Oldest sons Tyranids list - what does he need?

[Battle 1-2]

My oldest son plays Tyranids. Mostly based on leftover genestealers from Space Hulk (the 1990's one). His army looks like this:

HQ
Hive Tyrant

Troops
3 Tyranid warriors
up to 40 genestealers with at least 1 broodlord available (divided up into whatever groups he needs)
3 ripper swarms
19 termagants

For Christmas, I got him another Tyranid Warrior brood (3 warriors), a Carnifex, a Tyranid Prime, and another Broodlord (cause we have a lot of genestealers...) and obviously he needs more termagants. But what else would be really useful? EDIT: I Forgot to include the Zoanthrope I got for him. So add that.

We do not play competitively (obviously), but he and I play against two of his younger brothers (Tau and Orks, and I play Space Marines), so he doesn't have to be able to win tournaments. He actually does okay with what he has, but I'm focusing on making my army better, so I want him to have the tools to be stay on my level.

[xsquidz]

One of the main thing tyranids lack are invulnerable saves. So we rely on cover saves. Get him a brood of 3 venomthropes (the new box from GW is great) and he can make 3 units of 1, they give shrouding to any unit that has one modol within 6 inches of it! So that's a 5+ in the open, or 3+ in a forest or behind other models and a 2+ in ruins. For the carnifex, make sure its a dakkafex (2 sets of TL devourers) which requires some customization but is well worth it. After that, like you said, I would get some more termagants. If you want to make him beat you guys much more often, then either convert his hive tyrant into a flyrant (with wings) and the same 2 sets of TL devourers (also needs custom work) and then get him a 2nd one of those as they are the best unit in the nid book right now.

[Battle 1-2]

Can't customize his Hive Tyrant, its an Oooooold pewter model. It's so old it looks cartoony. However, we did kit out his Carnifex kinda like you suggested. As you pointed out, the Carnifex kit doesn't come with 4 Devourers, so he went with one set of twin-linked devourers and I think a heavy venom cannon? Anyway, it looks like bad news for me. We also got him a Venomthrope for winning a tournament earlier, and found a bunch of termagants on e-bay. So he's pretty well hooked up, although he probably needs more venomthropes to really have a chance versus the Tau once son#3 understands how to shoot, shoot, shoot and shoot some more...

[Battle 1-2]

So I played son #1 the other day at 1000 points.

His list:
HQ - Hive Tyrant with Stranglethorn cannon and boneswords
Elites - Venomthrope, Zoanthrope
Troops - 2x genestealer broods (7+broodlord), Warrior brood (3 warriors w/venom cannon and devourers), 10 Termagants w/fleshborers
Heavy Support - Carnifex with TL-Devourers and Brainleech worms, plus Heavy Venom Cannon

He started with Genestealers in reserve

My list:
HQ - terminator captain, in reserve, attached to termies
Elites - Dread with AC, 5-man terminator squad in reserve
Troops - 2 tac squads with plasma gun and plasma cannon
Fast Attack - 2 land speeders in separate squads

I managed to kill most of his forces, but he still beat me by 3 VP's because we were trying to achieve tactical objectives and he got better rolls than I did. It was a good battle, although he's not mature enough to learn the lesson that sometimes you sacrifice forces to win - he just wants his Tyranids to eat my face all the time.

[AdamHarry]

If you got him 1 of the new spore pods (Tyrannocyte) he could play around with a lot of different options. Being able to reliably deepstrike ANY of the models/units you listed up-close for a scary charge or loads of shooting one turn is a great tool to have. If he's playing vs orks, tau and space marines a lot he's going to enjoy the tactical flexibility that the pod offers.

One game he could drop 20 genestealers out of a pod and the next he could drop the dakka fex - and that's just the start.

Hands down, for the money, the Tyrannocyte is a great buy.

Other useful Tyranid units:
Flying MC's (Crone/Harpy kit) or the newer Hive Tyrant kit
Exocrines are a good choice - that coming out of a pod is really mean
Mawloc (the deepstrike attack is a little confusing but once you do it a few times it makes sense) - it can double as a trygon/trygon prime too.
more vemonthropes (or the FW Malanthrope)
**more warriors (but i'd personally go venom cannon/deathspitters)** - I only suggest this from a 'for fun thing, they aren't typically seen as being very competitive.
a 2nd Tyrannocyte pod

If you want to get really crazy you can go with the newer formations that let you attach a flyrant to a brood of gargoyles...but thats a whole other ball of wax.

[Captain Bubonicus]

he just wants his Tyranids to eat my face all the time.

That's the Tyranid spirit!