From Tau to Nids - 1500 Competitive army

[Ripper]

Hello everyone!
So, as you probably guessed from the title, I just abandoned my Tau army and decided to join the mighty Hive Mind! My experience with the bugs is practically nonexistent, but I spent a couple of days reading the Codex cover to cover and came up with a (I hope) competitve list.

Please, do not hesitate to tear me apart or completely destroy this list should there be the need: as I said I'm new to this race and so don't yet have a personal strategy.


HQ [325]
Hive Tyrant (Heavy venom cannon - Scything Talons - Paroxysm - Leech Essence)
Tyrant Guard x2 (Lash Whips)

ELITES [400]
Deathleaper
Hive Guard x2
Zoanthrope x2 (Mycetic Spore)

TROOPS [510]
Termagants x11 (Fleshborer)
Tervigon (Adrenal Glands - Catalyst - Scything Talons - Stinger Salvo - Toxic Sacs)
Termagants x11 (Fleshborer)
Tervigon (Adrenal Glands - Catalyst - Scything Talons - Stinger Salvo - Toxic Sacs)

HEAVY SUPPORT [265]
Trygon (Prime - Regeneration)

TOTAL-->1500

Honestly when I chose the nids I expected to do a LOT of close combat, but now it doesn't seem like a good (or too viable) idea anymore. I'm just worried my "Tau experience" will prevent me from advancing from the enemy...maybe I'll just wait for the Tervigons to spawn some troops forst..

For those wondering, I upgraded the Trygon to prime to have a little more synapse range and included a Deathleaper in the list to deal with enemy Psykers (good luck with the leadership test you ***** XD)

So here you are, skin me alive

[Warlord Vrrmik]

The more the better! Welcome to the Hive!

The list is quite good, in fact I would not change much at all. The only things I would change, being very critical:
- Trygons. You have two or you have none. That's the deal. What would help you is a Tyrannofex with a Rupture cannon, which provides you with a much more viable option for the same points.
- Tervigons aren't there to engage in melee (most of the time), so why bother equipping them with melee weapons? Ditch the Scything Talons.
- Seeing as you have your Tyrannofex, you'll want to replace your Zoeys with Hive Guard. The only downside is less Synapse/SitW (Shadow in the Warp), however you will be able to buy yourself two Hive Guard to replace, and points to fill out your Termagants squads. Always very helpful to have more Termagants.
- Your Tyrant should always go ranged. Get rid of the Talons and give yourself a pair of TL Devs instead.
- So now you have around 55 points left. This'll buy you 11 Termagants. I recommend you distribute them as evenly between the two squads as possible.

You'll probably be worried about your Synapse. Don't be. Your two Tervigons will be your core Synaptic conduits, as you will find that you generally have two 'bubbles' in your army (each bubble containing one Tervigon, one Termagant brood and one Hive Guard brood), which of course must work in sync with each other. You then have your Hive Tyrant as all-purpose support, the Deathleaper for some added killiness, and the Tyrannofex just because he's a boss and will destroy those pesky tanks that you'll find around the place. It really doesn't matter if the guy isn't in Synapse range, he's got an Ld of 10 so I wouldn't be too worried.

[Ripper]

Thanks for replying! I just have a few questions:

-tervigons: I honestly didn't want to give them any close combat weapon, but I used battle scribe to make this list and that damned program kept yelling at me for not giving it any (said it was "invalid" -.-)
-Hive tyrant: I'll definitely do that! Should I give him "Old Adversary" as well? It seems like a big help for whatever "bubble" he's near...
-Deathleaper: Added killiness? really? O_O Ok now i KNOW I have no idea how this bug works XD I was actually thinking of changing it with a couple of Venomthropes (cover saves FTW) or with a Doom of Malan'Tai (and that brings me to the last question...)
-Doom of malan'Tai: How the hell does this thing work in games? I've heard people love it, hate it, say it's overpowered...I really don't get it O_O

[Warlord Vrrmik]

The Doom is really the way to go, as it is better against more kinds of opponents than the Deathleaper. Basically he drops down in a spore and he's got an 'Aura of Automatic Death' as the guys at my gaming club call it. He sucks the life out of people, gets a ridiculous number of wounds, casts a Cataclysm over some poor souls, and the process of hovering around and sucking the life out of people continues. A really fun guy to use. The FAQ made him worse, unfortunately. The bad side to the Doom is that he can be Instant Death-ed.

You choose, they're both good.

[Ripper]

OOOk. So I tweaked the list a bit and here's what came out:

HQ [340]
Hive Tyrant (Twin-Linked Devourers - Scything Talons - Paroxysm - Leech Essence)
Tyrant Guard x2 (Lash Whips)

ELITES [260]
Venomthrope x2 OR Doom of Malan'Tai
Hive Guard x3

TROOPS [635]
Termagants x24 (Fleshborer)
Tervigon (Adrenal Glands - Catalyst - Stinger Salvo - Toxic Sacs)
Termagants x25 (Fleshborer)
Tervigon (Adrenal Glands - Catalyst - Stinger Salvo - Toxic Sacs)

HEAVY SUPPORT [265]
Tyrannofex (Rupture cannon - Cluster Spines - Dessiccator larvae)

TOTAL-->1500

After some thinking I switched the trygon (only one MC seems kinda weak) with the tyrannofex (seems more reliable as an anti-heavy unit).
Also I figured having zoanthropes was kind of useless (having the tyrannofex) and used the remaining points for some more termagants (the more the merrier).
Not sure if I'm actually allowed to leave Tervigons with no CC weapons whatsoever, but if i can't I'll just take out a couple of termagaunts...
I'm gonna keep Venomethropes against long range opponents (cover save for my tervgons) and the Doom against everyone else

So...how does it look now?

[Warlord Vrrmik]

Every non-vehicle model in Warhammer 40,000 has a melee weapon. The Tervigon has claws and teeth. Devastators use their foot. Just because you don't buy it a melee weapon doesn't mean it has none. And the list is good!

[Fenix]

for the tyrant. not sure if he's only using 1 pair? or 2 pairs? he should have 2x, and OA is great I almost never leave home without it, if he stays near your gant bubbles they get increasingly fun to smack things around with. venomthropes are good but i'd really like to see 2 pairs of 2 guard, or if you cant squeeze the points, 2 pair and 1 solo.

whenever you have a chance to split up your squads like that it's generally good to do so. it gives your opponents more options when they are shooting at you, it always gives you more options on the battlefield as well. ( it's just generally better)

I don't normally take AG and TS I usually just stick with the TS but that's just me I don't really see anything important that could be changed around to make use of the points which means it's probably fine : ) and warlord is pretty good at this "tyranids"
thing.

welcome to the hive!