What models would you suggest that I get to make this more competitive in games I play (normally against SM, CSM, Orks, Dark Eldar, Tau and Eldar)?

Flying Hive Tyrant w/ 2x Twin-linked Brain Leech Devourers. Add the haywire chest flamer if you're feeling frisky.

"Competitive lists" run something like 5 of them.

Maybe some Mucolid Spore Clusters if you need troops or are required to be Battleforged.

Also what would be a good way of running any of the stuff I've got, especially the genestealers, Carnifex and warriors?

If you're keeping with what you got, first off, get a Venomthrope/Zoanthrope box. Build up at least 2 Venomthropes. Learn to use your Venomthropes and your Gants/Gaunts as a screen, providing all your 'Fexes, Warriors, and Tyrant with a 3+ cover save. It drastically increases your durability while you cross the board.

The "best" loadout for the 'fex is still the dual TL-BLDevourer build with Adrenal Glands. That will get you 24 str 6 shots, from the brood, as well as being Str 10 on the charge (and allow you to re-roll charges). A good all-rounder unit, though a bit slow.

The "best" loadout for warriors has been the minimum squad with a barbed strangler to act as objective campers, with Deathspitters an optional upgrade. Personally, I run them in large squads of 5 as melee Warriors (adrenal glands, flesh hooks, no guns, 1 bonesword/lash whip, 1 rending talons), and am pretty happy with it. It's not "competitive", though, but it tears infantry models up. Fleet allows you to get across the board quicker than you think.

Genestealers are a hard unit to use. Most people I see run them as minimum squads just for the Broodlord, with clever use of his spells. I've seen one guy use them effectively in bulk, mostly by keeping them in reserve for at least a couple turns, and generally outflanking. That way he's weakened his opponent with the rest of his army, plus his opponent has had time to disperse some so as not to bring his whole army to bear against them when they arrive. Basically, since Genestealers are troops, he brings them in late to make an assault against a decisive target in the last turns of the game. I wouldn't recommend them for most people.


Personally, I run a list very similar to this (gaunts in the front, warriors in the middle, 'fexes in back). It's a hit and miss list. Generally, if I can get across fast enough, I can typically overwhelm my opponent. Sometimes, they do so much shooting to me in the first couple phases that my list just crumbles, like the tide against a rocky shore. I enjoy the army, because it really has that "carpet of gribblies" feel, even if it is a bit tactically shallow (tactics = push all models forward, cross fingers that enough live to do damage).

Fleet (Adrenal Glands) are the key to my list, because a foot-slogging Tyranid army is sooooo slow. My list would never succeed without Fleet. That and I really rely on symbiotic relationships (like using gaunts as mobile cover saves). Most "competitive" builds offset the lack of speed with Mawlocks and Tyranocytes (Deep Striking) or with Wings (ie: lots of Flyrants). A Walking Tyrant with Hive Guard is a survivable combo, but a Flyrant (with Devourers) is much easier to use, and you'll feel like you get a lot more mileage out of him. Look on bits sites, you can probably find a set of wings cheap, and just stick them on your current Tyrant.

Personally, though, I think you could run test games with what you have. Proxy your zoanthrope as a venomthrope (since they are a similar silhouette), and keep your models around him as a node.

Any questions, feel free to ask. I know I've found something that "works for me", so I tend to get a bit myopic about it. Every other way I've tried to play 'Nids tends to fall apart on me (though I haven't tried 5 flyrants, to be honest), so I've stuck with it. Others will be able to provide other perspectives.

 

Thanks for the reply, it's definitely given me some stuff to think about but I have a couple of questions. Are any of the new monsters worth running or is it advisable just to stick with Carnifexes and Flying Hive Tyrants? Also is it worth running gaunts in lots of small units to try and make them survive a bit longer? Thanks.

 

While I own the kit, I haven't run them, so keep in mind that this is just hearsay.

I take it when you say "new monsters" you mean the Maleceptor and the Toxicrene.

For the most part, the Maleceptor has received a pretty poor reception, and based on what I can glean from his rules, I can't blame folk for it. He's effectively a Zoanthrope+, but his iconic psyker power is really situational, and pretty poor besides. The most powerful psyker powers are typically Blessings, and Witchfires are at the bottom of the heap. There are too many tests to make before a Witchfire can do damage and a Witchfire that does a meager D3 isn't anything to write home about. Beyond that, he's just a really expensive, really slow T6 Monstrous Creature with poor saves (armour and invulnerable).

The Toxicrene isn't half bad, but he's not great either, which makes him "not competitive". He's a decent little Monstrous Creature killer, and isn't half bad against most things in assault. The only reason that I avoid him in my own, personal lists is because I can't buy him Adrenal Glands. If you're running Dakka-fexes, and spending those initial turns shooting with the dakka-fexes (where they aren't running), then he would make for a good chaperon until you could get him into assault. Or, if you could drop pod him into some ruins where he could get the most use out of that Shrouded rule of his.

Either way, both options are going to be "worse" (or, I should say "not as good", which would be more accurate) as dakka-fexes or flyrants. Really, it's the Twin-Linked Brain Leech Devourers that are so good, that it's just a matter of finding models that you can put them on.


For the little gribblies: a lot of players like to go MSU with gaunts. These days, you're not like to play a Kill Point mission, since it's only 1 in 6 on the Eternal War, and a lot of people are playing Maelstrom missions, where the "destroy unit" or "destroy unit in x phase" is only 3 in 36, so will generally help you rather than hurt you to have more units on the board. There are times when MSU is helpful, and times where it doesn't do anything for you.

Some things about gants/gaunts, though: Unless you're just wanting to make a Tervigon a Troop (in which case, how many you buy is already spelled out for you), then 'gant squads end up being a balancing act.

To explain my own little personal journey on this: I run my Hormagaunts as a screen. I have a squad of them in front of my army to provide everything behind it with cover saves, which are then boosted by the Venomthrope to give everything 3+ saves. I chose Hormagaunts because they have 1) Fleet and 2) Boundless Leap (3+ to Run). Because the last thing you want when you're needing to get your army across the board ASAP is to make a 1" run move with the squad at the front of the line and stall the whole train, then have everything bunch up behind them.

At first, I started with 30 hormagaunts. The idea being: I need to spread these guys out as much as possible. Give me a straggler or two that I can string back to pick up Shrouded from the Venomthrope, and the rest need to go wide in front to create a nice big "shield". I ran into problems with this, though, because as soon as I hit terrain (which we use a lot of it), they all started to bottleneck. Then, I'm trying to get all 30 guys through this tight spot. It just slows things down again.

Really, I found 15-20 as my "sweet spot". It was enough hormagaunt bodies that I could screen my army, but not so many that it was getting causing a traffic jam. Which, ends up being just too few to run two Hormagaunt Squads, so I run 1 instead.

The other thing to keep in mind for MSU gants/gaunts, is that every 'gant squad needs a "synapse handler". Other armies can take MSU squads and send them off to some corner of the board to camp an objective or claim linebreaker or do something useful. But, when we have a 10 termigant squad, it has to be somewhere in the vicinity of a synapse creature. In that way, it needs to find a way to support it, or at least not cause more problems than they solve.

The thing about termigants is: they do very little. Fortunately, they cost very little as well. The thing is: all they have is bolt pistols and a middle-ish ballistic skill. They are also fragile as all get-out (toughness 3 with a non-mentionable armour save), so a swift breeze will take out the squad. Sure, you can up their offense by pouring points into them, but those are still very fragile points.

So what do you do with these worthless little guys, that by their nature of being tied to a Synapse Creature typically want to be in the thick of things? Well, one argument for MSU gants is as the "ablative charge shield". Stick squads of 10 gants around a shooty creature (dakka-fexes would qualify) and just have them hang out in front of them. That way your Thunderwolf Calvary Opponent cannot draw a charge against your 'fexes. Then, by being so fragile most reasonable assault units can't help but wipe them out on the charge. Which leaves that assault unit exposed again on your turn, so you can shoot them again. It keeps them from hiding in assaults.

So, short answer: you can MSU your gaunts/gants, but it's generally not worth it to have that many gants laying around anyways.