# v.s. tyranid tactics



## warsmith7752 (Sep 12, 2009)

I recently had a game against my friend who collects tyranids and he *annihalated * me. He split his forces into two groups and ran at me not knowing wich group to fire at with my salamanders. I managed to kill of one side of his forces but then the other half of his forces owned my in cc.

I then tried to split my firepower and fire on both of them, i managed to thin down a faily good ammount of his forces but he still had enough bugs to cc me into oblivion. 

The last tactic i used with my blood angels and it was very efective (although i still lost) I had 3 land speeders sit on my side of the fieid and draw his towards them. I then ds my forces onto 1 side of his forces and took that out in 2 turns. He charged at me with his remaining nids. I managed to take all but 1 squad of gaunts out (damn dante for not having 5 wounds). 

I plan on battling him again in 2 weeks and i really need some help


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

What was in the Nid list?


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## elkhantar (Nov 14, 2008)

Well, Nids can have multiple flexible builds, so how to beat them depends a lot on what he's running. That said, Baal predators with HB sponsons are always a good choice vs them, as well as flamers or template weapons.

Also, unlike against other armies, meltas aren't that good vs Nids. Plasmas are more useful (las-plas razorbacks are good).

Finally, remember to always sit your guys in cover. Nids (almost) completely lack offensive grenades, so if they assault you through cover they are going to strike last. And with the kind of saves they have, even with a standard tac squad you will be able to drop a lot of them before they manage to attack back.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Yup, stay in cover if you can, use as many vehicles as you can (nids arent good at killing mech)- all units should have a transport if they can have one, baal predators of any build (but with some sort of sponsons) are fantastic as they can move 6 and let rip or move 12" to be really hard to hit in CC and still be able to shoot. Dreadnaughts also do very well, especially if you use several in a small area so they can gang up on any MCs that come near them, another great unit are devy squads of missile launchers or heavy bolters (but only 1 type of weapon per unit).

Other then that its target priority that is how you beat Nids. If you want the enemy to fail instinctive behaviour (and it doesnt necassarily knacker a nid army anymore) then go for synapse (can mean you force nids to shoot/charge units they cant hurt- get a hormogaunt unit out of synapse and shove a dreadnaught close to them).
Depending on the build of the enemy army you'll need to change what you are shooting at... but mostly if you see genestealers kill them fast, and any rockets that you have should be going at Hive Tyrants and then trygons.


For a more in depth idea of how to beat any particular nid army we need to know what sort of list you are playing- what sorts of units does he use, how many and how does he use them?


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## warsmith7752 (Sep 12, 2009)

He has a hive tyrant with hive gaurd, 2 fexes, a squad of genesteelers with broodlord, and *LOT'S* of gaunts at least 4 big squads of them but they were all bunched togother on the respective side. As for baals I dont actually have any in my list, its an all jp list im afraid i only used it to see if it fared any better. In my sallies list i have 2 tac squads with melta + heavy flamer + fist, 2 five man assault termi squads in lrrs Vulkan, libby in termi armour Thunder fire cannon And 3 speeders with mm.


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## Felsi the Doombringer (Apr 22, 2010)

Try Flamers. And when all else fails, count your Captain as a Chaper master, and you can get a Orbital Strike. That'll thin the swarms. Also, Use Vul'kan if you can. He'll cause some panic in the enemy when all flame, melta, and thunderhammers can re roll to hit.


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## Yousei (Nov 4, 2009)

As a nid player, i can say that the major problems come from stuff that ignore armour on the bigger tyranids (MC's primarily, so thats missiles, lascannons, big heavy high str stuff). Templates and just lots of bolter shooting will thin out gaunt swarms faster than you can count the losses. The major trick is to find the squads that dont have the cover saves, and shoot them. after the losses from that squad are removed, whatever they were screening may well be able to be shot at without cover saves, and so on. by turn 3 you will probably be in CC with something, so bear that in mind and pull back squads if you need to - live squads are more important than dead nids. Assault moves are a real help to nids as they move squads a bonus movement phase essentially, so dont leave tanks lying around to be assaulted by gaunts - even if the gaunts cant scratch them)

Transports are typically an issue. If he's running carnifex's, then try to bring tanks with lascannons on it. (dont know my tanks well enough to name them, but predator springs to mind for some reason) You dont need to worry about the fex's too much, a basic power weapon equipped assault squad will down them in the first round of combat pretty easily - (4 T6 wounds with a 3+ save for 200 odd points? seriously? -.-). Its more of a pain if they're trying to shoot at you, but still shouldnt suffer too many losses. 

Its also worth remembering that nothing has eternal warrior - if you get a clear shot at some mid sized nids with missiles, you can drop a fair number pretty easily by double str vs toughness instant death.

(Approx marine list that would be annoying to fight would probably comprise of a couple of devastator squads (missiles primarily, lascannon/heavy bolter if you're lacking other templates), HS slotted tanks with many either template or lascannon type weapons, 2-3 tacticals with transports), assault squad with as many power weaps as you can fit in, jump packs if you can. Hidden powerfists can help vs fex/MC if you get into trouble.)


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## Ferik (Nov 5, 2008)

If hes running lots o Gaunts whirlwinds are great for dealing with them.

Also keep your force together and do not spread out Marines work best when they can support each other quickly.

A Librarian is also useful to mess with their psychic powers and can also insta-gak their tougher creatures.

Like others have said stick to cover since the only thing with defensive grenades now are Carnifexs and should make anything else less likely to assault you.

Keep in mind that the only things that you can insta-kill with shooting (or powrfist/ thunderhammer) are warriors and any of the 'Thropes everything else is T6 which you will have to focus fire on with high AP weapons until they drop seeing as the only unit with an invul are Hive Tyrants or Zonathropes.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

I find that the best unit for killing termagants is a devy squad with 4 guys with heavy bolters, dont bother with ablative guys since return fire should be minimal. You should be killing about 8 gaunts every turn of the game... if they dont get to you until turn 4 thats 30+ gaunts, and I would include 2 such units.

The second unit I would include is also a devy squad, this time with 4 missiles. AT the start of the game with big mats of gaunts everywhere just fire frag into their centre- each missile should be hitting 3-4 gaunts... which should kill about 10, then when the gaunt screens in front of the tyrant and guard are gone just fire krak into him- you should be doing enough to kill all the guards by the time he reaches you (mebbe not if he has first turn or a very large number of scrrening gaunts) but since all 3 devy squads I would advise are only ~450pts total you still have a huge number of points to spend (in fact th 3 devy squads cost about the same as a tyrant with guard.. never mind the gaunts they are helping to clear).


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

All honourable mentions, but ultimately fallible. A true nid player will account for most if not all of these ploys. (especially now that I know what they are:biggrin

My army has two main weaknesses. I will reveal them, but with great reluctance.

Eldar fire bases. A squad of ten rangers, upgraded to pathfinders, supported by a farseer who can guide them and doom their target. This unit is surefire death to a monstrous creature each turn. I cannot shoot them down (2+ cover) and by the time I get something in assault, it no longer matters. Only raveners have proven an effective countermeasure, and even their success is limited.

The other weakness is to beat me at my own game. Space wolves excel at this, mainly due to counter-attack and a few particularly annoying sagas.

Blood angels are good, but I find a flaw that most new players (or players of a new codex) get trapped by. Yes, there are shiny units but you don`t need them. Dante for instance, is a boon to your army but is also a point sink. Your units are generally better than the tyranids, so you should aim to take as many as you can. You must be willing to sacrifice quality for quantity, though being BA you won`t be sacrificing that much.

My nids have not faced a BA army yet, but numbers seems to work for wolves, so...


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Try taking some sort of reserves-mess up item if you can. I know that Tyranids have quite a lot of DS units and most of the strategies used involve them. Staying in some sort of terrain is good as it goes some way to protect you from Mawlocs, Trygons and Raveners.

@Serpion; Try a Mawloc for dealing with the Rangers. IIRC you could then bring some Hormagaunts up through the tunnel if needs be.

Midnight


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## grix (Apr 15, 2010)

quick question. I have not faced him, but I have seen 2 games in which the nid player fielded that Doom Zthrope. First game he was up to 7 wounds in 1 turn, and ravaged a SW squad in CC. How this happened im not sure, I looked over the squad had 8 or 9 guys, they shot at him and then assaulted. Went to the restroom came back and the Doom was still there, was up to 7 wounds and there was only 1 SW left. Who died next turn to a failed LD test. Similar situation the next game when he was podded into the middle of 5 Necron units including the lord...

So how do you guys deal with him? I play IG and ill probably just shoot at him with all the melta/plasma and FRFSRF the turn he arrives. Will that be enough?


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

A single S8+ shot is enough to kill Doom if the inv. save is failed, otherwise you just need to score a lot of hits and hope the Nid player rolls badly.
Oddly enough, running away might be a good option too. This would prevent lots of units from being in range of the aura effect, and help keep the Doom's wounds to a manageable level.


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## SPEEDY (Jun 4, 2010)

warsmith7752 said:


> I recently had a game against my friend who collects tyranids and he *annihalated * me.
> 
> I plan on battling him again in 2 weeks and i really need some help


Without reading other peoples advice as I like to base things on my experiences (Which might or might not work for others) but having played with and against Nids there are three tactics that are essential IMO.

1) shoot the Genestealers with evey small weapon you have, before they get to you.
2) Shoot every synapses on the board at long range and with every heavy weapon that you have. 
3) Ignore the Fex until the last two are done, a Fex is usually just a big mean bullet magnet anyway.

Other advice is when that has been done shoot any other medium creatures and stand and shoot at Gaunts etc, you will thin them out and without numbers or leadership they die really easy.

Hide you more valuable close combat troops and characters behind the shooting front and charge with them after the weaker troops hit your front line.

Finally, pray before a game that you role a reserves mission, it's instant death to Nid's :laugh:


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Thats certainly good advice for the old nid dex... but the new one requires a slight shift: shooting synapse is often pretty useless since most of the things that you want to stop coming towords you will just get rage if they fail IB (but if you can draw them the wrong way with something like a land speeder thenm its great to watch).

I would always say to shoot stealers with whatever small arms you have... but more then that use your movement to your advantage. Never sit still ~14" away from them as you'll get 1 shot and then they'll charge you. Its better to advance into rapid fire range and shread them, move out of their charge range (assuming fleet gives them an extra 6") or move into terrain: stealers cannot get frag grenade equivalents anymore so if you are decent in combat move into cover and wait for them.

ANything S8+ with single shots should be killing the nasty targets 1 by 1... first up is the Doom, hit it with S8+ until it fails a save and dies, then move on to flying tyrants and then everything else. If its an S8+ blast then first targets are warriors/shrikes/raveners but any S8+ is hugely effective.
Carnifexs are the slowest nid MC so leave them till last, just make sure to kill 1 MC before hitting another (unless you cannot draw clean line of sight to a single model with your army). Doing 6 wounds to 1 trygon means its dead... but doing 2 to a hive tyrant, 2 to a fex and 2 to the trygon does nothing for you.. especially if the enemy regenerates 1 or more of the wounds.

Only other thing I would say is that any long range blast/large blast weapons you have that are <S5 should be targetting hormogaunts first, stealers second (unless they are threatening, in which case blast them) and then gaunt screens 3rd... unless the gaunts are screening something you want a clean line of sight to (like a hive tyrant with guard) in which case shread them first and then move on.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Seeing as Carnifexes can now Deep Strike, you might need a way of getting rid of them fast. That they also now come in broods of 3 makes it difficult to kill them off because you must go through many more wounds. Shooty Fexes are also pretty nasty, and with their own attached Alpha Warrior they will almost never end up without synapse and can sit in mid-field with their big guns while the other synapse creatures rush forward.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

Salamanders would be better for Nids. Vulkan Twinlinking all flamers and Meltas means that it'll be hard for them to escape killy death by fire.

Bulk Vulkans Command squad out with storm shields and you have a rock hard unit that can fend off pretty much any assault.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

darklove said:


> Seeing as Carnifexes can now Deep Strike, you might need a way of getting rid of them fast. That they also now come in broods of 3 makes it difficult to kill them off because you must go through many more wounds. Shooty Fexes are also pretty nasty, and with their own attached Alpha Warrior they will almost never end up without synapse and can sit in mid-field with their big guns while the other synapse creatures rush forward.


Only solo fexs can DS, so the enemy just put a 200-240pt unit right inot the action... but for that cost you could have a trygon or a prime that has more wounds, more attacks, higher initiative and higher weapon skill, sure you lose a little strength but against anything other then a monolith or a LR who cares?
Units of 3 fex with an alpha are going to be something like 700pts by the time you give them guns... for 15 wounds thats a massive amount of points. You cannot even play games with wound allocation (except for the alpha) because all the fexs must be identical. 

I maintain that the only reason to use a fex with the new dex is because you dont own a trygon... in no way are fexes better then the same points worth of trygon/mawloc. No fleet and 2/3 of the wounds for more options and a higher strength is just not a good exchange to make.


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## Funkadacious (Jun 5, 2010)

I'd go for whirlwinds (Incendiary Castellan Missiles ignore cover saves) because they hit hard and use a large blast template, good for thinning out swarms. A vindicator works too, inflicting instant death to anything without toughness 6 (being strength 10 AP 2 large blast).

Maybe even throw in some Sterngard Vets, and use Hellfire rounds? Rapid fire and wounds on a 2+ regardless of toughness...

Plasma Cannons might be a good tactic too, strength 7 AP2 blast is devastating to near everything.


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