Starting Tyranids

[Geep]

I'm completely new to Epic, but have acquired a fairly large 'nid army-
Would anyone be able to give advice on how best to assemble an army from this?
I am trying to follow the rules from the 9.2.1 Tyranid list- "Hamman's world Phase IV 'Subdual' List"

Indepedent Swarms:
10 Genestealer bases
10 Lictors

Synapse Swarms:

4 Dominatrix
16 Hive Tyrants
10 Tyranid Warrior bases
8 Zoanthropes

Common Brood Groups:

24 Termagant bases
9 Hormagaunt bases
10 Gargoyle bases

Uncommon Brood Groups:

3 Malefactors
3 Haruspex
6 Dactylis
12 Exocrines
9 Carnifexes
6 Trygons

I understand the basics and how to actually make this into a list, but can anyone suggest how to make it into something of a 'good' list?
A few ideas seem obvious to me- The Dominatrix (which I can only have 1 of... I don't know why I have 4 models) should have other War Engines in it's formation, to make it harder to target the Dominatrix specifically. As my only other war Engine models are Trygons I'll probably include 2 of these and not use their 'Tunnelers' rule. I'll probably also add a zoanthrope or two here, as one lucky shot can remove the Dominatrix's Synapse ability, effectively destroying all nearby brood creatures unless I have other synapse creatures around.
I'll probably upgrade most, if not all, Assault groups to have a Hive Tyrant, as this stretches my warrior units around the most (5 assault broods possible instead of 3).
I also probably need to build some Heirophants/ Hydraphants, as my Independent Swarms are well below their 1/3 maximum of points, limiting the total army size (not an issue for 3000pt games at least, but I may as well try and get the most from what I have).

I think I'll have a shot at putting a 3000pts list together soon, but if people want to give advice now it'd be appreciated.

[Geep]

I hope no one minds the double post-

I had originally designed an army with minimum broods (1000 pts in each of common/uncommon broods, independent swarms and synapse swarms) with the idea that I'd spawn a lot as the game went on- after re-reading the spawning rules things seem a bit trickier. 1) I can only spawn if I rally (and rallying is only done for formations with blast markers) and I think if I marshall as well (not something to do every turn) and 2) I can only spawn back creatures that are dead (they must have previously been on the board).
After that revision I have now come up with this:

Common Broods:
8 Gaunt Clusters (3 Termagants, 1 Hormagaunt per unit) = 600 pts
2 Gargoyle Flocks (4 Gargoyles per unit) = 200 pts

Uncommon Broods:
1 Trygon = 100 pts
1 Assault Spawn Cluster (2 Haruspex, 1 Malefactor) = 175 pts
1 Carnifex Cluster (3 Carnifex) = 125 pts
2 Bio-Artillery Cluster (2 Dactylis per unit) = 300 pts (I'm not sure if I should change these for something else)

Brood points total: 1500 pts

Independent Swarms:
2 Harridans = 350 pts (these are seperate formations, and are new to my collection so weren't listed above)
Genestealer Swarm (6 Genestealers) = 150 pts

Independent swarms points total: 500 pts

Synapse Swarms:
1 Hive Group (Dominatrix) = 475 pts
2 Assault groups (3 Tyranid Warriors) = 250 pts
1 Assault group (2 Warriors, 1 Tyrant) = 175 pts
1 attack Group (1 Tyrant) = 100 pts

Synapse Swarm points total: 1000 pts

This gives me 15 Brood groups to spread around between 5 Synapse Groups, as well as 3 Indepedent swarms (8 activations per turn).
The Trygon goes with the dominatrix- as a war engine it can help absorb hits and is fairly easy for the Dominatrix to respawn should it die. I was thinking of having the lone tyrant and Dactylis groups holding back near my own table edge objective- with a succesful Sustained Fire order I can then land some indirect firing blast markers on almost anyone within 90cm- it seems like some good protection for my own table half. The Assault spawn cluster and carnifexes will be split to two of the three Assault groups (i'm thinking probably both Warrior only groups). This helps protect the warriors from AT fire, while the gaunts soak up the AP fire. The Assault group with the tyrant then has no AT fire protection for the synapse, but will probably hang back and support the other groups by spawning (the Tyrant of the group should be hard to take down at least).
For forming the initial formations with gaunts I'd probably gve the gargoyles to the faster formations (warrior only groups) so their speed isn't completely wasted, and then divide the remaining 8 gaunt clusters between the Assault groups (3 clusters to each warrior group, 2 the one with Tyrant).
If I had Raveners these would obviously be far better protection for my common Synapse swarms, but I have none... I'll have to look into sculpting or converting some.

Sorry if all the text is a bit much... I really have no idea what this game is like to actually play, so would appreciate some feedback on the above list.
Thanks

[Carrington]

One thing to note, particularly because you are short raveners and other LV creatures:
Pendraken, Khurasan, and Dark Realm Miniatures all make good gribblies:

Pendraken's 10mms are a nice size for LVs, as are the Khurasan 15mms.  DRM's Skythe is a nice range, with three distinct types of smaller bugs, some claw beasts that make nice raveners (or stunted 'fexes) and Large beasts that do well as hive tyrants.

Also, you might want to think about proxying the dominatrixes for the small DC3 war engines (hierodules?) etc -- as you've noticed, there are an awful lot of 'trix castings floating on the second hand market.

[Geep]

Thanks Carrington- I'll have to look into those other companies.

I recieved this army second hand... I can only assume you could have more Dominatix models in Epic 40k. I have the rules for Epic 40K as well as Armageddon, so I'll probably try and use the extra models in that game.
Using them as 'counts as' for Heirodules is a good idea, although I want to convert some Heirodules to look like the forgeworld ones at some point (I have a few in my regular 40K army- I want to make my 28mm and 6mm armies roughly match).

No one has any advice on if this list is any good?

[Carrington]

I'm guessing you might get better commentary on the 'nid list on Taccoms, the 'sister' forum: www.tacticalwargames.net.

For one reason or another, Epic folks tend to congregate over there, while WM folks congregate here.

I'd expect you'd get some comments from Chroma, Jeridian, Arkturas, and Dave... of whom I think only Dave is a regular over here.

[Geep]

I just made an account there now- Thanks.

[Browncoat(USA)]

I went over to http://www.tacticalwargames.co.uk/

And my question is this... starting a bfg fleet - 'Nids.  Thinking about building an epic force to go with...  I noticed on the tactical wargames site that there are all these variations. NET EPIC, EPIC 40k, EPIC Armageddon, etc.  What's the best one to run?

[Dave]

Epic Armageddon is the most popular in the US. It's the latest incarnation. Epic 40k was the version before that and is pretty unpopular. Space Marine / Titan Legion was the edition prior to that, and Net Epic is based off of those rules (a fan rewrite).

In terms of play style, SM/TL and Net Epic are heavy on the special rules. Epic 40k is heavy on the abstraction and Epic Armageddon is somewhere in the middle.

Where are you based?