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May not be the first to get the thread up, but I couldn't let Nids be the last.

Tactics are likely going to be volatile given the temporary nature of index, and hopefully GW continues to make changes and FAQs to major issues.

This is a sort of first stab at a Tyranids list, mostly made of the things I have/will have.

1995 Pts
Characters
Hive Tyrant - Monsterous Bonesword and Lash Whip, Heavy Venom Cannon
Tervigon - Massive Scything Talons, Stinger Salvoes
Old One Eye

Battleline
20 Hormagants
20 Termagants - Termagant Devourer
20 Termagants - Termagant Devourer
20 Termagants - Termagant Devourer

Other
2 Carnifexes - 1 Carnifex Scything Talons, 1 Carnifex Crushing Claws each
1 Screamer Killer
3 Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Weapons - 2 Devourers, 1 Venom Cannon
3 Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Weapons - 2 Devourers, 1 Venom Cannon
1 Tyrannofex - Rupture Cannon
3 Tyrant Guard - Scything Talons and Rending Claws
3 Venomthropes

Intention - Hive Tyrant can make the army fairly mobile by handing out Assault. Tyrant Guard Ablative Wounds being handy. Tervigon hands out its buff to the Termagant swarms. Old One Eye joins the Carnifex gang. Tyranid Warriors can provide Synapse and a bit more anti-armor if I need to spread my forces around.

Not aiming for anything particularly busted or fancy, not for this first list. However, C&C is welcome. I've been toying with a list that focuses more on brain bugs, especially given that Maleceptors seem solid still.

This is somewhat similar to the list I've been toying with, except I have 2 units of hormies and 1 termies, and von ryans leapers instaed of venomthropes.

Still undecided if my fex is better off with the rupture cannon or the acidspray (could be good for overwatch)

Im not running a tervigon, but am running a neurotyrant (to put synapse markers on hormies before they leg it across the board) and trying to squeeze in a psychophage for the 6+++ aura.

What are people’s thoughts on anti-tank? Looks like we have plenty of tools for dealing with people shaped things, but what about the crunchy boxes?

 Nevelon wrote:
What are people’s thoughts on anti-tank? Looks like we have plenty of tools for dealing with people shaped things, but what about the crunchy boxes?

Those were my concerns as well. The best AT we seem to have is the Rupture Cannon and a variety of melee options. The other weapons can hit people-shaped as you said, but S8/9 isn't quite enough to punch through tanks reliably any more. Hence giving the Carnifex's Crushing Claws and Scything Talons, and having them pal around with Old One Eye. Venom Cannons are more like anti-light vehicle now, as they'll be wounding on 4s against Rhino-Equivalent vehicles. Even the Exocrine at S8 isn't enough to punch through tanks.

My other Brainbug list ran two Tyrannofex, and I felt more confidant about handling armor with that list.

2000pts
Characters
Neurotyrant
Old One Eye

Battleline
10 Gargoyles
10 Termagants
10 Termagants

Other
2 Carnifexes - Massive Scything Talons, Deathspitters with Slimer Maggots
Maleceptor
Maleceptor
Screamer-Killer
Screamer-Killer
Tyrannofex - Rupture Cannon
Tyrannofex - Rupture Cannon
3 Tyrant Guard
3 Venomthrope
6 Zoanthropes

The Venoms might be dumpable, given that most of the list is monsters, so they'll only be giving cover to them and not Stealth.

There is always adapting into the lethal hits option against vehicle heavy lists. Weight of fire should be able to get some work done. But it does tie us to that pick, and I’m not a fan of that.

There's a Stratagem to give two of your units one of the different Adaptations for a turn though. That one seemed quite valuable.

 Nevelon wrote:
What are people’s thoughts on anti-tank? Looks like we have plenty of tools for dealing with people shaped things, but what about the crunchy boxes?

I'm very new to looking at nids. However, hive guard have the Shockcannon Anti-vehicle 2+(critical wound = mortal wounds. Pileing in 3dmg can add you fast. And it doesn't care about vehicle toughness). Rupture Cannon from Tyrannofex and Crushing Claws from Carnifex?


I decided to play nids with 10th but trying to go Carnifex themed as much as possible. However, I am stuck on not knowing how to load them out.

The stranglethorn and venom cannon for them are Blast. So can't use while in melee so that turned me away from those ranged options.

Old One Eye
2xCarnifex(Deathspitter + crushing claw) x3
Screamer Killer x3

That's like 1430 points? So have to figure out how to fill the rest too.

 Rogzor87 wrote:


I'm very new to looking at nids. However, hive guard have the Shockcannon Anti-vehicle 2+(critical wound = mortal wounds. Pileing in 3dmg can add you fast. And it doesn't care about vehicle toughness). Rupture Cannon from Tyrannofex and Crushing Claws from Carnifex?

Where it gets devastating wound? Anti-vehicle doesn't give you mw's on it's own.

tneva82 wrote:

 Rogzor87 wrote:


I'm very new to looking at nids. However, hive guard have the Shockcannon Anti-vehicle 2+(critical wound = mortal wounds. Pileing in 3dmg can add you fast. And it doesn't care about vehicle toughness). Rupture Cannon from Tyrannofex and Crushing Claws from Carnifex?

Where it gets devastating wound? Anti-vehicle doesn't give you mw's on it's own.

Bottom of page 28 on core rules

"ANTI

Certain weapons are the bane of a particular foe.

Weapons with [ANTI-KEYWORD X+] in their profile are

known as Anti weapons. Each time an attack is

made with such a weapon against a target with

the keyword after the word ‘Anti-’, an unmodified
Wound roll of ‘x+’ scores a Critical Wound.
Example: An attack made with an [ANTI-VEHICLE 4+]
weapon will score a Critical Wound against – and
so successfully wound – a Vehicle unit on an
unmodified Wound roll of 4+, while an attack made
with an [ANTI-PSYKER 2+] weapon will score a Critical
Wound against – and so successfully wound – a
Psyker unit on an unmodified Wound roll of 2+.*


"A Critical Wound inflicts mortal wounds equal to

the weapon’s Damage characteristic, instead of
any normal damage."

You need the Devastating Wounds USR to convert critical wounds into mortal wounds. So no it doesn't quite work.

Currently I'm planning to deal with armor with 2 rupture fexes and 3x3 zoanthropes.

That's wrong. Critical wound is term for auto success. It also combines with devastating wounds which does mortal wounds on critical wounds.

You are mixing critical and devastating wounds. Rolling 6 doesn't bybass armour saves naturally and unmodified 6 to wound=critlcal wound.

Ah okay my bad. Thank you for clarifying it for me before I ended up cheating my friends.

I haven't played in many winters(12-13 roughly). So trying to read it all and learn so I'll miss or mix up a lot of things.

My current issue like I said before is trying to figure out my Carnifex loadouts.

The only correct Carnifex loadout is magnets

Maleceptor also has decent anti-armor weapons.

18" d6+3. 3+, S10 -2 3D

Massive Scything Talons aren't the greatest though.

For Carnifexes, I'm torn between Scything Talons and Crushing Claws, or Crushing Claws and Deathspitters. Old One Eye leading them gives them Re-Roll hits for shooting and melee. A handy boon to both their guns and the Crushing Claws in particular.

Termagant Swarms using Devourers with Lethal Hits can maybe also pull some weight, just through sheer number of shots? Unit of 20, 40 shots. 6.66... Lethal Hits through, before rolling Wounds. Given out by Tervigon, or the Adaptation.

Tyrannofex Rupture Cannons, two of them, does seem to be our best best for handling Big Armor.

I'm sure Armor will be the biggest roadblock for Nids. We seem to be able to handle infantry quite well, through many different means.

Thoughts on the Sporocyst? The way it can do Area Denial Duty seems cute. If something moves within 24" of it and ends there, it can pop a shot at that unit (up to 4 times per turn.) 5 shots, 4+, S5 -1 D2. In your shooting phase, it can drop a Mucolid Spore wholly within 18" of itself, and more than 9" away from enemies.

Mucolid Spore is T4 7+ save, 3W. Enemies can't start or end an Advance within 6" of it. And if it/an enemy gets within 3" of it, it can pop for d3 or d6 mortal wounds. Or none at all.

The synaptic lynchpin enhancement lets nids within 9” count as in synapse range.

Not increase the range from 6” to 9”

Can be given to anything that can take an enhancement. So non-epic characters.

The parasite lost synapse, but this looks like a way to get it back.

AT = Zoans or bust. Rupturefex is good if your local meta has lots of regular vehicles, drops off dramatically against Invul saves, so I would be hesitant to put it into a TAC list. Melee is easily countered and contingent on too many things going your way. I don't want to bet on my opponent being unable to build a proper list or making mistakes during deployment/movement T1/T2.

Trying to return to the hobby after 4th/5th edition makes me sad.

We had so many different customisation options in that 4th ed book, and now 95% of them are just completely gone. Did they dumb down all the other armies this much too?

Genestealers used to have 8 upgrades, now 0.

Hormagaunts used to have 5 upgrades, now 0.

Warriors used to have 19 upgrades, now 2/3

Hive Tyrant used to have 25 upgrades, now 4.

Rippers used to have 9 upgrade, now 1.

4th was pretty much peak customization, for almost everyone.

10th has cut a lot of options from everyone. There was a lot of bloat that needed the axe, so I understand why they did it. But they went too far in a number of places IMHO.

I know it most likely won't be good but looks fun to assemble, paint and play.

Already in the process of getting it slowly. Have old one eye, 1 Carnifex so far. A Leviathan box set inc from GW for 1 screamer killer and 5 barbgaunts. 2 more screamer killers inc from someone piecing out leviathan boxes. I'm trying to slowly work on and assemble/paint to not overwhelm myself with models.

I may consider replacing a screamer killer for 6 Zoans though.

This is my plan for 2k:

Bugs (1995 points)
Tyranids
Strike Force (2000 points)
Invasion Fleet


CHARACTER

Old One Eye (140 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Old One Eye’s claws and talons

Parasite of Mortrex (115 points)
• 1x Barbed ovipositor
1x Clawed limbs
• Enhancement: Adaptive Biology


OTHER DATASHEETS

Barbgaunts (50 points)
• 5x Bio-cannon
5x Xenos claws and teeth

Carnifexes (250 points)
• 2x Bio-plasma
2x Carnifex crushing claws
2x Deathspitters with slimer maggots
2x Spine banks
2x Xenos claws and teeth

Carnifexes (250 points)
• 2x Bio-plasma
2x Carnifex crushing claws
2x Deathspitters with slimer maggots
2x Spine banks
2x Xenos claws and teeth

Carnifexes (250 points)
• 2x Bio-plasma
2x Carnifex crushing claws
2x Deathspitters with slimer maggots
2x Spine banks
2x Xenos claws and teeth

Screamer-Killer (180 points)
• 1x Bio-plasmic scream
1x Screamer-killer talons

Screamer-Killer (180 points)
• 1x Bio-plasmic scream
1x Screamer-killer talons

Screamer-Killer (180 points)
• 1x Bio-plasmic scream
1x Screamer-killer talons

Tyrannofex (200 points)
• 1x Powerful limbs
1x Rupture cannon
1x Stinger salvoes

Tyrannofex (200 points)
• 1x Powerful limbs
1x Rupture cannon
1x Stinger salvoes

Disappointed so far

I loved the idea of making an objective denial sort of army with heavily leaning into the battleshock army rule and area denial bio-mines, but in reality battleshock is just way too useless, niche, and unreliable to be a realistic strategy. Especially when you’re faced with something like Space Marines and their constant reroll spam that will just blow your cute little tactics off the table.

It seems like the only viable thing is monstrous creature spam at the moment, and even that doesn’t even slightly hold up against higher-tier armies with how unbalanced the game is at the moment

nemesis464 wrote:
Trying to return to the hobby after 4th/5th edition makes me sad.

We had so many different customisation options in that 4th ed book, and now 95% of them are just completely gone. Did they dumb down all the other armies this much too?

Genestealers used to have 8 upgrades, now 0.

Hormagaunts used to have 5 upgrades, now 0.

Warriors used to have 19 upgrades, now 2/3

Hive Tyrant used to have 25 upgrades, now 4.

Rippers used to have 9 upgrade, now 1.

Oof, I know that stings. This isn't 10th's fault though. A bit of history:

Looks like you got out just in time to avoid a massive disappointment back then. Nids lost all of their customisability from the godawful 5th ed codex onwards (authored by cruddace, dubbed the cruddex by nid players).

We've been seeing some small steps back in the direction of customisation since 8th, but sadly nowhere near what we lost. Maybe 10th will bring it all back in the codex? I doubt it though, that'd be a mismatch with 10th's "simplified not simple" goal.

Honestly it's been years and I'm still salty If I wake up a wizard tomorrow cruddace'll be pooping legos for the rest of his days (not the tiny bricks either). Fingers crossed!

There is no way we can go back to a dozen or two customization options in a codex with 40+ units.

It is important to remember that part of the reason 4th had so many upgrades per unit was that there were fifteen units in the whole codex and the biggest thing was a Carnifex.

Mind you I would like to get back some of those options, but not the whole thing.

Any thoughts about Ripper swarms? They can no longer hold objectives, won't survive much and certainly won't kill anything. So what do we do with them? Deepstrike them in turn 1 and simply use them as speedbumps?

Truckules wrote:
Any thoughts about Ripper swarms? They can no longer hold objectives, won't survive much and certainly won't kill anything. So what do we do with them? Deepstrike them in turn 1 and simply use them as speedbumps?

Cheap move blockers are pretty nice. Not sure if it's nice enough to justify bringing them.

You can use them for secondary

Funny note. Even though they don't have guns they are elligble to shoot so valid for many secondaries that involve "actions"

Ran into this with necron scarabs.

Biovores are kinda broken because of that, as spawned spore mines are "eligible to shoot".

BTW. If one was to start tyranid army how much you would recommend getting combat patrol?

OTOH old termagaunts and maybe warriors/hive tyrant gets updated...but it's big saving and new combat patrol has more of leviathan models I already have so more of duplication

tneva82 wrote:
BTW. If one was to start tyranid army how much you would recommend getting combat patrol?

OTOH old termagaunts and maybe warriors/hive tyrant gets updated...but it's big saving and new combat patrol has more of leviathan models I already have so more of duplication

How much do you worry about your models matching?

The old combat patrol is a great thematic box. Big mama nid, some medium sized flexible warriors, and a good carpet of gribblies. Solid box overall, I grabbed one when it came out. The gaunts are old and it shows, but the warriors and they tyrant have aged incredibly well.

I’ve not digested the points on 10th to see if what’s in there is efficient. No clue if they are part of a competitive list. But if you want to flesh out the swarm, it’s a lot of mouths to feed.

I still play first born and primaris mixed so guess that shows I'm not too fussed...Which I guess answers. If I want to start it would be good.

Problem is my previous employer bankrupted so I'm out of job atm :-/ Makes hard to commit. I could get to 1.5k reasonably cheaply but that final 500 pts is irritatingly expensive.