Hi all
I'm new to EA (and new to this board) and want to try and assemble a Tyranid army.

It's already been strongly suggested to me that I try to learn this game with a different army first, and I do plan on getting a more regular army at some point, but I already have a large second hand 'nid army, so I may as well try and figure out how to make a list.

Models I have are:
Indepedent Swarms:
10 Genestealer bases
10 Lictors
2 Harridans

Synapse Swarms:
4 Dominatrix (I know I can only use 1... I don't know why I recieved 4 models)
16 Hive Tyrants
10 Tyranid Warrior bases
8 Zoanthropes

Common Brood Groups:
24 Termagant bases
9 Hormagaunt bases
10 Gargoyle bases

Uncommon Brood Groups:
3 Malefactors
3 Haruspex
6 Dactylis
12 Exocrines
9 Carnifexes
6 Trygons


I've tried to have a go at making a list (3000pts):

Common Broods:
8 Gaunt Clusters (3 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt per unit) = 600 pts
2 Gargoyle Flocks (4 Gargoyles per unit) = 200 pts

Uncommon Broods:
1 Trygon = 100 pts
1 Assault Spawn Cluster (2 Haruspex, 1 Malefactor) = 175 pts
1 Carnifex Cluster (3 Carnifex) = 125 pts
2 Bio-Artillery Cluster (2 Dactylis per unit) = 300 pts (I'm not sure if I should change these for something else)

Brood points total: 1500 pts

Independent Swarms:
2 Harridans = 350 pts (these are seperate formations, and are new to my collection so weren't listed above)
Genestealer Swarm (6 Genestealers) = 150 pts

Independent swarms points total: 500 pts

Synapse Swarms:
1 Hive Group (Dominatrix) = 475 pts
2 Assault groups (3 Tyranid Warriors) = 250 pts
1 Assault group (2 Warriors, 1 Tyrant) = 175 pts
1 attack Group (1 Tyrant) = 100 pts

Synapse Swarm points total: 1000 pts

This gives me 15 Brood groups to spread around between 5 Synapse Groups, as well as 3 Indepedent swarms (8 activations per turn).
The Trygon goes with the dominatrix- as a war engine it can help absorb hits and is fairly easy for the Dominatrix to respawn should it die. I was thinking of having the lone tyrant and Dactylis groups holding back near my own table edge objective- with a succesful Sustained Fire order I can then land some indirect firing blast markers on almost anyone within 90cm- it seems like some good protection for my own table half. The Assault spawn cluster and carnifexes will be split to two of the three Assault groups (i'm thinking probably both Warrior only groups). This helps protect the warriors from AT fire, while the gaunts soak up the AP fire. The Assault group with the tyrant then has no AT fire protection for the synapse, but will probably hang back and support the other groups by spawning (the Tyrant of the group should be hard to take down at least).
For forming the initial formations with gaunts I'd probably gve the gargoyles to the faster formations (warrior only groups) so their speed isn't completely wasted, and then divide the remaining 8 gaunt clusters between the Assault groups (3 clusters to each warrior group, 2 the one with Tyrant).

I would appreciate any kind of advice on list improvements- I have no experience in this game yet.

(Hoping others will respond to this thread, now that I encouraged you to migrate here from the SG forums)...

One quick thought: do the synapse groups have enough of a meatshield to protect them from standard shooting?

Not to resurrect an old argument, but this is one reason that Raveners are particularly important in list 9.2.1 -- as LVs they cover the same spectrum as the warriors.

Just a quick scan shows me you have no Lictors

Do not underestimate the psychological impact these guys have on the opponent. I would take them over the Genestealers.

Get them in the list if you can. They are well worth it.

I can swap the genestealers for 3 lictors easily enough, but is that enough? 3 light vehicles in a formation seems very weak (though I guess it doesn't matter too much if they survive or not).

Apart from the synapse swarm that includes 2 warrior bases and the Tyrant all of my synapse creatures have at least some protection from all firepower types.
Being AV, the carnifexes and Assault Spawn should take a few AT hits, while the gaunts take AP fire. Is this enough protection? I have no idea. I will look into getting some Raveners later (both for synapse swarms and independent swarms, so I can get more use from my Trygon models).

One question I can't work out from the epic rulebook- As Macro-weapons and Titan Killer weapons can affect all unit types, and hits are applied 'front to back', does this mean that gaunts (inf) can effectively shield light or armoured vehicles from these weapons? If so then the carnifexes should be very survivable (3+ save vs AT fire). If this doesn't work I can see raveners being much more important.

Teleport your lictors within cover and within charge range of the enemy and watch him squirm. That 'sniper' ability will make him either double back or go on overwatch. For their cost, they are well worth the enemies change of strategy.

As for MW and TK attacks it works like this.

All normal attacks (including TK attacks I believe) are done first.
Then you allocate the MW after those have been done

Many state you should allocate with the benefit going to the owning player of the attack. Otherwise, front to back as normal.

This is why you normally have to either flank the nids if you intend to merely shoot them, or bomb them with your aircrafts. Snipers could also be a possibility. Otherwise, the swarm should trump shooting attacks every time.

TK attacks are a sub-set of MW, so they're allocated in the "MW phase" as well; you'll notice that Titan-Killer shooting attacks have their firepower as MW"X"+, with the TK value in the notes.

The point being if you follow the front to back allocation of MW hits then they could be placed on gaunts if they are the first eligible target and aren't cleared out by the AP fire that is done first.

Note that TK attacks can be targetted just at War Engines in the formation if you desire.

Thanks for helping to clear that up. I think in most cases I have the gaunt numbers to absorb AP and MW attacks, but I'm not sure (unfamiliarity with the game). I also don't really see how Raveners help in this way, other than to absorb regular AT hits (which my current AV's should also be able to do well).
I guess there's not much more forme to do now than assemble some models and try to find an opponent..

Well the thing with the Raveners is that they absorb both AP and AT hits, so you have to think less about 'combined target' swarms.

It's also easier to spawn Raveners which helps a bit.