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So, the continued paucity of Imperial Guard vehicles at stores in my area, and the gorgeous Jackal bikers and Trygon monsters, have me considering double hatting my army as Brood Brothers units. (Disclaimer, not a competitive list, more a narrative/cinematic one.)

What I'm envisaging here is a gunline of Brood Brothers, with some Jackals and armour to move up turn one. Turn two the burrowing bugs come up underneath the enemy's feet and the big monsters rip things to shreds, with the genestealers helping to steal an objective.

Detachment 1 Tyranids
Patrol 2CP Hive fleet ??????

HQ

?????????

Troops

Genestealers 240
x 16

Heavy Support

Trygon Prime 195

Trygon 150

Detachment 2 Genestealer Cults - The Rusted Claw
Patrol 2 CP

HQ
Jackal Alphus 75

Troops
Brood Brothers Infantry Squad 80
+Grenade Launcher
+Lascannon

Brood Brothers Infantry Squad 80
+Grenade Launcher
+Lascannon

Fast Attack
Atalan Jackals 85
4 + wolfquad

Cult Sentinel 55
+Lascannon
+HKM

Heavy Support
Heavy Weapons Team 50
+Mortars

Dedicated Transport
Chimera 85
HF+ML+HS+HKM

Right now this list has no HQ for the Tyranid detachment; what should go in there? I'd like something that can come from underground with the rest, would seem odd for the brain bug to be openly wandering around with the Brood Brothers. I'm planning on buying two of the "Start Collecting" boxes for the Trygons, so I'll have a pair of Broodlords, which seems, somewhat thematic for a GSC army? But I'm not a huge fan of the model.

What else should go in here?

I have an unassembled Leman Russ I could add, as well as a painted up techpriest, commissar, officer of the fleet and Avenger Strike Fighter which could be added if I ran a third patrol of Brood Brothers only.

I've never played Tyranids or GSC before, Twisted Helix seems like the most beneficial Cult Creed for the bikers, and since they're the only GSC models I'm really in love with, seems to make the most sense.

Which Tyranid Hive fleet offers good synergies with the Trygon/Mawlacs? And which of the two do you recommend?

Where should I put the warlord? What warlord traits and relics should I be thinking about?

(Edited list)

This is kind of an inversion of how tyranid + cult lists usually play.
Normally you see the tyranids forming the backfield gunline, with their superior and tougher shooting options. While the cult drops in to kill stuff with their stronger deepstriking and close combat abilities.


The most 'fluffy' burrowing fleet is Jormungandr. They offer a stratagem that allows your trygons to bring in additional infantry units. You could use this to burrow in either a Broodlord, Neurothrope, or Tyranid Prime for your HQ along with them. I'd certainly not recommend the prime, but either of the other two could work.

However I'd consider using hive fleet Behemoth instead. This lets your units re-roll to charge, which is important if you're deepstriking a bunch of close combat units.
While it doesn't technically burrow, a winged hive tyrant does have the ability to deepstrike. So could be the HQ that appears alongside the trygons.

Tyranid warlord traits are all garbage. What you want to do is use the option provided in the Blood of Baal psychic awakening book to trade out the warlord trait in exchange for putting an Adaptive Physiology on a unit in your army (you can also pay a CP to get a second one). These include some quite nice buffs. For instance you could give a trygon a 5++ invul save and halve its damage table, or you could give one +1S, +1AP, and +1Damage in close combat.

Tyranid relics are mostly rubbish. However if your HQ is a psyker, then the Resonance Barb relic from Blood of Baal is quite nice. Giving it an extra cast, an extra deny, and +1 to cast.
If you do go behemoth, then their relic can be combined with a bunch of other stuff to make a very nasty melee hive tyrant.

As for the cult, Rusted Claw is the cult you normally see atalan jackals in. Due to the Drive By Demolitions stratagem which adds 1 to hit and wound rolls when throwing bombs, and then zoom away. This is combined with the Extra Explosives stratagem to let them throw 5 demolition charges when doing this.

Thanks for the helpful response; this is a whole new world.

I'm torn between Behemoth and Jormungandr, on the one hand, Jormungandr is known for burrowing, and would match rather well with the grey and tan paint of the Brood Brothers uniforms, and being able to deploy the Broodlord with the Genestealers and Trygons would be excellent. On the other hand, my first ever Warhammer 40k set was the Battle for Maccrage Box, Ultramarines Vs. Behemoth got me into this hobby, though those were the only Tyranid models I've ever owned, so they have nostalgia and tactics in their corner...

If I do go Behemoth, how feasible would it be to take the Broodlord, give him catalyst and run him up behind a screen of Jackals / Armoured fist squads?

Also, realized that the Brood Brothers infantry squads in the GSC detachment can't take sniper rifles, so nix those and swap them out for grenade launchers.

Raveners look pretty tasty at first glance; 5 attacks with their base weapons, hitting on 3's, re-rolling ones, looks like they'd put out just under 6 wounds a turn on an MEQ?


And yeah, rusted claw looks way better for Jackals.

Broodlord running up behind bikes isn't a bad plan. It moves fast enough, and gives a bit of melee counter punch vs anyone that tries to have a go at your bikes.

Problem with Raveners is they are very squishy. That 5+ save doesn't go too far. Warriors are basically the same thing but trading speed for armour, getting obsec, and getting better stratagem support.

Usually you only see Raveners in jormungandr lists, used as taxis to ferry in infantry units using their stratagem. But you've already got trygons for that.

Alright, picked up the first box of Jackals. Really do like these miniatures, lotsa cool bits.

Trying to decide how to assemble them though; Demo charges make them quite pricey points wise; autopistols... don't do much, but they're free. Shotguns, well, getting into 6" range is something I'll want to be doing for move blocking; and with Rusted Claw I don't lose any accuracy with these weapons.

Melee weapons? Lots of options there, but again, pricey. Right now I'm leaning towards running them with just shotguns, cultist knives and maybe a mining laser on the Wolfquad?

Fair enough as for Raveners.

So revised list for 1500 points:

Detachment 1
Patrol 2CP (Refunded) Hive fleet Behemoth - 670 Points

HQ

Broodlord 125
-Catalyst
-Warlord - No Trait

Troops

Genestealers 150
x 10

Genestealers 75
X5

Heavy Support

Trygon Prime 195
-Adrenal Glands
-Murderous Size

Mawloc 125

Detachment 2 Genestealer Cults - The Rusted Claw - 333 Points
Patrol 2 CP

HQ
Jackal Alphus 75

Troops

Brood Brothers Infantry Squad 80
+Grenade Launcher
+Lascannon


Fast Attack
Atalan Jackals 128
6 with shotguns + cultist knife
1 Grenade launcher + Cultist knife
1 Wolfquad with Heavy Stubber

Heavy Support
Heavy Weapons Team 50
+Mortars

Brood Brothers Detachment - 497

HQ

Lord Commissar - 40
-Power sword + Bolt Pistol

Elites

Techpriest - 35

Troops
Infantry Squad 72
-Lascannon
-Long Las Sniper Rifle

Fast Attack

Armoured Sentinel 55
+Lascannon
+HKM

Armoured Sentinel 45
+Heavy Flamer

Heavy Support

Leman Russ 165
-Battle Cannon
-Las cannon


Dedicated Transport
Chimera 85
HF+ML+HS+HKM

Thoughts?

I would dump the brood brothers and take neophyte hybrids. They are 10x better can go up to squads of 20 and have a better special weapon selection they also get the +1 to hit from the jackal alpha and cult creeds. The brood brothers do bot. Same goes for the sentinels, you should get a ridghe runner. Better strategems and benefits exist for similar points costs.