New to Nids and need some help

I traded one of my friends for his Nids army and i dont know much anything about nids. Im trying to make a 1000pt list to get the hang of them, so any advise would be greatly appreshated.

This is what i have so far:

25 Hormagaunts
20 Termagaunts
8 Genestealers
1 Broodlord
6 Warriors
3 Raveners
1 Lictor
1 Zoanthrope
1 Carnifex (with 2 Scything Talons)
1 Trygon

Ok, good news is that you have a decent basis for a horde type 1000pt force.

The bad news: You don't have an easily defined HQ.

I'll just run through the units for you.

25 Hormagaunts
These are awesome under the new book as they are able to take on anything with a toughness characteristic. I tend to give them just toxin sacs and send them. This allows them to wound everything from a guardsmen to a wraithlord on a 4+. Against models with toughness 3 or less, they'll be allowed to reroll to wound, which will kill lots.

20 Termagaunts
Depending on what they are armed with they can be a very cheap objective grabber, and there is the possibility of making more in the game, more on that later.

8 Genestealers + 1 Broodlord
While not as resilient as they once were (no 4+ save) they are still a scary assault troop. I've grouped them together as the Brrodlord is a very upgrade to the unit. It's nice that he hides in the unit, but is as strong or stronger than many races independent characters. This unit has the infiltrate ability so can outflank. Outflanking scoring units that kill stuff are very good, especially with fleet. If you can afford it Toxin Sacs are a good buy here as well. Against Marines or the equivalent you'll wound on 4's with 6's allowing no save, then you'll reroll the fails, with the same success results. Double the rending hits is fun for all.

6 Warriors
Not as flashy as they once were, but a good, dependable troop synapse creature. How they are used is based on armament, but they can often hold an objects and provide a synapse bubble while not looking like a primary threat. There is the option of using one of these for an HQ and calling it a Tyranid Prime. I've not tried them so can't give any feedback.

3 Raveners
These are very useful, in larger groups. They are a shock troop that excels at mowing infantry, and is useless versus vehicles. Being beasts watch for them to outpace your synapse.

1 Lictor
Better than they were, but one is not going to be a star. They do provide some psychological warfare against your opponent, and have some great synergy with Mawlocs if you want to expand the army later.

1 Zoanthrope
These can be amazing on minute, and overpriced synapse the next. They can kill any vehicle in the game with decent reliability, and also have some of the only low AP shooting in the codex. The 3++ will protect them against a lot, but bolters will kill them as easily as they kill marines. Once again, more than one would be better.

1 Carnifex (with 2 Scything Talons)
The kings of the last codex are often overlooked in this one. The other choices in the book are more cost efficient. Something that can easily be done with a little conversion work is making him into a tervigon, and using him as an HQ or Troop. This would allow you to create termigants throughout the game, and provide some synapse and psychic support.

Hope this helps...

Make the carnifex a tervigon. Buy a hive tyrant.

So maybe something like this?

Tervigon #1 180pts
-Scything Talons
-Catalyst

Zoanthrope #1 60pts

Termagaunts #20 120pts
-Fleshborers
-Toxin Sacs

Hormagaunts #20 160pts
-Toxin Sacs

Warrior Brood #6 190pts
-5 Devourers
-Barbed Strangler

Genestealer Brood #9 217pts
-Broodlord
-Scything Talons
-Toxin Sacs

Ravener Brood #3 120pts
-Deathspitters

Trygon #1 200pts


1247pts Total

You still need an HQ choice in that list. The hive tyrant would be that HQ choice.

You want to use the Tervigon as the only HQ. Ok then.

i plan on getting a hive tyrant, i just made the list out of the models i already have

Until you get the Tyrant the Tervigon can be an HQ.

Don't buy the Adrenal / Toxin combo for the termigants, buy it for the Tervigon and he'll give them to all termigants within 6". Also drop the Scything Talons on the Tervigon, their kinda waste.

The raveners aren't the best place for guns either.

termis and hormis are pretty bad. warriors are much more viable but you've got to use a lot of them because lascannons will still instadeath them. tervigons are good because they make fodder and the fodder can also just swarm objectives. hive tyrants gotta have flying and i'd give em two sets of sything talons the ranged weapons are bleh. make sure to giev warriors barbed stranglers too and devourers are worth the +5 pts a piece. zoans are good but only in pods and they only shoot one shot which usually always atleast glances. Hive guard are pretty good too they can shoot through walls with assault 2 str 8 24" assault guns and they are t5 so only str 10 Poo Poo will instadeath em. oh and you gotta use the doom of malanti in a pod its absolutely hilarious just watch out it can be instadeathed too if you fail its invuln.

25 Hormagaunts
3 Raveners
1 Trygon

Heres what I would do. Its a list made up of most of what you have, but without points as I dont have my book on me and certain upgrades are for you to decide.

Tyranid prime
some stuff, use a warrior model to represent him. I recommend boneswords and scything talons, or bonesword/lash whip and scything talons.

Doom of malantai
run the zoanthrope as this guy, and use a cup or something as a spore pod for him to come in.

Deathleaper
just use the lictor model

10 termagaunts

10 termagaunts
run both these units with regular fleshborers

tervigon
toxin sacs, adrenal glands, catalyst, cluster spines. Use the carnifex for this model, its what I do.

8 stealers+broodlord
I dont know much about the broodlord, but make sure the squad has toxin sacs.

5 warriors
Same as above, I consider toxin sacs essential. Upgrades will depend on what is modeled.

25 hormagaunts
run these as one big giant mob/screen.

3 raveners
I am not a big fan of them, but put rending claws and use them to pick on tanks or isolated units.

1 trygon
upgrade him to a prime if you want, to get more synapse, depending on points.

If you plan on screening use a lot. 25 gaunts will get annihilated in a turn. Nids are supposed to be a horde army but swarms lose their combat ability real quick. they're just too easy to pick off, that's why warriors are nice - 3 wounds a piece which means when you get to the point where you can assault you still have all their attacks rather than losing more than half of your swarm to las gun fire and only having a few attacks remaining. Only problem with warriors is that they can be instadeath'd.
If you just want to screen use the tervigon to make a few slaves to shield you and take objectives if necessary. Also the doom is absolutely hilarious but you have to drop pod him.
As for anti tank, which you for sure need, I'm still not sure how good the zoanthropes are. Their psychic power is insane but its range is short and I find I frequently fuckk myself by failing a psychic test. The 3 up invuln is cool but they're still only toughness 4 so if they fail versus anything strength 8 or more - which they frequently do - they're instadeath'd.
I think hive guard have potential having the 24" str 8 ap 4 assault 2 gun that shoots through walls coupled with toughness 6 they can't be instadeath'd and they have 4+ armor anyway and 2 wounds. a squad of 3 gives 6 shots at 8 as opposed to 3 shots of 10 that won't always work and could potentially wound yourself plus having to drop them in with a 40 pt pod or 50 is you give it the large blast template.
If you plan on using monstrous creatures to kill tanks you're crazy. most mech lists use vendettas, valkyries, or falcons and wave serpents that'll just take off across the board before you even get close with a monstrous creature. Any other tank will most likely be situated right next to infantry that will melt you on your waltz up to them.