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Nobody at my FLGS plays tyranids, I know they are not currently (per reading and watching videos anyway) a particularly powerful army but variety being the spice of life, and me wanting to paint something different I am likely going to pick up a few kits.

I like to think of Nids as monstrous creature heavy and would prefer to have my smallest model be tyranid warriors. I am looking at games in the 750-1500 range leaning more towards the 750.

base is looking like . hive tyrant with wings, a trygon, a mawlock, and 6 warriors.

any other suggestions for getting a little monstrous creature tyranid army started

Carnifexes with twin linked devourers with brainleech worms are an asset. I've also found some success with Hive Guard, since their ability to ignore cover with shooting high-strength weapons is unique in the codex, even if they don't shoot that well. To help with this, you can take an Aegis Line with Ammo Dump, helping to give you a few rerolls, and very helpful cover saves.

Hope that helps!

was planning to give 2 tl devours w/ worms to the flyrant. but dakkafexes would be nice heavy support is just so crowded. might have to do an allies detachment tyranid prime , another warrior unit an d a dakkafex at like 1250

That's a common refrain for Tyranids. Yeah, Heavy Support is super-crowded for us. Some other options are to get a Harpy or two for FMC spam (which is really the best thing Tyranids can put together). Tyrannocytes are also very effective delivery systems for ground-walking Nids, so definitely consider those, but they're very expensive (points-wise).

What makes them so out-dated? God I've wanted nids for a long time but the world seems so doom and gloom about them. Outside of a super competitive tournament environment, would they still be okay? If everyone wasn't just bringing the cheese every game?

flying circus seems interesting and strong, but part of my idea is just a for fun monstrous creatures smashing face. I want my big monstrous creatures fighting in assaults! might also grab 3 zoanthropes to run solo

Biadetic wrote:
What makes them so out-dated? God I've wanted nids for a long time but the world seems so doom and gloom about them. Outside of a super competitive tournament environment, would they still be okay? If everyone wasn't just bringing the cheese every game?

Regular Nids are still an interesting army, it's just that it's getting easier and easier for a casual army to take them down. The core of it comes down to how armies can now apply pressure. Almost all factions now have the ability to swiftly change where they are applying pressure. Sometimes this means moving models, but at other times it means which units they target with bonuses and penalties. For example; Psykers that throw out blessings to other units can apply pressure anywhere within the range of their powers. In that way, even though the unit may only move 6 inches per turn, if their power has a range of 24 inches, that means they can (assuming no LoS issues) apply pressure over an area about 60 inches long (6 inches, plus 24 inches for the spell, multiple by two because it can go in either direction). That's a lot of coverage! Another example is a Space Marine drop pod, which can deploy just about anywhere on the board. While the units are far more static once their down, they can apply pressure anywhere on Turn 1, and re-apply new pressure nearly anywhere on Turn 2. Genestealer Cults pop up and disappear to re-apply pressure again. Tau have long ranged weapons, high movement with Riptides, and lots of ignore-cover weapons, allowing them to apply pressure over a very large range.

Tyranids, unfortuantely, can't do this. Their powers are pretty short range, or pretty ineffective. Their weapons are short range, meaning they have much smaller bubbles of pressure that they project around them. They also are very slow, further contributing to the problems of pressure. Orks have a similar pressure-application problem.

Now, that said, this doesn't mean that the Tyranids can't win, it's just that they are, more and more, playing a game where they are falling behind. I don't think this is because GW means to make them bad, just that GW realizes that the more popular armies are those that are capable of rapidly shifting where they can apply pressure, hence why you're seeing more and more of those kinds of armies. It's just a lot more fun for the average person to play those kinds of factions. Unfortunately, those kinds of armies have a natural advantage against armies without that.


But if the enemy army has a similar (dis)ability to apply pressure, and the Tyranid faction suddenly becomes a lot more interesting! Because of this, Tyranids can still present a very fun game for many players, and I wish all the best to those who are able to find the right niches for them to play.

ok so here is what I cam eup with, and suggestions will be appreciated

Hive tyrant w/ wings and 2 tl devourers w/ worms

zoanthrope x2 (run as sinlge models)

mucolid spore cluster x2

trygon prime

carnifex w/ 2 tl devourers w/ worms

3 monstrous creatures at 750

Trygons don't really specialize at anything except killing tac marines on foot (which aren't exactly a hard target for anything else either), but it will help keep the carnifex in line.

I would say to drop it from a Prime to a regular Trygon, and use the points to get a Venomthrope. However that leaves you with only two zoanthropes to keep the carnifex in line, and zoanthropes are rather easy to kill.

There is still the Tyrant of course, but it's only periodically useful for synapse, as it tends to roam around all over the table. Very useful, but not as a synapse anchor.


If you're dead set on nidzilla, then I have to say it's not going to be easy. Let us know how it goes.

Good looking start. Any idea what you're fighting against? You might want to go for a Close Combat Carnifex just so you can skimp on the Synapse (making a roll of 1-5 not that bad, and a roll of 6 actually helpful), but this is only really applicable with certain opponents (slow ones). Generally, the Dakkafex is better equipped.

Drop the Prime. It's very, very expensive for what it's bringing to this particular army. If your meta is fine with you being cheesy, take a second Flyrant instead.

If you can worm out the points, try to take some Electro Grubs on the Flyrant(s). E-Grubs are going to be just about your only way of harming heavy tanks with AV13 or 14, and will cause a nasty surprise to anyone with an open-topped transport.

Exocrine is one of your very few sources of ranged ap2. Biovores are one you your only sources of actual long ranged fire (48" large blast). I recommend a living artillery node.

3 warriors, an exocrine, and 3 biovore. As long as the biovore and exocrine are in the warriors synapse they reroll scatter and all ranged attacks from the formation have pinning.

It comes in at about 370ish points and since it's a formation it doesn't eat up any of your valuable Heavy Support slots.

It's honestly probably our best formation. It provides the units that cover our armys general weaknesses (not a long of good AP no long ranged fire) and provides great bonuses to help cover those weaknesses better.

Venomthropes to back up those big guys. Plus generally the enemy will probably be trying to kill the venoms first to make it easier to hit stuff like the fexes, which is what you want as either way they're helping to lessen the damage done to the other big bugs.

Tyranids are, ironically, poor in the area of diversity. Their codex has been mostly garbage since 5th. Unless your opponents are pretty bad or willing to take handicaps you can expect two things. You build the army you like and get crushed like a roach, or you spam the hell out of a small fraction of the codex and slog uphill instead of being crushed outright.