# Tyranids vs Blood Angels



## BloodAngelZeros (Jul 1, 2008)

Well hello all. Been awhile since I posted. I'm back in action and I'm building up a Tyranid army. My main opponent will be a Blood Angel army. The main tactic for the Blood Angel army is reserves and speed. I know there's three drop pods, two of which contain CC geared dreads and the third gets used variously between different troop types. I know there's a couple squads of tactical marines, unit of DC and unit of assault marines w/ jump packs, and squad of termies w/ powerfists. There might be more but that is what I can recall as the core of the army. It hasn't been updated for 6th edition so there aren't any fliers. With the new tyranids out I'm having a tough time of what to get for my army. I'm conflicted between shiny new units that might not do anything for me (that Haruspex looks too tempting) and base tactics (ie. press the numbers advantage). As I can't seem to come up with an unbiased decision, I've turned to the forums for some input. What units, tactics, etc would you suggest? Thanks for the help!


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Hmmmmm well I haven't playtested yet, admittedly. Two CC Dreads will wreak merry havoc with your gaunt swarms, venomthropes and biovores (once they hit). I'd say your best counter to these are the carnifexes and hive tyrants - though obviously you want to try and be striking at higher initiative so that those nasty dreadnought close combat weapons don't instakill your big monsters. Wings will help you keep mobile enough to compete with their deep striking, or just holding the carnifexes in reserves until he pulls them out. 

For the rest, the Exocrine looks really good - especially against Marine Armies with terminators. Termagaunt hordes will love having assault marines come close to them, the cheap cheap squads of 30 should put out enough firepower to scare them! Warriors with bone swords will be gooooood in combat but I'd be inclined to hold them back behind a hormagaunt brood who can soak up the bullets whilst under synapse.

Zoanthropes are also looking very popular indeed, but I can't recommend for or against with them with any degree of experience.


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## emporershand89 (Jun 11, 2010)

as a constant player of the Blood Agnels Codex I would watch out for two things when facing your freind in battle.

A: DEath Company. These crazy Marines gone nut jobs move fast, hit hard, and get Multiple Attacks combined with furious charge. They will eat through most of your basic infantry. Thus I would run with a good amount of Warriors with Rending Claws, Ravaners (becuase these bad boys always rape in melee), or try Hive Guards with good range upgrades. Just do not engage the Death Company in CQC.....you will loose 70% of the time.

B: Jetpack Troopers, the Blood Angels are the kings of Fast Attack. Esepecially if your freind players Sanguinian Guard or Baal Predator then your going to need some heavy firepowerm to kill them with. againt Warriors with Melee, Hive Guared, or a nice horde of Hormogaunts to slow them down.

Plus watch out for any of their psyker's if he is a fan of that. They have mixed results but if he tends to get high dice rolls it could turn nasty for you. anyway best of luck mate


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Against anything but death company and blenderdreads, overwhelm them with hordes. Against those, shoot them to death. And then overwhelm them with hordes. Even if the BA players takes a bunch of flamers, he can only kill one unit of gaunts at a time (and maybe not even that). Tarpit him, hit hard, and kill everything. Bring decent anti-tank, as BA love their av13 walls. I don't know the new codex well, so I can't say what units are good... But hordes and high toughness kills.


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## emporershand89 (Jun 11, 2010)

JAMOB said:


> But hordes and high toughness kills


Yes to High Toughness kills for Heroes and Psykers, but I must disagree JAMOB on the Hordes tactics. Against Ultrmarines or another Chapter this would work as the amount of lead put out cannot kill everyone. However, as I mentioned, Blood Angels excel in CQC. My fear is if the player didn't slaughter the Gaunts with Death Company and JetPack units he will simply keep his distance with his Range/Armor and wittle the Horde down. Then he would screen using his Melee to run interference. 

Dark Angels use a similar Tactics though I'm unaware of their Capabilities mainly beause I have never played them; only fought them. However if it is the same way I'd be careful of making the Horde run JAMOB. Your thoughts?


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

Well, I play blood angels and struggle with hordes so I guess that's my point of view, but with enough flamers and CC they can be taken out - for me it was a 2 tervigon and 20 hormogaunt 750 list that averaged 50 gaunts from spawns and often had more that swamped my 25 assault marines, even with flamers. DC and JPs with flamers definitely can work, but it's tough, because nids get everything fairly cheap now and BA are really expensive. The ranged stuff can get out either a large blast or 10 shots a turn - that's not enough to wipe the floor with gaunts. Each of those is 145 btw.

I'm not sure if it will be as bad with the new dex (it wasn't in my last game), but just my thoughts.

Not for the unit specific stuff, responding to the original post.

DC are tough with hordes, but if they don't have PFs then MCs can rip them to shreds. Dreads dropping in? If they have flamers, spread out, then get around back and open fire with s6/7 (or even s4, really, but that's not as cost-effective). Termies? Swarm 'em. They suck at rolling lots of dice, and only get 2 attacks each at i1 so you should be able to kill them (or at least tarpit with fearless).

If it's more tactical marines than assault marines, get tons of gaunts and get them into combat before he can shoot you that much - kill the assault troops and you can hide from/sustain fire from the tacticals.


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