Our gaming group is watching this with interest... and will give the rules some playtesting for sure... thanks for the work so far, really liking the options available...

Dropping the plagueclaw catapult was a good move.. I really want to like that thing (given I play pestilens themed) however it just doesn't have the utility, survivability and killing power of the doomwheel or warplightning cannons.

try to make the points for a couple min sized units of gutter runners with poison slings... these guys are cheap, and the best warmachine hunters in the game, able to sneak right behind that annoying cannon and poison it to death quickly, or at least take off a couple wounds so the next turn charge will take it out.

with a few magnets you can easily make your bell into a dual kit so you can also try a second plague furnace. If you're running plague monks then the furnace is fantastic (I regularly run two of them) as then you have a huge unbreakable unit (or two!) which can cause tremendous damage. It's toughness test shooting template is also a nice way of dealing with things like elves - swordsmasters hate that! Plague monks on their own are somewhat underwhelming, they have T4 sure, but with all those attacks you'd assume they'd be able to kill something - not so much... a furnace is a huge force multiplier for the monks... no bell also means your seer is far more mobile for skitterleaping to optimum positions, and getting out of harm's way. Two of them means you have redundancy and two very hard hitting unbreakable blocks

your big slave units are great (also run two blocks of 5x10 myself) but for a few extra points give them shields. This gives the parry save which can really make their tarpit duties shine. send them at elite troops and bog down an expensive unit literally forever.

I find there to be a whole lot of really harsh match ups for my nids: missile spam SW, grey knights, imperial guard (of certain forms) and especially dark eldar. When they zip around the board, far outranging my bugs, and know what to target first (hive guard!) there's little I can do to counter them... all those poison shots.... sigh....

Tyranids are the army that got me playing 40k, and I keep coming back to them... but against a competitive list they usually make me more frustrated than anything else.... vs. a good list with a good player = a rough time for my nids, regardless of what I bring...

Would really like a codex review / tactical articles for Daemons of Chaos... there's just not a lot out there that I've found about running this army as competitive as they can be... and the learning curve is a bit steep (well for me at least) as they play so differently from many of the other armies...

And yes, when the new Grey Knights were released I responded by purchasing a Daemons army.... I'm masochistic like that ;)

If you combine the shoota boyz into a squad of 20 (incl. nob with PC) in a battlewagon you lower the KP, have much more effective shooting, far more protection and an extra roller - 19 will even give you room for your KFF - can be a moving bunker flanked by your kans ready to counter-rolla anything that gets close, giving protection to both the kans, (the rolla) and the shootas____I generally only run two trukks with slugga/choppa as disruption / strike teams for vulnerable (ie: small) units. I just find trukks awfully easy to kill, even when you get the KFF coverage..____and I know all the kids these days are running lootas... but I just find them very well worth the investment... popping transports for your zookas to pound the resultant crater bound dudes is very, very useful....____my two cents... (and definitely not worth more!)____

The only issue with more Celestians is the comp system being used... you lose points off your comp score (which begins at 20) for each HQ, Elite, Fast and Heavy after the first (-1 for second elite, -2 for third!) and similarly lose points above three troops. So the dominions are there to save me a comp point. currently I'm sitting at a 18 out of 20 for comp with this list!

@steve - would love to not have to take the sister superior in the HQ squad but don't have a choice unfortunately... you either have to take a basic champ or have the option to upgrade to the VSS (as in the sisters' squads)

@farmpunk - yep just run pure sisters - although allied guard would certainly add some long range firepower for certain.

@greggles - the only issue I have with the jump cannoness is that she's still rather easy to take out on her own, her retinue gives me a comp-free unit of celestians as a bodyguard and unlocks another immolator... I'd rather not have to use my faith points keeping her alive on her own (especially if there's any missions with extra points for smoking the HQ)

@smok - I hear ya on the lack of CC... I've not had much luck with eviscerators (low number of attacks - prone to dice of fail) where I couldn't think that the points could be better spent elsewhere.... man those things are pricey! would like a close combat element, but I'm not sure if the list is really meant to do that (I've not enough experience with it though to really say for sure!) it's more of a saturation of close range firepower... using divine guidance, then if engaged in assault, either tarpit with faith, or sacrifice for the greater good so I can unload in my shooting phase... list seems to live or die in the shooting phase... which I'm not sure is a good thing or not!

thanks alot for all the advice!

I've been toying with the idea of replacing the dominions with Seraphim... but not sure losing the two melta and immolator is worth having the options they unlock?