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So, over the holidays, I've assembled a small Nidzilla army that I've used in a few games already. It's been quite a shift from my Tau and Chaos armies and I am having a lot of fun playing with my monsters so far. Now I'm looking ahead at what I should do to expand this list into a larger force of, say, 1500 or even 2000 points. My meta is mostly Guard and Eldar, a sprinkling of Chaos and Tau, and very occasionally Ad Mech. I also do the odd tournament at my FLGS, but nothing too competitive.


Hive Fleet: Jormungandr
Detachment: Spearhead

HQ
1) 1x Hive Tyrant with Wings
- Adrenal Glands, Heavy Venom Cannon, Monstrous Scything Talons

2) The Swarmlord

HEAVY SUPPORT
1) 1x Tyrannofex
- Acid Spray, Stinger Salvo

2) 1x Tyrannofex
- Acid Spray, Stinger Salvo

3) 1x Trygon
- Adrenal Glands, 3x Massive Scything Talons, Toxinspike

The above list totals 1000 points even and I love how I can just throw five models on the board for deployment. Looking ahead, I know that I will need troops to expand to a Battalion Detachment at the very least, but I really want to keep the flavour of a Nidzilla army, instead of running, say, Nidzilla + hordes of guants. To that end, I was looking into either Tyranid Warriors or minimum-sized squads of Genestealers. I also was throwing around the idea of allying in a Genestealer Cult Battalion as a Command Point battery, but I don't know if that has any more advantages than simply sticking with pure Tyranids.

Thanks for any advice and help!

I run a 1k list of tyranids that is focused on shooting. I run a battalion with 2x winged hive tyrants with 2x twin linked devourers, 10 guants, 8 genestealers, 3 warriors, 3 hive guard, and tyrannofex w/ rupture cannon. It has won all three games it has played by turn two. I would chock most of that to the luck that I had those games but it is a well rounded list. For your list, I would drop the swarmlord. He is best when surrounded by units that can use his abilities. Don't forget that your tyrannofex can shoot twice if it doesn't move. I would just drop the swarmlord, give your tyrannofex's rupture cannons and see how that does. If you play against a high model count army, you'll have some struggles but I think this list is viable at 1k points. If you're looking to expand, hive guard are amazing in this edition and warriors have gotten better. If you want to keep the swarmlord, I would add a decent group of genestealers. He can just catapult them up the board.

OptimalWater wrote:
I would just drop the swarmlord, give your tyrannofex's rupture cannons and see how that does. If you play against a high model count army, you'll have some struggles but I think this list is viable at 1k points. If you're looking to expand, hive guard are amazing in this edition and warriors have gotten better. If you want to keep the swarmlord, I would add a decent group of genestealers. He can just catapult them up the board.

The Swarmlord was a pretty last minute addition, but I threw him in there after I calculated out the points of the rest of the bugs. He fit the 250 perfectly. I've heard a lot of good things about Hive Guard too, but in order to use them effectively, I'd also need some backfield synapse. Currently, my bugs are all running up and getting close to my enemy. At the moment I've calculated this out for my next 500 points:

Heavy Support
1) Trygon Prime
- Adrenal Glands, 3x Monstrous Scything Talons, Toxin Sacs, Toxin Spike

2) Trygon
- Adrenal Glands, 3x Monstrous Scything Talons, Toxin Spike

3) 1x Trygon
- Adrenal Glands, 3x Massive Scything Talons, Toxinspike

That should give me another 500 points even and if I take, say, the Swarmlord as their HQ, that would give me two Spearhead Detachments. I also think it would be hilarious to have four Trygon models pop up in front of my opponent on turn 2. However, that means I am still short on any troop models ...

If you are trying to stick with the big bugs, I echo OptimalWater and suggest dropping Swarmy as you won't get much out of his ability except on himself (which is still quite effective).

As for expansion, the default answer is almost always Carnifex. They are hands down the best unit we have due to their utility, customisation and points cost. No matter your opponent, there's a Carnifex for that!

Personally, I also like to take some of the more unpopular Tyranid units, notably Mawlocs and Tyrannocytes. Both are cheap units, pretty rubbish at killing things but offer outstanding tactical options.

The Tyrannocytes pair well with Acid Tyrannofex and make a very hard pair to remove from an objective. They also put out a fair few shots, can still move and only cost 100 points base.

Mawlocs are my favourite unit. Tactically they are ineffective in combat, but there's a mental concern for your opponent when they are told they pop up only an inch away rather than 9. I find my opponents tend to turtle up thrir back lines so he can't fit in and tie up tanks - allowing me greater board control. When it's heavily injured, I put it back underground specifically to try and grab objectives later in the game when my numbers have dwindled and I can't quite reach them.

Since you are already using Jormungandr maybe consider a Ravener bomb? There are a lot of Tyranid multi-wound infantry that love the option of dropping in at the front lines but don't really have large enough units to justify a Tyrannocyte for (Pyrovores, Venomthropes, Zoanthropes, Shock-Guard, Tyrant Guard, Warriors, etc.). For more monstrous additions I'd consider looking at Toxicrines. They are quite suitable for your aggressive playstyle and are fairly good for counter-melee work (Always swings first and can shoot in melee, also lots of mortal wound generation potential). The Tervigon might also be worth it with the new price drop as another T8 chassis. You can set aside a handful of points to create Termagants on a "as needed" basis without having to deploy them initially (depending on the quantity of points set aside for this, you could also endless swarm a slain unit to your opponent's backfield for more disruption).

I'm not a fan of Winged Tyrants in Jormungandr detachments, as awesome as they generally are. They don't really gain any benefit at all for the fleet, unlike some of the flying infantry which can still use the tunnel network deployment shenanigans. Still a strong unit mind you, just not my personal preference.

 orchewer wrote:

I also was throwing around the idea of allying in a Genestealer Cult Battalion as a Command Point battery, but I don't know if that has any more advantages than simply sticking with pure Tyranids.

Main advantage I can think of for your particular list is that GSC troops can take transport vehicles for more high toughness saturation with your big bugs. Goliath Trucks have the advantage of allowing embarked squads to fire while embarked so the infantry don't necessarily have to deploy, while Chimeras are relatively durable (T7, 3+ armor, once per game -1 to hit) with a fair amount of anti-infantry firepower and a larger carrying capacity.

In the past I have run a "Cult of the Ancient Cyclops" list consisting of a mechanized GSC battalion paired with a Tyranid Spearhead of Old One Eye (the aforementioned "Ancient Cyclops") and a compliment of Carnifexes. It did fairly well but it had a limited number of outings.