Tyranid Listing ... the sort of horde I want to run

After a couple of 40k games with Nids, the first thing to get to contention with is the number of new rules the nids have. Luckily, many of them reflect USR or are 'just about' USRs. The difficulty is, between running Catalyst, the Parasite, The Doom of Malantai and Tox/Adrenal Gargoyles with blinding venom ... thing get a little fraught and it's easy to miss things out.

Here's my current list however ... I'm not entirely happy with it - but for 1500pts it holds up well.

• HQ: Parasite
• HQ: Prime with BoneSword/Lash Whip and Devourer, Regen and Tox.
• Elite: Doom of Malantai
• Troops: 10 Termagaunts
• Troops: Tervigon with Regen and Cluster Spines
• Troops: 5 Genestealers
• Troops: 5 Genestealers
• Troops: 12 Hormagaunts
• Troops: 12 Hormagaunts
• Fast Attack: 4 Spore Mines
  
• Fast Attack: 12 Gargoyles with Adrenal Glands and Tox
• Heavy Support: Trygon, Regenerate and Adrenal Glands
  
• Heavy Support: Trygon, Regenerate and Adrenal Glands
  

The new codex has been very kind to me. I wasn't a fan of either Tyrants (seeing them as a overpriced pewter target) or Carnifexes, so only had one carnifex completed. Instead I'd relied on the Broodlord and Warrior bands for Synapse.

Under the new codex I've really benefitted with my 'gribbly' approach. The addition of a couple of Trygons and a quick 'snip snip' for the carnifex has resulted in a fairly fluffy army. The only inclusion I'm not too keen on is the Doom - who's far too overpowered in my opinion ... and that's even without the 'killing inside transports' debacle.

This army isn't designed to be 'uber tough' but to give fun strong battles with lots of tactical options ... oh and spread the love ... yeah, spread the love.

I wanted something that included plenty of tactical options. As follows:

• Spore Mines that can deepstrike into the enemy deployment zone, potentially disrupting enemy deployment.
• Fleet Genestealers that can deploy from flanking, infiltrate for first turn ambushes or deepstrike via the Trygons
• Trygons which can deepstrike AND cause mayhem with their deployment options ... the combination of a 6 wound MC and regenerate is particularly nasty.
  
• Hormagaunts cause distraction, while...
  
• Gargoyles with Tox and Adrenal Glands causing lots of wounds, and the Parasite makes babies or attacks tanks with his S6 rending...
• Tervigon Breeds bigger and bigger units, forcing the enemy to engage or pray for a double (in the last game she produced 32 termagaunts ... eeek!) and holding objectives securely.
• Doom of Malantai as a reserved 'ace in the hole', either reserving into the attackers of my objectives or deep striking via the Trygon. I play the parasite as a standard Zoanthrope at the moment ... it's 3D6 is deadly against the leadership of orks and terminators alike and a loss of LoS really gives this guy survivability. (He's also a small target for indirect blast templates ... so that works too).

At 2000pts (the other standard army list for this end) ... I'd deploy:

• 4 warrior brood with tox, deathspitters and rending claws (180)
  
• 4 warrior brood with tox, lashwhips, boneswords and devourers (200)
  
• Drop the Doom and adopt two Zoanthropes (+30pts)
  
• 9 more gargoyles with Adrenal Glands and Tox. (72)
• 1 Biovore (in replacement of the 4 spore mines) (+5pts)
  

This would further strengthen the Synapse web and give me much needed firepower (both AP and AT).

The only models I'm actively looking at for my list would be to purchase (preferably on ebay) 3 biovores. As I've learnt with Imperial Guard, indirect pinning fire is an awesome fun to play with ... pinning fire that misses and turns into anti-personelle 4+ cover saves for the approaching hordes... perfect!

Otherwise, my mix of Warriors, Gargoyles, Genestealers etc will adapt around the core 'producers' of the Parasite and Tervigon (until I get bored of them!)