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Hey guys! I've played about 10 games with Tyranids and here are some of my observations. I'll do my best to keep up with this thread to append this first post with various tips and tricks that people come up with as we go.

First, an important thing to note is the tactic 'Metabolic Overdrive' lets you do ONLY two NORMAL MOVES. Thanks to the printing of the tactic card in the Tyranid Starter Set, this has been confirmed. :/

Next, every Tyranid model has a place, but I can't say that every upgrade does.
-Spinefists, being pistols, are next to useless in a game where you cannot fire them if you charge or were charged.
-Flesh hooks, however, are not pistols and are a free upgrade. Take them on everything that can take them.
-Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs add a lot of points to your army if you go with high model count. Know the role of your models and don't put them on everything.
-Boneswords are probably the best 'all-rounder' melee weapon for Warriors, but there is still a place for Lashwhips, Scything Talons, and Rending Claws depending on your opponent.
-Devourers on Termagaunts are VERY situational. Good against low-toughness armies but very bad against high toughness power armor armies.
-There's no reason NOT to take Scything Talons on Genestealers since it gives you options on how you attack. Always go with Scything Talon attacks against armies like Harlequins or other Genestealers that don't care about rend.
-Taking a Genestealer as your leader allows him to hide very effectively. Give him Extended Carapace if you're playing some mission where you want to hide and protect him. The extra armor is great against lasguns and bolters.
-Venom Cannons are very situational. They work great against forces that are hard to damage, like Death Guard, Thousand Sons, and Primaris stuff, but their usefulness falls off immediately when facing squishy armies.
-Barbed Stranglers are fantastic in almost every situation. Cheap, d6 shots, take them on a Heavy specialist for d6+1 shots with no penalty to advancing and firing. Long range and str 5 means you're wounding most things on 3's.
-In lieu of Barbed Stranglers, Deathspitters are probably the best 'all rounder' shooting that Tyranids have. Just remember that we're BS 4+, so don't expect to hit very often.
-The Acid Maw on a Combat Specialist Genestealer will delete anything in power armor if you can get the charge off. Add on Toxin Sacs for those pesky Primaris.

As for the units themselves, let's go through them.
-The Lictor is not an end-all be-all unit. It's great against more elite armies where it's strong attacks can knock a tough model down quickly and where the enemy can't bring volume of fire against it. Don't bring a Lictor against Orks, for example. Burnas, Skorchas, and just mass of attacks will bring your Lictor down amazingly fast.
-You MUST take a Warrior in every game. Synapse is REALLY REALLY GOOD. The ability to give your weak little hormagaunts and even your genestealers the ability to ignore Nerve tests is just AMAZING. There are lots of viable load-outs for Warriors. The best all-rounder is probably Boneswords + Deathspitter.
-Genestealers are very deadly. Lots of attacks, 8" movement, and re-rolling charges means they'll generally get you where you want to go, and 5+ invul means they don't care about enemy AP that would normally deny things like guardsmen and cultists a save.
-Termagants have a place. The basic Fleshborer isn't anything to write home about, but sometimes you just need those extra shots to send downrange. They make excellent screening units, too. Let the enemy charge them and then counter-charge with other things.
-Hormagaunts are probably going to be the MVP of the Tyranid Kill Team. They're fast with 8" of movement, re-roll 1's to hit, and can soak up a surprising amount of damage if your opponent is unlucky with those injury rolls. If you have 4 points leftover in your list, throw in a hormagaunt. Even just one can tie up an opponent's army, and with 6" pile-in AND consolidate, they can bring things like Necron Warriors, Guardsmen, and Tau Fire Warriors into close combat where they don't want to be.

So, since the game is built heavily around the Combat Roster and picking and choosing your list from that, let's talk about filling out your Combat Roster for things like campaigns and tournaments.
-As tempting as it may be, 19 Gaunts and 1 Warrior is not going to win you every game.
-I'd recommend having 2 Leaders on your list. 1 Genestealer Leader and 1 Warrior Leader. The Genestealer will be the sneaky leader you'll hide during Assassinate missions while the Warrior Leader will be a force multiplier that keeps your army on the table and can soak up a decent amount of wounds. Keep them both relatively cheap. A Warrior with Devourer and Boneswords costs no extra points and can do a little bit of everything.
-Add at least one Lictor. There will be times when that WS 2+ and Str 6 will save your butt. Plus it's 9" move is nothing to sniff at. Combat Specialist is a decent way to go, but Scout can be good too.
-Have a few alternate builds for Warriors on hands to fill rolls like Heavy, Comms, Combat, etc. A Warrior with Barbed Strangler makes a great Heavy, and a Warrior with Boneswords and Scything Talons is great for Combat. Add on Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs if you want.
-Throw in a handful of Genestealers. Take one with an Acid Maw that can be a Combat Specialist. Add in another with Flesh Hooks because it's free and why not? I can't recommend taking Extended Carapace on anything but your Leader because re-rolling charges is so much more valuable.
-Fill the rest out with Hormagaunts and Fleshborer Termagants. I can't really recommend Toxin Sacs or Adrenal Glands on them because they increase the price of the model astronomically. Because you don't have to worry about Nerve Tests as long as you have at least one Warrior on the field, having a lot more bodies isn't as detrimental as it is for other horde armies.

And that's what I got so far! Let me know what you all think and if you have any further discoveries or tips!

Agree on warriors with a termagant screen. I think spinefists can be useful on 'blocking' termagants as there's a real chance they'll never get a 'proper' shooting phase with them before ending up in 1" of the enemy, and if an enemy is dogpiled by 2-3 of them, a couple of them getting spinefist shots off isn't that unlikely.

I think Veteran Specialist isn't bad for lictors either. Grizzled is pretty useless in a kill-team with synapse, but for 1 CP Adaptive Tactics gives you a 9" move that can be followed with a charge in the movement phase, and is cheaper than metabolic overdrive. That's the difference between a charge from within line of sight and eating overwatch, and 'just appearing' in close combat. Alternatively, advancing twice lets you get at heavy weapons in subsequent turns.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Whilst it's a point more, by the way, I think the Venom Cannon is usually worth it, for the following reasons:

1) The increase in cost of 1 point isn't much because it's your Tyranid Warrior Gunner holding it; so it's 23 points to 24.

2) Whilst it has a lower rate of fire, it earns this back against almost all targets with its greater punch. It's not the higher strength (though that's nice) so much as Damage D3.

Against - for example - a guardsman in the open:

~ A barbed strangler hit wounds on a 2+, allows a 6+ save, and kills on a 4+. Total kill odds about 35%

~ A venom cannon hit wounds on a 2+, allows no save, and kills on a 4+ on (on average) either of 2 dice. Total kill odds about 63%

~ That's one of the squishiest targets out there, and the improved kill odds still make up for the reduced rate of fire. Against multiwound/transhuman physiology primaris or marading ork nobz, where the venom cannon excels, there's no comparison.


3) Because the power is delivered in fewer 'lumps', anything benefitting a single lump (such as More Bullets or Tactical Reroll) delivers more benefit: D3+1 nasty shots is a bigger improvement than D6+1 weaker ones








Automatically Appended Next Post:


Finally - boneswords and scything talons. If you've got boneswords, scything talons are effectively useless. A reroll to hit is nice but doesn't stack with the swords and boneswords give +1 attack and AP to boot.

I think the only time it's worth packing multiple melee adaptions is either to give a lashwhip as insurance, or else to take paired scything talons. Any other combination, you gain no real benefit from a second melee weapon, and might as well pack a deathspitter in case you get any 'normal' shots off, or spinefists (which give you an extra shot in extended melees compared to your free flesh hooks)

On the regular warhammer 40k there would always be a big discussion when warriors came up as a subject. The quintisential jack of all trades. It was only better in one place, and that was survivabilaty. 3 T4 wounds and a good save. As I understand it, this might not be it's best domain with one wound models potensially hanging around for longer.

How ever, it is the only source of synapse and big guns. It is also fairly cheap. It is nice to know it has a place.

How do we feel about the 8 genestealer option, as comes in one of the sets? I am tempted to do that, using the models I already have for my GSC. Can it work, or is it too one-dimensional?

The genestealer option would depend a lot on how mutch objectives play inn. If there is nothing insentevising the opponent to not fall back and shoot, genestealers can be a problem. Also note that you only have one move or one charge, not both.

That being said stealer shock is a classic strategy. Even with out the classic I6 (RIP 1 to 7th edition) the stats are stil there. Fast and deadly.

You can think about watering down the strategy with some termagaunts (the melee one). They can not kill anything, but they are cheap and fast. If your opponent is falling back or grouping up their models the bounding leap 6" is very good. Pile onto something that can not fight and you tie it up, maiby you kill it.

There is something to be said for synapse though. Also getting leader on 3 wound model is safer then a 1 wound T4 5++. Also, having no ranged preasure leaves you a lot of options of the table. What is more mobile, moving 10 or shooting 36?

What do you guys think about the following:

-Leader-

Genestealer
-Acid Maw, 4+ Save, Talons

-Specialists-

"Scout" Lictor


"Combat" Tyranid Warrior
-Adrenal Glands, Deathspitter, Flesh Hooks, Whip/sword

"Heavy" Tyranid Warrior Gunner
-Sword, Flesh Hooks, Venom Cannon

Non Specialists

4x Termagant


the leader cant be change (fluffwise) rest is "open" can i win something with this? or do i need a lot more bodys?

The counter-point that I'll make about Scything Talons is that they are better against two kinds of units:

A. Against models with invul saves like harlequins that don't care about AP
B. Horde models where re-rolling those 1's means you're hitting more reliably and therefore can spread your attacks around and still do damage.

Now, the Boneswords are great base since they just give you a straight extra attack, so really, that's the weapon of choice for Warriors. For Genestealers, however, make sure to equip those Scything Talons to give you that flexibility.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bluthusten wrote:
What do you guys think about the following:

-Leader-

Genestealer
-Acid Maw, 4+ Save, Talons

-Specialists-

"Scout" Lictor


"Combat" Tyranid Warrior
-Adrenal Glands, Deathspitter, Flesh Hooks, Whip/sword

"Heavy" Tyranid Warrior Gunner
-Sword, Flesh Hooks, Venom Cannon

Non Specialists

4x Termagant


the leader cant be change (fluffwise) rest is "open" can i win something with this? or do i need a lot more bodys?

You can absolutely win something with this. This army is what I imagine when I think of an 'all-rounder' Tyranid list. However, I'd swap the Termagants out for Hormagaunts instead, and go with Boneswords instead of Whip/Sword on the Combat Warrior. That Combat Warrior would then get 5 attacks. Give him Toxin Sacs to get that extra damage to really mulch just about anything.

Souds good, thank you

2 questions:

-why Hormagaunts for Termagants? personal prefer or are they so much better?

-well this is my 100 points list. what would you add to the "roster" to specialise for some missions / enemys?

when i understand right, you took a roster up to 20 models and when you know the enemy / mission you pick out of the roster 100 points and thats your list - right? or am i totally wrong ?

and how much points does this roster have?

Bluthusten wrote:
Souds good, thank you

2 questions:

-why Hormagaunts for Termagants? personal prefer or are they so much better?

-well this is my 100 points list. what would you add to the "roster" to specialise for some missions / enemys?

when i understand right, you took a roster up to 20 models and when you know the enemy / mission you pick out of the roster 100 points and thats your list - right? or am i totally wrong ?

and how much points does this roster have?

Hormagaunts are straight up better. I believe close combat is more effective than shooting in KT, and hormagaunts are great for their cost. Termagaunts on the other hand suck: only 12" range means you will almost always have a penalty to hit (if you're in range at all), and that will make them quite ineffective. The hormagaunts' speed is also great for objectives, and their Bounding Leap ability can prove invaluable against shooting-oriented units.

In your roster you could use more genestealers, and a warrior geared for close combat instead of shooting, in case you need to swap the one with venom cannon out. Fill the rest with hormagaunts.

There is no point limit in your roster. It can contain 20 models, and you pick every battle models for a total of 100 points or less. It can have multiple specialists too, even though you are not allowed to bring more than 3 + leader into battle. Be aware that you CAN have multiple specialists with the same specialization (for example Combat) in your roster, but in the team you bring into battle they need to have different ones. That includes the Leader, you can have more than one in your roster. You can also have more than the allowed number of a certain unit (for example, multiple Warrior Gunners), but again, once you muster your team, you need to abide to the usual restrictions.

alright, i understand. good to hear that im not totally wrong with my decision´s haha.

next week i´ve my first game with my tyranids. lets see how they perform

Teschio wrote:

Bluthusten wrote:
Souds good, thank you

2 questions:

-why Hormagaunts for Termagants? personal prefer or are they so much better?

-well this is my 100 points list. what would you add to the "roster" to specialise for some missions / enemys?

when i understand right, you took a roster up to 20 models and when you know the enemy / mission you pick out of the roster 100 points and thats your list - right? or am i totally wrong ?

and how much points does this roster have?

Hormagaunts are straight up better. I believe close combat is more effective than shooting in KT, and hormagaunts are great for their cost. Termagaunts on the other hand suck: only 12" range means you will almost always have a penalty to hit (if you're in range at all), and that will make them quite ineffective. The hormagaunts' speed is also great for objectives, and their Bounding Leap ability can prove invaluable against shooting-oriented units.

In your roster you could use more genestealers, and a warrior geared for close combat instead of shooting, in case you need to swap the one with venom cannon out. Fill the rest with hormagaunts.

There is no point limit in your roster. It can contain 20 models, and you pick every battle models for a total of 100 points or less. It can have multiple specialists too, even though you are not allowed to bring more than 3 + leader into battle. Be aware that you CAN have multiple specialists with the same specialization (for example Combat) in your roster, but in the team you bring into battle they need to have different ones. That includes the Leader, you can have more than one in your roster. You can also have more than the allowed number of a certain unit (for example, multiple Warrior Gunners), but again, once you muster your team, you need to abide to the usual restrictions.

When you say you think melee is better then shooting you need to back up this asertment with something. Not only can they not move and charge in the same turn. But you can not apply any preasure except zone controll/threat range. At least guns can shoot back and contribute mutch earlier. Of course the 12" gun is a bit crap. (18" being better at range at least.) You need to either through lateral reasoning or math hammer in some way.

Super bummed about the metabolic there were a lot of super lazy editing issues like that. Guess vet lictor for life, 2 moves then charge if I get the scout phase... Guess that saves me 1 Cp -.-

My list has won 8 games so far including a three player and a four player. I built the campaign roster but the list has just been working for me so far.

Warrior (leader) - deathspitter, boneswords, flesh hooks, adrenal
Warrior (comms) - venom cannon, boneswords, flesh hooks
Lictor (veteran)
Genestealer (combat) - scything talons, flesh hooks
2x hormagaunts - adrenals
2x termagants

Ive been really unhappy with the termagants but I like the option of a gun for objective sitting. Original had a lash on the venom but this list puts so much pressure so quickly I usually have to move the vc up and assault with him so I switched the lash for adrenals on my leader. As tarpits I really love the +1 to charge on my gaunts so I value the adrenals on hormagaunts much higher than OP but if I replace the two tgants for more gaunts Id leave them off the last 2.

Still bummed about overdrive 2 Cp and risk a mortal wound for... An objective shimmy? Gw be hating on that assault life

Yeah, I can understand why they limited Metabolic Overdrive. I'd still risk it on a Warrior or Lictor that needs to grab an objective, get up a tall building, or even run off the board for some of those mission types, but man it would have been brutal to be able to charge something with that.

Some good looking lists out here!

Requiet: why not put Acid Maw on your combat Genestealer for when you go up against marines?

drbored wrote:
Yeah, I can understand why they limited Metabolic Overdrive. I'd still risk it on a Warrior or Lictor that needs to grab an objective, get up a tall building, or even run off the board for some of those mission types, but man it would have been brutal to be able to charge something with that.

Some good looking lists out here!

Requiet: why not put Acid Maw on your combat Genestealer for when you go up against marines?

On paper I put down acid maw but in play ive always used my flesh hooks because giving up an entire phase for a model seems less potent to me. If I decide to bring a second stealer his absolutely acid maw but the hooks have been having a psychological effect on my group and being able to shoot into or out of combat because of the bad wording on hooks is just hilarious to me.

I don't think that it's bad wording.

Flesh hooks were made exactly like that on purpose.

 Niiai wrote:

Teschio wrote:

Bluthusten wrote:
Souds good, thank you

2 questions:

-why Hormagaunts for Termagants? personal prefer or are they so much better?

-well this is my 100 points list. what would you add to the "roster" to specialise for some missions / enemys?

when i understand right, you took a roster up to 20 models and when you know the enemy / mission you pick out of the roster 100 points and thats your list - right? or am i totally wrong ?

and how much points does this roster have?

Hormagaunts are straight up better. I believe close combat is more effective than shooting in KT, and hormagaunts are great for their cost. Termagaunts on the other hand suck: only 12" range means you will almost always have a penalty to hit (if you're in range at all), and that will make them quite ineffective. The hormagaunts' speed is also great for objectives, and their Bounding Leap ability can prove invaluable against shooting-oriented units.

In your roster you could use more genestealers, and a warrior geared for close combat instead of shooting, in case you need to swap the one with venom cannon out. Fill the rest with hormagaunts.

There is no point limit in your roster. It can contain 20 models, and you pick every battle models for a total of 100 points or less. It can have multiple specialists too, even though you are not allowed to bring more than 3 + leader into battle. Be aware that you CAN have multiple specialists with the same specialization (for example Combat) in your roster, but in the team you bring into battle they need to have different ones. That includes the Leader, you can have more than one in your roster. You can also have more than the allowed number of a certain unit (for example, multiple Warrior Gunners), but again, once you muster your team, you need to abide to the usual restrictions.

When you say you think melee is better then shooting you need to back up this asertment with something. Not only can they not move and charge in the same turn. But you can not apply any preasure except zone controll/threat range. At least guns can shoot back and contribute mutch earlier. Of course the 12" gun is a bit crap. (18" being better at range at least.) You need to either through lateral reasoning or math hammer in some way.

Well, devourer termagants are unambigously better - 3 x the firepower, 18" range - but as a 3 point gun upgrade on a 4 point model, they bloody should be....

Fleshborer termagants versus hormagaunts....I mostly agree. Hormagaunts get 2 attacks, hitting on 4s, rerolling 1s, and they're faster. Termagants get 1 shot, normally hitting on 5s.
For killing stuff, hormagaunts are unarguably better, but for defending a position (or a tyranid warrior), the termagants are better since they can provide a threat from a safe(r) distance (being behind cover being the most important thing), and theyre a touch more dangerous when being charged with overwatch - since the charger will get to strike before and probably butcher the hormagaunt before it lifts a scything talon.

Considering that the range of fleshborers is only 12" and that gaunts move 8" it doesn't seem fair to say termagants will contribute much earlier. Instead say, they'll contribute earlier but they won't contribute much.

 Manchu wrote:
Considering that the range of fleshborers is only 12" and that gaunts move 8" it doesn't seem fair to say termagants will contribute much earlier. Instead say, they'll contribute earlier but they won't contribute much.

Hormagaunts move 8" but the Termagants only move 6". This means that the Fleshborer has a threat range of 18" at best and the Devourer has a threat range of 26" at best.

The Hormagaunt has a potential threat range of 20" with a perfect 12" charge, but it also gets that juicy 6" pile-in and consolidation, which means it can cover a lot of ground if allowed to.

Hey, I'm with you on gaunts. Termagants clearly have their place but I'd rather eventually put them on my roster than start with them.

drbored wrote:

The Hormagaunt has a potential threat range of 20" with a perfect 12" charge, but it also gets that juicy 6" pile-in and consolidation, which means it can cover a lot of ground if allowed to.

While I consider hormagaunts far superior, their threat range is not 20", it's 12". This isn't 40k, you don't charge after moving, but in the Movement phase.

And that does not take into account when the enemie falls back after shooting.

drbored wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
Considering that the range of fleshborers is only 12" and that gaunts move 8" it doesn't seem fair to say termagants will contribute much earlier. Instead say, they'll contribute earlier but they won't contribute much.

Hormagaunts move 8" but the Termagants only move 6". This means that the Fleshborer has a threat range of 18" at best and the Devourer has a threat range of 26" at best.

The Hormagaunt has a potential threat range of 20" with a perfect 12" charge, but it also gets that juicy 6" pile-in and consolidation, which means it can cover a lot of ground if allowed to.

The extra pile-in is good and all, but he's still only allowed to fight models he's made a successful charge against and is only allowed to charge models within 12".

A good point.
Hormagaunts charge range is 7" on average - potentially only 5" if your opponent elects to retreat.

Would a List made up just of Genestealers be good? I only ask because I love the stealers i have from the Space hulk set and would like to use them for something but I don;t have the money or the reason to do a full Tyranid army.

I think a pure stealer list has been diacussed here before. The stats are there. It is iconic. The opponent will be falling back, a lot! While shooting you.

I played a three-way game last night using GSC agains Orks and a Nid list with two warriors, both upgraded with nasty weapons, 5 'stealers and some termagents.

The warriors were immense until turn 4 and 5, when they each died. One was unlucky on a charge from my genestealer, and the other got absolutely crumped by a my Power Hammer Aberrant. It takes a lot to get rid of one. The best strategy was to hide from them until it came close enough to charge. If I had some, I'd probably keep it back at all times. I only had one 'stealer, but he had five, and their speed was a big deal on such a small board. The 'stealers were dangerous in combat, but having just one wound made them less of a threat than expected. The little guys were only effective against the Ork players Grots. I probably wouldn't take more than a couple of them as a distraction.

Flesh hooks on a double bonesword warrior?

Flesh Hooks are pretty much a default choice on anything that can take them (the only time they're not relevant is on a warrior with spinefists)

If you're going to pack boneswords, I'd seriously consider one bonesword/lashwhip pair, because that extra round of attacks before dying can make a huge difference if you get pounced on by a power klaw wielding nob or similar.

One note against Necrons (as I was absolutely murdered by my Tyranid-playing wife in our first game) - 1 damage weapons are going to be more reliable for killing us, as our RP triggers on a wound roll of 6. So rolling multiple wounds just increases the Necron odds of completely ignoring damage.

And Hormogaunts are nasty.

I've been running the following list and enjoying it:

Leader:
Genestealer

Specialists:
Warrior - Bonesword, Deathspitter, Flesh Hooks, Adrenal Glands, Veteran
Genestealer - Acid Maw, Combat
Genestealer - Flesh Hooks, Scout

Scrubs:
3-4x Genestealers

I use the 6 Genestealer variant of the above to make an 88pt "alpha strike" list where I'll (hopefully) have a 10pt margin on my opponent (assuming he/she went with a 100pt list) and therefore be able to have 3 CP the first turn. This allows, for example, enough CP for a re-roll during the Fight phase (since you'll almost certainly be charging something T1), and possibly using 2 CP to fight again at the end of the Fight phase.

I have my Warrior make a Veteran move and serve as my Distraction Carnifex for turn 1 and 2 (and hopefully longer). The Warrior ends up being an unavoidable threat and buys time for the rest of the Genestealers to get up onto objectives or charge the flanks.

I keep the Leader back to cap objectives and mostly remain out of sight. The value of tactics cards and hence CP is such that I don't think it's worth risking your Leader on combat unnecessarily (this is a general comment about KT, not about Nids in particular).

Overall, it's probably not the most competitive way to play Tyranids, but man is it a lot of fun - and it's been successful for me, too. Basically Space Hulk on the tabletop. I love it!