Tyranids 1750pts tournament build.

[xsquidz]

Your 2nd list does lack AA besides all the TL devourers so adding a crone wouldn't be too bad. I think if you want the swarmlord to be your only semi-stationary advancing synapse (hive tyrant will be running around, tervigon I guess will hang back) you need to keep him vs a tyrant for the extra 6' synpase and 3 powers so you can make it 24' and still have 2 other powers. You could also use the 185 points to take some devourers in the 30 man squad, then maybe a squad of 1-2 zoanthropes so you can get more powers and try to get lucky and get catalyst etc. You want that on the swarmlord so badly with this list. As to your comment about not wanting to split units for Purge the Alien, its a valid point but if you are playing normal missions you should only get that 1/6 times, so I build to be good for 5 out of 6 games. Its very hard with nids to make a really good all comers list IMO.

[Halollet]

Yes I accept that my list and also my tactics were flawed. It is true that I don't know many armies apart from what I play and what I play against at my local club. Unfortunately everyone at the club pretty much uses Marines. We have very few who use Tau, Eldar, Daemons and our Guard players are all very fluffy. I would be nice to have everybook and indeed every army but with the prices as they are I'll win the lottery first before even dreaming of starting something else while I have 2 40k armies (Templars and Tyranids) and 2 Fantasy armies (Bretonians and Dark Elves).

The reason why I kept units together (ie. zoans in a unit of 2 and the biovores in a unit of 3) is so that in purge the alien (which is pretty much guaranteed to be a game type) I won't be giving away easier VPs.

Anyway back to list building (I am taking on board all of your ideas as I can easily overlook or misinterpret something).

List 1 work in progress, especially in the troops department.

HQ
Swarmlord - 285
2 Tyrant Guard - 100
Deathleaper - 130

Tervigon - 195
30 Termagants - 120

2 Zoanthropes - 100
2 Venomthropes - 90
2 Lictors - 100

Crone - 155
Crone - 155

Mawloc - 140
Mawloc - 140
Biovore - 40

Lictors and Deathleaper Infiltrate depending on the opponent. This allows pinpoint deepstrikes/TFTD for Mawlocks. Swarmlord would advance along with the 30 termagants providing intervening model save with venoms making it a 3+ cover while moving up the table, also providing the all important synapse (which would most likely be out to 24"). Both Crones are on anti-tank/MEQ/Flyer duty, either starting on the board and advancing with the swarmlord to get the 3+ cover or arriving turn 2 (if going second) to get some shots on some flyers. Tervigon sits back, most likely with the biovore and the zoans.

Thoughts?

This is a really neat list. I'm worried about the lack of troops but other the that, looks like a hard nut to crack. Would love to see how this plays out.

List 2
Swarmlord- 285
3 Tyrant Guard - 150
Flyrant - 230
2x TL Brainleech

30 Termagants - 120
1 Tervigon - 195

2 Venomthropes - 90
1 Venomthrope - 45

Carnifex - 150
2x TL Brainleech
Carnifex - 150
2x TL Brainleech
Carnifex - 150
2x TL Brainleech

This has 185pts spare of which I'm not sure on where I want it to go. Idea is to have swarmlord up behind the termagants getting shrouded from venoms, Carnifex's move up on another flank with a tervigon behind pooping out troops from turn 2. Undecided what I want the tyrant to do.

Are these better lists? lol

I would take broods of hormagaunts to act as mobile cover and assault assist for the Swarmlord and fexes. But man... you got a lot of shootyness in this army. The only thing I see lacking is anti armour 13+ so that would be up to your flyrant then.

[Martyn Powell]

Ok... It's taken me a while to get a game of 40k in... currently running a Necromunda Tournament/Campaign which is always fun!

Anyway.

I managed to play List 1 against a blend of Guard and Dark Angels. Long story short I won by turn 4 where I table my opponent. Fortunately for me my opponent didn't know much about the new tyranid rules so when he went to fire his Russ Executioner (the multi shot plasma cannon one), his face dropped when I said he couldn't.

So game was Dawn of War, Big Guns, Night Fighting Turn 1.... I win the roll and opt to go second. Lictors infiltrate up to the middle of the board and Deathleaper infiltrates far left and 12" out of sight of the executioner. Turn 1 I lose 12 Termagants and take a wound on the tervigon. My Turn 1 I put 2 hullpoints on the executioner and stun it, My lictors fail to reach a chimera with special weapons team inside (lots of plasma). Zoans cause a peril... yay.

Turn 2 Belial comes down behind my swarmlord and tyrant guard... a DW terminator squad comes down next to them... both units open up on my Swarmlord... couple of wounds all saved. My remaining termagants from the brood come under fire from 2 battle cannons, 2 guard squads (1 vets, 1 normal)... I lose 2 due to the front one's being in ruins and the one's at the back being within 6" of the venomthropes. My Turn 2... Reserves... 2 Mawlocs and 1 crone. What I did next really turned the game in my favor...

Mawloc 1 comes on and opts to deepstrike over the unit manning his quad gun... 5 tactical marines... also nearby are 10 guardsmen... Largeblast gets all 15 models... roll to scatter Boom! hit. 5 marines gone and 1 wound on the gun, 7 guardsmen gone... I can't place the mawloc so I do the attack again killing the remaining 3 guardsmen and failing to destroy the quad gun.. I can just about squeeze the mawloc down next to the gun. Second Mawloc comes on scatters and hits 2 guardsmen from another squad killing them. Crone can now deploy without risk of intercept... vector strikes the command squad with Belial and kills one. Most of my army moves up, Deathleaper kills the executioner, Swarmlord charges Belial and challenges which is accepted, i lose my tyrant guard due to some lucky FNP saves. Tervigon charges the other DW terminator Squad and starts cleaving through them.

Rest of the game continues with me picking off the guard units one by one. DW Terminators put my tervigon down to 3 wounds before he kills them. Swarmlord takes 3 turn to kill Belial... eventually by amount of wounds taken rather than instant death (which kept being saved).

Game ended 14-2 I believe. I really enjoyed this game... my opponent didn't.

24" Synapse is the beast... run a Swarmlord up the middle of the table... ok so that's all of my army in synapse then.

I forgot my Biovore for the whole game! it was just sat hiding in a ruin... lol.
Zoanthropes did nothing for me... warp lance... perils... warp lance... double 1's... warp blast... 2 dead guardsmen... yay.
Lictors didn't survive long enough to benefit pheromone trail... deathleaper was too far from anything.

really playing for the 2+ cover is nice... especially when you receive 30 wounds and only lose 2 models

I'll look at list 1 again but at this point I'm thinking of dropping the Deathleaper, Lictors and the Biovore... so that's 270pts to put somewhere.