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I currently play WHFB, but a buddy from work has been trying to get me into 40K. I've decided on Tyranids, but I'm not 100% on what units are good.

Starting out at 500 point, what units should I get? Also, are their any must-haves that don't fit at that level but would be great purchases once I want to expand my forces?

A HQ and 2 Troop choices to start off. Other then that, I don't know jack about Tyranids.

Do a search in the Army Lists section for 500 points of Tyranids

My go to list is:

Tervigon (HQ)
10 termigants w/fleshborers (Troops)
10 termigants with devourers
Doom of Malan'tai w/spod

That'd be a brutal 500 point list.

Brutal? To oppose or paint?

Waiting to get my other Tervy painted and then I'd love to try and totally overwhelm them by dropping Doom & devourer termies and add another termies w/fleshies and the new Tervy.

To oppose. Especially if you could afford a pod for the devil gaunts.

Since I run 2 tervis normally I have plenty of gaunts ready to go... And it only takes me ~30 minutes total for a 10 man squad anyway.

A Tervigon and the Doom in 500pts is basically the ultimate dick move in 40k. For all Tyranids are called underpowered, that's absolutely nasty.

For starting, I'd recommend:

Hive Tyrant. Any sort. Figure out if you want it flying or walking. Best ranged weapons are Dual Brainleeech Devourers, two sets. Best melee options are naked - scything talons and Lashwhip/Bonesword.

I'd recommend magnetising it though. Tyranid weapons swing wildly each edition. The 6th edition codex might make Venom Cannons the new go-to weapon. Magnetising weapons just makes this far cheaper.

Two units of Gaunts. Either Termagants or Hormagaunts. Hormagaunts get a bad rap, but their only weakness in 6th really is no ranged weapons for Overwatch. Either way, buy some Gaunts. They'll be your armies Core. Get at least two boxes for each squad. Remember, if you run Tervigons, you'll want at least two boxes of Termagants just to spawn during the game per Tervigon, on top of what you'll be deploying.

After that, sprinkle in any other units you want. There's some units you should outright avoid - Pyrovores, Rippers, Sky Slashers and Old One Eye are the biggest flops.

The best units to go with are Tyrants of any kind, Tervigons, Gaunts, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard, Ymgarl Genestealers, Gargoyles, Trygons.

Most units you'll see people tell you to avoid... eh, they have uses. The biggest weakness is a near army wide lack of assault grenades - don't assault enemies in cover if you can help it.

Warriors, Shrikes and Raveners are severely fragile and vulnerable to anti tank weapons which will one shot kill them, but they have their uses, and if your opponents lack much in the way of long ranged anti tank, can work well. With dual Boneswords or Lashwhip/Bonesword, Warriors and Shrikes are absolutely lethal in assault.

Tyrannofexes are far, far too expensive for what they offer, but if you can land those Rupture Cannon hits, you'll do a lot of damage. Personally, I never hit with them. Biovores are fantastic at long ranged anti infantry, but until Tau were re-released, weren't needed. Now they're fantastic at breaking up Firewarrior gunlines.

Genestealers lost a lot of kick when they lost the ability to assault from Outflank, but if you get good at using cover, they can still murder most things in assault. Lictors deployment method really does not work, but I know people who have had success with them. Carnifexes melt to dedicated anti tank due to their 3+ save, but if you can find a way to get them to the enemy, they can do serious damage. Mawlocs are great diversionary monsters, but again, are fairly fragile with a 3+ save.

Don't be afraid to venture outside of the usual internet echo chamber suggestions of 'Flyrant, Tervigons, Gants, Hive Guard, Trygons'. There's good units in the book that might end up working fantastically for you. They won't be Pyrovores, Rippers, Sky Slashers or Old One Eye though.

Also don't make the mistake of loading up on too much assault power by sacrificing your firepower. Tyranid guns may be short ranged, but you need the guns to soften squads up before an assault.

Kr00gZ wrote:Do a search in the Army Lists section for 500 points of Tyranids

My go to list is:

Tervigon (HQ)
10 termigants w/fleshborers (Troops)
10 termigants with devourers
Doom of Malan'tai w/spod

Seconded on how nasty this is at 500. I personally think 'Nids don't scale up as well as most armies, but being able to bring this at 500 is a problem that very few armies will have a solution to.

I like drop pods. I like pods w/ twin death spitters. I almost always put the 10 Termagants req. for the Tervigon in pod to get line breaker or to support my doom and Zoanthrope drop.

I really like Hive guard. 8 Str ap 4 assault 2 shots that shoot around cover. Great for boards w/ a lot of cover. Bad on sparse cover boards b/c of the 24" range.

I really don't like Yrgmarls. They do ok but get shot to nothing if they win their melee. I like the Zoans, Doom, and Guard in the elit slot way better.

Play a proxy game and try out diff. units see what yo like. If you do go assault try venomthrope escorts. My friend swears by it but I didn't like it my self.

I have had great success w/ a 2 Flyrant and 3 Harpies army. Team that up w/ Biovores and Hive Guard -- OMGosh!

I really like 1 or 2 groups of 1 or 2 Biovores in each unit.

I have had fun w/ dropping spore mines to deny my opponent terrain or starting position.

I really haven'y like Mawlocs, Trygons, or Carnifexs. Too many point you can get so much more for the points. Altho I would like to try the Carnifex army w/ all Twin Devourers.

I have had fun w/ a deathleaper tho teamed w/ a Doom. He lowers a leaders leadership by a d3 to make it easy for the doom. He can always get line breaker too even if he is too expensive.

 -Loki- wrote:
A Tervigon and the Doom in 500pts is basically the ultimate dick move in 40k. For all Tyranids are called underpowered, that's absolutely nasty.

Oh. OK.

+1 on the magnetizing, though!

That's far from the nastiest list Tyranids can bring at 500 points. YOu can easily do double Tervigon lists, or my favourite:

1 Hive Tyrant with Bonesword & Lash Whip, Scything Talons, Wings, Toxin Sacs

1 Tervigon with all 3 powers, Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands
10 Termagants

You could also drop the Toxin Sacs on both MC and Adrenal Glands from the Tervigon to give the Tyrant Devourers, but I find a melee oriented Flyrant works well in low point games.

It is nearly impossible to build a competitive Tyranid list without Tervigons, even my deep striking list has a Tervigon (and 2 at 1750+) for resiliency and scoring. Tervigons are cheap, durable Synapse creatures that are also psykers and spawn scoring units, they're easily the best unit in the codex, so I recommend starting off with a Tervigon and couple of boxes of Termagants, then either a Hive Tyrant, Warriors (good at low points, but lose effectiveness in larger games) or another Tervigon and more Termagants if you want to run a double Tervigon list and you aren't sick of painting Termagants already.

The only problem with having Tervigons in your starting list is all the extra Gaunts you will have to have in addition to your list. Cost wise, something like $USD 50-100, on top of everything else. Then again, you will want 'em eventually, so...

Opps didn't see the 500 points.

Thanks for all the replies. Because I'm new to 40k, I'm not too sure on drop pods so I'll stay away from Doom for now. Since they seem to be such a staple, and something I'll want more of later on anyway, I'm gonna start out with 2 Tervigons and 20 Termagants (along with a bunch more to spawn).

As I mentioned, you'll want at least 2 boxes of Termagants per Tervigon just for spawn. So starting with 2 Tervigons, with 2 10 man Termagant squads to make them troops, you'll be looking at 6 boxes of Termagants.

Just a word of advice. You won't make many friends running that Dealing with one T6, W6, sv3+ psychic monstrous creature that poops out even more little gribblies at 500pts is going to be hard. Two is going to get you dreadsocked.

I recommend getting some of the little boxes of 5 Termagants to beef up your number of gants as they're a bit cheaper per model, the only downside is they lack the detail and poseability of the regular kit, but if you mix ones from the regular kit with the snap-fit ones it won't be that noticeable.

Getting some of the 5 model boxes was part of my plan to cut down on cost. At usual internet discounts, the snap fit boxes come out to around $1.50 per model. I figure I'll use the 12 model boxes as the troop choices and the snap fit boxes as the spawned ones.

It's worth noting that the snap fit models are pretty much perfect for any Fleshborer termagants. You don't get much poseability out of the big box - basically, you can turn the head and get two different bodies. But other than that, they're basically monopose. The arms don't get much movement due to needing to line up correctly at the wrist to plug into the gun.

So, if you're planning on using the snap fit models andway, I'd just stick with them. Go with the big box when you want to make Devilgaunts or Spinegaunts.

500 points? Fascinating.

A lot of the suggestions here are good ones.
Maybe a zonethrope? they are not too op at that point level, and can be fun. A broodlord and a few stealers would be fun, as would maybe a ravener. (note: these are not amazing units, but would be fun in smaller games).

For past that point level:
tervigons
hive guard
trygons

best of luck and have fun!