2000 points of Nids

[Sergent Zhyr]

Over the weekend my FLGS had a sale on nids I have always liked the range and I wanted the enemy of my red scorpions in the aphelion project. So long story short I picked up 150$ worth of nids.
I do not have the codex and I got everything in a big bag so I am not sure how to spell the names of them. but this is what I got.

20 or so gene steelers
20 hormagants
30 or so termigants
2 carnifexes
6 warriors
3 ravenors
1 venomothrope
3 zonthrops
2 lictors

I also have my gene steelers from space hulk.

Can this be made in to an army?
Will it be play able?

Just so every one knows the advice on this forum has helped me make short work of the guys I play with. Big thanks to Me-in-Japan, Primarch, and Admiral-Badruck. Your comments were very help full with my marine army. I hope they can help my tyranids.

[Colonel Voss]

I don't have my nid book with me right now so I can't tell you the point costs. But from the looks of it, you have a good start for you army.

With 6 warriors you can make one your alpha warrior and you will have an HQ then group the other five. However with only two synapse units, it will be hard to get coverage and easy to loose synapse. I would suggest converting a carnifex into a tervigon. This will add another HQ or troop choice if you have a termegaunt unit in your troops and an extra T6 W6 synapse creature with psychic powers. She also hatches more termagaunts throughout the game so you will need to buy more of the little guys if you want to use her.

The venomthrope can be quite useful, but I would recommend running them in two or three.

With genestealers, I'd use at least one form the space hulk as a brood lord, they have some beneficial psychic powers.

[Sergent Zhyr]

My questions are.
Do I need a Tervigon?
Should I take 2 of them?
How good are they?
How do I get one?
What do they even look like?
What other units do I need to make it a full army?

[Colonel Voss]

Think of a tervigon as a big mom nid that drops 3D6 babies every turn. She's also psychic and can give a unit feel no pain a turn. and at T6 W6, she's hard to stop. To add a bonus, she can be made a troop choice, perfect for sitting on an objective.

Currently, there are no models for a tervigon so if you want one, you have to convert one. I used a carnifex to make mine as they look similar in the picture.

As for whether you want one or not, I've found them to be very good and for the most part, very helpful. Nothing is more demoralising than the army you are fighting increasing every turn as a giant bug spits out more troop choices.

For making a larger army, I guess the question is do you want to go for a swarm, giant bugs, or something in between. Tyranids are about unit synergy and the direction you want to take them will determine more what type of units you want to take.

[Primarch]

Taking a Tyranid Prime is a good idea as it fills the compulsory HQ slot with a cheap, tough, reliable unit that boosts the squad you put it in. In the future a Hive Tyrant would be a good purchase, but the Alpha is good for now.
Building one carnifex as a tervigon allows you to spawn new units sometimes. If you do it a lot, you risk burning it out. Try to take it as a troops choice as that way it is scoring. Just stick some green stuff on it or use some spare parts to make it look different from your other carnifex and you'll be fine.
Genestealers are an excellent assault unit. Use the guants to give them some cover as they move up.
Give the gaunts either fleshborers (for a cheap unit) or devourers for an expensive, but very shooty unit.
Warriors need deathspitters and for a cheap upgrade they make a lot of difference. Always take the optional 1 heavy weapon in the squad as it allows you to play about with wound allocation.
I have no experience of using venomthropes, so I'm not sure what to recommend. Zoanthropes are AWESOME for killing tanks and heavily armoured targets so try to field them as 2 units if you can. A Mycetic Spore (made from polystyrene foam and filler) will ensure that they go where you need them.
I have mixed feelings about Lictors. Be very careful when you first place them and try to avoid large enemy squads as they will easily kill the Lictors. Use them to kill transports and vehicles with poor rear armour or to hunt down small units if you can.
In the future, like I said, a Hive Tyrant is a must. Gargoyles are also VERY effective now, they are very cheap, have useful upgrades and move fast. I also recommend Tyrgons/Mawlocs as they worry opponents a lot.

[Sergent Zhyr]

Does that mean I should try and make a tyrant out of the second carnifex or should I just make it in to a second tervigon?
How useful is the tyrant is she worth taking and what are the best options?
A quick look at the rules makes me think she is a bit more expensive than any special character in my marines codex over the price of a landraider is it really wise to put so many point in to one unit?
Is the tyrant that good?
I love what some people have done with the model. I almost want to take one just for the looks alone, but I also want the best models in the list that many points seems like it might be a bit better spent on more steelers.

[Colonel Voss]

The hive tyrant and the tervigon are seperate and distinct monsters. The tervigon runs at 160 points bare bone. My tervigon was at 210 pnts and I found it worth every point. Converting a carnifex to a tervigon isn't hard to do and I would think it would be worth it.

The hive tyrant is also very useful. As there is a model for it, you can just buy and put together with what you think is the best. Lots of choices here so think carefully on what you want him to do.

Venomthropes give all units nearby a 5+ cover save and defensive grenades. Both of these abilities can be quite useful in protecting your advancing army, especially if they have to run through open ground. But they are slightly squishy so I would recommend running them in 2 or 3.

Gargoyles as Prime has said are very good. Another evil thing you can do is to buy a spore mine cluster and drop them in your opponents deployment zone before he can set up. This can greatly disrupt his deployment and his first turn if done right.

One thing you need to do is get in the habit of thinking about Tyranids as completely separate entity from space marines. Comparing point costs between the two lists just won't work as the armies function completely different.

[Sergent Zhyr]

What does a 210 point Tyrant have?
I had one right around the 300 mark and though this is getting nuts.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Nids are the most over rated list out there the look good on paper but in the times I have faced them I have not been impressed. Good luck making an army that can compeat with likes of Orks and blood angels.

[Colonel Voss]

Actually I said 210 point tervigon. I gave it scythong talons, regeneration, and catalyst.

My tyrant had a heavy venom cannon, hive commander and armored shell, for a total of 260 points.