List Building: Tournament 1,850 Point Tyranids

As we mentioned last week, we'll be attending a local 1,850 point tournament at the end of the month. I'm pretty much sticking with my guns and running Nids (though I've had my doubts). Ideally, I'd like to get it all painted up, but that might be a tall order.

It's time for this army to evolve

I've been looking at adapting my initial thoughts for an 1,850 list to include one of the Tyranid dataslates. With Mike Brandt confirming on our most recent podcast that NOVA will be allowing dataslates, I saw no reason not to. To recap, my initial thoughts for an 1,850 list were:

2x Flyrant w/2 TL Devourers
2x Tervigon
2x 30 Termagants
2x Hive Crone
2x Exocrine
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope

Firstly, by adding the Living Artillery Node dataslate, I have to drop a tervigon and gants. While this leaves me a little light on troops, I wasn't looking forward to painting 60-70 more termagants. Second, that formation gets biovores in my list, which is something I wasn't happy about omitting. It also comes in a little leaner, giving me about 100 points to play with, while still having everything I need.

The new list is shaping up to be something like this:

2x Flyrant: 2 TL Devourers
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Tervigon: Regeneration
30 Termagants
3 Warriors: Barbed Strangler, 1 w/Rending Claws and Scything Talons
2x Hive Crone
2x Exocrine
3 Biovores
Bastion

The bastion guarantees me extra LOS blocking and a safe place to hide the relatively squishy venomthrope and zoanthrope. Regen on the tervigon makes her a bit more durable, which is something I need with only 3 (4 essentially) troop units. In the end, I have about 5 points to play with, which is why the one warrior got Rending Claws.

For this list, if I want everything painted for April 26, I still need to paint a Crone, an Exocrine, the Venomthrope, and at least 1 Warrior with Barbed Strangler, not to mention the bastion, though with an Airbrush that should be straightforward. The painting order for these will probably be:

1. Exocrine
2. Crone w/2 Flyer Bases
3. Warrior(s)/Venomthrope
4. Bastion

I want to paint the Exocrine first because I really need him painted before assembling him fully. The Crone is next, and will include the project of painting 2 flyer bases. I currently have a base stolen from my Dakkajet, which is very bland. I would like to create a little more interest on the bases of the tyranid flyers. The warrior should be quick and potentially only need arms, though a full warrior painted up would be preferable. The venomthrope comes next because, while I can batch paint it with the warrior, I also don't need it. With the 5 points to spare, I could potentially drop the venomtrhope for a second Zoanthrope, which appeals to me a bit. Finally the bastion, again, because I can substitute if needed, and also because it should be the most straightforward piece to paint. 

Looking at the format of the tournament, there are going to be some things my list will struggle with. Unfortunately, the nature of the Tyranid army is that it is prone to giving up Warlord, sometimes first blood, and very often a quick 4 Kill Points in the form of the FMCs. Some opponents will be better at it than others, but I will generally have to expect to overcome those hurdles. 

On the positives, with good placement of objectives, I should be able to really strongly surround my Emperor's Will and one Crusade objective each game, and need to plan to be in striking distance of the usually midfield Crusade objective. If I'm aggressive with the FMCs, I should be able to occupy my opponent in his end long enough that my firepower can cut down what makes it through toward my lines. Finally, the Living Artillery special rules mean my Biovores should be able to absolutely decimate most infantry and troop squads I face.