NOVA Bound: The Plan

Well, after seeing posts from a bunch of other bloggers, particularly +Todd Sherman and +Sean Lang, and trolling the NOVA Open site for the last couple weeks, I caved and decided to purchase my passes and get ready to go. Fortunately, I am blessed with a fantastic wife who not only was ok with me signing up and making a few purchases to make the trip feasible, but encouraged it and mandated that I spend some time every night painting or assembling to make sure I get everything in tip top shape - I am a lucky man.

In order to field an 1,850 point list I'm proud to have on the table, I'm going to shift gears away from my new collection of Eldar and back onto my Tyranids. I have a good bit more of them, more list flexibility, more assembled and painted bugs, and I'm more comfortable with them on the table top.

That said, I'm really going to have to go into machine mode as most of my little bugs with any paint on them were painted about 10 years ago and are more or less three color minimum.

They're ok for what they are, but I want a unified look and they don't really match my updates to the scheme.

I'm going to track my progress on the blog, but here are the lists of things that must be completed and some stretch goals:

Must Complete:

1. Mawloc Project
2. 8 Devourer Termagants
3. Paint/Repaint ~ 40 Termagants
4. Paint/Repaint ~ 20 Hormagaunts
5. Paint/Repaint 3 Zoanthropes
6. Paint/Repaint 3 Biovores

Stretch Goals:

1. Magnetized Mawloc/Trygon
2. Model and Paint 1+ Mycetic Spore
3. 10 Devilgants
4. 10 Hormagaunts
5. 2 Tyrant Guard
6. 4 Hive Guard
7. Display Board
8. Second Flyrant converted from 3rd Edition Hive Tyrant
9. Doom of Malan'tai Conversion
10. 10+ Gargoyles

This list essentially entails my entire grey tide for my Tyranids. If I manage to be particularly prolific I will have much more than the required 1,850 points painted to a level I'm happy with, giving me some flexibility in my list building. The lists are somewhat in order, though the second flyrant is liable to get bumped up - I'm not sold on if Swarmy will be worth his points for me.

I am, to some degree, willfully trying to avoid using a standard "net-list" for the tournament, but at the same time, I want a competitive force. As such, Doom and Hive Guard, widely considered a staple on forums all over, are not in my planned list. Also, my list only has one Flyrant and one Tervigon. I have no plans on bringing a second Tervigon, but will consider building and bringing a second Flyrant instead of my Swarmlord if time allows. 

Without further ado, my currently planned list, which is liable to change at least a dozen times in the next six weeks, looks like this:

HQ:
Swarmlord with 1 Tyrant Guard
Hive Tyrant: 2TL devourers, wings
Elites:
3 Zoanthropes
Troops:
19 Termagants: Devourers, mycetic spore
Tervigon: Crushing claws, adrenal glands and toxin sacs, Catalyst
15 Hormagaunts
11 Termagants
Heavy Support:
2 Mawlocs
3 Biovores

As I mentioned before, I'm not sold on Swarmy. If I get to making a flyrant out of a third edition tyrant I might bring him, giving the two tyrants Hive Commander and Old Adversary respectively with some of the saved points. I've also never used Mawlocs before, but have run Trygons instead. I considered running one of each, but think Mawlocs might work better in pairs. I'd also like to give the Zoanthropes a spore as that would help get them in place from the get-go. I don't really have the space, and not sure what I'd drop, but I'd love being able to get some more numbers and bump up the Hormagaunts to 20 and/or bring 15-20 Gargoyles.

I would love to hear some feedback on any of it - am I over ambitious? Is my list going to get shellacked?