Tyranid Army Lists

Discussing Tyranids elsewhere I wanted to post a link to Jay Woodcock Adepticon list to show that you could do well with something other than Nidzilla. I then spent ten minutes trying to find it! Given that there were also a few other recent army ideas I wanted to be able to come back too I thought I would put them all in one place for reference.

Tyranid armies fall into three flavours so I shall look at each in turn.

Nidzilla - It is all about taking as many Monsters and Toughness 6 as you can fit in. Lists are build around 6-9 Hive Guard; 2 Tervigons and required Gaunts to make them score; Either a pair of Tyrannofex or 3 Trygons and some Venomthropes. It does not leave a lot of points for anything else.

Swarm - The goal here is to have one hundred little bugs swarm the opponent and overwhelm them with more models than they can destroy. A couple of monsters are often included to give some support. Usually based around Genestealers but Gargoyles, Raveners and Hormagaunts work too.

Air Assault - Everything starts in reserves and arrives via deep strike or outflanking. Army is lead by a Hive Tyrant with Hive Commander for the reserve bonus. Not as good as it was since the FAQ stopped Hive Commander stacking for a +2 reserve bonus but still a playable army.

Nidzilla
First off I would like to give a shout out to my friend Steve Deare who took his Tyranids to the UK Students Nationals 2011 over Easter and finished joint sixth out of 40 players (3 wins, 2 draws) with the following list -

Nidzilla @1500 - UK Student Nationals 2011 6th Place
100 - Prime w/ Boneswords, regen
110 - venomthrops x2 [prime attached for wound allocation]
200 - Hive Guard 2 Broods x2
390 - Tevigon w/ AG,TS, Catalyst x2
100 - Gaunts 2 Broods x10
600 - Trygons x3
11 Kill Points: 20 Bugs, 7 Large Bugs, 5 Monsters

A lot of armies are using T-fex for heavy support since a strength ten cannon can crack any egg in the game. When supported by Old Adversary for re-rolls they are not too bad in combat. They also have a breath weapon with Rending which helps with killing all those Feel no Paint Marines that are cropping up.

Nidzilla @2k
265 - Hive Tyrant w/ Quad Devourers, Armoured Shell, Old Adversary
195 - Tyrant Guard w/ Whips x3
300 - Hive Guard 3 Broods x2
390 - Tervigon w/ Adrenals, Toxins, Catalyst, Clusters 2x1
100 - Termagant Brood w/ Devourer x10
050 - Termagant Brood x10
170 - Genestelaers w/ Toxic 2x5
265 - Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Thorax Swarm (Beatles)
265 - Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Thorax Swarm (Beatles)
13 Kill Points: 30 Bugs, 9 Large Bugs, 5 Monsters

Since they cost the same you could also ditched the Tyrant + Guard in favour of a third T-fex and third Tervigon. - http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/05/evolution-steleks-tyranids/

hyv3mynd has gone for making the second Tervigon HQ and dropping a T-fex to get the points for two large broods of Genestealers. - http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2011/05/atc-game-1.html



The Fexstar involves putting Tyranid Primes with Carnifex to abuse wound allocation and cover rules. Hulksmash posted up the following 2k list http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/05/2k-tyranids-for-kon.html

Fexstar @2000 Points
200 - Prime w/ Dual Boneswords, Toxin Sacs 2x1
300 - Hive Guard 3x2
390 - Tervigon w/ Adrenals, Toxins, Catalyst, Clusters 2x1
100 - Termagants 2 x10
420 - Genestealers 2x15
210 - Raveners x6 Rending Claws
190 - Carnifex Quad Twin-Linked Devourers
190 - Carnifex Quad Twin-Linked Devourers
14 Kill Points: 50 Bugs, 14 Large Bugs, 4 Monsters

The swarmlord is the best melee unit Tyranids have thanks to actually having an Invulnerable save in melee and making opponents re-roll their own. He is a bit weak against missile spam thanks to only having a 3+ Armour save but that can be mitigated with cover saves.

Best overall posted a 2.5k Swarmlord List
http://bestoverall.blogspot.com/2011/05/2500-point-nids-insert-swarmlord-here.html

Ghostin has posted up some Swarmlord lists -
http://midlifegamingcrisis.blogspot.com/2010/11/stuck-on-swarmy.html
I am not a fan of regeneration on the T-fex and like to see some Genestealers to really make use of Swarmies re-roll to outflank so my variation is the following.

Swarmlord @2k points
280 - Swarmlord
130 - Tyrant Guard w/ Whips x2
300 - Hive Guard 3x2
400 - Tervigon w/ Adrenals, Toxins, Catalyst, Clusters, Talons 2x1
100 - Termagant Brood 2 x10
140 - Genestealers 2x5
120 - Gargoyles x20
265 - Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Thorax Swarm (Beatles)
265 - Tyrannofex w/ Rupture Cannon, Cluster Spines, Thorax Swarm (Beatles)
14 Kill Points: 50 Bugs, 8 Large Bugs, 5 Monsters

Swarm Armies
Jay Woodcock went 6-0-2 climbing all the way up to 4th out of 256 players in the Adepticon 40k Championships with a Stealershock list featuring 55 Genestealers.

Swarm @1847 Adepticon 2011
220 - Tevigon w/ adrenals, toxic sacs, catalyst, crushing claws
195 - Tervigon w/ adrenals, toxic sacs, catalyst
300 - Hive Guard 2 Broods x3
180 - Zoanthropes x3
560 - Genestealers 2 Broods x20
210 - Genestealers x15
182 - Gargoyles w/ adrenal glands x26
9 Kill Points: 81 Bugs, 9 Large Bugs, 2 Monsters

Hulksmask posted up a nice swarm list using the Parasite that does away with all the Inititive one units so that it more resistant to Jaws of the Wolf. If I ran the list I would boost the prime with regen (since it is so cheap).
http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/05/jotww-can-suck-it-building-nid-list.html

Swarm @2000 Points
160 - HQ: Parasite
090 - HQ: Prime w/ Dual Bone Swords
450 - Hive Guard 3x3
120 - Hormagants x20
630 - Genestealers 3x15
350 - Raveners w/ Rending Claws 2 Broods x5
200 - Gargoyles w/ Toxic Sacs & Adrenal Glands x25
12 Kill Points: 90 Bugs, 21 Large Bugs.

Yermon posted a swarm army with a pair of Tervigon as the HQ similar to the Adepticon list. I just swapped the pod to have the Deathspitter as it is another anti-tank weapon.
http://thebrownpaintbrush.blogspot.com/2011/04/im-sorry-did-you-just-get-eaten.html

Tyranid Swarm @2000 points
195 - Tervigon w/ Adrenals, Toxic sacs, Catalyst, Clusters
195 - Tervigon w/ Adrenals, Toxic sacs, Catalyst, Clusters
300 - Hive Guard 2 Broods x3
170 - Zoanthropes x2 in Spore Pod w/ Deathspitter
680 - Genestealers w/ Toxic sacs 2 Broods x20
140 - Genestealers 2 Broods x5
320 - Gargoyles w/ Adrenals, Toxic sacs 2x20
12 Kill Points: 90 Bugs, 8 Large Bugs, 2 Monsters

Air Assault
Not a very popular Tyranid build at the moment so I do not have any lists to link too.  I have decided that Gargoyles really need to have Adrenal glands so they can glance APC's and I am not really happy with a Hive Tyrant that costs over 300 points so thinking about replacing him with a walking tyrant with big gun.  Still this is my current list -

Tyranid Air Assault @1500 points
310 - Hive Tyrant w/ Old Adversary, Hive Commander, Wings, TL Devs x2
170 - Zoanthropes x2 in Spore Pod w/ TL Deathspitter
170 - Zoanthropes x2 in Spore Pod w/ TL Deathspitter
161 - Ymgarl Xenomorphs x7
250 - Termagants w/ Devourers x20 in Spore Pod w/ TL Deathspitter
195 - Tervigon: adrenals, toxic sacs, catalyst [Outflanking]
148 - Broodlord & 5 Genestealers w/ Toxic
096 - Gargoyle Brood x12 w /AG,TS
11 Kill Points: 44 Bugs, 5 Large Bugs, 2 Monsters, 3 Pods

Image Credits: Olovni, goofeegrins & Lord Hannu on Deviantart.