# Starting a Tyranid swarm army



## maawindstrike (Aug 12, 2009)

Hey, I am planning on starting a swarm Tyranid army after collecting Eldar. Does anybody have any tips or suggestions? I plan on starting with a battleforce.


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## Sqwerlpunk (Mar 1, 2009)

Termagaunts are your friend, and you will always have issues with AV abilities. You need some Warriors, but they compete for slots that would be better served with a Flyrant (I usually run CC Flyrant, as your hordes+warriors have plenty of shooting and survivability already, and the added fear factor + AV protection can be invaluable), or a Boomfex in the Elite slot (really, they are just great, and even the low likely-hood of hitting is okay in lists that lack this badly).

Your Heavy Support should almost always be 2x Gunfex (Venom Cannon + Barbed Strangler + Enhanced Senses) and 3x Zoanthrope w/ Warp Blast (if you lack Warriors, you can grab Synapse as well, as it will cover that base for you, and they should already be hiding in the Gaunts for cover saves anyway).


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## Deneris (Jul 23, 2008)

The battleforce is an good place to start a "swarm" army, as it saves you roughly 15-20£
off the price of the individual units. You might want to look into swapping the genestealers with another Nid player for another brood of Terma/Hormagaunts, as they tend to get shot to pieces before they can make their points back.

After the battleforce? I'd strongly suggest as many Gaunt broods as you can, backed up with at least ONE Zoanthrope per gaunt brood; The "Zoaey" should have _Synapse_ and _Warp Blast _ to serve as both a "leader" and "big gun" for the gaunts. Once you get more broods, you can have more broods per Zoaey, but the 1-1 ratio seems effective in games that I've played (The Zoaey makes the gaunts the perfect unit to hold an objective deep in your zone, especially _Without Number _gaunts, as often the enemy will manage to blow up the gaunts from a distance but leave the Zoaey unharmed).

In your Elites slots I'd agree with the aforementionned Carnifexes, but I'd make one a "Dakka" Fex, or fex with two twin-linked devourersand the BS upgrade. Between twin-linked and living ammo, you're likely to crank out at least 6 wounds a turn at S6; Useful against lighter vehicles and elite infantry like Necrons, Wraithguard, and Space Marines.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Gaunts are fun, and if you have 50+ on a table in 4-5 broods you would be amased at how much they draw the enemy's fire.
However great gaunts are they just arent gonna kill much (certainly not much other then troops). You need the zoanthropes and tyrants to provide synapse and to be the heavy hitters, having fexs will add to this impact (if you play no MC then you will never be tabled but wont really hurt opponents).
I also like to throw in a couple of warriors if Im going with 60-70+ gaunts just to increase the synapse, 2*devourers and enhanced senses means you have 4 S3 shots rerolling to hit and wound for only 26pts.. its not game changing but gives you a nice cheap unit giving synapse that needs to hide in the gaunts to get the 4+ save (devourers are AP- so giving the enemy cover saves is rarely an issue).


I would get the battleforce and then a couple of gaunt boxes (make the hormogaunts as spinegaunts), trade the stealers if you can, they arent very good (fun, but rubbish).


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## Wolf_Lord_Skoll (Jun 9, 2008)

@T/S: Objection to Genestealers being rubbish  
Though I do love the Devwarriors, I run mine with Extended Carapace and Toxin Sacs, more expensive but it has the extra punch against MEQs in which my army usually lacks. 

However, you wil need Montrous Creatures to make the list work well. Boomfex's, Dakkatyrants, Flyrants and Gunfex's are some of the better choices, but there are a wide variety to choose from. Just don't get carried away with upgrades! Try to keep your fex either ranged or close combat orrientated, but be warned in advance, melee Carnifex usually under-preform.

Good luck!


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## ironhammer (Aug 14, 2008)

here's something to take note of, termigaunts are a good choice as living ammunition is going to be helpful. but Termigaunts can survive being in smaller 8-model broods, hormigaunts can't, have your termigaunts move to support your monsterous creatures and run your hormigaunts as a single massive brood. also, field rippers, those things eat inf up alive! and genestealers are good as they have a lot of attacks that will hit first and will usually hit and their rending ability makes them a beast for heavy infantry like terminators.


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## Wolf_Lord_Skoll (Jun 9, 2008)

I would reccomend against fielding rippers without wings. Purely because you are losing troop choices. Termagaunts/Spinegaunts/Genestealers are a much better pick. Winged rippers are fast enough to contest objectives in late games and with toxin sacs they can quite easily damage any vehicle that hasn't moved yet.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Rippers without wings work as a great defensive measure- get them in terrain and go to ground gives them a 2+ cover save- I use this quite often in apoc games... its amasing how little damage a tank company will do when you have a shield of rippers (just make sure you dont want to advance through them.. ot that you leave enough space between them for gaunts to slip through.

If I was after a fast unit to stop enemy claims in the endgame I think I would go for winged warriors over the rippers, sure they are easier to see with less wounds (T4 will help a little.. not a lot though), but mainly because you can tool them up with S6 TL fleshborers. Not a combo Ive ever heard/seen anyone else use but it is a fun unit to throw in.
TBH though I dont rely on speed... my whole army normally trundles forward onto the enemy objectives for about turn 5 (its hard to stop 5 MCs, 70+ gaunts and assorted others), normally I have to rely on WoN gaunts to try to claim my own objectives (or leave my deathspitter warrior unit in the mid board to give synapse to a cowardly termagants unit holding a rear objective).


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## Sqwerlpunk (Mar 1, 2009)

My tactics usually involve 3 separate blobs of Warriors+Gaunts (somewhere in the 100+ number of gaunts at 1750) just smashing whatever hope at capturing an objective my opponent had. I can just so easily keep so many wounds on there that it's really hard to actually remove everything he needs to at Turn 5 (because he's not attacking that hard in early game, I have plenty of Troops left).


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