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hey there guys and gals ive been wanting to make a new tyranid list based around genestealers since they seem to win me most of my games in general. the idea is to allow them the easiest entry as possible on the battlefield but still try to have a decent number of other things to help out.


HQ 870

hive tyrant- hive commander, acid blood, regeneration
3 tyrant guard - lash whips 410

swarm lord
3 tyrant guard - lash whips 460

ELITES 130

doom of malantai
mycetic spore 130

TROOPS 746

7 genestealers - scything talons 119

7 genestealers - scything talons 119

7 genestealers - scything talons 119

7 genestealers - scything talons 119

19 termagants 95

tervigon - catalyst 175

the plan of this is to have all genestealers out flank and use the tyrants commander ability to allow the tervigon to outflank as well, i dont really like to use special characters but my current list of tyranids wins 90% of games through a combination of stealers and the doom of malantai.

as for the swarm lord i really like the model and his rules, although he is a bit pricy he has worked extremely well for me in past games and his abilities compliment what im trying to aim for.

any help would be appreciated, thanks muchley

Hi. At 1,750pts do you really need both the Swarmlord and the Hive Commander Tyrant? I'd probably say drop the standard Hive Tyrant and his Tyrant Guard and use the points on 2 units of 3 Hive Guard to give you some good ranged threats. Also, any remaining points I'd probably use on trying to bump the genestealer squads up to 10 a piece. If there are still some points remaining after this, maybe increase the termagant squad to 20 just to round it off.

I probably wouldn't have the Tervigon outflank. There is a chance that he'll not come on for a while even with the +1 and for each turn that he's not on the board he's not spawning gaunts. Also, outflanking everything apart from the Tyrant, Termagants, Doom and Swarmlord opens the door for your opponent to simply block off the table edges if they themselves have a fast enough army.

Hope this is useful.

Hope this is useful.

my main focus of this list is because the tyrant and the swarmlord both have the same effects in terms of helping reserves i will have everything be able to come onto the field on turn 2 on a 2+ roll and as for the opponent blocking off the edges it will be quite difficult to block both edges so quickly and the swarmlords ability to allow me to re roll which side to come on the table.

my main strategy is to try and have 2 broods of stealers come on each side and the doom deep striking where there is the biggest concentration of infantry for his effect and also give the doom FNP using the tervigon while also keeping it in synapse range.

i know that the list is extremely lacking in the shooting department if had the points i would use hive guard, warriors or even a tyranofex but im not sure it would work apart from to draw a bit of fire away from the hqs

Ok, didn't realise that Hive Commander stacked with the Swarmlord. Could you just put both the Tyrant and the Swarmlord in the same Tyrant Guard squad and then drop the second one, saving you some points for Hive Guard? Or aren't you allowed to do that. I know that you can put more than 1 IC in a unit.

no its 1 guard retinue per tyrant/lord since monstrous creatures cant join squads the retinue is the only way to protect them from range attacks 3 guard = 6 wounds and on top of the already wound heavy units you end up with the tyrant unit having 10 wounds and the SL unit having 11 although in close combat the tyrant and SL are still classed as independent characters but until they get there they have help from the guard....... also i give them lash whips so that i guarantee hitting first im although i am also thinking about having only 1 whip and use the points from ditching the other 2 to give 1 guard per unit a bonesword wich will give more wound allocation and the possibility of more death in CC

Ok, good point about monstrous creatures and joining squads, had forgotten about that. I still think that you need some Hive Guard though, if you don't have any decent ranged weaponary you're going to be in big trouble against fast armies like Eldar, Dark Eldar, etc. I suffered from the same thing with my Orks, I then made room for Lootas and the list performs much better. But if I were you I'd try to trim some points for them somewhere.

maybe drop a unit of stealers and cut the termys down to 10 to fit in a brood of hive guard.... i have used them before in a few games but they always seem to get shot up and i usually use a tyranid prime with death spitter and talons and keep him with 4 warriors with the same weapons but have 1 warrior with a barbed strangler or venom cannon

me and my friend are painting up for armies on parade im doing hive fleet behemoth and hes doing bad moons, i am trying to make up a list to play against him in our local GW hive fleet vs waaagh!

so far i have gene stealers, trigon trime, biovores, zoanthrope (doom of malantai), hive tyrant and swarm lord painted up and im after a decent list that i can spring in asap and start dealing damage i know im gonna have to contend with a burner- battlewagon with big mek using a burner and custom forcefeild generator among other things and if comes down to im not gonna be all that good at shooting because of all the saves from the generator since there are no foot sloggers im going to need a bunch of heavy hitters to take out transports but also a huge number of CC specs to deal with all the infantry

That dual HQ is too pricey for me at 1,750. I'd drop the tyrant and drop a guard from the swarmlord down to 2. You're essentially paying over 350 pts for a further +1 to reserves and the ability to outflank a tervigon. That seems pretty pricey to me.

2 spare elite slots I'd run pairs of hive guard.

Stealers work better with toxin sacs than scything talons.

You can drop the termagants to make the tervigon an HQ. Run the tervigon behind the swarmlord to give him FNP. Hive guard in front give him a cover save and a first spawn of gants give the hive guard a cover save. Sorted.

With the points saved you can run even more stealers. Stealer shock lists need the troop slots clear so you can run 5-6 broods of stealers and not 3-4. I'd look at putting brood sizes up to 8 if possible, but not far off.

Deffo need hive gaurd, they are one of the most competative units in the codex, and posobly in the game! If you want to take a norm hive tyrant i would go for a dakka flyrant (twin devourors with wings) also what powers do you plan on taking for it?

Bloody phone never posted last niht.....grumble....

nutshell: almost 50% invested in HQ is way too much....you sacrifice too many models, wounds on the table, and damage output.

I play Orks. All transports are rear AV 10....and since they're open topped, 6's can pop them. I once lost a battlewagon turn 1 to stealers before it had moved.

Against orks you won't have to worry THAT much about opening transports as much as having a multitude of units available to open them, and others to assault the spillage that results. Like orks, you'll want the charge.

Hello, just a small remark about what you wrote earlier :

chaos wulfen wrote: ... you end up with the tyrant unit having 10 wounds and the SL unit having 11 although in close combat the tyrant and SL are still classed as independent characters but until they get there they have help from the guard.......

Actually, even in CC the tyrant guards still protect the tyrant/SL :

from the FAQ:
Q: If a Hive Tyrant or the Swarmlord joins a unit of
Tyrant Guard, is it treated as an Independent Character
for the purposes of resolving shooting attacks (i.e.
independent characters who are monstrous creatures
can be targeted separately from the unit) and assaults
(i.e. independent characters always count as separate
units in an assault)? (p35)
A: No.

XC18 wrote:Hello, just a small remark about what you wrote earlier :

chaos wulfen wrote: ... you end up with the tyrant unit having 10 wounds and the SL unit having 11 although in close combat the tyrant and SL are still classed as independent characters but until they get there they have help from the guard.......

Actually, even in CC the tyrant guards still protect the tyrant/SL :

from the FAQ:
Q: If a Hive Tyrant or the Swarmlord joins a unit of
Tyrant Guard, is it treated as an Independent Character
for the purposes of resolving shooting attacks (i.e.
independent characters who are monstrous creatures
can be targeted separately from the unit) and assaults
(i.e. independent characters always count as separate
units in an assault)? (p35)
A: No.

I tend to forget this one myself, but yup, the Tyrants are considered "upgrades" for the Tyrant guards. The only IC in the 'nid codex is the Warrior Prime. As far as the list goes, if you want stealer shock, you got to go stealer shock. I would think about dropping the trevigon, the guants, and 1 tyrant guard each. I would pick up atleast one brood of Ymgral, and use the left over points to beef up the remaining stealers. Ymgrals make area terrain a very scary thing as it is all now a potential charge threat.