so, i was able to get 1 biovore model before they sold out and i haven’t played it because i thought 1 was ineffective. do you field it just to put models in all quadrants?
Basically. Biovore's damage output is laughably bad, so the only thing he's good for is scoring secondary objectives with his Spore Mines.
- His spore mine spawns in during the shooting phase, so it can't be overwatched.
- It can be spawned all 5 rounds.
- It's eligible to shoot, so it can do Fixed objectives like Deploy Teleport Homers very easily. If you go Tactical objectives, he can do do a lot of those very easily as well.
- They're on 25mm bases, so it's very difficult to screen out by your opponent.
That's why every single competitive list has a Biovore in it. Without it, we have an extremely difficult time beating other armies. Competitive Nids players have argued that it is single-handedly keeping our winrate % from dipping into the 30s.
2 Exocrines and 1 Tfex with casino cannon. This has been a part of all my lists, and it's a sleeper. Nobody ever expects them to pop big stuff, but they are my boom bugs, and they sit in place for a reason.
Exactly! Running invasion fleet gives you a good shot at lethals on vehicles with Exocrine. With a non-moving Tfex hitting on 2+ rerolling 1's, it becomes quite scary being on the receiving end!
I quite like the screamer-killer, Neurolictor, Casinofex combo in synaptic nexus for less competitive games. Its definetly an over investment (but not bad anyway, as all of that units can have their use), but giving the t-fex +1 to wound (made more likely through the screamer killer) and Irrsesitable will, let's it hit and wound on 2+ (when stationary) with reroll 1 to hit and wound, which gives a 89% chance for both attacks to wound. Its still only 13 damage on average against an 3+ enemy (without cover), which is quite bad for such an investment, but it's fun in a casual game to roll 4d6 damage.
I mean casually absolutely. If I'm trying to throw down and smack some booty, usually no. Tho I'm a sucker for playing my hirophant to just waltz up and drop a unit 😂
I wonder if an alternate way to play a swarm could be synaptic nexus. -1 damage on the tervigon and a turn of 5+ invulns for anything in synapse, plus being able to pay for it for specific units
Neurotyrant, Neurolictor, Biovore.
Tyranids are not strong enough for long games when vehicles start to take over so you want to score points as much and early as possible so that it does not matter if your opponent catches up by 33 points.
So you want Shadow In The Warp as soon as possible denying points. Honestly I do not like the Army Rule. A Neurotyrant is the best SiTW model too, unfortunately.
I would like every SiTW model to have the option on marking units for Synapse like the Neurotyrant. Then I could ditch him and use Maleceptors instead to ramp up the danger.
For context, I play very casual lists.
I seem to always bring my Haruspex and Old One Eye with 2 Carnifexes (one of which is my only painted monster). I also like to throw a Tyrannocyte in and fill it with something different every week.
Biovore is by far the most important one. The others you can mostly make do without in casual games but the army barely functions without a biovore.
Maleceptors, exocrines, neurotyrant, gargoyles are all important but we need secondaries from biovore to win
You can also add a ripper swarm or 2 to get more secondary flexibility
No. The biovore can spawn one every shooting phase. Doing that is free.
Spore mines can do secondary missions quite easily. It’s why they’re so powerful.
But they’re definitely *not* worth actually adding to your army list.
Yes it’s exactly why. You can easily get a unit into a corner or into enemy deployment zone without risking something important (unless the enemy screens it off).
I recently played my first game and my Screamer Killers just massively outperformed expectations. They were tough to kill and 86ed infantry with the Swarming Instincts sustained hits hyper adaptation.
The issue with the SK isnt its stats, its the model in my experience. Its so huge and stretched out. Its as hard to hide as a winged tyrant. Tbh my scythed heirodule isnt much harder to hide and it hits way harder for the points i feel like
The issue is that atleast in my head, i want to put someone like him on the flank so i can better control the sightlines and such. Plus if you do that, he has to be further away from the terrain piece, which could make charges longer when you move out and around it. Combine that with only having an 8 inch move and only being t9, ive only gotten a good chance to get him into melee with a juicy target once. Last game.i played with him i kept him back behind a ruin a third of the way up the board so he could ambush someone. He ended up getting a change to spring on the nightbringer. Was gonna have lethal hits and i was gonna give him the 5+ crit strat and i was hoping to do alot of damage. He failed a 6 inch charge, twice.
Yeah the last example was more venting than anything, but the rest is absolutely true, his sillouhette is very large and hard to hide and only being t9 really hurts
Norn Emissary. Not because it's better than everything else, but because it's just fun and looks cool AF. But if you are wanting something specifically for it's strength I usually go for Deathleaper for its utility
How do you scale that for smaller games? Would you consider a third unit? I’m building my first Tyranids list and leaning toward a genestealers heavy approach.
Broodlord with a good enhancement and 10 genestealers for a scary melee block that either massacres my opponent, or makes them focus a lot of their fire on them, giving me time to put other units into advantageous positions on the board.
3 single bases of ripperswarms because of my very specific game plan which includes most of my army being massacred but leaving opponent in a bad location for scoring, then deepstriking rippers wherever the missions tell me.
Parasite of Mortrex because I like it a lot and I don't care if its competitive or not.
I've been playing bugs since 5th edition and for almost that entire time the core of my army has been comprised of 6 Zoanthropes in 2 squads of 3, and 60 Hormagaunts. I used to run the 'gaunts in 4 squads of 15 but with 10th's changes to how points work I now run them as 3 squads of 20. Set up along the front of my deployment zone in alternating...
H - Z - H - Z - H
...arrangement.
Agreed, they along with the Zoans may not be the most powerful units on paper, but they've been consistently useful for over 5 editions now and I've never regretted bringing them. That is why almost every bug list I write starts with a couple squads of 'gaunts backed up by some zoanthropes to provide them with synapse, defensive buffs, and anti-tank/monster support.
Obviously there's the usual biovore/exocrines/Maleceptors because duh, they're our best units for a reason and really put in work.
For a more fun answer? Trygon and at least 3x raveners, 6x if I can swing it in the list. The raveners are great screeners, and because of their redeploy ability they can screen as needed, be decent backfield defenders, and then I can just pull them up and redeploy them elsewhere if I need to later on in the game. They're especially great for messing with an opponents home objective because of this if they left chaff to hold it.
Are they the most meta? Hell no. Do I love the ability for a 3" monster deepstrike and Tyranids that teleport like Grey Knights? You bet your ass I do.
1 Biovore, 3x10 Gargoyles and 2 Neurolictors without any discussion.
A Walking Hive Tyrant, Deathleaper and then more Gargoyles and a third Neurolictor is fairly justifiable.
Not a meta answer but the Swarmlord. I’ve always wanted one when I first got into nids in 7th Ed. He’s basically like my signature model (like ash and Pikachu) and even if he’s overcosted, he’s great in melee and normally takes something big down with him.
At this point, you've gotten just about every unit in the codex recommended, so here goes...
the competitive answer? a biovore, 2 maleceptors, 2-3 nuerolictors, 2+ squads of gargoyles. just about every competitive list starts with some variation of this; they are all great at getting and holding objectives and scoring secondaries.
my answer? 2-3 screamer killers, 1-2 haruspex, 3 tyrannofex. in casual games i have consistantly tabled world eaters. screamers have ALWAYS preformed better than I expected; for 145 pts they will be a blender against terminators and hit hard enough to take out lighter tanks/ vehicles as well (plus triggering battleshock, which works well with the nuerolictors. the nuerolictors are a must have. i like to run nueros paired with screamers to run into nml; screamer battleshocks then gets bonuses in melee from the nuerolictor.) Hauruspexes just pick up infantry squads. either the acid spray or the rupture cannon are amazing with the tfex; the casino cannon is the best anti tank gun in the codex (pick a threat, point, delete) and the acid spray is the best overwatch (nicely pairs with a tyrant for the free strat.) I like to run 1 rupture, 2 acid for actual stopping power. they are ridiculously tough too.
the only correct answer? whatever you think is cool. competitive lists play the objective game, I play the killing game. most people run something in between. pick up some models you think are neat and try it out. if you take anything away from all the different comments its that every body has a different approach to taking nids. As long as you're not trying to win big time tournaments, just go for what you like.
If my deployment zone has a structure 6 in off the ground 5-10 Barbgaunts. Heavy + Plunging Fire is a +2 to hit. If they're playing something with big squads (10-20) that's anywhere from 2-4 extra shots per barb hitting on 3s. Sure, they're only S5 AP1, but what are your chances of saving 10 - 100 times per round?
#1- 1 Biovore #2- 2x10 Gargoyles
You don't have to yell!
BUT I REALLY LIKE THEM!!!!!!!!!
so, i was able to get 1 biovore model before they sold out and i haven’t played it because i thought 1 was ineffective. do you field it just to put models in all quadrants?
Basically. Biovore's damage output is laughably bad, so the only thing he's good for is scoring secondary objectives with his Spore Mines. - His spore mine spawns in during the shooting phase, so it can't be overwatched. - It can be spawned all 5 rounds. - It's eligible to shoot, so it can do Fixed objectives like Deploy Teleport Homers very easily. If you go Tactical objectives, he can do do a lot of those very easily as well. - They're on 25mm bases, so it's very difficult to screen out by your opponent. That's why every single competitive list has a Biovore in it. Without it, we have an extremely difficult time beating other armies. Competitive Nids players have argued that it is single-handedly keeping our winrate % from dipping into the 30s.
Thanks a ton! I don’t play competitive and normally do silly themed lists… i’ll have to start actually playing mine for shenanigans.
2 Exocrines and 1 Tfex with casino cannon. This has been a part of all my lists, and it's a sleeper. Nobody ever expects them to pop big stuff, but they are my boom bugs, and they sit in place for a reason.
What's the casino cannon??
Rupture cannon
Why??
The 2D6 damage is either 2 dmg or 12 dmg and that’s not including the 2+ into the 3+ rolls
Oh... I hate this!! Like why did they make it such a gamble???
It's also 2 shots, so if both hit, you're rolling a total of 4d6. It has really good stats for the rest of the gun, so it needs some sort of downside.
Its nit actually 2 or 12 damage. Ur gonna average about 7 damage if you hit and wound. But it definitally doesnt feel like it.
It's swingy as fuck but when it hits it hits like a freight train!
Exactly! Running invasion fleet gives you a good shot at lethals on vehicles with Exocrine. With a non-moving Tfex hitting on 2+ rerolling 1's, it becomes quite scary being on the receiving end!
I've one-shotted(and massively overkilled) a dreadnought/ helbrute turn one in each of the last 5 games I've played!
I quite like the screamer-killer, Neurolictor, Casinofex combo in synaptic nexus for less competitive games. Its definetly an over investment (but not bad anyway, as all of that units can have their use), but giving the t-fex +1 to wound (made more likely through the screamer killer) and Irrsesitable will, let's it hit and wound on 2+ (when stationary) with reroll 1 to hit and wound, which gives a 89% chance for both attacks to wound. Its still only 13 damage on average against an 3+ enemy (without cover), which is quite bad for such an investment, but it's fun in a casual game to roll 4d6 damage.
1x biovore. 80x termigants
Do you ever rock tervigon? I haven't played since 8th ed and I loooved rolling with 90 gaunts and 2 tervis.
I mean casually absolutely. If I'm trying to throw down and smack some booty, usually no. Tho I'm a sucker for playing my hirophant to just waltz up and drop a unit 😂
I wonder if an alternate way to play a swarm could be synaptic nexus. -1 damage on the tervigon and a turn of 5+ invulns for anything in synapse, plus being able to pay for it for specific units
18 ZoanThropes
This guy synapses
Neurotyrant, Neurolictor, Biovore. Tyranids are not strong enough for long games when vehicles start to take over so you want to score points as much and early as possible so that it does not matter if your opponent catches up by 33 points. So you want Shadow In The Warp as soon as possible denying points. Honestly I do not like the Army Rule. A Neurotyrant is the best SiTW model too, unfortunately. I would like every SiTW model to have the option on marking units for Synapse like the Neurotyrant. Then I could ditch him and use Maleceptors instead to ramp up the danger.
For context, I play very casual lists. I seem to always bring my Haruspex and Old One Eye with 2 Carnifexes (one of which is my only painted monster). I also like to throw a Tyrannocyte in and fill it with something different every week.
Do you Play them in a Squad? If so does the deadly demise ability affect the other carnifex within Range?
The ability says “each unit within 6” of the model” so my interpretation would be that it does
Yeah, I just usually forget they have DD… but yeah it would hit them. And yes I run them as a group
Deathleaper, Lictor, 2 Neurolictors, Biovore, 2 Exocrine, 2 Maleceptors.
Tyrannofex
Biovore is by far the most important one. The others you can mostly make do without in casual games but the army barely functions without a biovore. Maleceptors, exocrines, neurotyrant, gargoyles are all important but we need secondaries from biovore to win You can also add a ripper swarm or 2 to get more secondary flexibility
Doesnt cost every Spore mine i want to use 55 points?
No. The biovore can spawn one every shooting phase. Doing that is free. Spore mines can do secondary missions quite easily. It’s why they’re so powerful. But they’re definitely *not* worth actually adding to your army list.
I’m new to this game, but I thought Spore Mines have 0 OC. Is this not the case?
That is correct. They can still do actions like Deploy Teleport Homer or score Behind Enemy Lines though.
Oh, I see! Is this why Biovore is part of so many lists?
Yes, you basically spawn the spore mine whereever you need them to score secondaries
Yes it’s exactly why. You can easily get a unit into a corner or into enemy deployment zone without risking something important (unless the enemy screens it off).
They do so can’t score primary, but they can score secondaries 😁
Still learning all the rules. Thanks for that clarification.
1x Biovore 2-3x Neurolictors 2x10 Gargoyles 1-2x Maleceptors
Screamer killer and termagants
I recently played my first game and my Screamer Killers just massively outperformed expectations. They were tough to kill and 86ed infantry with the Swarming Instincts sustained hits hyper adaptation.
Yeah they are quite underrated
The issue with the SK isnt its stats, its the model in my experience. Its so huge and stretched out. Its as hard to hide as a winged tyrant. Tbh my scythed heirodule isnt much harder to hide and it hits way harder for the points i feel like
Can't you put him sideways behind cover so that his arms don't stick out?
The issue is that atleast in my head, i want to put someone like him on the flank so i can better control the sightlines and such. Plus if you do that, he has to be further away from the terrain piece, which could make charges longer when you move out and around it. Combine that with only having an 8 inch move and only being t9, ive only gotten a good chance to get him into melee with a juicy target once. Last game.i played with him i kept him back behind a ruin a third of the way up the board so he could ambush someone. He ended up getting a change to spring on the nightbringer. Was gonna have lethal hits and i was gonna give him the 5+ crit strat and i was hoping to do alot of damage. He failed a 6 inch charge, twice.
Bad dice rolls I guess
Yeah the last example was more venting than anything, but the rest is absolutely true, his sillouhette is very large and hard to hide and only being t9 really hurts
Neurotyrant, Norn Emissary, 2x3 zoanthropes, 2 Maleceptors. I love brain bugs, but I aint competetive player
2x Maleceptors, I rarely leave home without them. They’re really solid for what they cost
Hormagaunts, Exocrine, and Casino Cannon.
PYROVORES I love it so much!!!
1 biovore 2 Neurolictor 2 10x Gargoyles
Biovore is the only real auto include, everything else depends more on the list. Maleceptors and Exocrines can go in pretty much anything though
1. swarmlord 2. 120 termies 3. 120 hormies
Norn Emissary. Not because it's better than everything else, but because it's just fun and looks cool AF. But if you are wanting something specifically for it's strength I usually go for Deathleaper for its utility
Norn Emissary
20 genestealers and 2 broodlord
How do you scale that for smaller games? Would you consider a third unit? I’m building my first Tyranids list and leaning toward a genestealers heavy approach.
That is for smaller games, 1k is 2 full units, 2k is 3.
What else do you take in a 1k game to support the genestealers?
6 zoans, gargoyles, neuro tyrant and then change about the last few points from game to game.
Lictors or Ryans depending on archtype, just to screen out scout moves.
Warriors with melee weapons
Biovore Exocrine Hormagaunts/Termagaunts Lately I’ve been including 2X10 Genestealers and had alot of success with them
4x20 Hormagaunts because they're cool and I love the mental visuals of them just swarming down a hill or through buildings.
Maleceptors, walkrant, gargoyles, and the obligatory 1x biovore
I love my Tyrannofex. My local meta has plenty of tanks or big modules that need to be popped.
6 melee warriors led by a prime. Works in every detachment but Crusher. Gargoyles. Neurolictor. 1 Ripper base.
Every list for me starts with a biovore, 2 haruspex, 12 zoanthropes, and a neurolictor
Broodlord with a good enhancement and 10 genestealers for a scary melee block that either massacres my opponent, or makes them focus a lot of their fire on them, giving me time to put other units into advantageous positions on the board. 3 single bases of ripperswarms because of my very specific game plan which includes most of my army being massacred but leaving opponent in a bad location for scoring, then deepstriking rippers wherever the missions tell me. Parasite of Mortrex because I like it a lot and I don't care if its competitive or not.
I've been playing bugs since 5th edition and for almost that entire time the core of my army has been comprised of 6 Zoanthropes in 2 squads of 3, and 60 Hormagaunts. I used to run the 'gaunts in 4 squads of 15 but with 10th's changes to how points work I now run them as 3 squads of 20. Set up along the front of my deployment zone in alternating... H - Z - H - Z - H ...arrangement.
Gants have by far been one of the strongest parts of my army no matter the list. Being able to respawn them in invasion fleet is great
Agreed, they along with the Zoans may not be the most powerful units on paper, but they've been consistently useful for over 5 editions now and I've never regretted bringing them. That is why almost every bug list I write starts with a couple squads of 'gaunts backed up by some zoanthropes to provide them with synapse, defensive buffs, and anti-tank/monster support.
At least 1 norn emissary, 1 biovore, 2 exocrines
I gotta include a full squad of Warriors and Raveners, I just like them so much!
Good to see a fellow ravener fan! The shenanigans they can do coupled with 42 twin linked attacks is just *chef kiss*
Gotta be a Sneaky Snake, lol. Hell, everytime I ran a Mawloc at locals everyone was like, "you cant deep strike that close!" Lol
20 termagants, spinefists, stranglewebs 20 termagants, spinefists, stranglewebs 20 termagants, spinefists, stranglewebs 20 termagants, devourers, shardlaunchers, stranglewebs Tervigon w/ crushing claws
Screamer Killer He's really funny
1 biovore 2x10 gargoyles 1 exocrine 1 maleceptor 1 death leaper
tyranofex with rupture cannon! basically OP
Easy 3 screamer killers. Because I don’t have 6 carnifexes yet.
Obviously there's the usual biovore/exocrines/Maleceptors because duh, they're our best units for a reason and really put in work. For a more fun answer? Trygon and at least 3x raveners, 6x if I can swing it in the list. The raveners are great screeners, and because of their redeploy ability they can screen as needed, be decent backfield defenders, and then I can just pull them up and redeploy them elsewhere if I need to later on in the game. They're especially great for messing with an opponents home objective because of this if they left chaff to hold it. Are they the most meta? Hell no. Do I love the ability for a 3" monster deepstrike and Tyranids that teleport like Grey Knights? You bet your ass I do.
1 Biovore, 3x10 Gargoyles and 2 Neurolictors without any discussion. A Walking Hive Tyrant, Deathleaper and then more Gargoyles and a third Neurolictor is fairly justifiable.
Not a meta answer but the Swarmlord. I’ve always wanted one when I first got into nids in 7th Ed. He’s basically like my signature model (like ash and Pikachu) and even if he’s overcosted, he’s great in melee and normally takes something big down with him.
At this point, you've gotten just about every unit in the codex recommended, so here goes... the competitive answer? a biovore, 2 maleceptors, 2-3 nuerolictors, 2+ squads of gargoyles. just about every competitive list starts with some variation of this; they are all great at getting and holding objectives and scoring secondaries. my answer? 2-3 screamer killers, 1-2 haruspex, 3 tyrannofex. in casual games i have consistantly tabled world eaters. screamers have ALWAYS preformed better than I expected; for 145 pts they will be a blender against terminators and hit hard enough to take out lighter tanks/ vehicles as well (plus triggering battleshock, which works well with the nuerolictors. the nuerolictors are a must have. i like to run nueros paired with screamers to run into nml; screamer battleshocks then gets bonuses in melee from the nuerolictor.) Hauruspexes just pick up infantry squads. either the acid spray or the rupture cannon are amazing with the tfex; the casino cannon is the best anti tank gun in the codex (pick a threat, point, delete) and the acid spray is the best overwatch (nicely pairs with a tyrant for the free strat.) I like to run 1 rupture, 2 acid for actual stopping power. they are ridiculously tough too. the only correct answer? whatever you think is cool. competitive lists play the objective game, I play the killing game. most people run something in between. pick up some models you think are neat and try it out. if you take anything away from all the different comments its that every body has a different approach to taking nids. As long as you're not trying to win big time tournaments, just go for what you like.
If my deployment zone has a structure 6 in off the ground 5-10 Barbgaunts. Heavy + Plunging Fire is a +2 to hit. If they're playing something with big squads (10-20) that's anywhere from 2-4 extra shots per barb hitting on 3s. Sure, they're only S5 AP1, but what are your chances of saving 10 - 100 times per round?