Feedback on Tyranid list

[Swarm Lord]

Hi everyone,

My name is Alex and I have been visiting the Abington store quite a bit while working on my Tyranid list.  My goal is to have a fully painted list before I get back in the swing of getting games in and wanted some feedback on this list.  This list is desgined to be a semi null deployment list.  The Tyranofex, hive guard, and genestealers will start on the board with everything else in reserve.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  I should have this army ready to go by mid May.  If anyone is looking for a 1850-2000pt game around then let me know!

List 2000pts
HQ
Hive Tyrant
-Wings
-Bone Sword / Lash whip
-TL devours
-Hive commander
-Paroxism
-Life Leach

Warrior Alpha
-Bone sword/lash
-Scything talons
-Adrenal gland

Elite
- 3x Hive guard
- 2x Zoies in Mycetic Spore
- 8x Y-Stealers

Troops
-13 Genestealers w/Brood Lord
-15 Termagant w/ Devourer in a Mycetic Spore
-3 Warriors Bone sword lash whip / 2 with death spitter 1 with barbed strangler, Toxin sacs

Heavy
Tyranofex with rupture cannon
Trygon Prime with adrenal glands

So that is the list in summary.  It currently clocks in at 1998 pts.  Attached is a picture of what I have been working on. 

[Benjamin]

First, love how the army looks in that picture.

To the list, my immediate concern is that you may not have taken enough Troops choices. 5 is a comfortable number at 2000 points.

As a Chaos Daemons player, I know well the benefits of Deep Striking and pitfalls of starting with only part of your army on the board. You will have to amend this strategy heavily I believe, if only to present more targets to your opponent.

Being at the Abington store, hopefully you've met Keith. He has probably the best competitive grasp on Tyranids I've seen personally. He won the Singles tournament back in January. A link to his list is in the first post of this thread:
http://www.battlegroundgames.com/forum/index.php?topic=3927.0

If you ever get up to Plainville, there are a couple of good Tyranid players who would be more than willing to chat about bugs.

[keithb]

This is sort of the type of list I want to play, but find too frustrating or unreliable to work right.

The Hive commander hive tyrant is too expensive and fragile.  Also, not taking tervigons is handicapping yourself.  Alpha warriors are good, but regular warriors are not.  Your ranged anti tank is on the light side.

I have also always like the Doom of Malanti more than 2 zoanthropes in the spore.

The devourer gaunts in a spore seem like a good fit, but if you drop the warriors, they can outflank instead.

[Swarm Lord]

I am thinking to outflank the warriors and leave the WA in the back field to provide synapse cover for both the tyranofex and the hive guard.  I have been debating losing the Trygon prime in favor of a tervigon but really like the model and like the close combat monster that the trygon is.  I think I will have to play test this list as I think it looks more underwhelming on paper then how it performs. @keith I agree that the hive tyrant can be a little underwheming but he provides two huge boons to this list, synapse coverage and hive commander.  While the zoies provide synapse I veiw them as a disposable unit.  They drop down, hopefullly blow up the heavy armor unit, then expire. 

@ Benjamin I also agree that this list is light on troops.  It would be difficult to win any objective based mission unless you play incredibly careful.  I think the real strength this nid army is to provide a lot of difficult choices to your opponent.  By having some stuff on the board you can force the opposing army to make a difficult choice.  Do I: 1)hold my ground for the mass deep strike while taking losses from the back field or 2) do I engage the few things on the board and be out of position when the rest of the army shows up.  Again I will have to play test this army quite a bit to see what works and what doesn't.

Thanks to both of you for your comments and I am really looking forward to getting this army painted!

[keithb]

Also, my advice right now is just paint what you want and what looks cool.  6th edition is coming out soon and that could change a lot of what is best or viable in every army.

[Swarm Lord]

That's a good point Keith.  There could be some major changes with the new edition. 

[Benjamin]

@ Benjamin I also agree that this list is light on troops.  It would be difficult to win any objective based mission unless you play incredibly careful.  I think the real strength this nid army is to provide a lot of difficult choices to your opponent.  By having some stuff on the board you can force the opposing army to make a difficult choice.  Do I: 1)hold my ground for the mass deep strike while taking losses from the back field or 2) do I engage the few things on the board and be out of position when the rest of the army shows up.  Again I will have to play test this army quite a bit to see what works and what doesn't.

Objectives are definitely a thing to consider, whether random missions from the book or tournament play. Even if you dislike your Troops choices, my rule of thumb is never less than 4 @ 2000 pts.

Armies coming in from Reserve are just so darn inconsistent. Now, I love never playing the same game twice. So it all comes down to what you're after as a player. Is winning or having fun more important? Warhammer tends to force this choice upon the majority of its players.

I think you're underestimating the amount of shooting in the game now. But you're right, lots of testing will answer lots of questions.