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Here's a list that is geared toward balance:

HQ:
Flyrant  Wings, 2*Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Extended Carapasce, Flesh Hooks, Acid Maw, Psychic Scream, Symbiote Rippers: 194 pts

Elite:
4 Warriors Scything Talons, Rending Claws, Adrenal Glands (I), Toxin Sacs, Flesh Hooks: 128 pts

Troops:
4*16 Spineguants without number: 128 each 512 altogether

Fast Attack:
2*3 Raveners Scythe and Rend: 240 pts

Heavy Support:
3 Zoeys 2 with Warp Scream and Warp blast and one with Warp scream and Synapse Creature:185 pts
Carnifex Enhanced Senses, 2*Twin Linked Devourers, Spine Banks: 118 pts
Carnifex Enhanced Senses, 2*Twin Linked Devourers, Spine Banks, tail weapon mace: 123 pts
Final: 1500 pts

This is a list designed to take on almost anything. Please give some suggestions on what could be changed.

Take all comers list requires gunfexes.

May I ask why they need that?

A way to kill/incapacitate tanks. As it is, the only reliable tank-busting you have is MC close combat and the Zoeys' short-ranged blast. A gunfex can reach across the table and destroy or supress the stuff your other stuff will have trouble with.

It's also pretty much all you have for mobile shooty units as well. IF the other player noobs out and get within 18" of a dakkafex, you can take down speeders etc. with ease. But in the event their mobility is used properly, Gunfexes are about the only unit that can effectively return fire.

 

edit - okay, besides the quad devourer flyrant

you should lose some points on the flyrant - you don't need psychic scream (if you take it you're better off taking more than one) I like the raveners.
Not sure if without number is worth it on the spinegaunts - by the time they get wiped out, having another unit on is not going to be worthwhile, except possibly to contest a table quarter.
make your warriors cheaper and maybe split into two squads if possible - you need more synapse and they are easy to kill. maybe give them a venom cannon, because there are things like speeders which you will struggle to charge.
Swap at least one 'fex for a gun fex - barbed strangler and venom cannon. realistically they won't get to charge anything, but putting a pie plate down will stop people bunching up even if it doesn't kill anything. the venom cannon is essential for stunning/killing vehicels, and hence cutting down the number of incoming shots.

I take it the flyrant and the raveners will speed up a flank together? or can raveners come on from deep strike?

think about escalation - only your gaunts, zoeys and warriors will start. If the warriors and zoeys die the gaunts will all peg it. plus an good gunline will kill your first wave and then the second. think about taking lictors to complement your raveners and divert some firepower from the rest of the army.

J

J

 

1) The Flying Tyrant has Extended Carapace which is not allowed with the Winged upgrade. Also Symbiote Rippers and Acid Maw are both highly questionable biomorphs while you have ignored very useful ones like Adrenal Glands (+1I), Toxic Miasma and Implant Attack.

You should take a Warp Field instead of Psychic Scream (to give you that 2+ save) and take Implant Attack, Toxic Miasma and Adrenal Glands (I) instead of Acid Maw and Symbiote Rippers.

 

2) You warrior units have Toxin Sacs, an upgrade that is essentially uneeded because the majority of the damage they cause will be via Rending, which doesn't use Strength.

What you do need (badly) is extended carapace which dramatically increases a Warriors survivability against the common infantry firearm (bolters, lasguns, etc) and also makes them tougher once they actually get into combat.

You should also consider giving them leaping if you want them to actually reach CC even semi-reliably. All said and done, your Warriors are generally going to be shot to death before they get anywhere near the enemy (which is why most players don't take them).

 

3) Without number is a completely useless upgrade. Not only does it give your opponents more VPs the first time the unit is wiped out, if they *do* get to come back, they'll likely be out of Synapse Range and start falling back towards the nearest Synapse Creature (they cannot capture table quarters while falling back this way). They are very unlikely to make an impact on the game again when they come back on the table and if the enemy does kill them again they get even more VPs. Just a bad, bad biomorph.

Lose it and just take more Spinegaunts (or even something else) with the points instead.

 

4) The Raveners are fine but you should really give the Warriors leaping in order to help get you some forward Synapse in order to make sure your Raveners aren't able to be instant-killed.

 

5) Your Zoanthropes are fine but since you aren't taking a walking Tyrant and you can't really afford to take Psychic Scream on your flying Tyrant (since you need the 2+ save) I don't know about the feasiblity of the choir. I think you're probably just better off sticking with Synapse and Warp Blast on all the Zoeys.

 

6) As others have pointed out, you need at least one Gunfex (I'd recommend two) to be able to deal with any type of vehicle you run into. Rending claws alone will not be sufficient especially when facing skimmer heavy armies. Also, the mace tail weapon upgrade is just silly. If you want to take a great upgrade to subtely improve your Carnifexe's ability in CC the +1WS upgrade is a much better bet.

 

7) With that many Spinegaunts I'd strongly consider trying to squeeze in a Lictor. Not only will his reserves re-roll help to make sure the flying Tyrant comes on immediately in Escalation, but his feeder tendrils allow Spinegaunts to hit on a 3+ in CC. A combined charge between a Lictor and a Spineguant unit can actucally do some real damage especially if the enemy fails its morale check and gets run down by the Lictor's high Initiative.

 

 

Thanks a lot for all the advice. I'm just starting to play nids (though I have been playing 40k for a few years) and I really appreciate the tip you are giving me. Here's a revised list with some of the changes you suggested.

HQ:
Flyrant  Wings, 2*Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Flesh Hooks, Warp Field, Adrenal Glands,toxic miasma: 203 pts

Elite:
3 Warriors Scything Talons, Rending Claws, Adrenal Glands (I),  Flesh Hooks, Extended Carapace: 96 pts
Carnifex Enhanced Senses, 2*Twin Linked Devourers: 113 pts
2 *Lictor 160 pts

Troops:
1*18 Spineguants: 90 pts
3*17 Spinegaunts: 85 Each 255 Together

Fast Attack:
2*3 Raveners Scythe and Rend: 240 pts

Heavy Support:
3 Zoeys with Synapse and Warp blast:195 pts
Carnifex VC BS Enhanced Senses: 148 pts
Final: 1500 pts

I think I'd drop a lictor and the warriors for a walking guntyrant. Hard to argue with 3 S8 shost at BS4, and 6 S5 shots twinlinked rerolling wounds.

Very little is better about 3 warriors without leaping than some extra tank popping.

Maybe drop one of the Zoeys and a few gaunts also to get him some tyrant guard.

<table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2" class="afpostbody"> HQ:
Flyrant  Wings, 2*Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Flesh Hooks, Warp Field, Adrenal Glands,toxic miasma: 203 pts

GunTyrant TL Devourer, Venom Cannon, Extended Carapasce, Toxin Sacs, 2 Tyrant Gaurd/w flesh hooks, Enhanced Senses: 266 pts

Elite:
Carnifex Enhanced Senses, 2*Twin Linked Devourers: 113 pts
1*Lictor 80 pts

Troops:
4*16 Spinegaunts: 80 Each 320 Together

Fast Attack:
2*3 Raveners Scythe and Rend: 240 pts

Heavy Support:
2 Zoeys with Synapse and Warp blast:130 pts
Carnifex VC BS Enhanced Senses: 148 pts
Final: 1500 pts</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" class="afpostattach"> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

That looks pretty decent. It's like, half godzilla, with a billionty one gaunts.

Only critique I have left is that you might want to split one of the squads of 16 into 8s so you have more scoring units. And symbiote rippers is a waste, find something useful to do with the points

It's 2 points... not exactly game-breaking...

That's almost 1/2 of a gaunt.

Here's what still needs to change in the lsit to optimize it:


1) What is the walking Tyrant's second weapon choice besides the Venom Cannon? I would highly recommend taking a TL Devourer. The Tyrant with the guard should be a pretty solid match for most units if it actually gets into CC, and the added versatility of the Devourers makes the whole unit more potent as it slogs across the board.

This is important: DUMP THE extended carapace on the walking Tyrant. With the mixed armor rules you won't often even get to use the 2+ save until the Tyrant Guard are dead (which usually doesn't happen as your opponents will kill the flying Tyrant and the Carnifexes before actually shooting at the Tyrant guard/Tyrant unit).

If you really feel that your Tyrant needs MORE protection than just 2 Tyrant Guard don't waste the points on EC (which you don't always get to use) but just pay the little bit more to take a third Tyrant Guard (although you really don't need a third guard or EC in a 1,500 point game).


2) If you can find the points, the Gunfex should really have +1W. After the flying Tyrant he will likely be the next big creature to get hit and the extra wound will help keep him around longer (especially if you keep him in cover).


3) Without Implant Attack your flying Tyrant won't be able to take on the very top tier CC characters in the game. However, in a 1,500 point game you don't usually see fully tooled out characters so you probably will be fine. . .the choice is really up to you on this one.


4) I would dump the Symbiote Rippers. If you have extra points give the Tyrant guard flesh hooks (a steal at only 1 point per model). It also doesn't hurt to give the Dakkafex flesh hooks too as sometimes you may want to charge him into combat and the flesh hooks can allow him to strike before powerfist armed models when assualting into cover.


Besides that, your list looks pretty solid. Just remember that if your Lictor arrives too early (before the guants are close) don't be afraid to move out of the cover AWAY from the enemy (thus getting him out of LOS) and waiting a turn or two to make a combined charge.

A Lictor on its own will almost always die quickly. A Lictor in a combined Assualt can do some awesome things.

pretty sure he put a devourer on the hive tyrant, unless he edited it out. just forgot to write TL next to it.

Agreed on the rest of counts though