I think I want to start a tyranid army after 10 years away from 40k

[Lord Morgrim]

I am mostly a 30k these days but I am tempted by starting a 40k tyranid army. I am starting from scratch having sold off my old armies a decade ago. I like the idea of an elite vanguard force of genestealers, lictors and such. Is there such a list possible and what do I need to start thinking about to collect them?

[Brother Nathan]

Welcome back. I had been in a similarish position but had everything. Theres a nice wee ammount of helpful topics  on units and such and our codex being the first of 10th means we wont likely have any real changes til 11th... lol.  So where does this leave you... 

Vanguard stuff is in a pretty good spot. 10th you need a warlord. Thats it. You have more flex than before. Theres no you must do. But likely you will want...

 

Deathleaper hq.  Its a lictor character. Its a newly updated sculpt and is amaze. Its cheap in points and efficient. Normally it cant be a warlord but if you play the vanguard detachment it can. Its a pretty decent detachment for nids atm.

 

Lictors... decent and new sculpts

Neurolictors... are amaze atm and new

Von ryans leapers. New and pretty good for this build and idea too

Stealers(and broodlord)not the fearsome beast they once were but gained a wound and with a broodlord can lay out the pain. 

 

Now there is a problem that all of this is pretty class cannonny but you will have space for more. Scoring is how we nin atm not killing. Sadly. But you can add some of those elements without ruining the theme and even overlap stuff. Lictors can pop up at annoying points and times.

The scoring units. Rippers... cheap and small enought to deepstrike and hide.. should work with theme too. 

Sporemines or more specifically biovore. Not entirely on theme but bringing a unit able to summon a spore on the table for quarters etc. Pain in the... .

Theres others like trygon to steal objectives but those two are in most successful lists.

 

And theN theres thr kill units. The ones that can deal damage. Exocrine malceptor hausperax. Hausperax could likely suit theme pretty well.

 

Anyway if trying to find lists try looking up vanguard onslaught lists as its pretty popular. Ill fire up an example list for ideas

[Brother Nathan]

++ Army Roster (Xenos - Tyranids) [2,000pts] ++

+ Configuration +

Battle Size: 2. Strike Force (2000 Point limit)

Detachment: Vanguard Onslaught

Show/Hide Options: Legends are visible, Unaligned Forces are visible, Unaligned Fortifications are visible

+ Epic Hero +

Deathleaper [70pts]: Warlord

+ Character +

Broodlord [105pts]: Chameleonic

Neurotyrant [105pts]

Parasite of Mortrex [100pts]: Hunting Grounds

+ Battleline +

Gargoyles [75pts]

. 10x Gargoyles: 10x Blinding Venom, 10x Fleshborer

Gargoyles [75pts]

. 10x Gargoyles: 10x Blinding Venom, 10x Fleshborer

Termagants [60pts]

. 10x Termagants: 10x Chitinous Claws and Teeth, 10x Fleshborer

+ Infantry +

Biovores [75pts]: Biovore

Genestealers [170pts]

. 10x Genestealer: 10x Genestealers claws and talons

Lictor [60pts]

Lictor [60pts]

Lictor [60pts]

Neurolictor [65pts]

Neurolictor [65pts]

Von Ryan's Leapers [150pts]

. 6x Von Ryan's Leaper: 6x Leaper's Talons

Von Ryan's Leapers [150pts]

. 6x Von Ryan's Leaper: 6x Leaper's Talons

Von Ryan's Leapers [75pts]

. 3x Von Ryan's Leaper: 3x Leaper's Talons

+ Swarm +

Ripper Swarms [20pts]: Ripper Swarm

Ripper Swarms [20pts]: Ripper Swarm

+ Monster +

Exocrine [135pts]

Haruspex [125pts]

Trygon [180pts]

++ Total: [2,000pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

[Xenith]

Now is a great time to start up nids, we've had a bunch of new, awesome models added and some of the oldest models get a nice hi res remaster so look awesome. The infiltrating sneaky list is very viable - as Nathan says, you might lose out on the killy side of things, but gain on the sneaky and objective stealing, which is how we win games, so just rememebr that unlike marines, nids are cheap and meant to die over the game, so don't be afraid to sacrifice units where necessary to advance your objectives. 

 

Just remember that Vanguard doesn't limit you from taking anything, it's just that the VANGUARD units get additional bonuses, so you can take the heavy shooty or melee stuff also, but basically anything with wings or a stealer gets a lot of boosts.

 

Gargoyles fit this build right now and are maybe the game's best objective stealers, harpies drop spore mines and are decent, outflanking stealers are a real threat to backfield scoring units, and neurolictors are really good too. One thing to remember is that a Warrior prime with wings is VANGUARD and will pass that on to a unit of warriors he joins, so you can get some interesting combos to make a large unit of warriors VANGUARD and gain some great offensive and defensive benefits making them maybe worth taking in this detachment (they're maybe not worth it in others...)

 

Zoanthropes are always good, and venomthropes might be useful if you're going with a lot of infantry as the defensive buffs are awesome. 

 

On 12/30/2023 at 9:45 AM, Brother nathan said:

The scoring units. Rippers... cheap and small enought to deepstrike and hide.. should work with theme too. 

 

Just remember that Rippers are OC0 and therefore cannot score - they do reduce other's scoring though.