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.

I'm thinking about coming back to the game. Thinking about playing Tyranids. What does a Tyranid army look like in the current edition?

Back in the day is was large units of small, fast bugs to tie up your opponent's shooty units until your Tyrants & Carnifexes could close the distance and kill everything.

Does that still work?

Say I'm making a 2000 point army. My HQ is three Tryants. My Elites are three units of 3 Tyrant Guard each. My Heavy is three units of 1 Carnifex each.

What do I take for Troops & Fast Attack?

For Fast I'm almost committed to taking three units of Gargoyles. I'm thinking 12 each, but I could see my way clear to fielding units of 20, depending on points.

For troops I could do three units of Hormies & three units of Termies. OR I could do six units of Warriors.

If I went 3-3-3 Hormies-Termies-Gargs then I'd have to do all units of 12. I could do units of 20 but I'd have to run 2-2-2. MAYBE 2-3-2.

so due to the current tyranid book makes it have a limit of 1 tyrant per detachment. the standard tyranid army is:

hq:
1 winged hive tyrant with bonesword and reaper (some argue that this is pretty mandatory for a good tyranid list), or swarmlord, or walking hive tyrant with heavy venom cannon and bone sword/whip (either claws, reaper, or shardgullet is solid)

neurothrope: it makes psychic powers from it and tyrant better, the synaptic tendrils is a very strong warlord trait for it

troops:
tyranid warriors are currently king of this book, def coupled with leviathan hive fleet
homogaunts aren't bad but require some support from specific hive fleet (hydra or behemoth) and psychic powers
termagaunts are not great but if you are running a tervigon who is pretty solid then termagants are neccessary bodyguards
gargoyles are pretty solid screeners and good at objects, a 10 man squad is pretty solid

elites:
a squad of 3 man venomthropes, a squad of 3 man zoanthropes, and a squad of 3 man tyrant guard are almost the default elite choices do to the amazing support they give the army as well as that they aren't a slouch at doing work if they have to.
deathleaper and parasite are not bad and are strong solo characters

fast attack:
raveners are pretty solid due to their high ap and str 6 attacks + they are 5 attacks per model for a pretty solid price

biovores aren't bad in a single unit for spore creation, tyrannofex with acid spray or rupture cannons are not to bad. exocrine is pretty good at ranged firepower
regular carnifexes with heavy venom cannon (+a melee weapon) and screamer killer carnifexes are both highly regarded as well

for flyers:
the harpy are really solid as you get an aircraft with dropping bombs for most situations but it can also stop being airborne and just charge things in the enemy backlines, such as an opinionated basilisk that needs to just stop firing.

The balance dataslate added some extra rules which make winged hive tyrants a slightly less appealing choice.

You now lose access to your synaptic imperative abilities so long as your warlord is not on the table. Also if you have a hive tyrant in your list, then it must be the warlord. So you can no longer have a much more easily protected neurothrope take on that duty.
This means that if you want to take a flyrant, then you also want to take a second detachment containing a walking tyrant which can be the warlord and sit back with a shardgullet cannon being shielded by some tyrant guard.

Arson Fire wrote:
The balance dataslate added some extra rules which make winged hive tyrants a slightly less appealing choice.

You now lose access to your synaptic imperative abilities so long as your warlord is not on the table. Also if you have a hive tyrant in your list, then it must be the warlord. So you can no longer have a much more easily protected neurothrope take on that duty.
This means that if you want to take a flyrant, then you also want to take a second detachment containing a walking tyrant which can be the warlord and sit back with a shardgullet cannon being shielded by some tyrant guard.

While a good idea for double Tyrant, single flyrant is doable with heavy use of overrun as it should be able to fly 17 to either ruins or the tyrant guards.

Every winning or x-1 competitive list in gt+ that I have seen post nerf still included the reaper flyrant. They range from single flyrant + neuro to adding brood lord to double Tyrant.