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Hi there folks,

Just starting out with Tyranids after I was gifted a start collecting box for Christmas.

So far I have some genestealers and a broodlord built but I am debating whether to build a trygon, trygon prime or mawloc to go with them.

Anyone have any pointers on what might be best? Not sure yet what form the army will take but I am open to suggestions!

Cheers!

 caminacambob wrote:
Hi there folks,

Just starting out with Tyranids after I was gifted a start collecting box for Christmas.

So far I have some genestealers and a broodlord built but I am debating whether to build a trygon, trygon prime or mawloc to go with them.

Anyone have any pointers on what might be best? Not sure yet what form the army will take but I am open to suggestions!

Cheers!

a Trygon You can't go wrong with a Trygon tunnel full of Stealers

Trygons can be pretty good. Though I would magnetize the head so if down the line you want to buy the bits to make the other heads you could field all 3.

Thanks for the advice guys. My thinking was trygon too. I'll see if I can magnetize the head to keep it variable.

 caminacambob wrote:
Thanks for the advice guys. My thinking was trygon too. I'll see if I can magnetize the head to keep it variable.

Just one magnet in the neck hole and one on the neck stump is all you need. Though there are guides for magnetizing the whole thing to just swap out the few bits. It takes a LOT more magnets though and is a huge pain in the ass in my opinion.

I'll take a look at the sprue shortly and see what we're looking at but if I can build the heads separately and swap at the neck that would be ideal.

With Tyranids magnet quickly become your best friend. A lot of Tyranid units are very variable in the legal weapon choice on offer to them (which can change between codex editions).

Warriors, Hive Tyrants, Carnifex - all three have very varied roles depending on what weapons you give them. So it becomes very beneficial to magnetize at least the weapon arms and (on the carny) the shoulder plate and head.

A fair few of the other bigger kits can easily be made a two in one with a few magnets; there's lots of guides out there. Magnetizing the big expensive kits has two bonuses; one its cheaper to collect; two its easier to transport more variety in your army without needing more carry cases.

Of course you don't have to use magnets at all, many don't, but many an experienced Tyranid player has found magnets to be of great benefit.

Thanks for that advice, I have some experience magnetising my Tau battlesuits and tanks so I know you are right on the money with the benefits of doing so.

Sounds like magnets it is!

Tyranids need a bit of care with the magnets though, the joins need to end up looking organic, not mechanical.

It can be done, just needs a bit of thought, the carnifex is terrible for this, the newer kits probably better

I found I didn't actually need many magnets for the head.
I only used them to hold the top carapace on.
For the mandibles I just drilled a rod through the head. I used a drill bit the same size as the rod, and friction is enough to hold the bits in place.
For the jaw, I found it just clicks into place with no magnets needed.

Here's my one, with a couple of pictures showing how the trygon jaw clicks on. The mawloc jaw works too.
The tongue even clicks into place within the trygon jaw piece (although the difference between the trygon and trygon prime tongue is far too tiny for anyone to really notice). It does kinda make me suspect the kit was designed to do this.



What I would recommend, is not magnetising the arms. No-one really cares that the trygon arms are bigger than the mawlocs arms, people only look at the head.
Putting the 6 arms on before each game is a nuisance. It is handy for transportation, but I'd recommend magnetising it at the waist instead.

Thanks for such a detailed breakdown. Once I got the parts in my hands I also noticed that friction keeps the jaws in place when I swap them over. Hadn't thought about rod for the mandible but that is a great idea!

I thought the same about the arms, see a lot more hassle than it is worth to magnetize all of those ball joints.

Update - I have now magnetized my trygon. During the process I realised a couple of parts had been miscast and the customer services at GW have sent me another!

Now it's time to try to fashion the miscast parts so that I can run two! Haha

I just added a maleceptor to my 'nid army. I'm loving it in 8th edition. I understand it was a pretty weak model in previous editions, even as intimidating as it looks, but in 8th, it's been great.

Great.

I would recomend painting them in a custom scheme, that way you can be every hive fleet. You also need some more troops. More genestealers and some ripper swarms are great!

Next after that are some more hq and some ranged support.

For hq take a neuronthrope, or a winged hive tyrant. For ranged suoort take some hive guards or the exoshrine.

Just one - if you see that $10 box of termagaunts pick it up. Just buying one of those things a month will build you up a collection of some cheap and effective point fillers for their lists

Just going to throw this out.

If you aren't strapped for cash, I wouldn't bother magnetizing most things. I find it to be not at all worth it. The only thing i've magnetized so far that was worth the effort was an Imperial Knight.

If you want to go back and magnetize the head of a trygon later, just save the bits, use a hobby saw, cut it off and magnetize it then.

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts with me. Just started reading the 8th ed codex and starting to think of a list.

I was also having a rummage through some of my old figures and found a bag of Tyranids I had from the battle for Macragge starter set from 4th edition which I had forgotten about! I'll strip the paint off them and we have ourselves some more genestealers and some termagaunts!