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A friend of mine collected the following minis over time:

1 Hive Tyrant
1 brood lord
1 carnifex
3 warriors
1 trygon
1 zoonthrope
1 ravener
1 biovore
2 lictors
12 genestealers
12 termangaunts
12 hormagaunts
2 gargoyles
2 swarms

I have never played against tyranids, so would like some help here. what is the best list you could build with these models? What upgrades should he take/ stay away from? And if something needs to be added what would it be?
He would like to participate in a friendly tournament at our club, and I want to introduce him beforehand and I don't want to stamp on him/discourage him because I do not know anything about his army and did not max his list.

Start watching videos on YouTube or even look through the old lists posted on the forums.

Tyranids are my favorite army, but they are not competitive. Play them for fun or play a different army. That being said, with the models listed you have the makings of a well rounded force.

Hive Tyrant is both awesome to look at and is quite capable in melee (if he can get there). I think the flying hive tyrant with all brainleech worms is overdone, but I cannot deny its effectiveness. Give him toxin glands or the prefered enemy upgrade.

Either way, give it wings, to either fly towards whatever you want to melee faster, or shoot. Since the Hive tyrant is great at everything, he can be used for anything, just be careful though, he is actually really really squishy, not hard to kill at all.

Brood Lord, attach to the genestealers and call them purestrains from the Genestealer cult. Don't bother with Tyranid stealers/brood lord. Its objectivly worse.

Warriors are your staple and are often underrated. Kit them out with boneswords or rending claws (heavy infantry, or medium infantry killers respectivly) or give them support guns to pin or just throw dakka at enemies to threaten them.

Tyrgons are great. But like the Hive tyrant surprisingly squishy. Take them always, because they are fun. I usually don't give them any upgrades, but reneration, acid blood or toxin glands are not a bad choice.

Zoanthropes are some of the coolest looking models and are possibly the best cost effective models in the codex. 50 per model. You'll want more of these, so proxy some bases in till you get them. You have two choices. Take 2-3 squads of these to buff up your warp charges, or take 1-2 squads of these with 2-3 models each to throw some serious psyker death at the enemy. I prefer to footslog them along with my warriors and carnifex. To give lance support and a wonderful bubble for their synapse. They move 6" and can always run, due to their only real offenseive ablity being psyker powers.

I know people who also like to drop them in spore pods and have them lance the crap out of targets for a mean alpha strike.

1 Ravener, won't do you any good. Heck even six of them might not. I love the model, but its a leftover froma previous edition. Just take warriors or proxy him as a warrior. If you really wish to use him, give him rending claws proxy at least four more ideally six, bases to make a squad of them. Give them twin linked spine fists and rending claws. Now you have warriors who are beasts, are firing 18 twin linked shots and have 5 rending attacks on the charge, making them more expensive, but actually better than genestealers in melee.

Biovores are ugly as gak, but a great model. Take three (proxy two bases) and just launch spore mines all around the board. If they hit, they'll do damage. If they miss, you'll spawn spore mines. You'll never be upset with the result.

Lictors are possibly my favorite looking tyranid unit. However, their codex and 7th really made them... "Meh". Although cheap at 50pts per model, they will often be killed first turn or second turn. Use them as ambushing units to guard objectives, or tank hunters. Their amazing ablity to just be anywhere on the table at any time without scatter or worry makes them handy. If you see tanks, artillary or a heavy weapons squad isolated or unspoorted, throw two lictors at them and watch it die.

12/12 guants, you'll need more. They are crap but you can have alot of them. Use them to screen your forces to give all your crap behind them covers saves and use their sheer numbers as extra wounds for your big bugs and as a literally wall or as a distraction. You want them to be shot at, for every wound inflited on them, means something important you have is not being shot.

Gargoyles.... only two, is not enough to even play a squad of them. If you do get more than 10 though, use them as fast attack harassment units. They'll die quick and easy, but they can draw fire, capture points and just cover ground quickly to aid the rest of your force.

I love rippers, but they are gak. Take a squad throw it next to your hive tyrant, warriors, or whatever you intend to get into melee to simply add dice to your force. They'll miss most things, they won't wound much and they'll be instal killed just just about anything more powerful than a laz gun. But they can be surprisingly annoying when they abosrb 5-8 wounds which your oppenet wanted on your trygon or tyrant.

 Tsol wrote:
Tyranids are my favorite army, but they are not competitive. Play them for fun or play a different army. That being said, with the models listed you have the makings of a well rounded force.

Hive Tyrant is both awesome to look at and is quite capable in melee (if he can get there). I think the flying hive tyrant with all brainleech worms is overdone, but I cannot deny its effectiveness. Give him toxin glands or the prefered enemy upgrade.

Either way, give it wings, to either fly towards whatever you want to melee faster, or shoot. Since the Hive tyrant is great at everything, he can be used for anything, just be careful though, he is actually really really squishy, not hard to kill at all.

Brood Lord, attach to the genestealers and call them purestrains from the Genestealer cult. Don't bother with Tyranid stealers/brood lord. Its objectivly worse.

Warriors are your staple and are often underrated. Kit them out with boneswords or rending claws (heavy infantry, or medium infantry killers respectivly) or give them support guns to pin or just throw dakka at enemies to threaten them.

Tyrgons are great. But like the Hive tyrant surprisingly squishy. Take them always, because they are fun. I usually don't give them any upgrades, but reneration, acid blood or toxin glands are not a bad choice.

Zoanthropes are some of the coolest looking models and are possibly the best cost effective models in the codex. 50 per model. You'll want more of these, so proxy some bases in till you get them. You have two choices. Take 2-3 squads of these to buff up your warp charges, or take 1-2 squads of these with 2-3 models each to throw some serious psyker death at the enemy. I prefer to footslog them along with my warriors and carnifex. To give lance support and a wonderful bubble for their synapse. They move 6" and can always run, due to their only real offenseive ablity being psyker powers.

I know people who also like to drop them in spore pods and have them lance the crap out of targets for a mean alpha strike.

1 Ravener, won't do you any good. Heck even six of them might not. I love the model, but its a leftover froma previous edition. Just take warriors or proxy him as a warrior. If you really wish to use him, give him rending claws proxy at least four more ideally six, bases to make a squad of them. Give them twin linked spine fists and rending claws. Now you have warriors who are beasts, are firing 18 twin linked shots and have 5 rending attacks on the charge, making them more expensive, but actually better than genestealers in melee.

Biovores are ugly as gak, but a great model. Take three (proxy two bases) and just launch spore mines all around the board. If they hit, they'll do damage. If they miss, you'll spawn spore mines. You'll never be upset with the result.

Lictors are possibly my favorite looking tyranid unit. However, their codex and 7th really made them... "Meh". Although cheap at 50pts per model, they will often be killed first turn or second turn. Use them as ambushing units to guard objectives, or tank hunters. Their amazing ablity to just be anywhere on the table at any time without scatter or worry makes them handy. If you see tanks, artillary or a heavy weapons squad isolated or unspoorted, throw two lictors at them and watch it die.

12/12 guants, you'll need more. They are crap but you can have alot of them. Use them to screen your forces to give all your crap behind them covers saves and use their sheer numbers as extra wounds for your big bugs and as a literally wall or as a distraction. You want them to be shot at, for every wound inflited on them, means something important you have is not being shot.

Gargoyles.... only two, is not enough to even play a squad of them. If you do get more than 10 though, use them as fast attack harassment units. They'll die quick and easy, but they can draw fire, capture points and just cover ground quickly to aid the rest of your force.

I love rippers, but they are gak. Take a squad throw it next to your hive tyrant, warriors, or whatever you intend to get into melee to simply add dice to your force. They'll miss most things, they won't wound much and they'll be instal killed just just about anything more powerful than a laz gun. But they can be surprisingly annoying when they abosrb 5-8 wounds which your oppenet wanted on your trygon or tyrant.

Thanks a lot Tsol, this information was just the kind of thing I was looking for

Surprisingly, you can make this a pretty okay ish list for casual/fun games, but I don't advise playing above 1250 with it until you can beef it up some. You will not be competitive with this.

Here's the list, then I'll talk about how to play it. Take this with a grain of salt as I'm not a fulltime Tyranid player.

CAD

HQ
Hive Tyrant - Wings, 2x Twin-linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms, Electroshock Grubs

Elites
1x Lictor
1xLictor
1x Zoanthrope

Troops
3x Warriors, one with Deathspitter and Scything Talons, the other two with Devourer and Scything Talons.
6x Genestealers
6xGenestealers
12x Hormagaunts
12x Termagaunts

Heavy Support
1x Biovore
1x Dakkafex (Carnifex with 2x Twin-Linked Devourers with Brainleech Worms)
1x Trygon, Toxin Sacs


This gives you 1151. For casual games, especially with a new player, 99.99% of people will overlook the one point overage. If they refuse to let it slide, don't play with them, they're a dick.

How would I play this list? I would harass in the backfield as much as I could. Use the Lictors to not only let the Trygon accurately deep strike, but also tie up enemies that can shoot the rest of your army to death. Any amount of firepower the enemy is spending shooting at the Lictors, they are NOT spending shooting at the real threats. While this is happening, zoom the Flyrant around to weaken infantry blobs or hit rear armor of vehicles. Again, prioritize targets that are most dangerous to you.

While this is going on, infiltrate the Stealers forward into cover, and march the Thrope/Warriors/Gaunts/Fex forward, keeping cover while you can. The idea is threat overload and harassment - tie up what you can, give the rest too many targets to shoot at. Use the cheap Termageunts to screen the Warriors and Thrope.

If you want to beef up to 1250, give all 3 warriors Deathspitters, put Adrenal Glands on the Trygon, and give the Genestealers a Broodlord with Scything Talons and combine the Stealers/BL into one unit. Then use the Trygon tunnel to put out the Stealer/Lord instead of infiltrating. That gives you 1240. Play with upgrades how you like with the wiggle room you have left.

Again, neither the 1151 or the 1240 will be super duper competitive. Play casual games only, and don't try to take on an asshat power player.

As far as what your buddy should buy to upgrade the swarm, you need Thropes of the Zoan and Venom variety, and lots more gaunts, of both types.

1 Ravener, won't do you any good. Heck even six of them might not. I love the model, but its a leftover froma previous edition. Just take warriors or proxy him as a warrior. If you really wish to use him, give him rending claws proxy at least four more ideally six, bases to make a squad of them. Give them twin linked spine fists and rending claws. Now you have warriors who are beasts, are firing 18 twin linked shots and have 5 rending attacks on the charge, making them more expensive, but actually better than genestealers in melee.

This makes me very sad. I still have the red terror model from my 3E days