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Hey there I just picked up a nice lot of NOS Nids, and could use some input since no one in the area plays bugs.. Unfortunately, it didn't come with a codex, and I'm kinda eh on buying the codex yet since they might get a new book in December. The lot contained 2 Tyrannofex/Tervigons, 1 Start collecting box, 1 Flyrant, 1 Carnifex, 15 Venomthropes/Zoanthropes, 9 Warriors, 1 Harpy/Hive Crone, 1 Toxicrene, and 5 Termagaunts. I'm tempted to say get several buckets of genestealers, termagaunts, hive guards, and probably another Flyrant. Anything else? Best Hive fleet option? Pitfall upgrades? Thanks in advance!

Buckets is a good start......

15 Zoanthropes!! . . . That's kinda rad.

Five Termagaunts isn't enough to field, the minimum squad size is 10.

Carnifexes aren't very good, their saving grace is that they come in squads of three.

Tervigons are really bad.

Rumor has it 'nids are the Xenos codex scheduled for December, so any advice on what's good has an even shorter shelf-life than normal.

The Newman wrote:
Five Termagaunts isn't enough to field, the minimum squad size is 10.

Carnifexes aren't very good, their saving grace is that they come in squads of three.

Tervigons are really bad.

Rumor has it 'nids are the Xenos codex scheduled for December, so any advice on what's good has an even shorter shelf-life than normal.

I knew the Termagaunts wasn't enough to run a squad. If I wanted to run them I'd have to get several buckets more, especially if I ran Tervigons.

The nids getting a new dex is the rumor but getting an idea of what's good can point me in a general direction, but new dex could switch everything up.

The Newman wrote:
Rumor has it 'nids are the Xenos codex scheduled for December, so any advice on what's good has an even shorter shelf-life than normal.

Rumours are just as strong that it'll be Genestealer Cults getting their book first, alongside Custodes, as that's apparently the next "battle box".

Sell them on. Tyranids haven't had a good codex since 4th Ed and I don't see it changing any time soon. No one at GW plays them, so they get no love. I say this as someone who's played and collected Nids in every edition since 2nd.

Tyranids at the moment are pretty crap and their new codex is either going to be fantastic or equally crap.

One thing I notice a lot with my new 9th codexes is that things which used to be good or commonplace become rubbish, and things that were trash become good again. It's an excellent strategy to sell more models.

As such, Hive Guard are good - so assume they will become trash
Mawloc is trash - assume it will become good
Zoanthropes are good, assume they will become trash (you can confidently assume they will become 4++)

etc

Eh… I say don’t listen to the “nids aren’t any good cuz rules” crowd. Ignore all that. Collect what is cool regardless… my advice would be to paint and model what you have, use them when and where you can and want to make for great games. Respect for anyone who can play nids… it can’t be easy being the bad guy every time! But make for best games imho. Staring down a horde o rampaging nids makes the skin crawl and adds to the drama, the impending doom, in a more visceral way than waiting for some skimmer tank hanging in the back to drop its gauss load during the shooting phase… again.

Dont spam the forum - ingtaer.

 Sim-Life wrote:
Sell them on. Tyranids haven't had a good codex since 4th Ed and I don't see it changing any time soon. No one at GW plays them, so they get no love. I say this as someone who's played and collected Nids in every edition since 2nd.

Definitely an option. Though I play CSM, so I obviously don't chase the highest tier armies lmao. I knew nids weren't great, but they've been a soft spot for years. Though if nids are bad, I'd have bad luck getting rid of them

How much fun you can get out of Tyranids depends a lot on your local scene and your skill as a player.

They are definitely on the weaker side of things for now.

That being said, if the collecting and painting aspect is enough to get you by (independently from success on the board), go ham.

I would avoid skewing, as you don't know what the future might bring. But getting a bit of everything ready for the next codex is otherwise a sound plan.

Don't listen to the naysayers. Tyranids are sitting in the middle of the pack based on win rate. They went around 50% at the Orlando Open, which was better than Aeldari and Harlequins. They are also in around the median in faction win rate, although only 4.55% according to 40KStats since the release of the Admech Codex.

HOLD ON TO YOUR NIDS. The next campaign book looks to offer some very interesting stop gap rules that may get the army into a better place.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 jeff white wrote:
Eh… I say don’t listen to the “nids aren’t any good cuz rules” crowd. Ignore all that. Collect what is cool regardless… my advice would be to paint and model what you have, use them when and where you can and want to make for great games. Respect for anyone who can play nids… it can’t be easy being the bad guy every time! But make for best games imho. Staring down a horde o rampaging nids makes the skin crawl and adds to the drama, the impending doom, in a more visceral way than waiting for some skimmer tank hanging in the back to drop its gauss load during the shooting phase… again.

I don't often agree with Jeff, but this.

 alextroy wrote:
Don't listen to the naysayers. Tyranids are sitting in the middle of the pack based on win rate. They went around 50% at the Orlando Open, which was better than Aeldari and Harlequins. They are also in around the median in faction win rate, although only 4.55% according to 40KStats since the release of the Admech Codex.

This is really misleading for somebody getting into Nids. Tournament lists are built on 2 things, Termagant Hordes, and FW. OP has none of that.

Also LOL @ using the Orlando Open as a benchmark when you could use Goonhammer data instead: https://www.goonhammer.com/the-august-2021-40k-meta-review/

OP, you can win with Nids, but it's not really in a satisfying way IMO. Nids do well by focusing on board control (via the large hordes), shooting twice with Exocrines and Hive Guard, and melee via FW monsters. Outside of those monsters, the melee is really, really bad.

I don't think you should sell your Nids, to be clear!! They're not a good army but they're still really cool, and can play in every aspect of the game more than almost any other army. You're just going to have to level set with your friends that they bring less optimized stuff, or get used to lots of losses.

 alextroy wrote:
Don't listen to the naysayers. Tyranids are sitting in the middle of the pack based on win rate. They went around 50% at the Orlando Open, which was better than Aeldari and Harlequins. They are also in around the median in faction win rate, although only 4.55% according to 40KStats since the release of the Admech Codex.

Uhh! Who cares what their win rate at a tournament is? What an exceptionally boring method of judging an army.

Keep the 'Nids if you think they're cool. Tournaments and "40kStats" be damned.

Sumilidon wrote:
As such, Hive Guard are good - so assume they will become trash

They'll make them require LOS, negating their entire purpose. They'll also put their points cost up to reflect their power in the previous book, despite nerfing them in the new one.

Sumilidon wrote:
Zoanthropes are good, assume they will become trash (you can confidently assume they will become 4++)

And they'll put their points cost up, again, because they were powerful in the previous book.

I can't wait for GW's typical overbalancing of our few good units. I mean, just how high can the 'Wings' upgrade on a Tyrant go? The sky's the limit!

I'll probably hold on to them for now, or at least until the new book drops. I may also drop them if there is a surge of new models released for one of my main armies.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 alextroy wrote:
Don't listen to the naysayers. Tyranids are sitting in the middle of the pack based on win rate. They went around 50% at the Orlando Open, which was better than Aeldari and Harlequins. They are also in around the median in faction win rate, although only 4.55% according to 40KStats since the release of the Admech Codex.

Uhh! Who cares what their win rate at a tournament is? What an exceptionally boring method of judging an army.

My point being those who were saying "sell them and buy marines" were unselling the army's competitiveness. It might not light the competitive scene on fire, but it isn't bottom barrel either. Therefore, you should be able to have fun with the army without feeling you will lose every game you play.

Screw tournament ratings.

Personally, I have a lot of fun using tervigons, but that only works if your enemy doesn't target it and instead gets too worried about the waves of termagants it spawns. You'll need tons of termagants, though - I'd advise buying already built/painted for those darlings, though they're second easiest model to paint.

Also, zopes make good bullet sponges with a strong attack and I've run them as HQs in smaller games. They resist big guns well, but tend to get murdered by massed fire.

 l0k1 wrote:

The Newman wrote:
Five Termagaunts isn't enough to field, the minimum squad size is 10.

Carnifexes aren't very good, their saving grace is that they come in squads of three.

Tervigons are really bad.

Rumor has it 'nids are the Xenos codex scheduled for December, so any advice on what's good has an even shorter shelf-life than normal.

I knew the Termagaunts wasn't enough to run a squad. If I wanted to run them I'd have to get several buckets more, especially if I ran Tervigons.

The nids getting a new dex is the rumor but getting an idea of what's good can point me in a general direction, but new dex could switch everything up.

For what it's worth Termaunts really don't need to run in big squads. They do get bonuses, but those bonuses aren't so good that they totally overwhelm the advantage small squads have in flexibility for actions and holding objectives.

 alextroy wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 alextroy wrote:
Don't listen to the naysayers. Tyranids are sitting in the middle of the pack based on win rate. They went around 50% at the Orlando Open, which was better than Aeldari and Harlequins. They are also in around the median in faction win rate, although only 4.55% according to 40KStats since the release of the Admech Codex.

Uhh! Who cares what their win rate at a tournament is? What an exceptionally boring method of judging an army.

My point being those who were saying "sell them and buy marines" were unselling the army's competitiveness. It might not light the competitive scene on fire, but it isn't bottom barrel either. Therefore, you should be able to have fun with the army without feeling you will lose every game you play.

Again, not all units in the Tyranid codex are equal. In fact, they're very unequal. OP's got some of the right stuff, but Nids have a lot of sludge. I say that as a proud owner of the sludge. But I can tell you this, even in a friendly game, a Hive Crone (for instance) is just a big liability. I'm all for taking them anyways! But I wouldn't tell somebody that specific model isn't bottom barrel. That's more useful to a new Nids player than just saying "eh, the faction did okay in these tournaments by spamming X, Y, Z. You'll be fine!"

Looking at your models, you could run a mortal wound themed army pretty easily. 3 units of zoanthropes for the mortal wound bomb stratagem, a mawloc, a harpy for bombing, and a Maleceptor all popping at once is a ton of mortals to deal with, especially to any clumped up units.

 Badablack wrote:
Looking at your models, you could run a mortal wound themed army pretty easily. 3 units of zoanthropes for the mortal wound bomb stratagem, a mawloc, a harpy for bombing, and a Maleceptor all popping at once is a ton of mortals to deal with, especially to any clumped up units.

Ugh, that's a bunch of trap choices. Zoanthropes certainly have a place, but stick with regular smite. That MW strat is so flukey and bad given that it goes off on a 4+ and 5+ against characters (yeah, it does better against chaff but Nids have plenty of tools against chaff). A Mawloc is not awful but it'll get shot to gak very easily in the current meta (or in any meta). Same thing with the Harpy; T6, 4+ armor save, and no -1 to hit... the damn thing is less tough than... well, everything. Maleceptor does no damage; it's got a cool strat but you're not going to get much mileage out of its goofy, anti-synergistic psychic power (Maleceptor gets +1 to cast, but if you use his special thing, you don't get to cast... Maleceptor's -1 S strat encourages you to keep him close to your lines to buff as many units as possible, but his special power only works in a short range.)

Argh I love Nid models so much, but I hate Nid rules just as much...

ETA: To actually give a suggestion, OP, I agree with your plan. Get some hive guard, get a bunch of termagants and some genestealers, and see where things go. With any luck, Nids get a codex in December and GW actually fixes the turds (they've done a pretty good job with 9e codexes so far with a couple exceptions that are still better than our rules). It's hard to speculate on what will become good, but you've got a pretty wide swath of unit choices; if Nids get a quality codex (fingers crossed), you've got a good shot at having some nice, usable things.

Sooooo.... bit of an update. I got the big box and it's all bits on sprue. No bodies just bits. The seller stacked them all to look like they were more complete than they were. I contacted them and they said basically we didn't misrepresent anything try to get ebay involved, we don't do returns. So if ebay doesn't step in I can try to sell the bits or buy the missing bits

That's fethed

Do you have a link to the listing?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324761636385

I showed the link again to some friends, whom I shared it with while it was active. They both agree that while it does say 'sku incomplete' the photos hide just how much is missing. I also realized that while bidding was active, at one point the bidding dropped by half. I thought it was odd, but hey maybe someone bid on something they shouldn't have. Now I realize that they might have reached out to the seller and found out how much was missing.

Either way. I looks like I get to figure out what to do with all these bits.

As someone familiar with the 'Nid sprues, I can see right away that the "models" are missing, leaving just the extras that are always leftovers.

It's a shame though. I've bought things thinking that they were complete (bought something damaged once that I just didn't notice in the picture ) but at least you'll be careful in the future.

Or show us the pics first.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
As someone familiar with the 'Nid sprues, I can see right away that the "models" are missing, leaving just the extras that are always leftovers.

It's a shame though. I've bought things thinking that they were complete (bought something damaged once that I just didn't notice in the picture ) but at least you'll be careful in the future.

Or show us the pics first.

I wasn't familiar with the sprues, so I figured 'yeah I can see some bits missing or maybe they just broke off, but maybe the legs and such are under those sprue'. I played Nids back in 5th, but a lot of these are models that were released after I sold everything. I was thinking of buying the 'body bits' to make the best of it, but don't even see those on ebay. So I guess if I can't get refund, I'll try and sell the lot to recover whatever I can. Though I think I'd be luck to get half back.

Hmm, gak seller for sure. And my sympathies.
BUT....
This is on you.
1) You can clearly see there's stuff missing & no loose bitz visible.
2) the seller did state incomplete..
3) The price.
If you aren't familiar with what's missing from a lot you should have definitely been asking questions, sking for more pics,, etc. not assuming.

You know that saying about a deal being too good to be true?
And that one about buyer beware?
Here's a perfect example of each.

Your best bet for the missing parts is 3d printing.
Other wise your going to spend serious $$$ making these parts functional.

My overall advise beyond 3d is to get the codex (as cheap as your comfortable with), plan out what you really want/need (realizing that rules could shift on you in the future), go buy that, and write off these bitz as an expensive error.