1850 Point Tyranid List

[Clarkdobbs112]

I was playing a 5 way megabattle at the warmonger club today, and I got my tyranid butt kicked... part of it I'll chalk up to table size, my placement, and the fact that every one of the other players was sporting a stylish suit of power-armor. Part of it, however, can be attributed to my poor list design, lack of experience, and general 40k suckiness.

Here's a tentative 1850 point list I might bring to the next open gaming forum. I'm open to critiques.

P.S. On the train-ride back, I did the math, and it works out to be inefficient to use gaunt broods with rending mutants. I figure the best thing to do is throw as many dice as I can against enemy units, (i.e. marines) so more rending mutants = fewer models. After all, if I have a brood with 20 leaping lysogaunts, assuming 15 survive to close combat, that's 45 attacks, 22 hits, and then 11 armor saves to make.

HQ: Flying Hive Tyrant w/ ag+1 ws, +1 in, +1 strength, extended carapace, scything talons X2, warpblast, enhanced senses

HQ: Flying Hive Tyrant same as above, plus two tyrant guard to leave for the carnifex

Troops:20 Lysogaunts (Leaping, In 5 St 4) Hivenode, 1 Lashwhips mutant

Troops:20 Lysogaunts (Leaping, In 5 St 4) Hivenode, 1 Lashwhips mutant

Troops:20 Leaping Spinegaunts - hivenode, leaping

Troops:20 Leaping Spinegaunts - hivenode, leaping

Troops:10 Ninja Genestealers (will be modeled with headbands so they can infiltrate in a cooler way)

Heavy:3 Biovores w/ 2 bioacid and 3 poison spore

Heavy: Dual VC 'Fex (to be accompanied by guard) (enhanced senses, extended carapace, 2 venom cannons to make up for otherwise lack of shootiness and for vehicle stunification)

[Salamander]

very nice. i love most of your lists. one thing tho. if your just gonna throw as many guys at your opponent, then why do u ahve supped up gaunts? just take basic leapers/scything talons.

[Holothuria]

I'll give a little rundown on how this list strikes me. As you know from my post in the other thread, my view is that the tyranids' strength lies in mass, not muscle, so I'm probably going to be telling you to drop a lot of upgrades.
A lot of people use flying tyrants like yours, so I guess there has to be something great about them. It still looks to me like a lot of points to put into something without an invulnerable save, but I'm sure they can work.
The tyrant guard to protect the carnifex is a good addition--the big lugs attract a lot of fire in high-point games.
As I said in the other thread, I don't like toxin sacs on gaunts. In fact, I downright despise toxin sacs on gaunts. There just isn't a way to make gaunts butchers in combat. Your lysogaunts are just three or four points shy of basic space marines, when they don't even really approach space marines in combat. What's more, they die just as easily as five-point spinegaunts to shooting. The initiative upgrade and lash whips are good choices if you know that they'll be useful against the opponents you'll be facing (so I'll assume that they're good against the marines you face most often).
The leaping spinegaunts I just don't get. The idea with spinegaunts is supposed to be that they're ridiculously cheap cannon fodder that can't possibly all be killed before they get to the enemy. By giving them leaping, you're making them much more expensive, and you're not getting the full benefit of leaping, because you have to be four inches closer than a leaping unit's effective charge range to fire the spinefists.
Ninja genestealers are awesome. And, by "awesome," I mean "totally sweet." Ten is a good number, but bump it up to a full squad if you have the spare points. (I think I remember you saying that you have twenty-some 'stealers.)
There's not much to say about biovores. They are the unsung heroes of the tyranid army.
The double-v.c. 'fex is expensive, but giving him the guard will help keep him from being killed in the early turns. I would still prefer the double-devo 'fex, but that's probably because the devourer is my favorite tyranid weapon.
Anyway, if you cut the leaping from the spinegaunts and the toxin sacs from the scything leapers, you'll be somewhere down around 1700 points, I think. With those points, you can take those other ten gaunts you aren't using (including another lash-whip mutant), maybe some more ninja genestealers or another carnifex. You might also want to squeeze in some more synapse to keep your artillery section from running, but adding another species might throw off your mutations.

thank you and good night

[Clarkdobbs112]

the way I see it, 20 leaping scythgaunts means about 15 will make it to close combat, so I'll have 45 attacks, 22 hits, 7 wounds, two kills, (against power armor, my perennial opponent)... and it's simultaneous combat

for 60 points more per gaunt brood, assuming 15 out of 20 survive, I'll have 45 attacks, 22 hits, 11 wounds, 3 kills that aren't striking back...

Also, by giving my spinegaunts lashwhips, I still have gaunts that are cheaper than leaping scythgaunts. Because I use fleet of foot, I've never had the opportunity to fire the spinefists before... this way, I can abstain from fleeting to fire the spinefists, or just fleet them and hit close combat even earlier with them... this way, they present a threat to my opponent earlier, potentially, than my more expensive gaunts, encouraging him to shoot them instead.

I'll playtest the mess thursday and see what happens.

[Holothuria]

Okay, I'll refrain from further comment until after you've done a little play testing. Be sure to let us know how it goes.

thank you and good night