# Tyranid Tactics



## Truthiness08

I want to start a Tyranid army, I have the codex and have read through it, I want to know from anyone with experience what are some strong lists you have either built or gone up against. What are some of the better troop/ elite / fast attack, choices to make? Any guidance on how tyranids work is greatly appreciated.


----------



## Blackhiker

Firstly one of the best tactics is the many small guys charging into the enemy. for this get a combo of terma and hormagaunts and just move forward as fast as possible. for the big bad CC units of your enemy send in a unit of genestealers or a deepstriking lictor. make sure you have enough synapse to cover most of your units. Also for the Monstrous creatures specialize them for either CC or ranged. Warriors are usually what most people that i have seen use for their primary synapse since they can have up to 9 of them in 1 unit which means that they can survive longer.


----------



## Morgal

Aye, small units advance as fast as possible, termagaunts can be in combat by turn 2 and will tie up a unit blobking los as well as iniating combat preventing shooting from that unit.
Then the rest of your CC army piles in.


----------



## dander

and of course the NIDZILLA army. 6 carnifexes (3 low point elite choices, 3 big shootin heavy choices) 2 hive tyrants. maybe some infiltrating genestealers to get your troops choices. then watch people scramble trying to take care of 8 monsterous creatures. you won't make many friends using this type of army.


----------



## Blackhiker

use ripper swarms for the troop


----------



## maxtangent

'Stealer Shock is another viable list. Large numbers of Genestealers backed by as much or as little synapse as you like. Such a list can be tailored however you like with as many or as few Monstrous Creatures, or really any other Tyranids you want.
I got a lot of 'Stealers from old Space Hulk games and since 'Nids constantly evolve, they work just fine.


----------



## Hespithe

Yup... 

Nidzilla - Gunline TMC's (usually 7 or 8 of them) backed up by a few Stealers and Zoanthropes.

Stealershock - Massive numbers of Genestealers led by a Broodlord. This style usually relies on getting into combat quick and has fairly few ranged units, if any.

Bug Horde - Tons of Spinegaunts, Termagants, Hormagaunts, Gargoyles, Stealers, Warriors, and usually a Tyrant with Guard. Just how many shots will it take for you to remove nearly 200 bugs from the board, especially when they're all fearless and in your face on turn 2?

Personal Fave - Flyrant, Tyrant w/ Guard, 2x Carnifex, 3x Zoanthropes, 5x 12 Stealers, 20 Hormagaunts. Played this list, and several variations of it, in local games and tourneys. It won the preliminary 'Ard Boyz round for me.

Son's list - Broodlord, 4x10 Genestealers, 2x14 Hormagaunts, 2x14 Gargoyles, 3 Zoanthropes, 3 Biovores, 3 Flying Warriors. This list tends to demolish Marine armies. In local tourney play, he wiped 2 SM armies completely off the board by turn 4. The last army, a 2 Vindy/3 Crusader BT list managed to wipe him out instead. This was an issue with lobsided dice rolls, but was funny as hell all the same.

Have you any idea of which way you'd like to go with army design?


----------



## Imperial Dragon

i play mostly swarm, i only got 2 MC's in my army, try and have some genestealers in your army!, and if you want a real fast army, go with flying tyrant and heaps of hormagaunts and gargoyles.

how about in the army list section post up a list on what you want in your tyranid army and we can help you make it better the best we can.


----------



## sneakNINJA

It depends on what you're trying to build.

You should never have more than six ripper swarms, as you'd only want to use them for their low points cost. Hormagaunts are generally underpowered for their points cost. They get into CC, tie up units, and die slowly. Spinegaunts do the same thing (less the 12 inch assault) for half the price. If you're into swarming with small gaunts, spinegaunts are the best.

If you want to swarm with genestealers, you're going to need a couple synapse creatures (I'd lean more toward warriors or a shooting hive tyrant than the broodlord, since he prevents his squad from fleeting and costs a lot of points with his retinue). Genestealer armies need to have enough guns to deal with skimmer vehicles, as well as be able to negotiate cover and difficult terrain effectively. 

Lictors are generally terrible and should almost never be played. They only get four attacks on the charge, and are essentially a marginally better genestealer with two wounds. By turn two when you deepstrike in (and certainly by turn 3), you should be in CC. The only situation in which you might want to use lictors is in games with strange board edges or abnormally large boards.

Then you come to big bugs. This army is very very very expensive to build (if I retailed the carnifexes, they'd be 240, plus the 2 tyrants and one squad of guard would be about 360 bucks, then 15 raveners would get you near 600 for an 1850 list). That said, no one in their right mind pays retail. Anyway, I've found that raveners to be much better in the big bug army than genestealers, since they can be screened by carnifexes on the first turn, then come out and assault anything if it moved toward you on turn two. For shooting purposes, the ravener brood is going to be easier to hide than 12 genestealers, and is also divided by two wounds per model. The drawbacks are the -1 initiative (which can really be a problem against a couple specific lists, but generally doesn't matter), not nearly as many attacks (if we assume that somehow your genestealers don't take heavy casualties, and all have scything talons), and increased vulnerability to heavy weapons fire (generally the bigger threat is strength 5 and 6 stuff anyway, and that slays genestealers equally as bad). Raveners give you a new wrinkle in the list, sacrificing a little raw power for a lot more flexibility. 

Big bugs are, in my experience, the best of the lists. It is nearly impossible to take away the threat of the big bugs other than to kill their mobility in six turns. Swarm armies are going to need genestealers to mop-up once the gaunts start dying. Mobile armies are a huge problem for genestealer armies.


----------



## Sinizter

Lictors used properly are extremely effective. Especially when combo'd in with gaunts or hormagaunts since any tyranid unit within 3" of the Lictor in close combat gain the preferred enemy special rule and hit on 3+'s.
He's also good at catching rear armor on vehicles, and if you assault squads with him properly he can be their bane.
Never more than 1 however as it's a risk to take 1.
However in high point games where much of your army tends to start out in reserves. A lictor is priceless with it ability to allow everything to re-roll to come onto the table.

By assault properly I mean you hit them on their flank. Typically striking first you nail the first 2 guys, and he can't strike back. You then jump back into cover. Since they get a nice bonus to their cover save a lictor doing this out of 4+ cover is nasty. If they shoot him he gets a 2+ cover save. If they move in to assault him he kills 2-3 again, and if they fail to kill him he jumps back, and counter assaults the next turn.


----------



## Truthiness08

Thanks guys, I posted a sample list in the Army List section under 
Tyranid stealer army


----------



## Aui-san

build on stealers, no broodlords as u´ll looser your fleet of claw!
hormagants, gargoyles are the fastest way to lock your enemy in CC
winged tyrant & winged warriors, take the objectives or engage in CC

this is al u´ll need!

try to pile in you stealers so they have the chance too use sweeping advance too engage new enemy units.

gonna fight Orcs? get 100 gaunts with spinefists!


----------



## Kain20k

I tend to use a lot of Hormagaunts, I like the 12" assault, speed is almost required for my nids. Backed up by genestealers, they cause major damage. 
I rarely use lictors, they dont have the survival power to tie up enemy squads, usually they die on the initial charge into an enemy unit. 
I take a Winged Tyrant w/ 2x scything talons, its an expensive unit but will usually pay for itself with its crazy CC and good speed.
Carnifexes are great cc monsters when they get there, which doesnt happen often until around turn 4 or so. I've found ranged weapons a little more effective on at least one carnifex. 
I despise biovores, I know a lot of people who have had luck with biovores...I'm not one of them. Everytime I take biovores they scatter or dont wound at all, they let me down almost every game and never have paid for themselves. I've found zoanthropes much more effective for their synapse and reasonably good shooting.


----------



## foulacy

GW site do a good reflection of the nids army list varients, you should check it out.


----------



## Pwept

*Tryanids ROCK!*

Hive Tyrant 167

w/ Toxin Sacs, double scything talons, winged, 
adrenal Glands, and warp blast


Broodlord 250

w/ Toxin Sacs, ext cara with retinue of 8 Genestealers with scything

5 Ravaners 200

w/ rending claws and scything talons

3 Zoanthropes 195

All with mind blast, synpase

43 Genestealers 688

1500 points on the nose!


Ok thats my 1500 point army. The Genestealers are in 5 unints of 7 and 1 units of 8. The Broodlord with his genestealer unit are undefeated, only once have I lost the Genestealers to massive shooting after wiping the line of a Guard player. The Winged Tyrant is great for armor kills at range and CC, plus he'll draw fire from less experienced players. Zoanthropes are there to soften lines and help take care of armor. Finally, the ravaners are fielded for flank protection and to take care of thier indirect fire. The Army is built on speed, speed and more speed. You want to get there fast, wipe the unit, and move on to the next unit.


----------



## Skreining

On at least one fex try and get Acid Maw/Implant Attack. It is an insane combo for only 14 pts, Re-rolling wounds and then all unsaved wounds are doubled and the fex ignoring armour saves means that a fex with 5 attacks can and often will kill an entire 10 man squad for less than one marine.

An other good one, Enhanced Senses+ 2X Twin-linked Devourers= a 113 Pt fex. With 8, 18" shots hitting on 4+, re-rolling hits and wounds. That will eat infantry units.


----------



## AnubisBlade

Blackhiker said:


> use ripper swarms for the troop



use at most 2 broods of rippers as they can't score and they aren't all that tough unless ya go assish like me and go toxin sack and spinefists so there is 30 twin linked bolters that can assault commin at ya just before they come screaming into ya


----------



## AnubisBlade

in my bugger army i got 5 broods of 9 warriors with scything talons toxin sacks (2 in hq slot 3 in elite slot) 4 broods of 30 spine gaunts with toxin sacks and flesh hooks. this army drops alot of fire on the softer units and can rip the rear armors up nicely (through the sheer numbers) with 5th ed's whole always fighting rear armor.


btw that is 165 models in a 2k list with room left over


----------



## Noxious770

Ok I see all these armies with Gaunts and Genestealers as troop choices and no love for ripper swarms... I mean if im wrong please point out why.

Genestealers (GS): No ranged, one wound, great if you make it to CC but still only 2atks if you make it there, costs 40pts to deep strike, and are fairly expensive pts-wise

gaunts: I use termagants becasue Devourers *which are pretty nasty at 3atks* worse then genestealers in CC with stlll only one wound, and one atk, but very effective cost wise

ripper swarms: weapon skill horrible *given* same str as gaunts, and only one less then GS. they have 3 wounds per base 4 atks in CC and with spine fists get 4 atks *re-roll hits* with str 3 ap 5 at 12" which i think is silly... plus you can deepstrike Ie tunnel for just 2pts per unit... 

let me know if im missing something...


----------



## Wolf_Lord_Skoll

Gants are primarly for Bubblewrap/Moving Cover and with the rippers size, they can't do it as well. Plus, they can't get buffed by the Tervigon.

Stealers, get Outflank/Infiltrate, which is far better than no-assault DS. Also, Stealers have Rending. Stealers don't need to Deep Strike, and have 3 attacks each on the charge, which will kill stuff.


----------



## Dayofthenids

If your going up against people who have alot of tanks then use zoanthropes cause even GW said that it was the best tank killer IN THE GAME. Or if you want a tank killer that is a bit worse at killing tanks but better at killing after the tanks are hone go with hive guard. Other than that just pop a trygon up to cause some destruction and soak up a ton of fire power while your heavy hitters like hive tyrants and carnifexes get close enough to do damage


----------



## oblivion8

wow this thread time traveled 3 years in the future xD


----------



## Deathmaster Snikch

ALWAYS ALWAYS have at least 20 Genestealers or more and if possible get them led by a Broolord. Always have at least between 20-30 Termagants, never upgrade them. Have a Tervigon for a Troops Choice, give it Toxin Sacs, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Regeneration, Crushing Claws, Acid Blood. Have 3 Zoanthropes (or 2 and the Doom of Malantai) and have 3 Lictors. NEVER have Ymgarl Genestealers UNLESS your opponent DEPENDS on Terrain. have a Tyranid Prime with Regeneration, pair of Boneswords and Toxin Sacs. Give the Genestealers Scything Talons and Toxin Sacs. Use your Termagants for a 4+ cover save for big things and Synapse Creatures.


----------



## Wolf_Lord_Skoll

Honestly, I'm not too fond of Lictors. They are a combat unit forced to Deepstrike without an exemption to the no charge after deep strike rule. Deathleaper has plenty of other tricks up his sleeve that make him worth a lot more than Lictors IMO. That being said, he is difficult to use to full potential (by difficult, I mean you can't just place him on the table and charge into stuff, you have to plan on what you want to achieve ect.)

I've found Hive Guard to be far more reliable than Zoanthropes for busting tanks, and I often take two units. Though Zoanthropes are the best we have to deal with AV14.

I prefer not to put Talons on my Stealers unless I need to fill points, as a big unit w/ toxin sacs will chew it's way through most anything anyway.

Regeneration is still meh to me, although a lot more viable than the last Dex (given the point reduction). 

Oh, and Termagants can't give cover to Monstrous creatures by the way, seeing as you have to cover 50% of the model.


NOTE TO OTHER READERS: Everything before this page was from the last Codex, so keep this in mind if you are looking for Tactics!


----------



## OddJob

Dayofthenids said:


> If your going up against people who have alot of tanks then use zoanthropes cause even GW said that it was the best tank killer IN THE GAME.


Hehe
And as usual, GW marketing would be wrong.


----------



## aboytervigon

If the lance ever hits its pretty powerful.


----------

