1750Pt Nids - be gentle!

[The Dinosaur]

Hi Guys,

I'm only just starting out with nids - any suggestions or tips would be hugely appriciated.
I guess my plan is to pop the trygons as a distraction while everyone else runs forward doing what they do, stealers coming in from the side to chew up something expensive..

HQ
2x T prime w/ talons and bsword/lwhip (one in each warrior unit)

Elites
3x Tyranid guard

3x zoanthrope

Doom of malan'tai w/ spore

troops
18x hormagaunts w/ toxin sacks

18x hormagaunts w/ toxin sacks

8x genestealers w/ rending claws and scy talons

3x warriors w/ bone swords and scy talons

3x warriors w/bone swords and scy talons

Heavy
Trygon prime

Trygon



i had also thought of dropping one prime and two zoanthropes, then merging the warriors into one unit, and taking a hive tyrant with hive commander...

like i said - any suggestions appreciated, as you can see im not big on shooty nids :)

[Tynskel]

any particular reason for the Tyrgon Prime? I would take a Mawloc instead. That frees up 70 points.

[Flammenwerfer13]

drop the regular trygon prime for a mawloc.

drop a unit of hormagaunts for more warriors. More warriors the better off you are.
also give the other unit of hormagaunts adrenal glands.

Drop the Doom, its not worth it now that people can't pretend to be retarded with it and pick up more zoanthropes, though venomthropes aren't bad themselves either.

[Nungunz]

Hi Guys,

I'm only just starting out with nids - any suggestions or tips would be hugely appriciated.
I guess my plan is to pop the trygons as a distraction while everyone else runs forward doing what they do, stealers coming in from the side to chew up something expensive.

Nids have a lot of competitive builds out there and are decently balanced codex. A few things to note are that no single model will win you a game....and often times taking a single model just because it has a good stat line will lose you games.

Tyranids need to function as a cohesive army more so than the other races. One bug or unit on its own with no support is asking for trouble.

That being said, this list isn't a bad start at all. I'd personally like to see another MC in the list. The biggest problem I see is lack of anti-vehicle at range. You need to be able to kill things like Rhino/Raiders/Chimeras/Devilfish at range. If you depend on CC to kill vehicles (this goes for any army), you are doing something wrong. Heavy Venom Cannons, Impaler Cannons, Rupture Cannons, Brain-leech Devourers, etc are all decent at doing this.

I'd really like to see a harpy w/ TL- HVC or a Tyrant w/ TL-Devourers to add a bit more 'oomph' and more big targets to shoot at. Forces your opponent to make potential bad decisions.




HQ
2x T prime w/ talons and bsword/lwhip (one in each warrior unit)[/quote]

While the Prime is very good, I'd only take one and maybe combine the warriors into 1 group of 5 models. Looks good to me otherwise.


Elites
3x Tyranid guard

3x zoanthrope

Doom of malan'tai w/ spore

Drop one zoanthrope and give them the spore from the Doom. They need the transportaion to get close enough to guarantee they do their job. 3++ is good, but T4 means a battlecannon, krak missile, lascannon, etc will insta-kill a thrope.

Drop the Doom, it sucks. Replace with more Hive Guard.

troops
18x hormagaunts w/ toxin sacks

18x hormagaunts w/ toxin sacks[/quote]

Fantastic. Maybe bump up to twenty models if you can, but not required.


8x genestealers w/ rending claws and scy talons

Also good.


3x warriors w/ bone swords and scy talons

3x warriors w/bone swords and scy talons

Sloooooooow and easy to insta-kill. Don't need that many boneswords, I'd say leave on the talons or take rending claws instead. If you join a prime to them, giving them deathspitters would be bad at all. Three-shoot S5 guns at BS4 is very, very mean.

Maybe combine these into a single squad of 4 (maybe 5).

Heavy
Trygon prime

Trygon[/quote]

I'm going to recommend that you keep the Prime, you don't have any other fast synapse creatures to keep up with the hormagaunts. Other than that, I like it.




i had also thought of dropping one prime and two zoanthropes, then merging the warriors into one unit, and taking a hive tyrant with hive commander...

If you outflank the genestealers and spore the zoans, you're going to want Hive Commander. Every Tyranid army I've see that has come in piecemeal has lost.

You want as much of the army to hit at the same time as you can (baring shooty support from Hive Guard/Harpies/Tyrannofexes). Hive Commander will help you a lot with this.


like i said - any suggestions appreciated, as you can see im not big on shooty nids :)

Like it or not, you're going to need the shooty aspect to crack open transports so you can get to the squishy meat inside.

Overall a pretty good start that could use a few tweaks.

[The Dinosaur]

thanks guys for the tips so far!


any particular reason for the Tyrgon Prime?

purely to ensure theres no gap in the synapse for the gaunts as they run forward and to also keep the other trygon under control.



Drop the Doom, it sucks. Replace with more Hive Guard.

Drop the Doom, its not worth it now that people can't pretend to be retarded with it and pick up more zoanthropes

everyone keeps telling me the dooms no good - hes been good for me so far maybe ive just been lucky:P
ill try shifting the pod and freeing up the points.



While the Prime is very good, I'd only take one and maybe combine the warriors into 1 group of 5 models.

If i pick up a hive tyrant with commander could the prime outflank with the warriors? or is it worth putting them in a spore and spew deathspitter love?


ill try a rework the list today :)

[Tynskel]

I think Doom is fine. You can cover the gaunts pretty well with running warriors and zoans.

A Mawloc could give you some flexibility, and frees up 70 points. With Bugs, 70 points can go a long way.

With WS6 on your warriors, I cannot help but think that having the Devourers rather than scything talons. However, if you are concerned with speed, no guns means faster bugs, and they can keep up with the Guants. Personally, with 70 more points, I would add more guants.

I do reallllly like shooty warriors. They are fun, and can pack quite a punch.

[ElCheezus]

As a mech guard player, I'll add a couple thoughts on what I've seen my main opponent play.

When it comes to shooting, you don't really need to destroy the vehicle to ruin someone's day. I know that a couple 'Nid weapons (at least the ones I see, I guess) are -1 on the damage table, but I don't see that as a huge problem. If my Chimera or Vendetta is shaken or stunned, that's a turns worth of fire not vaporising your MCs. Since MCs basically open vehicles like a Galagher with a watermellon, not being able to shoot for a turn really hurts. Sure, vets could get out and fire, but they'd almost certainly be swarmed the next turn.

Now, Doom in an interesting problem. He used to be awesome, but suffered a huge hit when he got FAQ'd. Take into account cover saves and that he doesn't affect dudes in transports, and his damage count goes way down, especially with as much mech in the game as there is. I think he still has a lot of potential, but you have to have some transports dead first before he moves in. And even then, if the opponent is rocking some cover saves, he'll be in trouble.

[The Dinosaur]

ok hows this.. ill play test over the weekend

HQ
Hive tyrant - hvy venom canon + twin linked deathspitter, hive commander
tyranid prime (with wars)

Elites
2x zoan in a pod
3x hive guard
1x venomthrope

Troops
18 x horm with toxin
18 x horm with toxin
8 x genes with rending/scything
5x warriors with bone swords + death spitters

Heavy
Trygon prime with toxin
Mawloc with toxin

Aim to keep genes/wars/trygon/zoans and mawloc in reserve and hopefully hit hard on turn 2. tyrant and gaunts hang with the venom to give them a little survivability with guard shooting up a storm.

[Tynskel]

Toxin sacs on the Trygon and Mawloc is fun, but unless you are fighting T5 and higher, not as useful as Adrenal Glands for the +1 I and S.
At str 7, +2d6 Armor Pen, you can consistently rip apart even the toughest of tanks. I5 also makes a world of difference for the Mawloc/Trygon (like going first vs the worst enemy of the Mawloc/Trygon: The Dreadnought!)

[Nungunz]

I like it, though there are a few things I would change.

1) Swap the TL-Deathspitter on the Tyrant for a Tl-Brainleech Devourer and give him a Tyrant guard.

2) Drop the Venomthrope and go with 2 groups of 2 Hive Guard.

3) (Personal Preference here) Drop the Boneswords on the Warriors and Give them Rending Claws. The Prime can take the boneswords.

4) Drop Toxin Sacs on the Mawloc and Trygon. Maybe put Adrenal Glands on the Trygon so that he strikes before Marines on the charge.