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and regardless of what you get. If you get a large model, it won't hurt to magnetize it and its options.

Asmodas wrote:
Okay, I understand. It can be difficult when you are a kid starting out. I remember getting $20 allowance per week and trying to build an army (back in '93ish when Nids first came out, lol).

Thus, we should be looking at cost efficiency. Your army needs more MCs (you've got plenty of gribblies already - I'm guessing you got the swarm box), so you should look at the MCs that will give you the most bang for your buck. That will be the second Flyrant, a second Dakkafex, or a Mawloc. Each retails around $55, so it should take you three weeks to save up for one of them. Personally, I would give the Mawloc a try, as it is a lot of fun and you already own one of each of the other models (I typically enjoy adding a new model to my army before getting a second of one I already have, but that is because I enjoy painting and modeling so much, and I get bored painting the same model over and over. YMMV.). But the Flyrant is realistically the best choice as it will give you a large increase in your overall firepower, and of course doubles as mobile synapse, plus can tank hunt in a pinch with e-grubs.

My friend has a Mawloc he'll give me for $30.
Believe me, I'm not a GW noob. I have 5000 points of Eldar, 2000 points of IG, and 2000 points of High Elves along with my growing Nid army,

I've had a lot of success with Mawlocs against Tau. They can hammer a Tau gunline anywhere on the board and ease pressure on other attacking Nids. They have to take down the Mawloc once it pops up, so it draws a lot of fire.

Cool, Mawloc for $30 is a good deal. Good luck!

I love Mawlocs, even when they deep strike mishap off the board I love them .

Verviedi wrote:

zerosignal wrote:
Ebay, and conversions.

m
Neither my parents nor I trust Ebay.

You can sculpt stuff yourself. That's somewhat hard with nids though. But e-bay is fine. I've got orkses there. Another option is to look for your logal stores and ask for people willing to sell. Use facebook or whatever. I've got some number of great stuff like this. Some people are just willing to sell for cheap. Gone into that too. I've got a lot of ork stuff for like 2-4 times cheaper than original.

Perhaps you guys could re-evaluate your eBay mistrust? As a buyer, it is virtually risk free as eBay is now (ridiculously) slanted towards protecting the buyer.

Good luck with your next match.

Found a Harpy on eBay for $30. To buy or not to buy?
http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=111481346002

Verviedi wrote:
Found a Harpy on eBay for $30. To buy or not to buy?
http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=111481346002

At 30$ it is a good buy.

Did anybody mentioned add a lot more, big, LOS blocking terrain?

-Redacted-

If that's a typical table for you you need 200% more terrain and los blockers than what you currently have. That's not a game, that's a barrel and you're the fish.

Verviedi wrote:
Found a Harpy on eBay for $30. To buy or not to buy?
http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=111481346002

The key to Ebay is to buy from reputable sellers. Once someone is over a 100 feedback of all positive, you can be fairly sure that you will get what you pay for.

I think I will buy another flyrant next week.

Verviedi wrote:
I think I will buy another flyrant next week.

And seriously look in to magnets. There should be 2 or 3 threads on magnetizing the new kit. Done right you get three model options out of one build and when GW dorks the codex again, you can just swap load outs.

 carldooley wrote:
why play lengthwise against tau? why play a normal game? play Maelstrom, considering that your opponent has 2 OS units, and you have 2-3?

How are you using your Flyrant? If I was playing, I'd push your flyrant to the Hammerheads immediately.

Don't reserve your units. break them up into min size units, and push them forward.

What koooaei said is kind of useless, as I don't see many markerlight applicable units. OTOH, they will remove the firewarriors with few problems.

DON'T RESERVE YOUR UNITS! you seem to be using them individually - don't do this, as together they work better. Keep the Tervigon by the 'Gaunts to spawn more as they get killed off. Keep the venomthrope behind the Tervigon so that its cover save is buffed by the meatball. You should always be able to take a cover save with this blob, I don't see enough markerlights to grant ignore cover.

I'm currently unfamiliar with Hive Commander. Does it allow a single unit to outflank? if so, then outflank either the Zoanthroape or the Flyrant.

True. Do reserves do anything other than hold back your units?

lliu wrote:

 carldooley wrote:
why play lengthwise against tau? why play a normal game? play Maelstrom, considering that your opponent has 2 OS units, and you have 2-3?

How are you using your Flyrant? If I was playing, I'd push your flyrant to the Hammerheads immediately.

Don't reserve your units. break them up into min size units, and push them forward.

What koooaei said is kind of useless, as I don't see many markerlight applicable units. OTOH, they will remove the firewarriors with few problems.

DON'T RESERVE YOUR UNITS! you seem to be using them individually - don't do this, as together they work better. Keep the Tervigon by the 'Gaunts to spawn more as they get killed off. Keep the venomthrope behind the Tervigon so that its cover save is buffed by the meatball. You should always be able to take a cover save with this blob, I don't see enough markerlights to grant ignore cover.

I'm currently unfamiliar with Hive Commander. Does it allow a single unit to outflank? if so, then outflank either the Zoanthroape or the Flyrant.

True. Do reserves do anything other than hold back your units?

Not much anymore. I can see reserving Skyblight gargs to DS on to objectives in maelstrom games, and maybe Trygons with Subterranean swarm or Endless tide being useful.

-Redacted-

Verviedi wrote:
Quick Question-
What is the cheesiest, most overpowered, and hated non-FW Tyranid list?

Flyrant spam with Nidzilla and Venomthropes would be my guess

Verviedi wrote:
Quick Question-
What is the cheesiest, most overpowered, and hated non-FW Tyranid list?

I like where your head is at. Unfortunately, there might not be a correct answer. A lot of people are trying to make them as competitive as possible and the only thing they are coming up with different versions of Triple Flyrants with Devourers. There are simply stronger codexes with better rules. :(

Saythings wrote:

Verviedi wrote:
Quick Question-
What is the cheesiest, most overpowered, and hated non-FW Tyranid list?

I like where your head is at. Unfortunately, there might not be a correct answer. A lot of people are trying to make them as competitive as possible and the only thing they are coming up with different versions of Triple Flyrants with Devourers. There are simply stronger codexes with better rules. :(

Word. Though x2 CAD lets you take 4 Winged Dakka'rants.

I remember the days when I played assaulty Nids vs gun line Tau on a long table with no terrain....still had a blast because it was against one of my best friends. And when I got to assault I mopped up (RIP 4th edition). Anyhow, the best advice I can give you is two-fold:

1) mobility/mobile firepower is key. Against Tau, you need to be able to get the drop on them (Mawloc) or close the gap very quickly (Flyrants, FMC, etc). Having flyers is good even against Tau because although they can do Skyfire well, they can't do Skyfire and firing at ground targets as well anymore. This means that they have less Skyfire typically, and their Skyfire is expensive (points-wise). So something like Skyblight can certainly do well against Tau.

2) although FMC are expensive, you can play at lower points games until you build up your core. Plus a Flyrant weighs in at 240 points. That's less than 25 cents per point. Not a bad deal. The best way, however, to avoid costs is to buy used or otherwise trade/barter. I can tell you that the rule of thumb of 100 feedback on eBay is a good one, and that ebay will ALWAYS side with you. You will never be scammed and have eBay not cover your back. I doubt you'd want to do it, but if you are willing to trade models online (maybe you have some Guard you don't need/use any more), then you can get Tyranid stuff for almost nothing. Many people use this site - I use barter town - whatever you decide to use, it's actually very safe to trade models with online users. I've had more than 20 transactions with online users and the same rules apply - find people with a lot of feedback and your risk is minimized. If someone was going to steal models from another online user, it's extremely likely that they would have done it in their first 50 transactions, or far sooner.

If I was you, I would get, in order:

Flyrant
Mawloc
Hive Crone
3 Biovores (older Biovores shouldn't run you more than $20 a pop)
Gargoyles

To OP, I just saw the list you post for this guy in the nid thread:

Right. How do I beat Tau who gunline and camp Submunition Railheads in the corners of the board? The guy is running...

HQ-
Battlesuit Commander w/ triple Flamers + Iridium
2 Crisis Bodyguards w/ triple Flamers
6 Gun Drones

Troops-
12x Fire Warriors w/ 2 Marker drones
12x Fire Warriors w/ 2 Marker drones and Cadre Fireblade

Elites-
3 Stealth Suits w/ Marker Drone (Burstcannons)
1 Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator, TL Rawketpawds, and 2 Shielded Missile Drones

Fast Attack-
1x Piranha w/ Marker Drones
1x Piranha w/ Marker Drones
1x Piranha w/ Marker Drones

Heavy Support-
Railgun Hammerhead w/ Submunition Rounds
Railgun Hammerhead w/ Submunition Rounds

{\quote]

Step one get this guy to play a legal list. The piranha's are illegal. they get gun drones not markerlight drones. I also suspect seeing the list, that he is running the marker drones as Networked, which they are not.

-Redacted-

A unit can't use it's own markerlights - only those left by another unit which previously fired at the same target.

The exception is 'networked' markerlights.



and yes, the general 'received wisdom' for Tyranids is:

Combined Arms Detachment

2 x Winged Hive Tyrant - Double-Dual Devourers, Electroshock Grubs

Deep-striking Ripper Swarms

Mawlocks

Living Artillery Node Formation Detachment

Warriors
Exocrine
Biovores


Take the above two in whatever proportions and number matches your points limits and personal taste.

-Redacted-

Verviedi wrote:
So, he only has 6 legal markerlights?

Eight. The shas'ui-s in the firewarrior squads can take them. 3 per squad, and then the Stealth Shas'vre can take another. take a close look at his points though - it gets expensive fast.

Don't know if this could help you but deepstrike Shrikes(the winged warrior guys) and Gargoyle mob. Venomthropes for their bubbles and the spawn mommy to ouflank or walk, walk her casting physic powers and spawn sheilds.

 Haskell wrote:
Don't know if this could help you but deepstrike Shrikes(the winged warrior guys) and Gargoyle mob. Venomthropes for their bubbles and the spawn mommy to ouflank or walk, walk her casting physic powers and spawn sheilds.

It does and it doesn't. When it works, great turn 2 beta strike. When it doesn't, they don't show up until turn 4 and you cry

Umm, I never go anywhere, ESPECIALLY against Tau without Biovores and putting the Miasma Cannon on the Tervigon. Eliminate the Markerlights, and should have a decent shot.