List Building: 1,000 Point Tyranid Army

Continuing with my series of list building exercises, as mentioned yesterday, I figured I would take a break from the new Space Marine lists and build a list that I might actually bring to my local store's monthly 1k tourney. As mentioned yesterday with my Eldar list building, while I would like to bring a new army and take a break from my nids after NOVA, I also have resolved to myself that I will only field painted armies going forward; the only army I see as being viably complete, at least for October's tournament, is my Tyranids.

I've brought my Tyranids to the monthly tournament before, with varying lists that generally had 2-3 MCs, and included my hormagaunts and gargoyles. As I mentioned in my Ultramarine post, I am a fan of "swarm" armies, and while I'm comfortable with the 3 MC list (Tyrant, Terv, and Trygon), I finally have enough little guys painted up that I could viably spend more of my points on more bodies.

With the goal of building a slightly more "swarm" leaning list (as opposed to Nidzilla, which 3 MCs almost borders at 1k), I will start with HQ and instead of going for a Flyrant, I'll pick a Prime. The Tyranid Prime is still a potent character, and at less than half the cost. He also benefits from being an Independent Character, allowing him to join a blob of gants and use them as ablative wounds. For now, I will equip him with a Deathspitter and Lash Whip and Bonesword. His upgrade options are relatively affordable, so I may pick up one or two to boost him just a bit.

Moving on to troops, this is where I'm going to spend the majority of my points. The first choice is my devilgant bomb, which at 20 strong in a spore at 1,000 points is a little big, but if I have the points at the end of the day, I will keep the brood as close to 20 as possible. That unlocks a Troop Tervigon who, while pricey, can get me more troops, so I will take her, and load her up since she will be my main heavy hitter.

From there, I'll add two more troop broods - one a big blob of 20 hormagaunts because I love the models, and the other a small brood of termagants as backfield objective holders, freeing the Tervigon's first brood to spawn forward and tie up the midfield as fast as possible.

Despite having over 50 models already, I still have over 250 points remaining. I'll add in 10 loaded gargoyles; I would like more, but I don't have any painted up at the moment. With my remaining points, I'm leaning toward adding my Mawloc, in part because I want to show it off. For future tournaments I would be tempted to use a Trygon instead as I've found him more effective, dropping a few devilgants to make up the points. In the end, I've come up with this list:

Tyranid Prime: Deathspitter, BS&LW, Toxin Sacs, Regeneration (120pts)
Tervigon: Troop, Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Dominion, Catalyst, Onslaught (225pts)
11 Termagants (55pts)
20 Hormagaunts (120pts)
19 Termagants: Devouerers, Mycetic Spore (230pts)
10 Gargoyles: Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands (80pts)
Mawloc (170pts)

In reviewing my list, one issue could be a lack of synapse. Without adding a trygon prime or zoanthrope for synapse, I may be tempted to keep Dominion with the Tervigon to increase her synapse range. If that is a likelihood, I think I would drop one or both upgrade powers to save points and add bodies. The plan would be more or less to burrow the Mawloc and then hit something hard with him and the devilgants, while the Tervigon, Hormagaunts, and Gargoyles move aggressively upfield, with the Prime and Gants holding the backfield.