Starting with Nids in 8 ed 101 (Nidzilla type)

[Lasti]

Hey biomass eaters!

 

I was wodnering about getting back to 40k after long break since new edition is up with pretty neat rules.

I had always been loyal to Imperium armies but now Im bit feed up with dozens of them running around. I was playing nids for short in 6th edition, with wingless metal tyrants, before all those cool models were made.

Since any new models to nids or cult were released, I always looked at them with blush.

 

That's why I want to make some research between all of you, Hive Mind generals and followers about that army in 8th ed.

 

How are they overall in new edition?

I always wanted to make low-models, Nidzilla build and here next question. 

How is big bugs spam right now going? Is it good?

I heard that Malanthropes, Swarmlord, Old One Eye, Maleceptors, Hive Guard, Harpies, stock Carnifex and Exocrines are good at zilla builds now.

 

Wondering about Start Collecting box (Tyrant, 10 gargoyles and 3x warriors) + 2x Carnifex + 1 as Old One Eye as start of my own Hive Fleet.

 

Give me reason to play Nids now

 

Thanks for answers!

Cheers!

Edited July 6, 2017 by Lasti

[Redtoof]

At the moment the stonecrusher carnifex from forgeworld along with the hilariously under priced malanthrope are apparently good, but if they get the FAQ for the forgeworld indexes up next weekend that might all change.

 

The carnifex + old one eye combo is getting a lot of love at the moment. The fex is a solid and relatively cheap model so I don't think you can really go wrong with them. The exocrine is also kind of a no-brained if you own one (or more).

 

I've deployed the Crone, the Trygon and the Tervigon. They all seem quite good but reliant on other elements of the army supporting them. Also looking at the classic flying hive tyrant - he seems a useful all rounder if you give him deathspitters and rending claws, but he will probably get focus fired from people who remember him as the only good unit in the book.

 

The Haruspex looks strong but is super expensive. From what I have heard he doesn't really do anything that a couple of carnifexes can't do for cheaper. I don't really know enough about the other monsters to comment.

[Lasti]

I looked at some lists more and what I saw, those units are useful in most builds:
Swarmlord/Flyrant

Old One Eye

Trygon with 30-40 Termagaunts comming out of hole

Gaunts

Stonecrushers

Carnifex with eko build

Exocrines

Mala/Malenothrope

Crones

What with brainy Zoanthropes? Some lists got it.

[Cryptix]

Zoanthropes are tough but pillow fisted.

[Lasti]

Zoanthropes are tough but pillow fisted.

Ye, I read that now, they are kinda usless as major role, because they can survive things but cannot wreck havoc like before with lances.

Ill try to make some roster for 1000 pts with nids and post it here ;)

[BrassClaw]

Yeah, I hope if/when the actual Nid codex comes out they give Zoanthropes a bit a hand.

 

Carnifex with eko build? what's that? I fielding mine with Scything Talons and Deathspitters, and bio plasma if i can squeeze in the points. A lot of people are doing the melee fex build with Old one eye. My concern with the pure melee build is that getting counter charged, with the deathspitters you can soften up the enemy coming in. With a pure dakak build, you miss out on some decent combat ability especially vs tanks.

 

Harpies look good as gun boats, and the Trygon/Genestealer subterranean assault combo is scary. I need to get my hands on a Trygon to try it out tho.

[dwez]

All good comments about the mechanics of play but for those of us on a budget here's some thoughts on the economics of nidzilla [in case you're tight fisted like me].
 

Depends which 'zillas' you choose, the newer ones are disproportionately expensive but the older ones are actually good value.

Tervigons are around £30 [although I picked one up for only £13 on ebay] but you get a hell of a lot of model for your money, the Brood Progenitor box actually gets you some Termagants too, for a little bit extra. They may not be what you're after but always handy in case you want some cheap little gribblies. Anyway the Tervigon can also be a Tyrannofex which can be good too and they're so big and beefy, they look awesome on the table.

 

Carnifex are super cheap 2nd hand on ebay and can be picked up for as little as £15. Trygon's are £30 new and an awesome model and as already stated a great way to deploy some Genestealers [again cheap on ebay with tons available from original Space Hulk to new Deathwatch Purestrain sculpts]. Or pop those 10 Gaunts with Devourers from the Progenitor box into your Trygon Tunnel!

 

Hive Tyrants are £30 new or the Start Collecting box gets you a few more flying gribblies and Warriors - again not nidzilla but useful to have regardless. The box is great value and the Tyrant can be winged or Swarmlord and they're still awesome. Investing in magnets for this gives you so many options and as evidenced by the waning of the Devourers with Brainleech worms makes the Tyrant future proof and adaptable. Mine is magnetised so I can play him as a Flyrant or Swarmlord now, just make sure you get all the magnet poles correct ;)

 

Exocrines/Haruspex, Crone/Harpy, Toxicrene/Maleceptor are the newer models that although the new rules have made them effective and downright nasty on the battlefield £s and $wise they're far more expensive [around 25% more] than those previously mentioned and don't come in the value boxes. But a Haruspex is a bucket load of points so although you're paying a lot for him in money he will fill out a huge chunk of your army, that and a swarmlord is over a third of a 1,500pt force and only two models to paint!

 

There are definite economical options for running nidzilla, you just need to choose the right ones but luckily they're all reasonably effective on the battlefield now.

 

[Lasti]

Thanks for all those fat comments!

My plan is getting form.
What I plan is to buy Start collecting box, magnetise tyrant, make warriors with magnetised wings from Gargoyles and have 10 gargoyles (got 3 old metals).

Then I'll add 3 carnifexes with one count-as Old One Eye and two as magnetised ones. Ill add Exocrine to it and 20-40 hormagaunts/30 stealers as troops.

@dwez 
do you have any photos of your magetised tyrant?

What about Malanthrope and Stonecrushers Carnifes from FW?

Edited July 6, 2017 by Lasti

[Closet Skeleton]

I hate Nidzilla aesthetically and vastly prefer balanced Tyranid lists but I have a little bit of experience with Tyranids now (only 2 games against the same opponent).

 

Carnifexes are only all right. I used Screamer killers (bio-plasma, bone mace, adrenal glands and four talons) and they were so unreliable that I'd despair for ones without the talons to reroll 1s. They just aren't very tough this edition and S6 sucks but they're cheap enough to spam and that makes them work.

 

Trygons are also really unreliable but I only got to use it against a Imperial Knight who turned out to be a bad target. Nothing in the Tyranid faction can really deal with Knights, they just plain outgun us since we lack any sort of lascannon equivilant. Thanks to their T8 its really best to just chip them down with mortal wounds from smite and rending claws than bothering risking our multiwound weapons against them.

 

Old One Eye is fragile and despite being theoretically the best thing to try and charge a knight with still can't reliably beat one but if he does get in to kill heavy infantry and characters in melee he rocks.

 

Stonecrushers and Malanthropes look good.

[Cryptix]

Stonecrushers are our dedicated vehicle wreckers with Old One Eye, hitting four times on a rerollable 3+ and wounding on a rerollable 3+ with D6 damage each. It'll take more than one to kill a Knight but a brood of two still costs less than one.

[Closet Skeleton]

Old One Eye won't get to backfield vehicles alive, so that's kind of moot unless you have battlewagons, land raiders or gallants rushing you.

[Xenith]

I think calling units that cannot kill a knight one on one bad or unreliable is a bit unfair. Can call 90% of the units in the game bad based on the inability to solo a knight

 

Have you tried throwing an equal number of points of carnifex into that Knight? That's like 4-5 of them, right?

 

Multi assault them and wear them down. Cast the Horror on the Knight so it's hitting you on 4's. Combine it with hypnosis from GSC and it's hitting you on 5's.

 

Back to the OP. Mass carnifex will be fun. I'd add a malanthrope so they are at -1 to hit. All that t6 and wounds will render a lot of anti infantry firepower impotent.

 

Go for stranglethorn or twin spitters+claws for ranged support + anti tank. If you fight infantry use the thresher scythe.

 

Twin talons for medium to heavy infantry and light tanks.

[dwez]

@dwez

do you have any photos of your magetised tyrant?

Here he is with his winged configuration

And with his Swarmlord game on

There's a whole slew of pictures on my blog here: http://www.40kaddict.uk/2013/03/nids-part-77-magnetized-winged-hive.html

And a magnetised metal Tyrant here: http://www.40kaddict.uk/2013/02/nids-part-73-magnetised-hive-tyrant.html

Edited July 12, 2017 by dwez

[Lasti]

What you think about mine "Start Collecting" extended roster for start of my swarm?  (Just bougth that box :D )

 

 

Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Tyranids) [55 PL, 994pts]

HQ

The Swarmlord [15 PL, 300pts]

 

Troops

 

19x Genestealers [16 PL, 228pts]

Rending Claws

 

3x Tyranid Warriors [5 PL, 85pts]

2xDeathspitter , 3xScything Talons, 1x Venom Cannon

 

Elites

3x Venomthropes [4 PL, 93pts]

 

Fast Attack

10x Gargoyles [4 PL, 60pts]

 

Heavy Support

Exocrine [11 PL, 228pts]

Bio-plasmic Cannon, Powerful Limbs

TOTAL : 

994pts

 

Edited July 13, 2017 by Lasti

[Redtoof]

I think I'd be hesitant to run the swarmlord at 1000 points, your army does look a little small. But I guess you are building up to a larger nidzilla force eventually. At 1500 this with a few carnifexes added might look quite tasty.

[Xenith]

That's a lot of venomthropes for not many models - I'd consider using the understrength units rule to have 1 thrope and 2 tyrant guard or vice versa - swarmy needs protection. He's the very, very obvious target in this list. Also consider running him as a normal tyrant to start, keep him cheap. Maybe magnetise the arms?

[House Taranis]

What I run for a nidzilla list is a winged hive tyrant, a tervigon and tons of carnifex broods, each with a venomthrope per brood. In my last game of 7th I was playing BA and knight and my opponent (using my nids) sent two carnifexs into my knight along with a couple of venomthrope sand the knight went down pretty quickly.

[Xenith]

Just bear in mind that Venomthropes do nothing for monsters now, just infantry.

[Lasti]

What about Malanthropes?
Ive seen them in couple of rosters.

[Redtoof]

I've heard the words 'auto include' used with the malanthrope. There was an assumption he was going to go up to 200ish points when the FAQ hit to fit his power level, but they dropped the power instead. He seems like an absolute bargain for all his abilities on a <10 wound character.

 

Edit: in case it's not clear, yes, his ability to reduce hit rolls does work on monsters.

Edited July 16, 2017 by Redtoof

[Xenith]

Not quite - the malanthrope does work on monsters, while the smaller Venomthrope only works on infantry. That's why the Mal is so good!

 

-1 to hit and cannot be targeted.

[Lasti]

Any news about tervigons and gaunts spam?
What configuration of gatuns are most efficent?

Im also thinking about 20 Hormagaunts in one unit.

[BrassClaw]

Althought i have never played the tervigon spawn army, what stands out for me is the fact that you can rebuild unit. So have your tervigon sit behind a unit termies, 10 of them regular termies and 20 with devourers. you march them up the field and as the unit takes hits you take you remove the regular termies and keep the devilguants

[House Taranis]

I agree with you on the tervigon idea, my most recent apocalypse game I plonked half a dozen tervigons on the back row and had effectively a never ending swarm of gaunts. It kind of distracted him from the lictors though...

[Cryptix]

What about Malanthropes?

Ive seen them in couple of rosters.

Here's a bit of a tip - never buy the FW Malanthrope, too expensive for an easy conversion. Instead, take a Hive Tyrant body and tail, put the head of Venomthrope in the socket with some greenstuff, put Hormagaunt scything talons in all 6 of the arm sockets, and greenstuff venomthrope tentacles on.