Tyranids good or bad?

[Barry Cabbage]

I personally don't play them but I have a friend who adamantly preaches that the Tyranids can only be played in a single linear build-order and even then aren't very good compared to other factions.

So my questions are as follows.
Are they good?
if so are they flexible to play?
And if at all possible what are some common differing methods of using them?

[Jey]

Yes they are good.
They have a very strong build (Raveners into Lictors), but they have some variation (You can add a Tervigon or a Hive Tyrant. You can play a geared Hive Tyrant with smaller army. You can play non-geared hero + Carnifex into Trygon/Tfex/Hierodule. You can make a Thrope build, though it's more a support build for your allies. But -50% attacks from malanthrope +-50% accuracy from Zoanthropes + 17% ranged reduction from Venomthrope can quickly make the game a nightmare for your enemies, especially if they rely on a low number of elite unites)

However their early game is basically fixed
research building -> Infantry building -> Aedanthropum (eating your termagants to make the infantry building finish when the Aedanthropum is unlocked + accelerate the Aedanthropum + accelerate the malanthrope for your second city). That's about ~15 turns that are pre-determined.

[Crim]

Originally posted by Jey:

However their early game is basically fixed
research building -> Infantry building -> Aedanthropum (eating your termagants to make the infantry building finish when the Aedanthropum is unlocked + accelerate the Aedanthropum + accelerate the malanthrope for your second city). That's about ~15 turns that are pre-determined.

This isn't my initial 3 buildings, so its less fixed than one might think.

[Jey]

I'm talking about good builds.

[Crim]

Originally posted by Jey:

I'm talking about good builds.

[Stardustfire]

good in a normal game != what Jey preaches. thats only what he thinks is good with his very special Gamestart Options....
Excluding his very unique PoV, yes Tyranids are good. They only need to Juggle with 2 Resources, and they have alot of useable Units in there Unit Pool. Only Thing you need to wrap your head around is that Influence is your Facility Fuel, and that your Citys are smaller.
So the answer is yes , there are different ways to get them to greatness.

[Red Bat]

Originally posted by Barry Cabbage:

I personally don't play them but I have a friend who adamantly preaches that the Tyranids can only be played in a single linear build-order and even then aren't very good compared to other factions.

So my questions are as follows.
Are they good?
if so are they flexible to play?
And if at all possible what are some common differing methods of using them?

That build order has to be changed after the recent update. Also not sure if any of the DLC changes up potential build orders.

I don't know if Tyranids are unique in having an ideal build order, but it's the only one I actually know a relatively ideal build order for. I'd imagine if this game had a community more interested in figuring this stuff out we'd probably find out around 50% of the units are never worth getting including most of the DLC units as the ideal research paths are pretty set.

Technically Tyranids can also go for more of an early game rush build if you want, but your midgame is going to suffer if you can't muscle out another player early on. I also doubt it will ever work against even a bad Sisters of Battle player, although IDK if they got rebalanced since I last played.

They also got some edgecase stuff. Like the one DLC artillery unit they get is pretty bad due to where it is in the research tree (although that might have changed), but it's a lot better when the map has a lot of bottlenecks. Their midgame in general is a little more flexible. Possibly even moreso than other factions.

[archelonian]

I prefer to rush the tevignon which together with your initial units is sufficient (tervignon buffed gaunts are actually fairly good + they are free) for early clearing and can boost your economy with free gaunts. After that it is a matter of preference whether to go infantry or monsters first. Either way by midgame you want monsters for exocrines and trygons for motility.