[Lord of the Night]

I am planning on ordering a fair sized Tyranid army soon, however I am somewhat unsure on exactly which MCs I should add to the army. Here is what I am currently planning on ordering or already have, any advice on whether there may be better options is welcome;

1 x Hive Tyrant
40 x Hormagaunts
40 x Termagants
10 x Gargoyles
4 x Ripper Swarms
3 x Warriors
1 x Carnifex
1 x Toxicrene
1 x Trygon
1 x Tervigon
21 x Genestealers
1 x Broodlord

And I plan on adding some Venomthropes, Zoanthropes and a Haruspex to the list in the future.

Thoughts?


LotN

 

[Battman]

Hmm... Flying tyrants maybe??? Apart from that i don't quite see the gap in the current list though it does seem a little shambles with the assortment you see to have so far only other recomendation would be write up some lists and see what you have the points for.

Thats all i got

 

[Lord of the Night]

Hmm... Flying tyrants maybe??? Apart from that i don't quite see the gap in the current list though it does seem a little shambles with the assortment you see to have so far only other recomendation would be write up some lists and see what you have the points for.

Thats all I got.

I do plan on having the Tyrant be a Flyrant. But what i'm asking is, looking at the MCs in this list, are there any of them that I should reconsider adding because they aren't very good? For example I have no intention of adding a Maleceptor to the list because everything I read tells me they suck.

So the Trygon, Tervigon and Toxicrene (Heh three Ts, just noticed that) are my initial choices because they look bloody awesome, but I wonder if they are actually good to use.


LotN

 

[Serpion5]

The tervigon is a one trick pony unless you roll a decent psychic power on it. It's also kinda points heavy for what it does.

You won't go far wrong with the trygon or the toxicrene. Contrary to what you've heard, maleceptors do not suck. They are effective focused witchfire snipers and not half bad in combat with most grunt squads. If nothing else, they are a target your opponent will regret ignoring if he does, and a diversion target to protect other blunter monsters like the trygon.

The carnifex is difficult to justify, and I feel the same about the haruspex. Both of these fill roles that your other monsters fill better or for cheaper. I was surprised notto seen an exocrine on the list given it's just about your only long ranged ap2 firepower.

I've also found that monsters work better with redundancies. The easiest way to do this is to have two of each, or two of something similar enough to fill whatever role you have. For example I run two maleceptors, two flyrants and two exocrines, but I can alter this to take out the maleceptors for trygons or occasionally swap one for Old One Eye.

 

[MidnightSun]

I wouldn't bother going for 'what's good in game' when you're playing Codex: Flying Hive Tyrants. Flyrants and Malanthropes (FW giant Venomthropes) are awesome, Carnifexes with two sets of Devourers are okay, but the rest of the monsters are pretty terrible.

 

[Serpion5]

I wouldn't bother going for 'what's good in game' when you're playing Codex: Flying Hive Tyrants. Flyrants and Malanthropes (FW giant Venomthropes) are awesome, Carnifexes with two sets of Devourers are okay, but the rest of the monsters are pretty terrible.

I would only agree with this if you want a competitive tournament list.

If you are going for casual gaming, then honestly do whatever. But consider what I said so it's at least interesting, because Midnight is ultimately right. Tyranid monsters don't really have the power they used to so you will need redundancies.

 

[MidnightSun]

I would only agree with this if you want a competitive tournament list.

Fair point - I kinda jump to the assumption that if someone's asking how good a thing is in game, they're wanting to build something vaguely competitive (otherwise just use the units and formations you think are awesome/beautiful/fun, right?), which isn't always what people want (still getting my head around people playing 'casual games', but still wanting to tune a list to win them sometimes - a personal failing, I know).

I would however add Mawlocs to the list of TMCs that can do work. They're not great, but lists with them have done pretty well in tournaments as far as Nids go.

 

[Rush Darling]

My current standing Tyranid list is actually pretty similar (Although somehow I've ended up with five Carnifexes, but hey, I'm a sucker for bundle deals) and personally I feel I'm lacking in ranged anti-armour firepower, so I'll be looking at Zoanthropes and / or Hive Guard next.

I'm very much a fan of my Mawloc, but then I tend to play my Tyranids to troll rather than to win (though occasionally winning is a consequence). See: Sporefields

Unfortunately as has already been mentioned, Tyranid MCs aren't quite the giants they used to be, and Tyranids in general aren't overly competitive without bringing slightly odd lists. (If I'm not mistaken, the highest ranking Nid player in the 2015 Nova open was running Six TLD Flyrants with a Malanthrope Brood, a bunch of Spore mines and some Tzeentch Daemon allies)

Not that I've ever played in a tournament, but I get the strong impression most of my lists would get stomped rather hard.

I am actually a fan of the Maleceptor, as I've proxied one with some proxied Zoanthropes (try before you buy, eh?) In the Neural Node formation that allows Zoanthropes to re-roll 1s whilst Harnessing within 12"(?) of the Malanthrope. I don't think the Maleceptor actually cast any powers, but as a Warp charge generating source of re-rolls (plus synapse, increased SitW range, etc) in a Psyker heavy list, this thing worked a treat. Although if your opponent brings a Culexsus, make sure the tear bucket is to hand.