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Ok so to update this.

I have now painted:
20 genestealers
5 Tyranid Warrrios
Neurothrope
2 Biovores
29 Hormagaunts
18 Termangants

And more than half way through 2 Hive Tyrants. I will post picture when I am all done with the army (not that I have particularly good painting skills) but just to thank everyone for their help putting this together.

So, another thing I have done is looked at the CA2018 updated points values which has caused me to modify the list a bit. Basically the points costs reduced accross the board with the expection of the Neurothrope, so I was able to include the extra 2 Tyranid Warrior models I already had, and it leaves me with 129 points to spare.

I have put the new updated list in the spoiler, but what to do with the spare 129 points?

I am thinking either unit of 3 Zoanthropes or 10 more Genestealers, both come in at 120 points.

What do you guys think?

My advice would be Venomthropes. You're at serious risk of your two Hive Tyrants being shot off the board turn 1, deploying them next to Venoms will make this significantly less likely.

That leaves you 39 points which isn't much to play with, but you can now fit a Lictor in that! They aren't great, but why not

I was under the impression that Tyranid Warriors must be taken in squads of at least 3 - so you either need to combine them to a squad of 5 or pay for an extra warrior you don't have to make it legal.

As for what to get for the points - personally I would go with Hormogaunts. They won't kill anything, but they serve an excellent role of screening your army and tying up units, especially with a 6 inch pile-in and consolidate. This allows you to avoid some shooting long enough for your bigger stuff to get into combat.

On another point, consider swapping the Lictor and use him as Deathleaper instead. Again, neither are hat good at killing things but Deathleaper is an outstanding unit for holding objectives with his character keyword and -2 to hit. I like to use him in my own back lines whilst using rippers in their lines to steal objectives.

Sumilidon wrote:
I was under the impression that Tyranid Warriors must be taken in squads of at least 3 - so you either need to combine them to a squad of 5 or pay for an extra warrior you don't have to make it legal.

As for what to get for the points - personally I would go with Hormogaunts. They won't kill anything, but they serve an excellent role of screening your army and tying up units, especially with a 6 inch pile-in and consolidate. This allows you to avoid some shooting long enough for your bigger stuff to get into combat.

On another point, consider swapping the Lictor and use him as Deathleaper instead. Again, neither are hat good at killing things but Deathleaper is an outstanding unit for holding objectives with his character keyword and -2 to hit. I like to use him in my own back lines whilst using rippers in their lines to steal objectives.

No, Warriors stats with 3, then you can add 1 as you like. Nothing in the Tyranid codex has "must upgrade in 3's" everything is a base amount, then you can add how many you want after.

Edit: Maybe you are think of PL, it works like that for PL, but who plays PL?

That's what they said... Minimum squad is 3.

The list above makes it look like it's a squad of 3 and then a separate squad of 2.

Yes you guys are correct, minimum squad size is 3 for Tyranid warriors, so I will probably just combine to make a unit of 5.

Seems the better option then losing a command point on an understrength unit.

I forgot to mention that if getting the plastic hormagaunts, as said by people earlier they are annoying top heavy and tip over easily. Personally, I base all my smaller Tyranids with rubberised magnets (pre-cut 25mm circles on a sheet) for transport, but for these I also put blue-tac underneath the back half. The extra counter weight and the weight of the rubberised magnet makes it much more bottom-heavy and therefore stable.

Stux wrote:That's what they said... Minimum squad is 3.

The list above makes it look like it's a squad of 3 and then a separate squad of 2.

Yeah i saw it incorrect then

BUDFORCE wrote:Yes you guys are correct, minimum squad size is 3 for Tyranid warriors, so I will probably just combine to make a unit of 5.

Seems the better option then losing a command point on an understrength unit.

Understrength i'm 99% sure is faq to being only an Aux choice now, need to look at that if that is something you are thinking about.

 Amishprn86 wrote:
Understrength i'm 99% sure is faq to being only an Aux choice now, need to look at that if that is something you are thinking about.

Yup, I am far from an expert on the rules, but my understanding is that you can take an understrength unit as an aux choice, so you only need to pay for what you are taking, but it costs you 1 CP to take an aux unit. But I will just combine them to make 1 unit of 5, not ideal as 3 of them are shooty and two of them are close combat, but better than losing a CP.


With regards to the ideas for the spare points, thanks for the suggestions, I thought about it for quite some time last night, and a few beers and some Wild Turkey later, I went on GW store and ordered some Vemonthropes. Not my favourite model (although I dont hate them) and quite expensive money wise, but I figure the -1 to hit screen will be very useful, and from what I've seen on battle reports they tend to get ignored/overlooked by your oponents.

This leaves me with 39 points, I will just ebay some genestealers or maybe if I can get hold of a single Tyranid Warrior with close combat weapons, so I can split them out in to two units of 3, and separate the shooty from the stabby.

I am about to start the first of the 4 Carnifexes today, I am going to try and magnetise the arms if possible, so I can swap out the weapons if I ever wanted to. Other than that, pretty much got everything painted barring the 4 Carnifexes and the venomthropes, which are in the post.

Another possibility for those points if you need another Troop choice is rippers. Minimum unit is 33pts.

Thanks, I managed to find a single Tyranid warrior on eBay with boneswords so that's 22 pts, I can squeeze in a few extra Termagants or something.

Nice!

And good choice with the Venoms, they will give your opponents headaches! For extra fun, take a Kraken Hive Tyrant with Chameleonic Mutation. He'll be -2 to hit while in range of the Venoms

Reckon it would be OK to model Old One Eye with the spine banks?

The rules states he doesnt, any cannot take them, but thought it would make him look cool, and stand out a bit from the other 3 which all have spore cysts.

What do you guys reckon?

EDIT: Obviously I am not asking if he can use them in game, just simply asking if you would have a problem with him having them modelled on purely for aesthetic reasons.

BUDFORCE wrote:
Reckon it would be OK to model Old One Eye with the spine banks?

The rules states he doesnt, any cannot take them, but thought it would make him look cool, and stand out a bit from the other 3 which all have spore cysts.

What do you guys reckon?

EDIT: Obviously I am not asking if he can use them in game, just simply asking if you would have a problem with him having them modelled on purely for aesthetic reasons.

Wouldn't bother me. Should have the right arm weapons and ideally the head, but beyond that I really wouldn't care.

Ok thanks, I am never really sure what people are like, I do try and make my armies as WYSIWYG as possible, but with Tyranids particularly, some of the little upgrade things, well, I seriously doubt you would know what is what if you didn't collect Tyranids.

In my opinion anyway, unlike say guns on a space marine for example, which are obviously different, a lot of the Tyranid options are subtle. I get the things like the arm weapons, need to be WYSIWYG, but things like spore cysts, adrenal glands etc..

Also I am not planning on going to any tournaments, just play matched play but with friends/family or otherwise on a causal basis.

And yes, as you say with Old One Eye, I will make sure he has the correct arms and head.

EDIT: Actually, looking at the OOE model, it is modelled with the spike bits at the front (looking at it on GW website) so I think I will just model it as standard with the flat carapace, as the spikes will give it a bit more definition.