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So I have had necrons for the past year, and now wanting to start getting nids. I have been doing research on them, but still cant decide what I like. They seem to be much harder to play than necrons. And it seems like you don't really get a whole lot for the points you spend when using monstrous creatures. I have seen a few lists and I have found a few units that really catch my attention.

- Flying hive tyrant with devourers
- Trygons
- Tervigons
- Doom
- Biovores
- Hive guard

Most of these units though cost a ton of points, and the way I see it, if you are not playing with at least 1500 points its hard to get these down the board fast with out loosing them. I have seen people play with just hordes of small units, but I like the nids for the big creatures. Any one got advice? Or any good tactics? I can see how the flying tyrant is good. Would deep striking trygons be worth it, because of no charge on the deep strike? And the biovores are for the pie plates.

I'm assuming you mean Hive Guard? Because Tyrant Guard with a Flyrant is pure comedy.

I don't believe I made mention of tyrant guard with a flyrant. I was only pointing out what units caught my attention when going over the codex and looking at others army lists.

think a lot of it is personal preference, example i tend to run hormoguants, most people prefer tervigons with termagants
as for big creatures biovores are very good for killing infantry though they're not as big, maybe looking into tyrannofexes with rupture cannons?
tyrants are fun, also the swarmlord, maybe look into some harpies if you like the big creatures over taking gargoyles?
not sure if this will help too much, good luck though

And Loki I see what you were pointing out. Yes hive guard, not tyrant guard.

And Hive Fleet Lazarus

I did think about tyrannofexes with rupture cannons, but after reading comments on other peoples lists, most people seem to think they are over priced, and they prefer trygons. Have you every used trygons, got an opinion on them?

 Elmothegreat wrote:
I did think about tyrannofexes with rupture cannons, but after reading comments on other peoples lists, most people seem to think they are over priced, and they prefer trygons. Have you every used trygons, got an opinion on them?

Trygons are that unit in the book, like IG's Vendettas. They're great, and undercosted.

I've had a bit of success with my Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon. You need to remember it's got its Throax Swarm and carapace weapon as well - it's simply too expensive to sit back and plink shots out with the Rupture Cannon. But combined with its other weapons, it can full two roles - long range anti tank and short ranged anti infantry at the same time. T6, W6 and a 2+ save also makes it remarkably resiliant these days, where it's hard to get AP 2 into combat with it (due to there not being much AP 2 melee weapons left) and people love their AP 3 missile launchers.

Tyrannofexes are overpriced though. But you can make them work.

The hard part though is I will just be starting this army. And buying what I want is really expensive. I have a feeling nids are going to be a expensive army lol

Well, if you like the large side of the armies, and in particular the trygons, there is no reason you couldn't start with that. The kit gives you a good number of bits as well.

If you want to concentrate on that first five hundred, the trygon is at least 200. You could get a tervignon (great in the low points games as an hq.) Then a couple of termagants/hormagants/genestealers. Depending on your preference for gribblies. Termagants, tervignon, and trygon would then easily scale up with your army as you went.

After that, as you expand start with the elite slot:
Doom, a couple of hive guard (I prefer zoats, but that's because my hive guard seem to be cursed with rolling ones.)

At some point along the way with test games you will get a feel for what in the bugs you want to do.

 Elmothegreat wrote:
The hard part though is I will just be starting this army. And buying what I want is really expensive. I have a feeling nids are going to be a expensive army lol

They are. They're not Guard expensive, but they're up there.

Depending on how many Tervigons you run, you'll be looking at about 4-5 boxes of Termagants on average. Multiple expensive monstrous creatures (Tervigons, Tyrants and Trygons are all close to Land Raider prices), plus Finecast for things like Zoanthropes, Hive Guard and Biovores, and yeah, you'll be spending a pretty penny.

Oh games workshop... Why you steal my money?

For me personally having used the t/fex quite a lot now it is not a great shooting unit (BS3 on a dedicated gun beast when hive guard have BS4??????). However, it does have several major advantages. It's fire is inaccurate but powerful and it is Assault 2 so it can be a pretty mobile shooting platform. It is also one tough cookie and is extremely hard to kill. because it is big and has a massive gun it attracts shots and can bounce most of them. It is surprisingly effective in cc. It is a point sink but in a high pts game it is a good take as it does draw fire and is very, very durable.

Flyrant is good but with no potential inv save it has a major achilles heel. It is, what, 315pts minimum and can be taken down quickly by flakk missiles and quad lasers. Tyrant guard make tyrants more survivable but don';t come with wings!

Tervigon is a lovely model and like the t/fex it is very, very hard to kill. It is a fire magnet and can dish it out in cc, albeit slowly (I1!).

Tyrgon is awesome, it looks great and really hits hard. Its yet another fire magnet. Biovores are massively underrated for me, ok it's not a great attack but it is the only real long range option and it is a perfectly acceptable anit-infantry pie plate flinger. At 45pts a model it is good value.

Hive guard are good and will kill vehicles with enough shots, although the S8 weapon has low AP so it is not great v say termies.

I like to field a few big nasties as they look fierce and draw fire, then the real workhorses like stealers and hormies can close and dish the damage. Hormies with toxin sacs can drop most opponents through weight of numbers.

Devilgaunts are worth a look. They are a tad pricey (10pts) and easy to kill (T3 6 save) BUT they deliver massive firepower. In a recent game my squad of 30 got 8 taken out and had enough shots left to drop an entire tac squad of Dark Angels (Assault 3, S4 shots = 66 shots left over!). They lay withering fire and will give masssive pause to anyone except units with very low saves. Even termies willdie if subjected to 90 S4 shots. With snapfire they are able to put up a hefty wall of fire and in a pinch they can shoot at fliers and glance AP10, again 90 shots will take out a lot of stuff.

Swarmlord is a whole new level of horrible in cc. With tyrant guard he can close without dying and will decimate everything in cc with those insta-kill swords.

The harpy was dire in 5th but is now great. I made mine with a trygon body and wings from the flyrant in the top sockets. That is a huge figure, biggest single model I have in terms of height. With vector strike, etc it is mean and it's T is high enough to shrug off a lot of shots. Another guaranteed drawer of fire.

I like warriors if used well. They are pricey but with deathspitters they can shoot hard and are more than handy in cc.

That's my thoughts from my 6000pts+ nid collection!

As I am a 40k hipster, I never field Tervigons, Hive Guard or Termagants rather a lot of Carnifexes (Trygon is hard to refuse though). It's still loads of fun unless you go for Pyrovores gunline I guess.

Also I tend to think that it's a lie that the codex is weak, people just don't use enough terrain.

So with the devilgaunts, do you stick them in a spore? Or just run them up the board?

And are trygon primes worth taking? Or just leave it at the 6 shots they get?

And I found I do like the swarm lord, but I find it would be hard to get him up the board with out just eating every shot the enemy can throw at it. Unless you give him his body guards to eat them for him

My 2 cents.

Flyrants are great in higher point games with x2 twin linked devs obviously. However they come in at a minimum 260 points so are really for the higher point games.

Trygons as stated already are just great and at lower point games your opponents will struggle to kill them. They shrug off bolter fire like its going out of fashion and are a cc beast. The prime upgrade is alright as you gain 12 shots and synapse however you lose your chance an getting the extra attack on the charge from feed.

Tervigons are the staple of your army and make great objective campers and are about the only auto include in the nid army.

Doom in a pod is cheap points wise and effective but is a bit of a fire magnet once your opponent knows what he does.

Hive guard are a solid unit but not an auto include anymore.

Zoanthropes are great anti tank and good in pods.

Biovores are awesome anti infantry but usually need a synapse babysitter.

Devil gants in a pod cause havoc behind enemy lines and although expensive deal alot of punishment.

Pyrovores are to a normal tyranid what a primarchs is to guardsmen. They are pure awesome and rival the manliness of the CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT. I recommend you go buy 9 of them immediately.

Oh and to answer your Q about swarmy basically I would only recommend him at higher point games where your opponents have lots to shoot at and target priority is hard. Let's face it unless you've been living under a rock your going to know swarmy is a cc boss and try to avoid him.
Some other notables: he is also a physic boss. Only take 1 tyrant guard with him for majority toughness also give it a lash whip.

Thanks for the advice. Good stuff to know