Splinter Fleet Zerg - a zerg themed tyranid/GSC army blog

[Marshal van Trapp]

Greetings fellow hive minds! For a long time I've wanted to make a zerg themed tyranid army, but I never really had anything to represent the infested branch of the zerg hive mind. With my resurgence in playing again is 8th edition I've begun looking into this concept again and lo and behold I find GSC, the perfect representation for an infested terran army!

 

So far I've started building out my tyranid collection again after selling off my old busted models for some shiny new hotness, sadly beyond some assembled models all I have to show off is a test termagant for my scheme (still wip, plan on painting the claws celestra grey then doing 1 more all over of druchii violet):

Zerg tyranid test model

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/izTAGgb

 

Now on to the part where I need your help. I have a considerable amount of units still fully unbuilt awaiting construction. As of right now all I have assembled is 12 hormagaunts and 9 termagants with fleshborers. My unbuilt pile however is considerable:

The GSC side of tooth and claw (abominant, iconward, 5 abberants, 5 metamorphs/acolytes, 8 pure strain genestealers) which I fully plan to use extra bits from to get milage out of other units.

2 units of neophyte hybrids

1 start collecting astra Militarum with 2 extra boxes of cadians (was going to use these as broodbrothers but will probably just convert them into neophytes now)

A trygon

6 termagants (with all the weapon options)

4 more genestealers

10 gargoyles

1 warrior (was going to use as a prime)

About 20 individual rippers

1 broodlord

2 old metal hive tyrants (have to be stripped and rebased but otherwise fully intact)

2 old metal biovores (missing their front arms) with a whole compliment of spore mines (easily 12)

 

And a ton of extra weapons, biomorphs, and other various bitz.

 

I'm sure the above is well over 2000points but I have no idea exactly how to kit it all out or how I should run the army. Help a brood brother out?

[Akrim]

Hey Marshal, I think you could go a couple routes here. I would suggest going two battalion detachments -one GSC, one Tyranids.

 

GSC

-Abominant and Iconward are both good, recommend a Primus or Magus as a third HQ choice (likely the Primus for the extra Cult Ambush roll).

-Aberrants are ok - hit hard but fold pretty bad to shooting (If you get a bad ambush roll get them into cover, keep them near the Abominant for the bonus).

-Neos work - I usually go for a mix; couple 9 man lascannon squads dug in on objectives, or you can ambush in shotguns/flamers.

-Battle cannon Russ w/ Lascannon and HBs/Plasma sponsons are amazingly destructive. Two is better.

 

Metamorphs are wildly over priced at the moment, Acolytes too. I tend to only use only a small suicide unit with a rock saw or demo charges.

Dont bother with squad icons - too pricy (Codex coming in the near future should fix these issues)

 

Definitely get all those Genestealers in - question is which detachment to take them in, GSC you could join with Primus, pop the strat and go for the killshot with them. Nids have certain strats they can play, Hive Fleet Kraken, infestation nodes, etc also a substantial discount in points vs GSC.

 

NIDS

-Might need a bit more troops. Horms/Terms compliment each other nicely. Genies are always a good option.

-Tyranid Primes are only decent if youre taking a large warrior contingent.

-Rarely see foot Tyrants - usually Swarmlord if anything. I dont have any personally but a Heavy Venom Cannon Tyrant doesnt seem bad as a tank unit / psyker support.

 

Gotta run, hope this helps somewhat.

-Ak

[Marshal van Trapp]

This does help actually, I was thinking 3 batallions, 2 GSC and 1 Tyranid, was going to use the broodlord as a patriarch and convert the commisar in the AM box into a primus for the 3rd and 4th HQ. My next major purchase was going to be a box of warriors because I've heard that squads of warriors with deathspitters and a venom cannon can be dangerous especially with a prime. I'm not sure if I want another box of hormagaunts or termagants after that but that is where I'm mostly headed.

 

I did think the metamorphs were a bit pricey for what they did and I was thinking of just going a small 5 man acolytes squad for harassment.

 

As for neophytes, what do people think of the unique heavy weapons? From what I've seen online it appears people prefer the 2-man weapon teams but I love the look of the heavy mining weapons, is there any use for them in semi competitive, non tournament play?

 

If I did just go with 2 detachments, would you guys suggest larger neophyte squads or just keeping them MSU?