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Author Topic: Starting 'nids soon, some advice?  (Read 2064 times)

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Offline Arcas

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Starting 'nids soon, some advice?
« on: August 23, 2002, 05:18:50 AM »
My DE are almost finished, i plan to start 'nids as my next army. As a DE player i'm used to very few options - 'nids have biomorphs tables and so on...and because i want all my morphs modeled i ask for some suggestions before i paint them. I know, biovores are great (they're the ones that annoy my raiders the most), but what else works good? Spinegaunts? Something completely else? Every suggestion is greatly appreciated!

jwu

Offline Kei'Ariq

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Re:Starting 'nids soon, some advice?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2002, 07:28:35 AM »
Nooooo, stick with Dark Eldar!

Seriously though, Tyranids are my second favourite race and I was originally going to get Tyranids, but the lack of a Codex (and thus a chance to view painted models) put me off. I got the Codex and my flatmate now plays them, albeit far too rarely.

One of the reasons that I really like Tyranids is that there are no really dud units in the Codex, a stark contrast with Eldar in particular.

I have seen two different styles of Tyranid army that have been effective. The first is a swarm army that relies on massive numbers as much as anything else and the other has a lot of the scarier monsters.

As a Dark Eldar player you should probably take a winged Hive Tyrant. It is a great modelling opportunity as well as a lethal unit. Treat it like an important Raider and all will be well. Any other choice will likely seem too slow.

All of the Heavy Support choices are excellent. Zoanthropes offer excellent power armour destruction possibilities and the Carnifex is an excellent close combat beast, as well as a good shooting platform.

Elites are good too. Lictors are fun and can either cover a lot of territory against more lightly armed foes, or provide a focussed blow against things like Marines. Warriors are all but essential. They provide Synapse and when armed with Rending Claws and Scything Talons are great in assault. Venom Cannons offer good shooting power. With various biomorphs Warriors can be anything other than Troops. Wings and Leaping legs are good, but can make them very expensive too.

The biggest choice is in the Troops section. Hormagaunts are very useful, because your opponent has very little time before they are tied up with the gaunts and can no longer see to shoot the larger creatures. Termagants are probably the least useful and most people seem to prefer Spinegaunts, but although the Spinegaunts are a couple of points cheaper they cannot hurt even a Raider(!). Their main use is that you can buy a huge number of them. Personally I would rather have gaunts with Scything Talons at one extra point, but that leaves you with the problem of deciding what to do with the masses of gun wielding gaunts that come in the plastic set. Genestealers are great. Wyches are about the only unit that can really go toe to toe with them in hand to hand. Marines fear them very much. Rippers are to my mind the most underrated unit. Before your first wave of Hormagaunts has reached combat, your enemy will be virtually guaranteed to fire everything at the larger, or middle sized creatures. If the Rippers make it to combat, it takes the rest of the game to beat them back. Make them leaping or winged for a surprise for your opponent.

Fast Attack has Gargoyles and Raveners. Gargoyles fufill a similar kind of role to Hormagaunts, but trade an extra attack for bio-plasma (better) and a gun. Generally speaking you will only need two turns of movement for either Gargoyles or Hormagaunts to reach assualt, so the mobility is nice, but not that important an advantage. Not being able to enter cover (on pain of death!) is a problem though. Raveners are quite cool, as they can put a shocking number of attacks down for such a small unit. They are also fast enough to arrive soon after the fastest Tyranids.

In my opinion the biggest decision is what proportion of your force should be dedicated to Troops and thus how much of a swarm you will have. Definitely take some Genestealers, some Warriors and probably a Tyrant, Biovores and Carnifex. Add on the swarm of gaunts and fill out the rest with whatever you feel suits your style of play the best.

Offline Hivemind

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Re:Starting 'nids soon, some advice?
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2002, 11:00:25 AM »
A few boxes of gaunts is a great way to start.  I personally like spinegaunts.  You have a 5 pt gaunt with a S3 Ap5 weapon.  It's more effective against lightly armored enemies like DE, orks, IG and Eldar guardians.  I've also never had a chance to use S4 fleshborers against Av 10 vehicles.  With a 12" range its hard to get an opportunity to do so.  I would give all my gaunts scything talons, but you only get 8 pair in a gaunt box (they come on the hormagaunt sprue).  There aren't enough to give all 16 gaunts talons.  

I really havent had much luck with Warriors, at least not with longer range weapons like venom cannons and deathspitters.  Others have said that with talons and rending claws they are more effective.  

I'd really go with both biovores and zoanthropes as your first heavy support choices.  Your able to affect more of the battlefield with 3 biovores/zoanthropes than with a single carnifex.  

I'd suggest going with the basic army list to start off.  Just glue your models with superglue instead of plastic cement.  That way you can always take the arms off to switch weapons and try out mutations.  Good Luck!
The Tyranids are the most rapidly evolving race in the galaxy.  They are super-predators destined to hunt all others to extinction.

Offline Arcas

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Re:Starting 'nids soon, some advice?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2002, 02:00:38 PM »
Thank you very much, Kei'ariq and Hivemind.
Hey, as a DE player i have few problems with a lack of scything talons....many many many spikes and blades leftover...

jwu

Offline Antediluvian

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Re:Starting 'nids soon, some advice?
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2002, 12:05:45 AM »
biovores are very overated. Go with a bunch of swarms, a winged tyrant, and a carnifex with tyrant guard. go on from there!

Offline JiMInY

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Re:Starting 'nids soon, some advice?
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2002, 04:02:37 PM »
damn you all, i want tyranids now, and i aint got the money :'(
 :P :)
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