would deploy with my flyrants behind cover w/ a venom close. Maybe even cluster up with the gargoyles. This won't matter if you get first turn but it's good to deploy everything in 2+ cover w/ buildings + venoms.

Obviously you want to get your entire army in 2+ cover if you can through the use of venoms, good cover and possibly night fighting.

After that, it's up to you. You could also trade in the crone for a tervigon for more mastery + gaunts per turn (plus str 6ap2 attacks)

I wouldn't drop the fex though, I know a lot of people dislike them but if you drop one in someones back line (and in cover to boot) they are going to have a really hard time dealing with 2 flamers (1 torrent) and a bunch of huge attacks in CC. Also extremely good at assaulting back line vehicles with the use of haywire, a good template can clip 1-3 vehicles a turn.

you can ally with yourself, almost every tyr list play 3+ flyrant and often some more FMC then each have their opinion

You can ally with yourself in the sense that you use multiple Detachments. You can not use an Allied Detachment with the same Faction as your Primary. There is no wiggle room on that.

Tyranids have a Detachment that has three HQ slots. That plus a CAD gives five Flyrants and that is legal even in ITC tournaments where army building is a bit more restricted.

yes that is what i meant, 4-5 flyrants is the way right now