Starting Tyranids as a total nub ...... Where to start

[olberon]

Hey all,

I really didnt ever had feeling for this race but after having collected most of the other races and always ignoring them i decided to start my very first tyranid army. the big question is where to start. what to buy first without wasting cash on models which i wont be using in my list. I will be aiming for a 1750/2000 points army but really dont have a clue where to start. so any suggestion and/or effective/competitive list will be welcomed!

[Pendragon38]

Get a few screamers/cranafexs and troops then wait for the new dex.:)

[jifel]

Get a few screamers/cranafexs and troops then wait for the new dex.:)

Mayday! Mayday! Abort! Abort!

Ok, Nids: We have a lot of Mediocre stuff and a few good things. However, we're rumored a new codex in 6-9 months, so what is good now may change. However, gants are a solid bet of things that will always be useful, always. Tervigons, Flyrants, the Doom, Hive Guard, Gargoyles, Biovores, Trygons, gants, Zoanthropes, and Ymgarls are all good for now though. Carnifexs, ESPECIALLY screamer killers, are pretty bad now though. So it's just guesswork if they'll be good later.

[Pendragon38]

Mayday! Mayday! Abort! Abort!

Ok, Nids: We have a lot of Mediocre stuff and a few good things. However, we're rumored a new codex in 6-9 months, so what is good now may change. However, gants are a solid bet of things that will always be useful, always. Tervigons, Flyrants, the Doom, Hive Guard, Gargoyles, Biovores, Trygons, gants, Zoanthropes, and Ymgarls are all good for now though. Carnifexs, ESPECIALLY screamer killers, are pretty bad now though. So it's just guesswork if they'll be good later.
Pull up Pull up.......it's too late the screamers are dead...... Dang I think we really need a like button.

[Ursa]

I agree with pendragon and jifel. Avoid carnies till the codex comes out. Ive played bugs in every edition and I have never gone wrong with terma and hormogaunts. Unlike most bug players ive encountered I don't like gorilla bug hordes. I like a near endless horde of scurring killers. My win loss record was about 80% win.
Now facing bugs, I think I'm scared most by zoanthropes and gaunt makers.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

I find it really hard to go wrong with most of the battleforces. You'll need bugs; the battleforce gives you 43 bugs.

[chicop76]

In my opinion you should wait for the codex to come out. For example spine gaunts was good and now termagaunts are better. The updated codex can majorly change your list.

With that said this is a list of good units to take

Sworm Lord with Hive Guard: Endurance and wound allocation makes this a great unit and the only unit that can cast 2 powers, also the only unit that can cast invisibility.

Hive Tyrant with +2 save and hive guard. Same as above, but now you can save missile.

With both squads you want your HQ up front. In shooting you remove wounds from the closet who passes look out sir. If the models are the same in distance than it's random. You can rotate models, so they get wounds bck via endurance.

Thanks to 6th a prime attached to 3 carnifexes with endurance is really good. You can allocate and rotate wounds and tx to it will not die recover wounds. This unit wasn't good in 5th, but does really well in 6th.

Tervigon is amust have. They can buffgaunts to silly amounts, and spawn more of them. I run 3 and can typically spawn 100 gvaunts. Which means 500 points of free models which almost pays fcor the tervigon itself. Can roll 3x on biomancy which is very helpful.

Zonathorpes means more powers. You can go shooty or suport depending on what you re facing.

Doom with iron arm is so awesome.

Tyrantguard are also solid.

Gargoyles are nice tx to hammer off wraith. The cheapest unit with hammer of wraith.

Trygon is awesome.

Biovore's are solid due to barrage which they can snipe units.

Sporemines are nice since they can disrupt deployment.

As a nid player the above units have worked out really well. I would say if you want to win most of the above units is what you want to play with.

Not to say the elite stealers are bad. The problem with them if you can't deploythem they become a point sink.

[HsojVvad]

Hey all,

I really didnt ever had feeling for this race but after having collected most of the other races and always ignoring them i decided to start my very first tyranid army. the big question is where to start.

A good place to start is to buy the codex, or at least borrow one and read it thoroughly.



what to buy first without wasting cash on models which i wont be using in my list. I will be aiming for a 1750/2000 points army but really dont have a clue where to start. so any suggestion and/or effective/competitive list will be welcomed!

Well what do you want to do with them? It sounds you want to collect them because it is to "complete" what you don't have. From what I read you are not really into them. What alot of people will be saying is you WILL BE WASTING your money on them right now. The thing is, what DO YOU WANT? Do you want to play for fun? Do you HAVE to win?

Also what is your play style? Are you a shooty or assaulty person? What about Horde or a MC person? Maybe a mixture of all of them?

Nids are not a shooty army since there are other armies that outshoot. Nids are not an assaulty army, almost everyone gets more A than Nids on the charge. Nids are really not a horde army either since IG and Orks out number them.

So with that said, what do you want to do with your Nids? After this we can say what to get and what to avoid. Alot of people will disagree. I think the only thing that can be agreed on is the Pyrovore sucks for rules wise, but the mini is nice. :P

[chicop76]

A good place to start is to buy the codex, or at least borrow one and read it thoroughly.



Well what do you want to do with them? It sounds you want to collect them because it is to "complete" what you don't have. From what I read you are not really into them. What alot of people will be saying is you WILL BE WASTING your money on them right now. The thing is, what DO YOU WANT? Do you want to play for fun? Do you HAVE to win?

Also what is your play style? Are you a shooty or assaulty person? What about Horde or a MC person? Maybe a mixture of all of them?

Nids are not a shooty army since there are other armies that outshoot. Nids are not an assaulty army, almost everyone gets more A than Nids on the charge. Nids are really not a horde army either since IG and Orks out number them.

So with that said, what do you want to do with your Nids? After this we can say what to get and what to avoid. Alot of people will disagree. I think the only thing that can be agreed on is the Pyrovore sucks for rules wise, but the mini is nice. :P

Orcs and Guard out number nids my foot. Nids are cheaper than Orcs and cost the same as guard. You can easily run more nids than orcs. However due to HQ selections you can run more guard than nids.

With that being said Nids however have 5 MCs it can take which can produce 250 points of 50 gaunts which are free a turn on averag. It is quite possible to field more troops than guard. If you take a basic tervigon and it can make it to turn 4 spawning gaunts at that point you begin to add more points to your army. Heck at base points the Tervigon is worth it's points and producing gaunts are really free.

Nids can be shooty if it wants to be. It can fire 15 strength 10 shots if you desired. The last nid codex I was able to out shoot everyone, but orcs. This codex I still can out shoot a good portion of armies out there. They can be a very shooty army.

Honestly the pyrovore is not that bad. In a drop pod it's actually can be quite useful. I wouldn't use one, but I wouldn't call it a bad model. None of the nid models come off as bad models, just some are btter than others.