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Deamon bloodletters or tyranid genestealers for a base, probably behemoth to keep the red tide team going? Was thinking something melee heavy as opposed to my shooty marine and tau armys to do something different. Right now my game group if fairly marine have so thats what i will probably be playing against the most. Pros and cons of one over the other? Leaning towards nids for psykers.

Gaen wrote:
Deamon bloodletters or tyranid genestealers for a base, probably behemoth to keep the red tide team going? Was thinking something melee heavy as opposed to my shooty marine and tau armys to do something different. Right now my game group if fairly marine have so thats what i will probably be playing against the most. Pros and cons of one over the other? Leaning towards nids for psykers.

Pure Daemons are a difficult army to make work. You have very little shooting, and with Khorne you're giving up the Psychic phase too. They have some good units, but are better in support of other Chaos.

Tyranids on the other hand are a diverse and interesting faction. Depending what your bring, they can do well in any phase. They're a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none. But they are always fun. Power wise they are in that sweet spot of good enough to hold their own but not too good that that they get hated on.

 Stux wrote:

Gaen wrote:
Deamon bloodletters or tyranid genestealers for a base, probably behemoth to keep the red tide team going? Was thinking something melee heavy as opposed to my shooty marine and tau armys to do something different. Right now my game group if fairly marine have so thats what i will probably be playing against the most. Pros and cons of one over the other? Leaning towards nids for psykers.

Pure Daemons are a difficult army to make work. You have very little shooting, and with Khorne you're giving up the Psychic phase too. They have some good units, but are better in support of other Chaos.

Tyranids on the other hand are a diverse and interesting faction. Depending what your bring, they can do well in any phase. They're a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none. But they are always fun. Power wise they are in that sweet spot of good enough to hold their own but not too good that that they get hated on.

One more reason to take nids then. If i go for the nids army what more then genestealers should i get, other then HQs, to keep it meele heavy?

Most tyranids armies I have seen didn't do much melee outside of genestealers, and had a ton of good shoting. But maybe spaming cheap carnifex broods could work, as long as you don't face a lot of flyers or castellans.

Old One Eye leading a Fex brood seems to be a popular option for countering very tough targets like Knights. 1-2 Dakka fexes to clear screens and OOE and a Clawfex to take down the big beast.

Gaen wrote:

 Stux wrote:

Gaen wrote:
Deamon bloodletters or tyranid genestealers for a base, probably behemoth to keep the red tide team going? Was thinking something melee heavy as opposed to my shooty marine and tau armys to do something different. Right now my game group if fairly marine have so thats what i will probably be playing against the most. Pros and cons of one over the other? Leaning towards nids for psykers.

Pure Daemons are a difficult army to make work. You have very little shooting, and with Khorne you're giving up the Psychic phase too. They have some good units, but are better in support of other Chaos.

Tyranids on the other hand are a diverse and interesting faction. Depending what your bring, they can do well in any phase. They're a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none. But they are always fun. Power wise they are in that sweet spot of good enough to hold their own but not too good that that they get hated on.

One more reason to take nids then. If i go for the nids army what more then genestealers should i get, other then HQs, to keep it meele heavy?

Key Tyranid units (imo):

HQ
Hive Tyrant - it's basically a Daemon Prince. It doesn't have Character Protection, but it's still ace. A tough beatstick with psychic powers.
Neurothrope - the cheap option, they are strong psykers you can hide behind your hordes.

Special Characters
Old One Eye - brings the hurt, and does have Character protection.
Swarmlord - Hive Commander is amazing. Use it on Old One Eye or a big mob of Genestealers

Troops
Genestealers - extremely scary melee fighters. The only issue is getting them there unscathed, as they are a little squishy. T4 and an invuln, so could be worse! Make them Kraken to speed them across the battlefield.
Rippers - cheap, relatively durable, free Deepstrike. These things are great for filling up detachments and for tarpitting.
Gaunts (both kinds) - cheap horde, they have their uses for screening and objectives.

(You'll note that's 4 separate Troop choices I've listed as good. Tyranid Warriors can be decent too actually. What other codex has 5 usable units in the Troop slot!?)

Elite
Venomthropes - I love these guys. They are vital to keeping your army going in my opinion, with their -1 to hit aura.
Hive Guard - our best shooty unit. Impaler Cannons are generally considered best - essentially a double Krak missile that can shoot through walls! Keep these close to your Venomthropes, and use the Strat on them to shoot twice.

Fast Attack
To be honest, not much to shout about here. The whole army is fairly fast already though!

Heavy Support
Tyrannofex - good shooty monster, take acid or rupture cannon. Both solid.
Exocrine - another good shooty monster!
Carnifex - quad Devourers are pretty damn good. Melee ones less so, but fun. I magnetised mine anyway, so can have any of the huge number of possible loadouts!

Was thinking about storage solutions as well, currently have two feldherr bags for my tau and marines. But dont think that would be optimal for the varied sizes and shapes of tyranids. Any recommendations or suggestions for alternatives?

I've just started up Nids as well - moved over from Dark Angels.

They are a refreshing change being very quick to paint and different to play on the table.

Others are right in saying they are very versatile - they can do well in all the phases of the game and have a great spread of stratagems and units. I think this makes them an excellent mono-dex army.

It also feels good to play an army that feels costed fairly. Especially coming from marines! The nids troops are so good - defined roles and costed accordingly with no additional rules/abilities that you won't use (and therefore don't pay points for). Yes there are some "bad" units - but every codex has those. Nids troops and HQs are gold and there are some good selections from the other slots.

As for storage I'm hitting that same point too - a box/tray is no longer enough and trying to do the traditional foam is a nightmare! I've seen people magnetise the bases and use either steel toolboxes or oven trays to great effect. Gotta put the effort in to get it built but I think it's the most versatile and safe solution.

So managed to get a bunch of boxes on the cheap. One starter box, one swarmlord/hive tyrant that ill probably make a swarmlord, one extra box of genestealers and two boxes of hormagaunts. Thinking about another starter box if i can get it cheap as well and sell of one of the broodlords. So,

HQ
Broodlord
Swarmlord

Troops
Genestealers x12
Genestealers x12
Gormagaunts x24

Heavy
Trygon
Mawloc

Tyrant Guards and Venomthropes are on the wish list for the future.