Tyranid Army Lists

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 ditch the Tyrant + Guard in favour of a third T-fex and third Tervigon.

hyv3mynd has gone for making the second Tervigon HQ and dropping a T-fex to get the points for two large broods of Genestealers

The Fexstar involves putting Tyranid Primes with Carnifex to abuse wound allocation and cover rules. Hulksmash posted up the following 2k list

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 and Ghostin has posted up some Swarmlord lists. 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).

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.

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/ Cluster Spines
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
To take it to 2k I would add 2 Trygons with Adrenal Glands (420), 3 Genestealers & 3 Gargoyles (75) and the last five points gives mummy talons.

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

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