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Are Nids competitive or just fluff? I've never once seen an army of them used in real life, but I kinda want to paint them...

Everything is pretty even/balanced in this edition... I think the fact that all armies got buffs/nerfs and the rules/books were released all at the same time helped. Deathstars are no more.

Tyranids used to be not so good in 6th/7th. They are one of the armies that definitely got better in 8th edition and are fun to play. You can make some really nasty combos too (swarmlord/guard, broodlord, genestealers - the synergy of them, well, take a look).

This edition is all about army building and composition. Read the index, pick some characters with nice buffs/psy, and then some units that synergize well with them.

I'd say you could be pretty competitive depending on what you play with nids.

 455_PWR wrote:
Everything is pretty even/balanced in this edition...

That's definitely not true, however nids are doing great as a mellee rush army. Very fast and hit hard.

Oh yeah, Nids be viable in 8th.

We have troops that are fast, semi-survivable and so damn cheap we can surround units with the FLY ability so they can't escape simply because they're so deep in bugs they have nowhere to legally escape to.

Genestealers are crazy fast, picked up an invul save and can out-match the TWC and Wulfen in melee.

Our Monsters aren't a joke anymore!!!

Nids are back to playing like real Nids again, and I love it. Our melee swarms can actually make contact with the enemy, our monstrous creatures are scary again, and our specialists are able to fill in the gaps (hello, Biovores and mortal wounds). Thus far, 8th is a far cry from the dark days of 6th/7th where Flyrants and Mucolid Spores were about the only things you could bring even in moderately competitive play if your opponent wasn't taking a dive.

My group and I favour playing what is effectively a matched game in the spirit of narrative play (fluff-friendly comps) and Tyranids are fun to play in this format once more.

These are actually really helpful replies, Dakkanauts. Thanks! Any favorites for the aforementioned combos?

From what I've seen, the special character monster "The Swarmlord" is an absolute beast when paired with a big unit of little gribblies (He has an ability that lets a unit move twice. Genestealers can charge even if they've Advanced on their turn. So swarmlord can have them move+advance+move+charge for a pretty easy turn 1 charge).

The nid opponent I've played against twice runs genestealers, warriors, Swarmlord with some armored bodyguard guys, a Venomthrope, and several carnifexes. The genestealers run up first turn and try to engage as much of the whole enemy frontline as possible to mess with their strategy and give the big boys time to get up the board. It works pretty well.

This edition there's really no "wrong" way to play nids anymore, unlike the last two editions where there was basically one build per edition and that was it.

Like to shoot? Dakkafexes are a thing again (although now with deathspitters instead of devourers) and we still have the good ol standbys Hive Guard and Biovores. Our "bioplasma" is also actual plasma now, so have fun melting MEQ faces.

Like to melee? Nothing is better than Genestealers, especially popping out of Trygon holes (I've had success with this). Failing that, hormagaunts, shrikes, the swarmlord, and even a few cheap screamer-killer fexes (basically bare-bones carnifex with optional bioplasma) can all do the job. And of course the trygon itself can help.

Like to swarm? Tervigons no longer suffer blue-balls syndrome and can reinforce existing termagant units now (albeit with only basic fleshborer termagants) in addition to creating new units. At set numbers too. And in an interesting twist, even stuff that before you wouldn't consider "swarm" units can be brought in decent swarm sizes now too. Like Genestealers and, if you stretch the definition of swarm, Carnifexes too (only by comparison, but being able to bring more fexes than your opponent can bring rhinos is a thing). Infantry swarms actually have an advantage this edition, as they won't be affected by multi-damage weapons (like lascannons) as much, while being just as survivable against multi-shot weapons.

Like big beasties? We have a MC in nearly every single slot (I think Troops is the only one lacking now with Tervigons no longer being shifted there) so just pick your detachment of choice and go hog wild. And unlike last edition, each of them is useful. the Haruspex can now nom entire squads like it does in fluff, while the Exocrine is a larger, angrier pyrovore with a massively better gun.

The only real thing you gotta watch out for is your Synapse Coverage. However unlike every other faction (who are either struggling with having to finally deal with morale, or are new to the whole "buff bubble" idea) this should be second hat to any Tyranid player since we've been doing it since the dawn of time.

 455_PWR wrote:
Everything is pretty even/balanced in this edition...

I have some stats that disagree...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/730601.page

Tau are a clear 5th tier army, while AM is a clear 1st tier.

Nids are doing okay.

 Selym wrote:

 455_PWR wrote:
Everything is pretty even/balanced in this edition...

I have some stats that disagree...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/730601.page

Tau are a clear 5th tier army, while AM is a clear 1st tier.

Nids are doing okay.

The few tournament data I got my hands on backs this up. Tau are bad man. Orks however took second place at the Caledonian deathwatch 2017, but no idea of list. First place was space marine flyer spam as usual. Lot's of Imperial lists in the top 10.

 Selym wrote:

 455_PWR wrote:
Everything is pretty even/balanced in this edition...

I have some stats that disagree...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/730601.page

Tau are a clear 5th tier army, while AM is a clear 1st tier.

Nids are doing okay.

I don't think you have enough data here to make very meaningful inferences though. There's also a lot of factors there such as player skill, strength of opponents, how many people are playing Tyranids vs other armies, to name a few. I think this can give a very vague idea of what is very top tier or very bottom, but that's all. But props for collecting the stats.

I'm not the one collecting, but I give W/L ratios as the numbers grow - usually only for armies with 30+ games.

 Selym wrote:
Deer Lawd, the Tau have been taking it up the ass as of late.

Anyways, here's the customary W/L ratio, of any army with 30 or more games. For inclusion's sake.

 mrhappyface wrote:

1) Astra Militarium - 1.854
2) Thousand Sons - 1.750
3) Dark Eldar - 1.700
4) Space Wolves - 1.524
5) Grey Knights - 1.250
6) Eldar - 1.200
7) Tyranids - 1.028
8) Necrons - 0.889
9) Dark Angels - 0.800
10) Ad mech - 0.778
11) Space Marines - 0.724
12) Chaos Space Marines - 0.721
13) Orks - 0.694
14) Blood Angels - 0.652
15) Tau - 0.425

So back to Nids.

Which ones do you guys enjoy building and painting the most?

Anything with a large carapace section and hueg claw-thingies:






His name is cuddles.

Dude, that guy looks frikkin sick! Good work!

Selym, you and Hagrid share more than just a homeland...I wonder if he hides sweet painting skills as well?

It's a thread about bugs, not any other army. Keep it on-topic.

Gamgee, you have a track record of bringing Tau into every conversation you're a part of. Do not do this where it's not appropriate.

You might find this thread useful

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/727116.page

 Jarl of Vashon wrote:
So back to Nids.

Which ones do you guys enjoy building and painting the most?

My first love is Tyranid Warriors. They brought me into the game 16 years ago and I'm so pleased that they're usable again. I've got loads of 'em, magnetised with all of their kit available, but I still get a few more every year just to paint them up.

 Zan wrote:

 Jarl of Vashon wrote:
So back to Nids.

Which ones do you guys enjoy building and painting the most?

I've got loads of 'em, magnetised with all of their kit available, but I still get a few more every year just to paint them up.

Sounds swarmy. What are you up to for the count?

 Jarl of Vashon wrote:

 Zan wrote:

 Jarl of Vashon wrote:
So back to Nids.

Which ones do you guys enjoy building and painting the most?

I've got loads of 'em, magnetised with all of their kit available, but I still get a few more every year just to paint them up.

Sounds swarmy. What are you up to for the count?

39 at last count. I keep 12 in my carrying cases, and the remainder are on display.

Got a friend who buys models and builds them but he can never find time to paint them.
Every year I get a phone call about two months out from his birthday "Uh, you know if you haven't gotten me a gift yet I have these models that I couldn't find time to paint. I have a picture of some concepts I like..."

This year he dusted his Nids off and gave me the call ten months early and gave me a concepts for them - the concept pictures alone are hand drawn and at least as much effort as the paintjob, ten years I've known him and never knew he could draw so well.
I'm a bit jealous, his Nids will look better than mine.

 benlac wrote:

 Selym wrote:

 455_PWR wrote:
Everything is pretty even/balanced in this edition...

I have some stats that disagree...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/730601.page

Tau are a clear 5th tier army, while AM is a clear 1st tier.

Nids are doing okay.

I don't think you have enough data here to make very meaningful inferences though. There's also a lot of factors there such as player skill, strength of opponents, how many people are playing Tyranids vs other armies, to name a few. I think this can give a very vague idea of what is very top tier or very bottom, but that's all. But props for collecting the stats.

And a lot of Tau are still trying to use riptide spam, which just isn't as strong as it was in 7th.

The Tau army got up-ended, but should still be competitive. It just takes time to experiment and paint new models.

Nids look awesome. Lots of first turn charge potential, and horde ability that is solidly tied in first place with Orks.

...though their shooting is NOT. Nid gunbeasts are strictly superior to anything the Orks can bring to the table.

 Jarl of Vashon wrote:
So back to Nids.

Which ones do you guys enjoy building and painting the most?

Good ol Carnifex. The plastic kit is one of my favs even now. I still remember reading the article where Jes Goodwyn basically gushes about it.

If you guys have not seen it, see if you can find an archive of the old Black Gobbo conversion article for Carnifexes. While a lot of the biomorphs are no longer there, it's still an awesome piece for inspiration. I even tried building the Death Beetle configuration. Basically it was a fex with every upgrade you can give it. It had T7, 2+ armor, 5 wounds, S10 and something like 5+D6 attacks with what was essentially Armorbane in a era where only the wraithlord had more toughness, Strength D didn't exist in the base game, and invul saves came at a premium and were rare and few.

The carnifex kit is fun.

The flyers re fun.

Ripper swarms are very satisfying.

Zoanthropes are very sleek.

Just the troops. make shure your colourpallete comes with easy paintable troops. I sooo hate painting gaunts. They take a long time and never look good.

I knew someone who "painted" Gaunts by primering White, then dipping them in a wash. They actually looked pretty good. I think if you did that, and added in a little dry brushing you could knock out a passel in no time!

It all depends on the reasons why you want to start Tyranids. From your post, it's hard to read into it. I can see it as two ways. First way is, you want to win with plastic toy soldiers. The second way is you like to play, don't mind loosing but don't want to face an uphill battle for the beginning, or be disadvantaged in the beginning of the game before it even starts or play more than one way of flyrant spam.

If it's the first way then I would say no, don't start Nids. Nids, like guard, and Orks is a calling or takes dedication. You can have lots of troops, so will spend many time painting and assembling. Also when the new nid codex comes out they can be nerfed because of the lots of "Stealers are too powerful" complaints now. Not sure if codex creep is already coming in with the new Space Marine codex or not.

If you want to play them because you love the minis and or fluff/lore then I say yes. Just mind you again, the new Nid codex can bring them back to 6th/7th edition levels again. So it's a buyer beware. Remember Nids can be frustrating to paint when it comes to gaunts. When painting about 100 of them, ( I am including hormies, devies, fleshies, gargs ect) ok after 15 it takes a toll on you. So really make sure you want to start Nids.

Some of us have stuck with them because we love the fluff and minis. In my case, I still collected but I quit playing. Now I can start playing again when I have the time now. I have everything packed up because I needed to take a break from 40K, so I am basically starting over again. Yes I am thinking that Nids can be nerfed back to 7th edition again but that is the chance I am going to take. Are you willing to take the chance? It's your money. Your time. Your blood, sweat and tears.

Good luck in your decision.

P.S. Start small and see if it's to your liking. This way it's not a big loss if you go all in.

Davor