[Duront]

My local store is doing a 24 hr. painting marathon where we paint 1000 points of a army. I have always wanted to play a shooty tryanid army but I was never sure if it was possible. What would recommend me taking? Biovores, Carnifexs, Spineguants, etc.

 

[brushman]

It is possible to do a shooty Tyranid list; infact, it can be real effective too. Most people do this by creating a Godzilla list. Usually they consist of gunfexes filling up the heavy support slots and fex's filling up the elites section. I beleive the standard set-up for the elite carnifex's is 2 twin linked devourers and +1 WS which ends up being 113 pts. Im not quite sure though - I don't have my codex with me. Shooty lists also include a shooty Hive Tyrant

Check out this Godzilla tactica for advice:

http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55913


Here's some example's of good shooty/godzilla lists:

http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/t57146-2000-godzilla-list.html


I hope that helped.
Ben

 

[Marvus]

The dakka fex (elite fex) is 2 TL devourers and Enhanced senses. The Gunfex's are usually VC, BS, ES, EC and reinforced chitin for 188pts. Since u want to make a 1K list, you can't fex's as elites, so i'd fill the elites with shooty warriors. Troops i'd take gaunts with flesborers, some with devourers and maybe some with spinefists if u have the points. HQ would be two Tyrants (or one when restricted by points). Thhese can either be walking, or equip one with wings, 2 TL devouers, ES, Warp shield and TS. It can pump out a lot of shots and be monouverable (yeha i know i can't spell). If it's a walking tyrant then a couple of guards could be effective for the extra wounds.

It all depends on points you're playing, so some things you might not be able to take. Write up a list or somehting and post it in the armlist section and we'll be able to critique and give some more specific advice. Happy hunting

 

[Gorbass]

Since you're painting a 1000pts list, you cant take Carnifexes as elites, so the classic godzilla list is out.
But you can still have 2 shooty tyrants as HQ, 3 shooty warrior squads for elite, devourer or termagaunts for troops, gargoyles for fast and 3 shooty carnifexes (which I recommend over biovores) or maybe 2 fexes and 3 zoanthropes as heavy support.

Personally I'd start go with a devourer tyrant with a couple of guards, 3 gunfexes and a couple of termagaunt squads.

 

[LordCreampuff]

Dev-tyrants hit really hard. With 12 STR 5 shots rerolling both hit and wound rolls you're going to create a lot of pain each turn. The biggest problem with a shooty Tyranid list is the lack of armor penetration. AV14 vehicles and 2+/3+ saves will really cause you problems.

 

[hoya4life3381]

Dev-tyrants hit really hard. With 12 STR 5 shots rerolling both hit and wound rolls you're going to create a lot of pain each turn. The biggest problem with a shooty Tyranid list is the lack of armor penetration. AV14 vehicles and 2+/3+ saves will really cause you problems.

3+ saves are not that difficult to crack with devourer fire, especially from the tyrant. With 12 shots reroling to hit and to wound, you should generate around 9 wounds on marines, leading to 3 statistically accurate deaths. Not much else I can do that much...henceforth my nickname for him "Machine Gun Kelly."

 

[Laplace]

I will say that after some analysis and fielding, shooty Tryanids are very effective. Maybe not the best shooting army in the game, but definitely one of the better ones.

This is for a few reasons:
- So long as a nid isn't dead, it can ALWAYS shoot. No glancing/penetrating, rarely any falling back
- Every weapon it has is assault, which gives it suprisingly maneuverability
- Most of the main shooters are pretty tough cookies. Fex's and Hive tyrants with high toughness and decent armor saves.
- Weapons are based on a base-attack multiplier, which if tooled right can mean lots of shots that maybe can reroll to hit and/or wound.

Of course, there are a few drawbacks:
- Hardly any invuln save whatsoever. So any high AP weapons will pretty much cause wounds.
- Similary, just about all nid weapons have lousy AP themselves which means just about everyone will be rolling their saves.
- Most have only BS3 tops. Not as big a drawback as it may seem since MANY armies have only BS3. Still worth noting.
- A shooty nid army will be vulerable to a close combat tooled army because of less attacks and because a fex or tyrant locked in cc won't be shooting.

Basically because of the new Codex, every good Tyranid army should have at least SOME shooting. Not necessarily a lot, but enough to keep fast moving armies honest.

 

[FistofManheim]

I found that basing your army on shooting works well if you make that about half of what they can do. I've played all CC Nids before and done well enough, but I recently tried a list that used a ton of shooting. What I found was that as long as I focused on shooting on the way in to CC I did pretty well. What I mean is I didn't hold units back, I just walked everyone into CC, firing the whole way in. I'm sure others have done the same, but I think holding Nids back to shoot is probably not the best option. I had two BS/VC fexes, and a VC/Devo Tyrant laying down some firepower, while walking into CC. At the same time I had two broods of warriors armed with VC and Devos, all walking in and firing the whole time. People are usually afraid of everything Tyranid, so they shoot all over the place!

Basically, Nid weapons being assault has shown me that holding any Nids back to shoot hasn't been as helpful as moving my entire army forward in a living wall of guns! Hope that makes sense.