1850 purist wych centered army, this noob needs some help

This is my first army list, and I have no experience playing WH40k. Aside from watching a dozen batreps I have 0 exp points.I will be playing cassually wanting to use some units i like, but still want a cohesive army. I will put    next to squads I'd really like to keep.

I will mainly be playing against a tyranid, w a "doom of malentai"


Here be my list:

HQ

175pt - lelith hesperax (maybe put her in the hulk squad?)  

65pt - succubi/archon

 
Elite

2x  66pt - 3 Incubi

60pt - 5 blasterborn


Troops

2x  60pt - 5 wych with HWG ( do you need that against tyranid?)  

2x  81pt - 9 kabalite warriors


Fast attack

228pt - 6 reavers 3 arena champions  

220pt - 10 scourges


Heavy support

2x  80pt - chronos pain engine


transport

4x  55pt - venom (blasterborn,  wych,  incubi, incubi (archon?))

2x  60pt - raider ( kabalite lelith, kabalite (succubus?))

105pt - ravager


ARMY TOTAL
1822pts

I just about utilized all of my points, so I am expecting additions and subtractions of units.
I would like your guys' input on how I should equip my army. I have read most of the weapon explanations, but I don't know how valuable a +2ap weapon is, and so on. any help would be appreciated thank you so much!

I had also been thinking of some goofy stuff!

FUN!

350-HULK SQUAD!
 lady malis
    4x grotesques (aberation)
       Raider

470-MIGHTY MORPHING!
 duke sliscus (for deep strike)
    2x chronos pain engines (Deep Struken!)
         10X mandrakes

Mandrakes are very bad, I know.  I noticed they had "pinning" with their "bale blast" like few dark eldar do, which makes charging a lot more effective. ( i like the idea of melee heavy) so what if the chronos came behind them with deep strike(getting them in the fray), and have the mandrakes appear close to thier lines. Mandrakes steal a pain token from cronos and freeze butts with their fresh blood?

Venoms cost 65 pts and comes with 2 splinter cannons as standard. It is known.

ty vasara, noted!

1. Units don't receive their pain token till the end of the phase, so the mandrakes wouldn't be able to use that token until the NEXT shooting phase.

2. I have no idea what you mean with the 6 reavers / 3 arena champs bit, but the points don't look right.

3. It might be worth considering giving the scourges special weapons if you're going to take them.

Welcome to the hobby and good luck!

"for every 3 reaver jetbikes you may upgrade 1 to an arena champion -10 pts"

9 reavers at 22 pts each is 198

3 upgrades x 10 pts is 30.

228 points total

I am confused by the list...

- Archon/Succubus - do they have any gear? Taking them vanilla makes no sense.
- 5 blasterborn? Blasterborn is a Trueborn with Blaster. Each costs 29 points and you can have up to 4 blasters in a squad.
- No you dont need HWG against Nids, you dont even need wyches for that matter. :-D
- Not sure why you want 2 cronoses. You dont need that many Pain Tokens.
- You want to put Lelith and Succubus with Kabalites? So... why would you put a close combat character into a shooting unit? Haemonculus giving them FNP through paintoken and wielding Liquifier would serve them better. Especially against Nids.

I dont want this to sound rude, but you really should read the codex again, especially the lisbuilding part. Or try installing Battlescribe. It will greatly help you in listbuilding.

I played a lot against nids and there are things especially good against them...
- Liquifier guns,
- Ravenwing fighters firing 4x S6 large blast rockets on the turn they arrive.
- LOTS of poison, especially long range ones (Venoms, Splinter Cannons).
- Mobile Blasters to shoot the big guys that stick their heads out of cover.

Few tactical advice.
- Put everything in transports to be as mobile as possible
- Kill the Venomthropes first (those that give area cover bonus) and Zoanthropes
- If he has low number Synapse creatures, take them out and let him eat himself.
- If he has plenty, you need to outmaneuver him for 4 turns and then grab objectives. Do count objectives from the start. Know which ones you need to get to win.
- Dont hope to wipe Nids. There is too many of them. Remove the mobile elements (those that can catch you) and use your transport mobility.
- Engage only part of his army at once. Have his numbers work against him. With that large number of models his maneuverablility is seriously limited.
- Your troop dedicated transports have Objective secured rule. Its better to sacrifice the kabalites than the fast moving raider.
- Remember that S3 units cannot harm raiders or Venoms or Ravagers in close combat. Block their movement.
- Want to get something out of cover? Learn how to tank shock it out and use Shock Prows. Nids dont have Meltabombs so its quite easy with them. Just dont do it with MCs.

wow thats a lot of info! ty so much. I have seen a lot of hemonculi thrown into armies, but I was wanting to have a more melee army, but given the tactics you mentioned: mobility, focus on sections. it seems that a melee army would drastically fall short of this. I am really going to have to rework my army composition.

but yes I was expecting to alter formations/equipment. and that is more of the help I was looking for.

I think I will take out the 2 chronos for either more vehicles or upgrades
Same for the wych venoms. I think I will put 10 of them in a raider without grenades

I was hoping for more of a wych cult army for the sake of fluff (why I was considering succubus and lelith) but I dont want a completely ineffective army after sinking $1000.

If I were to keep the lelith and succubus, would you recommend they each go with a separate group of incubi in a venom? How would you deploy them?

With melee orientation against nids, you are holding the short straw... They are a melee army, we are definitely not. Just imagine his 60+ gaunts with poison and Furious Charge charging your wyches... Rerolling wounds due to S4 ag T3... They will erase any unit of wyches faster than you can say "but I have CC invul". Same goes against incubi. 3+ armour against rerolling wounds and LOTS of attacks? Even if you charge them, you will prolly charge through cover and go last and die. Grots would get wounded on 4+ with poison attacks and die too. Chronos and Talos with T7? Wounded on 4+... Nah, really dont think this will work... Even with melee oriented army, you will rely on shooting.

However... If you want a wych oriented army against Nids, you need to concentrate on Venoms. 6 venoms with 5 wyches each, sacrifice wyches to hold the big nasties. Wyches dont care if you hammer them with S3 or 10, AP6 or AP1. Just keep the things that threaten your vehicles (tyrants and similar stuff) rooted with them and poison the crap out of the rest.

Incubi... try to get them towards some T4 AP3 models if he has some. You will prolly lose all your infantry during the batlle but thats OK as long as you can contest/grab objectives to win.

TRY and get every VP you can. Linebreaker, First Blood as you wont be able to prevent him getting some (as Linebreaker). Dont be shy in keeping something in reserves. Coz he cannot harm that which is not on the table.

Lelith and Succubus. Lelith has LOADS of attacks but will die to the poison and reroll wounds as easily as any wych. You need to select your targets accordingly. And she is worth a VP as your probable warlord. I might consider keeping her in reserves for some late-game objective grab as she can clear a lot of nids. Just make sure to weaken the target unit enough prior to assault. Succubus... I dont think she brings you anything but grenades, which Hekatrix can do cheaper and NOT worth it on 5 wyches anyway.

DONT forget that wyches have poison pistols!

DONT forget that wyches have plasma grenades and can throw 1 per shooting phase!

I always liked a raider where I leave the haemi with Liqui on board, let the disembarked unit have the PT and then Tankshock a unit with ShockProw, compress the models this way and then Liqui them to oblivion. Its little more than 100 pts and can kill LOADS of models. Dont forget that you may fire your Liqui from ANY point on the hull and in ANY direction... like along your own side. Easy to get 10+ models under after tankshock.

If you go for wyches - which I understand as Cults army, you might want to consider Reavers, even Hellions and Scourges.

Lets say I took 2 incubi squads in separate venoms, Hesperax, hemonculi w/liquifier, and an even split of kabalites and wyches all in venoms/raiders....

How would you equip the squad of 10 scourges and squad of 9 reavers?(forget about the arena champion)

I was thinking 4 dark lances for the scourges to take out his big nasties, and either claptraps or blasters on the reavers who would help with the gaunt hordes.

is it worth adding ravagers/aircraft?

Lastly, what is that tactical advantage of leaving units in reserve?

The Dark Lances on the scourges will work, however look at these Splinter Cannons will work better,  the poison will take them down, the caltrops will work well against the hordes, reserves allow for your unit to enter after the initial rounds, the deepstriking that the scourges have snow them to go allowing for nice surprise attacks. Give the Scourges Splinter Cannons and deepstrike then behind the big guys, they'll make quick work of them. With ravagers you can outfit then with Disintegrator Cannons which gives you 9 powerful shots which could help you take down both the big guys and the hordes. The flyers can give you access to devastating missiles, also the fighter has some powerful toys at its disposal.

Lances on Scourges prohibit movement if you want to fire, so no... Blasters if you want nasties out. However

4 Scourges with Carbines - 12 shots - 9 hits - 4.5 Wounds - 1.5 Wounds unsaved at T6 AS3 in 5+ cover.
4 Scourges with Blasters - 4 shots - 2,6 hits - 2,22 Wounds - 1,48 Wounds unsaved at T6 AS3 in 5+ cover

BUT things will have cover more times than they dont. And blasters are expensive. So I would go for Cannons for range, or stick with Carbines.

DSing scourges can be pretty tricky, you might want to consider just letting them enter from your edge.

Flyer with 4x S6 Large Blasts on arrival? What do you think? :-D