Some Random Thoughts About Fighting Tyranids
These D-bags can do it all...out number you, out shoot you, out CC you, out move your infantry, out monstrous creature you...your only hope is to shoot alot and stick together and have supporting elements to your army.
Hive Tyrant-They come in 2 flavors.
-Flyrant-they are fast and are fitted with dakka guns or pure CC, these guys should be killed early on, but most tyranid players will place them so that they get cover saves in which it becomes a gamble when dedicating any fire to them. But they still hate things that get around high toughness and power armor….like fists, high str. Power weapons, rending and such…they don’t like combat resolution when guants are in combat as well.
-Walkingrant-usually with guns and tyrant guard….generally you want to unload plasma on this….whenever they are NOT in cover… if they are… you’d rather shoot something else…you want
Broodlord-You want an ultra killy HQ with meh defensive qualities…and a cheap cost…here he is…. This guy is a monster for the price you pay… though he substitutes his defense for some ridiculous offensive abilities. His problems come in two forms.
-Meh Defensive abilities: He is at best an MEQ…so power weapons will eventually get through his few wounds.
-Infiltrating=at least 1 to 2 turns of shooting into the face of his retinue…that can be good for the tyranid player, but you really should not ignore this unit…
Again, small arms to force saves and/or hvy flamers are the way to go…even tossing them a vehicle to ‘tar pit’ them could work, and would be better if the rhino explodes and takes some things with it.
Warriors-These guys are very flexible in terms of equipment. They are the infrastructure of the Tyranid list, in both small and large army lists. They provide tailored support and synapse coverage, and can use different FoC slots should you need to. These guys are mostly always have a guant screen in front of them.
(*)Flying Types are fast and usually CC oriented… but their armor save is not improvable…so should they ever NOT be in cover….bolter them down.
(*)Close Combat-these guys will be slower versions of ravenors…they rend, they are ‘tough’ and they can be relatively fast, they still have the defensive qualities of a SM scout. Try to shoot these guys down, but you’d rather shoot down the genestealers over these guys.
(*)Shooty-I usually see the small blast template spam…these guys can be scary with some decent scatters…resulting in a crap load of armor saves. Generally being in cover only helps those in 5+/6+/- armor, but the only thing you can hope for here is nice armor saves and high scatters. Otherwise, spread out…and close combat these guys… it might prove hard to lock them down, with them having 24” range…but if you do… you’ll be better off with them not shooting at you.
Lictors-these guys do get a shafting… dangerous terrain checks when they come in and worth a kill point…they are generally there to be annoying… charging and maybe tying up a havoc squad or attacking something isolated…and to give the feeder tendrils to a unit near them in combat…these guys are not very durable in combat… basic CSM squads have a good chance of killing one in combat.
Elite Carnifex-Tyranid ‘medium’ tanks. I see them in 3 flavors:
Dakkafex-these guys are still king of forcing saves, power armor is not safe.
Stranglerfex-these guys are cheap and they throw in a str 8 pie plate… it can be scary.
Screamer Killer-these guys love run… getting there and taking names in CC.
Of all the fexes there, I find the strangler is first to go down, the dakka, then the screamer killer… those OUT of cover are always shot first.
Usually you’ll want to shoot them with mid-long range weapon… using close range weapons only on wounded fexs…small arms has a chance, but not a good one.
Hormaguants-these guys are fast on the charge, able to scare your guys by traveling very far in the assault phase, and are able to tie things up… BUT, if they charge too soon, they may hurt themselves more than help due to combat resolution.
Guants-So many varieties…the same way to kill them. Their goal is to take pot shots and tie you up as the big guys or the killy guys get into position. You can kill them with small arms…. Or if they are reduced enough, let them charge or charge them and kill them double time with combat resolution.
Ripper Swarms-They DO NOT SCORE… their role is to tie things up due to the number of wounds they can have in a fight…. But if entering a bad combat… you may lose more than you’d think you do and the tar pit will disappear very quickly. Kill these with template and blast weapons, and better if they are str 6+ blast weapons… …like plasma cannons…each wound will kill 2 bases….that is if you get past their cover saves……so flamers will be easier for dug in rippers at 2 wounds per wound caused.
Genestealers-Those annoying dudes that can wreck or disappoint… bring the heavy flamers or hvy bolters or autocannons… even small arms… you want to shoot these guys down before they get into combat. They are also likely to have a guant screen…weight of dice will be used to get past that. Should you enter combat, do it on your terms…IE, accept charges that they need to get through cover, or charge them back, denying them the initiative or their attacks is GOOD.
Gargoyles-I rarely see these guys, but they are good, except they don’t score now and are IRL expensive. These guys have effectively 4 attacks on the charge…one from shooting, one faster attack, and 2 attacks base… you’ll prob. see these guys accompanying a Flyrant, they are there to look scary and tie other stuff… but NOT to enter the same fight with the Tyrant…unless they know they will win. Like guants, small arms/flamers/ordinance.
Ravenors-They are there as the bigger brother to the hormaguant…but more expensive. Their asset is fast charges that can catch an opponent offguard….and these are rending attacks, so they can be lethal depending on the dice rolls. Generally weight of dice is good at bringing these guys down… and str 8 weaponry if they are ever out of synapse.
Spore Mines-Free Kill points…awesome. Let them pop, it’s not so bad.
Zoenthropes-These are basically used as the infrastructure of the army. The normal equipment you’ll see on them will be synapse and warp blast. They keep the little guys in line, while providing some flexible ranged support. They are very durable to anything but AP2, and can target heavy infantry and heavy tanks…the balance here is actually hitting their targets, and giving up a kill point each. Like I said before, these guys will go down to AP2 weapons… but don’t think that small arms is not a good option….those 1’s will roll at some point. Thought they are not high on the list of things to kill, they get there when they are in range to wreck an AV 14 tank….
Hvy Carnifex-mostly like the elite fexes…. But they may be tougher… so you’ll prob. stick with the heavy weapons. These more expensive fexes will most likely be hybid fexes… adding in more weapons or splitting between range and CC…. Or tooled up in defensive upgrades, but that’s generally not see too much.
Boivore-You are prob. not gonna see these guys… ‘they shoot kill points at you’….lolcakes. Small arms are used to kill it….that is if you actually spend the resources to get to it.
The basic theme is to shoot everything down before they contact you… easy to say, almost impossible to do…esp. with chaos.
What I will suggest is target priority, letting the tyranid player deploy first…and then castling. Should you deployfirst….just castle anyway…
You want small arms on the closest gaunts….and you want heavier weapon taking out stuff NOT in cover…
As for what to shoot first… you should shoot the stuff that can hurt you over the course of the game…. Shooty fexes and/or Zoentrhopes….only if you have the range weapons to take them out in 1.5 turns…fast tyrands should be next…but if they hug cover you can take 1-2 turns focusing on the fexes for now. When the main tyranid line comes, you’ll want a squad or two to counter attack, able to take out hordes and MC’s alike.
In the end it’s about taking out choice targets with the shooting you get to do, and supporting your line and hoping for the best…
‘Those’ Lists.[/B]:
(*)NidZilla-Lots of monstrous creatures….usually 7/8, with the last slot going to zoenthopes. This army is annoying, because causing wounds to MC’s is not enough… they are still 100% effective no matter how many wounds they have above 1. So when you choose a fex to die…finish the job. Anyway, you’ll prob. want to kill the faster stuff and the ordinance/shooty fexes… combat fexes can wait 1-2 turns.
(*)The Swarm-This includes lots of synapse and many, many guants/genestealers. The guants act as a tarpit, with initial combat resolution they prob. have the numbers to careless. The genestealers are the hammer, relying on rending. There will be other items, but the majority will be guants.
But don’t let guants fool you… they will roll a ridiculous number of dice when charging you… and you will eventually fail some saves…their guys are expendable…your guys: Not so much. Again, castling is good if the opponent has no other choice but to deploy across and along the deployment zone, it makes blast weapons better or makes them contribut 2-3 turns late.
(*)Stealer Shock-Lots of Genestealers….they can take out almost anything that’s not Av 14. They are fast and want to give you hugs….. shoot the closest squad dead… not good to let stragglers in kill points or objective games… though 2-3 charging you isn’t as bad as a whole new squad, but target priority should be too hard… Broodlord first, and then the closest Genestealer squad… castling up is good… leaving counter attackers behind is good. Just don’t get caught in a multiple charge unless you allow it.
(*)Balanced-These are the lists that have a little of everything and still have the strengths of the multiple lists. These kinds of lists make YOUR target priority your primary concern. What will be a threat all game, what can wait, what is the easiest thing to take out, etc.
My 7 Cents.
