Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Eldar can be an issue for nids if they are vehicle heavy. Lots of shots and pretty good armour (and good ap weapons).

As with most armies though there are always ways to beat them.

As mentioned previously monsterous creatures are not going to be the best option. I would rather suggest a swarm tactic. Also depending on the Eldar unit choice you wont want to use psychic units.
I
As such I would suggest the below.

Genestealers because of the rending claws are always good choices, especially if you give them toxin sacs and rending claws. They can also infiltrate and get nice and close to the eldar very quickly.

Gargoyles really are the best cheap unit Tyranids have, give them both upgrades and you will be auto wounding on a 6+ to hit, rerolling to wound rolls on the charge, move 12" rather than 6" and they have some basic shooting attacks to soften opponants a bit. If I had enouh models I would take 2 squads of 30.

Trygons and Mawlocs are always good choices. 1 of each works well, plus the Trygon Prime gives synapse.

When it comes to Synapse on the move Shrikes are very useful. You would have to modify some warriors though.

Hormagaunts make good shield units based on their price.

Elites for Tyranids are excellent, 3 hive guard and 3 zoanthropes advancing with some Biovores will scare modt people. For the price they are very good.

Finally your hq choice, tricky one, flyrants are very good but the low save, no invul and possibily of grounding make them tricky units against low ap weapons.

A tervigon would be okay but its a psyker and just taking one isnt a great idea.

Parasite of mortrex is another one you would have to convert and because he is toughness 4 he gets instant killed all the time.

The only 2 I would entertain is the swarmlord with tyrant guard bodyguards or a Tyranid Prime with some Warriors as bodyguards.

Ok so there were a lot of posts last night so if I don't address it im sorry. So we discussed warhammer a lot today and three things came up.
First he said escalation is a good idea so I don't build a bad 1500 pt list or aren't having fun with it except that the only rule is that the list at the next level has to include the previous list in it. We are going to expand it like this.
300-500-750-1000-1250-1500 and if im up for it 1850-2000-2500-3000
Second, The doom of Malantai can be insta killed pretty easily. Because its only toughness four and it would be high priority. So im probably not going to take one for now.
This is his basic set up to
HQ-autarches
Elites- Wraith Guard and Blades
Troops- Windrider squads, Guardians and Rangers
Fast Attack- Viper
Heavy Support- 3 walkers, Knight and a falcon

Im also gonna need to protect all my synapse because he said those are high priority.

Just out of curiosity, as the point levels go up are you able to add upgrades/models to units from smaller point games (i.e. at 300 pts 2 squads of 10 Termgants, at 500 pts 2 squads of 20 Termagants)?

He said yea it would be ok but if I wanted to like reduce the size of a unit then I couldnt

 Happyjew wrote:
Just out of curiosity, as the point levels go up are you able to add upgrades/models to units from smaller point games (i.e. at 300 pts 2 squads of 10 Termgants, at 500 pts 2 squads of 20 Termagants)?

Yeah, it's really easy, which is why I recommended she escalate instead of trying to create a 1500-point tournament list from scratch two months before the new codex drops.

So for 300 i would play a hive tyrant 10 termgaunts and 10 hormgaunts with toxin sacs

courtney wrote:
So for 300 i would play a hive tyrant 10 termgaunts and 10 hormgaunts with toxin sacs

That's not a bad list. How would your tyrant be configured?

It would have to be bare bones. Against Eldar, Toxin Sacs pretty much just give a re-roll to wound, as a majority of Eldar Infantry are T3.

Tyrant would be bone sword lash whip and talons
And I have a copy of his codex for refrence

courtney wrote:
Tyrant would be bone sword lash whip and talons
And I have a copy of his codex for refrence

Most competitive lists have flying Hive Tyrants with devourers, but there's nothing really wrong with running it that way, and it provides good synergy with your gaunts. That's how my Hive Tyrant has been set up. Good start to a Tyranid list.

Ok what's the diffrence beetween flying and not?
And how should I expand to 500

courtney wrote:
Ok what's the diffrence beetween flying and not?
And how should I expand to 500

Winged Hive Tyrants are Flying Monstrous Creatures (see the main rulebook for more information on how they work).

Off topic for a second: I wish I could get my fiancee to play... she still calls them dolls....

courtney wrote:
Ok what's the diffrence beetween flying and not?
And how should I expand to 500

Two Hive guard bring you to 300, a Tervigon plus a few more Termagants brings you to 500. You'll need to have more Termagants available than you have in your list if you have the Tervigon, she spawns on average 18 a game but can spawn as many as 40. (and I once rolled triple ones on my initial spawning roll and got three for the entire game)

So I need help forming an army that I can beat him with without to much effort.

The goal should be a good game, not a flawless and effortless victory through having a far better army. If this is what you think, I might just agree with your boyfriend that 40k isn't for you.

Also might pay to wait two months before you buy anything. If you don't know what Fliers are, your not ready to play, and two months from now the Tyranid codex will change drastically and most of the advice here will be useless - so buy your models and plan your army *after* that book is released, and spend the next 60 days just learning the basics

I agree with the above post.

Well ok I guess I just want to beat him and have fun

A 300 pt list is quite hard because you have to fit in a HQ and Nids have expensive HQ's. The cheapest being a Tyranid Prime (£ and Pt wise) so you should start there. He is also good and escalates well. If the goal is to have fun, then this is the list I would suggest.

Tyranid Prime with double Boneswords, and regeneration. (Send at closest unit. Eat closest unit, move on, profit!) 100pts

2x10 termagants 100pts (Staple for any tyranid list as they allow you to easily build up into a tervigons)

3 Warriors with Barbed strangler (Mangles eldar infantry in assault and at range) 100pts

This is a fun army because you get the feeling of the horde with the termagants (You will surely out number the eldar) and you will have the elite wreaking ball unit of the warriors which can wreak his units in shooting or assault. Read up on wound allocation and you learn a nice trick in which you put the prime in the front of the unit so he can tank wounds on his 3+ and he will 'Look out sir' (Whats the Tyranid equivalent???) any AP 2/3 weapons onto a normal warrior. Then, next turn, he can go to the back of the unit to regen some of the wounds back!

I don't agree with 'Now is not the right time to start warhammer' Gak, there never is a right time. The best way is to dive in to see if you like it, if you have to wait 2 months (!) to start something then of course you will lose interest. Dive in with what you like, that's how I got into it. (Wood elves, bad ass vengeful guardians of the forest appealed to me, even if they weren't competitive)

I waited a decade before I got started. And I still think I didn't wait long enough

At 300pts you should really homerule the FoC to be 1 HQ, 1 Troops, otherwise it'll be pretty bland

Another aspect to keep in mind is your color scheme. Tyranid armies can have a lot of models, so finding a color scheme that is easy to paint and quick will be important.

Black primer and pink carapace, job done

You should wait 'til Novemberl. Rumor has it, new Nids are on the way.

My wife (heh, still getting used to that word: girlfriend who decided to play videogames and warhammer so I asked her to marry me) plays eldar, and even though I play tau/imperial guard, I have seen her take on enough swarm armies to offer some general ideas:
At small points (500-1000) swarm them. Eldar never have a lot, but if you let them shoot you at low point levels, its really hard to win. Bladestorm+Guide is really sucky, and a squad of warwalkers spits out stupid amounts of firepower. If you can close with them fast, their low toughness usually will give you the game.
At large points, eldar really come into their own. Falcons/prisms were really big in 5th edition, but now they seem to be leaning more towards wraithknights, wraithlords, and flyers. I have a feeling you will be able to take them on easily once the new tyranid codex comes out in November/December, but until then, flyers especially will be an issue. Also, eldar are especially mobile now, with their move-run-shoot special move.
I imagine the tyranid special rule will be something akin to 5th edition: Move, run during shooting phase, assault. In that respect, a running army is the style I'd make: loads of gaunts and gargoyles, with a couple of heavy, long range models to take out strongpoints and tanks.
The downside of tyranid swarm is its super expensive. As much as I enjoy assembling models, even I am looking at second hand models I can strip and repaint.
12 hormagaunts are $36 a box, so more like $80 for a full squad: if you are lucky, you can get the same amount for more like $20, with minimal extra effort.
I am curious: are you trying to play at a GW store, or an independant? I don't want to turn your post into a war zone, but I notice a difference between the atmosphere of the two.

Is there any online stores for used models ? Not eBay and in the u.s.

Popular alternatives to ebay would be our own swap shop or Bartertown.

If you pick up Tervigons, which require a ton of termagants, you might not care that much about the source of the models.

HQ

Flying Hive Tyrant
- Twin-Linked Devourers, wings, hive commander
Flying Hive Tyrant
- Twin-Linked Devourers, wings, Old Adversary

Doom of Malan'Ti
-Spore pod

Troops

Tervigon
Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Cluster Spine, Adrenalin Glands
Tervigon
Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Cluster Spine, Adrenalin Glands
Termagants x10
Termagants x10

Heavy

Trygon
Toxin sacs

This should be around 1,400 points. Doing the math in my head so it may not be 100% accurate.

With the remaining points you could give your tervigons one more power each and instead of using catalyst roll 3 biomancy powers.

The Tervigons make more Termagants so, assuming you're playing with your boyfriend at first, ask him for some stand in (proxy) models for all of those termagants.

This list should give you a mix of Big monsters and a LOT of troops and will familiarize you quickly with rules like... Psychic powers, perils of the warp, melee combat, using cover, running, flying monstrous creatures, monstrous creatures, outflanking, deep striking, etc. This list is deceptively simple (aside from keeping track of what gant squad is what) and will be very strong for the next few months.


Good luck playing.

Well I looked at some models on the website and im not sure what army I want now. I also read about the ally rules and synapse. It seems like Tyranids could be easy to take down if all the Synapse are eliminated or I push to far to soon. So I am also interested in doing a space marines chapter but allying somebody. The story could be im an evil chapter of White Scars (read about chapter tactics online) Who enslaved a race of ( Tau, Eldar, Imperial Guard) what do you think?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well I have actually decided to switch armies. But thanks for your help everyone. If you know anything about Space Marines/Eldar then message me thanks