Freakshow advice against Tyranids?

Hello, I'm relatively new here and interested in starting a Freakshow styled force. Right now I own a bunch of Harlequins (all foot, including all the characters) and am deciding what to focus on to expand my options. I've read Jimsolo's excellent guides but wanted to ask for any specific guidance when I know Tyranids will probably be one of my most frequent opponents. That same player also has a Knight list I believe, so I need to cover some bases. The other person I may end up playing occasionally has Orks, but not sure how involved he'll be.

Basically -- I'll fight Nids a lot, maybe Knights occasionally, then Orks or anything else more rarely.

Thoughts? I'm open to almost anything, including not using my Harlequins (their paint jobs are atrocities worthy of Commoragh and I'm not eager to revisit them yet). Corsairs, CWE, FW are all acceptable to me along with of course the Dark Eldar! I like both Covens and Kabals.

Thanks!
Archon Absalon
Kabal of the Whirling Blade

Eldar is pretty solid, though they have a bit of a learning curve with psychic powers(there are a lot more decisions to be made). If you're definitely looking to have DE in the mix, my suggestion would be a mix of DE and eldar. Eldar units that you should consider are:

Wraithguard (usually with D-scythes)
Wraithknights
Farseers
Windrider Jetbikes (both with AND without scatter lasers)
Hornets
Vaul's Wrath support batteries

For DE, if you're mixing and matching, I'd probably stick to taking the following

Succubus
Lhameans
Kabalite Warriors
Venoms w/2 splinter cannons
Grotesques
Haemonculus
Talos
Reavers
Scourges
Ravagers(Only when not taking hornets, for the most part)

Basically, if you make sure you have enough anti-tank, and only pick models from those 2 lists when you make your army, you almost can't go wrong. Feel free to throw an example list together and I'll be happy to help in more detail. Welcome to The Dark City!

I think that with Synapse, only the models actually IN Synapse range have Fearless (rather than the whole unit getting the rule because one mini is in range). It's not a big deal most of the time, but it sometimes means you can use deep strikers or bikes to shoot a unit out of Synapse. It ALSO means that Torment Grenade Launchers, Phantasm Grenade Launchers, and the Archangel of Pain can still allocate wounds to the unit (just not the ones that actually have the Fearless rule).

Double check that, though. I don't want you running into a game with information that could be wrong.

I always focus fire synapse creatures right at the start, unless my opponent has literally saturated the field with them. Once you get them to where they can only keep about half their force in synapse range while playing effectively, they're far easier to manipulate.

Thanks for the starting point! I'll try to get a list up tomorrow. It sounds like other than focusing on synapse creatures, Tyranids aren't an especially bad matchup for us. So an all-rounder list should be able to handle them adequately? Not that I'm looking to tailor per se, I just am not playing in a tournament or even open FLGS environment for the most part. My friends are just fairly skilled, and my experience is mostly well out of date (multiple editions since I've played 40k).

Yeah, poison works pretty well against tyranids, and I only make all-comers lists. I never list tailor.

Look at it this way: Even though our internal balance is pretty jacked up , We aren't a horrible army because of it. We are a horrible army because we are offensively poor against the best and most common army in the game(Marines of any flavor), and defensively weak against their direct and immediate rival (CEldar), that constitutes like more than half of the community. We are strong against low armor infantry based armies, so Tyranids and Blob guard aren't really a problem for us. Metal Bawkses and high armor saves are.

I think you need to play to the strengths of both the Harliquins and DE. Splinter weapons don't effect vehicles but that's good as the Nids don't have any so use mass poison to take down the synapse creatures. A raider with 20 twin linked splinter shots will take down a carnifex or unprotected hive tyrant. Then if you are using the clowns I think it's the embrace that give d3 S6 HofW attacks, kit them out with this and then go after the swarms. 6 harlies should give around 9 attacks and that's before they then dish out their normal attacks.
So mass poison and heavy weapons in a manoeuvrable gun line then send in the clowns to start taking apart the leaderless swam units.
Ps I take no responsibility if this fall on its face, no plans survives contact with the enemy!