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Im a new player and ive been looking at starting an army of my own, ive played with a buddy of mines tau, ultramarines, and chaos marine armies and was looking at going the xenos route.
There are alot of MEQ players around where i live and so i was looking to change it up a bit and start either a tau, eldar, dark eldar, or tyranid army. I really like the tau and tyranid models the most and was just curious as to how the nids have been fairing in 6th ed. I have played about 6 games and 4 of them where 5th ed so thats why im asking to try and get an idea about what i want to do before i purchase an army for myself.

nids transitioned really well to 6th. They benefitted from a lot of rules changes, and even have benefitted from a lot of metagame shifts. Theyre still not top teir, but they're well above their old stop at the bottom. They're pretty solidly middle of the power curve now.

I really like the NIDs, but moving them is such a pain because they are so pointy EVERYWHERE! I never said I was good with them, just that they are pointy and such a pain to move all 50 of them withen 2 inches of the enemy model.

Tyranids are the most versatile. Feel like swarms? OK. Big bugs and hardly anything else? No problem. Psycher spam? Sure, and delightfully random if you swap out powers. Deep strike everything you have? Why not, and then use the various special rules to assault out of it or throw some large templates when you arrive.

They're maddeningly different every game if you want them to be. Which is awesome.

SBG wrote:
Tyranids are the most versatile. Feel like swarms? OK. Big bugs and hardly anything else? No problem. Psycher spam? Sure, and delightfully random if you swap out powers. Deep strike everything you have? Why not, and then use the various special rules to assault out of it or throw some large templates when you arrive.

They're maddeningly different every game if you want them to be. Which is awesome.

This is a bit misleading. They're still not overly versatile if you're trying to make a decent list. Swarm armies will still lack the anti vehicle punch needed. Armies of big bugs are still grossly vulnerable to anti tank. You can't deep strike more than 50% of your army anymore (no army can). However, psychic choir is very powerful if you don't roll terribly on your Biomancy powers.

Tyranid armies aren't very different game to game. HQ's change around, with Swarmlords, Tyrants and Flyrants all still being popular. Troops choices got less versatile - stealer shock lists aren't run any more due to the considerable pounding they took with the new no assault from reserves rules, Tervigons and Termagants are still the clear winners. The big differences are if you pod Devilgaunts or run more footslogging standard gants. Elites largely stay the same - Zoanthropes and Hive Guard (for some reason - I haven't used Hive Guard since 6th edition). Fast attack is still largely neglected except for Gargoyles (which are still absolute stars). Heavy Support still sees Trygons are the fore.

That said, like I said, Tyranids benefitted from 6th edition. Biomancy made them ridiculously powerful if you have a lot of psykers. Flyrants with dual devourers are very powerful if you can use them right (and by that I mean not Swooping them down the throat of a Quad Gun). Metagame shifts away from so much mech made it easier on the old bugs, and hull points made is easy for Tyranids to strip vehicles up to Av12 of hull points to destroy them with monstrous creature Devourers. My Carnifexes love 6th because of this. Missions favoring capturing objectives helped the Tervigon lists immensly as they excel at board control.

Tyranids still have their old weaknesses, and less competitive units are still not very competitive. Pyrovores still suck. Harpies don't do the thing they're meant to do well (engage aircraft). Lots of units are still overpriced.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Tyranids

Whenever I run into a race I know nothing about, 1d4chan tends to give me a general idea of what I should be wary of. It's not the best out there but it's better than nothing.

I don't play "competetive" games but i'm finding Nids to be a good solid choice these days thanks to a number of the changes 6th brought. They have some really nice units and there are only a couple of truely bad ones (as opposed to just less than optimal, I'm looking at you Heavy Venom Cannons)

The meta for what is "competitive" is still being worked out and is prone to changes as dex's are released but at the moment a Nid player has an uphill battle due to being a little off the pace but it's not an insurmountable gap and good play can still net you a win even against top tier armies.

If you're looking for an army you like the look of you can play against your buddies then they make a really nice force able to field lots of different army styles and have a very different feel to the other races.

when you use mawloc, can you use him to "push" your enemies units off the board? he is easily my favorite. hes the guy i can't play without.

I am liking the sound of nids for next year, i was thinking tervigon times 3, loads of termguants flyrant and doom, is this viable?

I personally didn't think they were that bad in 5th, most Nid players I know seemed to do at least well or better than average, In 6th they've only become better imo.

Tyranids actually benefitted more than they lost from the change to 6th ed.
The biggest change to the game was probably the revamped vehicle rules, and since Nids have no vehicles, they can ignore them, except that they are easier to kill now,
MC's can do smash attacks, making them able to cause ID more easily.
Boneswords are probaly the best PW in the game right now
The harpy actually became quite viable again since its a flyer, and most weapons that could ID it are blasts, and so now can't target him, or have to snap fire at him, and he gets vector strikes against fliers (as do flyrants)
Ymgarls can still assault the same turn they show up
genestealer based lists are probably the only ones that took a significant hit
With 6th being more objective centric, tervigons got a boost as you can spam more troops to take/hold them
Psychic powers allow you to have a much wider variety of abilities now,

On a related note, more players are taking lots of weapons that have volume of fire, and can glance vehicles to death more easily, the advent of HP has made this a viable strategy, and despite the effectiveness of lascannons and other high strength weapons, i still see a large number of AC's on the battlefield, so things like raveners and Warriors will find themselves not suffering ID as much.

Overall, Tyranids benefitted more than they lost from the change to 6th, not enough to make them anything but an 'average' army, but they are certainly much better than they were

A friend of mine runs a list that's set up using some combination of the following:

Swarmlord
3 Tervigons
Flyrant with double devourer
Termagants
Gargoyles
Tyrant Hive Guard

The Hive Guard are so incredibly annoying. S8 shots that don't need LOS and ignore cover unless the cover is granted by being in area terrain. That nullifies smoke launchers, psyker power cover saves, cover saves for intervening terrain or models, etc and so on. In two back to back games, he glanced a Land Raider to death by turn 3 (with some good rolling).

With nothing being able to double out his Tervigons, Swarmlord, Hive Tyrants, or Hive Guard, FNP becomes a huge boon to him, so he buys Catalyst for his Tervigons and it uses FNP on itself or other models in range if it has cover.

He rolls on Biomancy for the Swarmlord and Hive Tyrants to get Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Endurance, or the other powers that serve MC so well. Iron Arm really hurts, especially when he's running around with T9 and eternal warrior. It can be REALLY tough.

Nids aren't a top tier army, though when their MCs get the biomancy powers that they need, it makes them really tough.

 kcwm wrote:
A friend of mine runs a list that's set up using some combination of the following:

Swarmlord
3 Tervigons
Flyrant with double devourer
Termagants
Gargoyles
Tyrant Hive Guard

The Hive Guard are so incredibly annoying. S8 shots that don't need LOS and ignore cover unless the cover is granted by being in area terrain. That nullifies smoke launchers, psyker power cover saves, cover saves for intervening terrain or models, etc and so on. In two back to back games, he glanced a Land Raider to death by turn 3 (with some good rolling).

With nothing being able to double out his Tervigons, Swarmlord, Hive Tyrants, or Hive Guard, FNP becomes a huge boon to him, so he buys Catalyst for his Tervigons and it uses FNP on itself or other models in range if it has cover.

He rolls on Biomancy for the Swarmlord and Hive Tyrants to get Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Endurance, or the other powers that serve MC so well. Iron Arm really hurts, especially when he's running around with T9 and eternal warrior. It can be REALLY tough.

Nids aren't a top tier army, though when their MCs get the biomancy powers that they need, it makes them really tough.

Yes I played against a Biomancy list before. Was like trying to play against 4th ed Nidzilla all over again. Was nice actually since I tended to curb stomp the poor player.

When the Biomancy rolls don't get him Iron Arm, he still ends up with powers that make him formidable.

I ran some autocannon havocs, a dakka predator, a vindicator, Huron Blackheart, some cultists, a heldrake, and some bikes. Needless to say, I had what I thought was sufficient firepower, either in strength or number of shots. Through a combination of cover, FNP saves, and sheer toughness, his MCs survived an annoying amount of shots.

I'm very interested to see what a new Tyranid codex would do for the army. As it is, they've taken quite the step forward with 6th edition.

ya know i was thinking about starting another army. but after my 2k of space marines and about 1k of imperial gaurd i just have to focus my efforts onto a better project. id say get old one eye red terror and like 6-7 canifexes and youd be good to go.

other options are going to inclue hive gaurd biovore

I have to stress this.

Do not get Old One Eye. Even if tony was just joking I have to make sure you know. OOE is the worst thing in the codex.

Hive Guard are amazing though.

but how sentimental is that model.

im laughing hard old one eye is such a pos

im gunna go chane smoke and paint

Red Terror isn't even an option in the codex anymore...

True, but I just read OOE and laughed to myself. Then I realized that someone who has not played Tyranids might fall into that trap and I knew I had to take action.

Nids are currently the 4th worst army in 40k, above Tau, DA and BT. Simply put 6th took the few selections int he codex that were playable in competitive envionments and reduced it even further. Genestealers are gone, trygons are largely outdated with smash halving attacks, venomthropes got a huge nerf stick on an already mediocre unit.


Your nid army is now this:
Tyrant w wings
Tervigons (2+)
doom
Hive guard
Zoanthropes
Ymargls
Gaunts (hundreds of them)
Gargs?

Everything else is now either downright bad (genestealers, pyrovore, warriors, rippers), overcosted (Tyrannofex, Swarmlord, fexes), or not competitive enough to be played in tourniments unless you feel like chancing getting the right opponents (Raveners, Trygons, Biovores). Overall, nids are depending a LOT on psychic powers to get anything done. Eldar and SW shut them down HARD. With allies, almost everyone runs some psychic protection.

My nids are staying on the shelf until a new codex. Heres hoping for a Genestealer cult White Dwarf?

rigeld2 wrote:
Red Terror isn't even an option in the codex anymore...

Actually, it became the Mawloc. Or did you believe that the tiny, Ravenor sized Red Terror could swallow a Space Marine whole?

 Kroothawk wrote:

rigeld2 wrote:
Red Terror isn't even an option in the codex anymore...

Actually, it became the Mawloc. Or did you believe that the tiny, Ravenor sized Red Terror could swallow a Space Marine whole?

The one line of fluff that hints at it (for the Mawloc) and yes - I think a Ravenor could swallow a puny Marine whole.
I have to wait till I'm at home to check his fluff, but didn't the Red Terror "spread" by hitching aboard SM ships?

zephoid wrote:
Nids are currently the 4th worst army in 40k, above Tau, DA and BT. Simply put 6th took the few selections int he codex that were playable in competitive envionments and reduced it even further. Genestealers are gone, trygons are largely outdated with smash halving attacks, venomthropes got a huge nerf stick on an already mediocre unit.


Your nid army is now this:
Tyrant w wings
Tervigons (2+)
doom
Hive guard
Zoanthropes
Ymargls
Gaunts (hundreds of them)
Gargs?

Everything else is now either downright bad (genestealers, pyrovore, warriors, rippers), overcosted (Tyrannofex, Swarmlord, fexes), or not competitive enough to be played in tourniments unless you feel like chancing getting the right opponents (Raveners, Trygons, Biovores). Overall, nids are depending a LOT on psychic powers to get anything done. Eldar and SW shut them down HARD. With allies, almost everyone runs some psychic protection.

My nids are staying on the shelf until a new codex. Heres hoping for a Genestealer cult White Dwarf?

I'm sorry you can't make them work for you. For what it's worth, anecdotal evidence and all, I've only lost a single game in 6th edition, and that came down to three things - a, I rolled basically nothing good on Biomancy, b, my opponent deep struck his whole army which I forgot was illegal now, and c, I rolled absolutely terribly all game. I use units you claim are overcosted or bad (Warriors and Tyrannofex). I don't use Hive Guard (my meta has seen a shift away from mech, and whats left is easily dealt with by a good application of brainleech devourers), I use Carnifexes (both melee and dakka), and even use a Venomthrope. Granted, I'm not running the most competitive list.

I'm surprised you've put the Trygon in as a situational unit. It's one of those workhorse offensive MCs that you see in just about every Tyranid list because it's so all round good at what it does - kill things dead.

I've been running with zero Hive Guard and 4 Carnifexes (along with 2 Tervis and a HT) for some monster mash fun. It's pretty effective - I haven't won every game but the ones I've lost are because I screwed up massively and my dice refused to help me out.

2 Flyrants usually win games against most people. It brings back good memories of the immortal falcon days


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MarkyMark wrote:
I am liking the sound of nids for next year, i was thinking tervigon times 3, loads of termguants flyrant and doom, is this viable?

Thats pretty much the same build that everyone is using. Basically stick with the 1495 list and do whatever the hell you want afterworks for 'n' giggles.

2 Flyrants
3 Tervigons (catalyst, glands and sacs)
3 units of 2 Hive guard
3 units of 10 termagants

After that its whatever you feel like, the flyrants will do most of the work, especially if they are running around with iron arm at T9 S9

 Kroothawk wrote:

rigeld2 wrote:
Red Terror isn't even an option in the codex anymore...

Actually, it became the Mawloc. Or did you believe that the tiny, Ravenor sized Red Terror could swallow a Space Marine whole?

You just have to believe


Internet high five to anyone who can name the series and episode.

Nids are definitely doing better in 6th. My local store runs escalation leagues every few months, and the only nids player won the last league and is positioned to win the current one. Lots of people are afraid to play him, even the IG players lol. It all comes down to tactics and dice rolls.

 rabid1903 wrote:

 Kroothawk wrote:

rigeld2 wrote:
Red Terror isn't even an option in the codex anymore...

Actually, it became the Mawloc. Or did you believe that the tiny, Ravenor sized Red Terror could swallow a Space Marine whole?

You just have to believe


Internet high five to anyone who can name the series and episode.

Googled and I still failed :/

'Nids got better and worse with the advent of 6e; on the one hand, people don't take transports as much anymore, meaning it's easy to get in close; on the other hand, you have very little effective anti-aircraft weaponry.

Due to the price of flyers, in the vast majority of cases the second isn't exactly a problem.

Jayo'r wrote:

 rabid1903 wrote:

 Kroothawk wrote:

rigeld2 wrote:
Red Terror isn't even an option in the codex anymore...

Actually, it became the Mawloc. Or did you believe that the tiny, Ravenor sized Red Terror could swallow a Space Marine whole?

You just have to believe


Internet high five to anyone who can name the series and episode.

Googled and I still failed :/

It's okay, my internet high fives are difficult to earn