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I know Nids arnt the most competitive codex out there and are generally considered one of the weaker codex out at the moment but I was curious. What competitive/semi-competitive units/ builds do the Tyranids have going for them (aside from the flying hive tyrant as thats relatively obvious). Have many of you tried the Demachaeron from Forgeworld that seems particularly nasty?

Well you just named the one competitive build - the flying hive tyrant.

The Dimachaeron isn't bad but struggles getting there. If you get master of ambush as your warlord trait, that helps but he still is as slow as a carnifex. And that's not a good thing.

Once he gets there, he liquifies everything that he touches. So if you have sufficient threat saturation such that he can get there, go for it. For 200 points, you get a lot of value. If that thing moved 12", I would have 3 and use them every game

Would you not say anything else is even remotely competitive to back the Tyrant up?

Yeah that's pretty much what I thought, T6 sv3+ and 6W does help him out a little though.

Living artillery node is very playable

A few other units are reasonably competitive: the Exocrine is pretty solid, if you can deal with its short range. The Malanthrope, while not amazing in its own right as a fighting unit, is an awesome buffer and anchor.

The competitive build for Tyranids is Pentyrant. Five Flyrants, two Ripper Swarms with Deep Strike, three Mucoloids, Malanthrope in a Bastion and Mawlocs. That's it.

The Exocrine is pathetically short ranged, the LAN is nice in casual games but it won't survive a heartbeat when it's against a competitive build. Even #Lictorshame is dead and gone thanks to Space Marines and Eldar doing MSU better and still being able to put a lot of fire downrange. The rest of the codex just can't survive against the strong meta.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
The competitive build for Tyranids is Pentyrant. Five Flyrants, two Ripper Swarms with Deep Strike, three Mucoloids, Malanthrope in a Bastion and Mawlocs. That's it.

While I agree that is the most competitive Nid list, it is also one of the least fluff lists in all of 40k. Nids are one of the armies that struggle to make lists that are both fluff and strong.

On topic, Venomthropes with lots of bodies surrounding them is a legit way to play. Just try to keep the V-thropes out of LoS or in some Ruins. Just be careful of Tau

Flyrants are at the top of the list. Mawlocs are a good counter to Spider spam for Eldar (not a shooting attack so they can't jump away and it kills them). Sporocyst are actually pretty good with biovores. It overloads the enemy with a metric crap ton of spore mines forcing them to deal with the mines. It also limits spider movement.

 fatbudda319 wrote:
Would you not say anything else is even remotely competitive to back the Tyrant up?

Yeah that's pretty much what I thought, T6 sv3+ and 6W does help him out a little though.

I would definitely not say that. But the more tyrants you take, the better your list gets. Personally, I think that four is the optimal number, as with 5 you run very low on support units and the tyrants cannot score. Read: never land them.

The rest of the army is built around synergy and shoring up the weaknesses of your list. With 3 or 4 tyrants, you have great flexibility with the....like....900 points you have left in your list, as tyrants can literally do it all. Tyranids lack AP 3 and ignores cover in spades, but that is really the only thing you're missing. Thankfully, you have psychic scream for that.

Competitive units can include:

1) dakkefexes (carnifex with 2 TL Devourers)
2) bastion w/Comms relay
3) void shield generator
4) lictors and Mawlocs (need to have about 2 solo lictors for each Mawloc)
5) deep striking rippers
6) the aforementioned Dimachaeron
7) MSU genestealers
8) the ghosar quintus formation if you're feeling it
9) Troop tervigons
10) Tyrannofex in Tyrannocyte

None of the above numbers are going to win you a GT, but go nuts at any RTT, learn your list and your army and you can do just fine

To be fair, there are also Crones, which are quite good as well.

 jifel wrote:
To be fair, there are also Crones, which are quite good as well.

You're right. It's been so long since 6th edition skyblight that I forgot haha

I'm just getting into a list that combines skyblight, skytyrant, and a GSC patriarch. Pray for invisibility, and hope your infinite ObSec gargoyles can hold out long enough for the FMC to do the damage.