Email in: Lecture in methodology? Need a review!

"Hi all,

Long story short, my prof got me and friends into 40k, and me and my friends our rule books and codex's about a month ago. I believe I have a fair idea of how the game works and reading your blog has assured me quite a bit. The only thing that is bugging me is building a list. The codex and army I have choose is Tyranids. I am having a tough time understanding the net lists, and watching games hasn't helped. It seems that a lot of players exclusively try to include as many monstrous creatures, and heavily rely on Tervigon's and gants as their only troops critters. In terms of tactics it seems quite a few people try to walk and shoot there armies, hoping that they don't get shot back to badly when they get into melee with biggy's, which seems pretty boring and doesn't turn out the best reasults.

I have made a scale-able list between 500, 750, 850, 1000, 1250, 1500, 1750, 1850, and 2000 point based on what I feel would work a bit better. This is what come up with:

HQ: 360 points

Parasite of Mortrex

Tervigon
- Scything Talons
- Adrenal Glands
- Toxin Sacs

Elites: 430 points

3x Hive Guard Brood

3x Hive Guard Brood

The Doom of Malan'tai
- Mycetic Spore

Troops: 1045 points

19x Genestealer Brood
- Broodlord (No Upgrades)
- Scything Talons
- Toxin Sacs

18x Genestealer Brood
- Broodlord (No Upgrades)
- Scything Talons
- Toxin Sacs

10x Termagant Brood

Tervigon
- Scything Talons
- Adrenal Glands
- Toxin Sacs

Fast Attack: 160 Points

20x Gargoyle Brood
- Adrenal glands
- Toxin Sacs

Total: 1995
Tactics (If any);

I want to infiltrate the Genestealers as close to the enemy as possible, using there numbers and cc capabilities as a threat to pull attention away from the spawning Tervigon's and Hive Guard. I didn't want them to end up as a sacrificial unit so thats why I gave them numbers and upgrades. Last longer, hit harder? I also wanted a third unit to cause trouble and help assist the Genestealers. I believe that the Parasite's spawning ability will help out a lot by tying down units with the Ripper Swarms, and Gargoyles would just assist any Genetealers left on the board. This is all to try to take away the probability of the Tervigons and Hive Guards getting shot up, letting Tervigon spawn more troops to assist later, and hive guards to keep shooting. The Doom of Malan'tai hopefully assists with tying down the opponent in there deployment zone with the Genestealers and others.

What are your thoughts? Would it work in a competitive environment? Or should I conform?

~ NBV" fgfdgf

A solid base but two things - 20 Genestealers are hugely unwieldy and you don't have a lot of ranged support outside of the Hive Guard. The Parasite also isn't great.

I'd be looking at making the Genestealers a little smaller - something like 12 strong and with just Toxin sacs (no Broodlord or Talons - they are already quite good as long as they don't charge through cover). This saves quite a bit of points and should allow for a T-Fex with Rupture Cannon - not the greatest in terms of reliability but it gives you the ability to take down AV14 outside of combat and otherwise you're pegging things at range - always useful. When it makes it into combat you have another MC statline swinging away as well.