Oh crap...

[eyescrossed]

Hi, I've recently started collecting chaos, and I'm gonna be playing a battle against Tyranids tomorrow, or maybe even sooner, and my opponent will have 2-4 monstrous creatures, a shed load of genestealers and gaunts, a lictor, probably a biovore and 6-9 warriors.

 

I'll be facing him with this army

 

HQ: Khorne lord with Bloodfeeder - 140

Khorne lord in Terminator armour with Powerfist and Personal Icon - 145

Summoned Greater Daemon - 100

 

Elites: 5 Terminators, Icon of Khorne, 2 Powerfists, Combi-flamer, Heavy Flamer, Champion with pair of Lightning Claws - 230

5 Possessed - 130

 

Troops: 10 Chaos Marines, Icon of Chaos Glory, Heavy Bolter, Meltagun, Aspiring Champion with Powerfist - 220

5 Chaos marines, Flamer, Champion with Power Weapon - 110

8 Berzerkers, Skull Champion with Power Weapon - 203

Rhino, Dozer Blade - 40

8 Lesser Daemons - 104 points

 

Fast Attack: 2 Spawn - 80

 

1502 Points.

 

Note that I can't change units because I've already bought them, but I can change options on all except the 2 lords and Terminators.

 

So, what tips do you have for me fighting against Tyranids?

 

EDIT: Edited some choices.

[Mal]

Well firstly keep your troops out of combat with the MC's, you'll get chewed up and spat out again.

 

The few powerfists you have are going to by your only real hope of hurting these, which is not a good thing in your army.

 

Try to charge the zerks into the stealers, you'll get hurt, probally badly, but its your best bet, and that leavfes your tacs to mop up the gaunts and whatever stealers survive the zerks....

 

Whats going to cause you serious headache is the multipul MC's, you can tie, 1 mabey 2 at best... the others will wreck havok...

 

Whats worse, your shooting is substandard, you have one gun that stand a good chance at wounding a MC.... don't waste it.

[ShinyRhino]

I don't know much about Chaos forces, having only seen them from across the table. Same with Nids.

But, make sure you keep yourself buttoned up inside that Rhino whenever possible. The small Nid troops can't hurt it, and you'll be free to move around without getting mobbed by those. Keep the Rhino away from the MCs, obviously. If at all possible, toss your 5-man unit withthe flamer in there, and do a flamer drive-by to cut huge losses into his gaunts.

 

Not sure how your summoned Greater Daemon will stack up against a Fex, but it might be able to tarpit one for a while.

[Askari]

drop the heavy bolter and meltagun, replace them with two plasma guns. Drop the powerweapon from the 5 man squad, it needs to focus on killing little bugs and that power weapon won't do anything. You might want to use the champ in the 5 man squad to summon the greater daemon. This daemon should be atacking other monstrous creatures.

 

The lesser daemons and possessed should be used to tie up genestealers. If the possessed get rending or power weapons send them against the fexes instead. Don't waste your berzerkers charging stealers. They should have two plasma pistols (not on the champ) and should be charging into the gaunts and firing plasma into the monstrous creatures. Dozer blade isn't really necessary and neither is the rhino. Drop these and give a powerfist to the skull champ.

 

Replace the flamer and heavy flamer plus the lightning claws in the termies with combi-plasmas. deepstrike these guys in range of an' MC and fire at it.

 

You're going to have a hard time with this list but you may be able to pull out a win with good tactics.

[eyescrossed]

If I do all the things askari suggested, I'd have to proxy a crapload of models.

[Mal]

Thats something to be avoided, as it can and likely will cause confusion while playing.

[Warp Angel]

Bolter fire.

 

Specifically massed bolter fire.

 

Eliminate the nearest threat first.

 

And when you get into hand to hand, get into it with ALL of the units that you can at the same time. Tyranids excel at wiping out single units in hand to hand. They are far less effective at killing two units at the same time.

 

The MC's aren't QUITE as scary as you might think though. Out of every 6 attacks, a Hive Tyrant is only going to hit 4 times, wounding 4 times. Even assuming he beats you in initiative, that gives something like an 8 man berzerker squad 16 attacks back (if they've charged, and they should), hitting 8, wounding 3, one failed save. Two 8 man berzerker squads should make mincemeat out of a hive tyrant in two turns.

 

Same with a Carnifex, though it will take longer. His WS and Init suck though, so you'll get more attacks hitting before he gets to go.

 

If you're down to smaller unit sizes for whatever reason, charge them in to hand to hand, or set them to be the only unit that can be effectively charged. The idea is that your opponent will finish his turn with your unit wiped out, and be left standing in the open for you to shoot them to death.

 

Number of dice on a single target is incredibly important. It really doesn't matter how you get to that number of dice (shooting, hand to hand, whatever).

[Master Of Malfeasance X]

Make sure you have a copy of his army list in your hand. Tyranid players are famous for 'forgetting' who had what or putting too many biomorphs on one creature, or 'misplacing' his heavy 'fex vs his elite fex.

 

Also, as the save on genestealers can be upped to 4+ which will be a huge difference for your army. Ask to see his list before the game (but after armies are chosen) and make absolutely sure you know everyone's save. Normal troops can kill a carnifex with a 3+ save and T6, they would have much much more trouble against a fex with 6 S10 attacks, T7 and a 2+ save (2+ on MC? What were they thinking?).

 

I find that, often, the hardest part of fighting a tyranid army is keeping its player honest. Zoanthropes and rippers don't fleet, stealers with brood lord don't fleet, stealers don't have leaping, warriors with leaping aren't fleet, flesh hooks aren't even available to some units (like raveners). There is a lot to remember and unfortunately, even the most honest players sometimes forget or make stupid speed mistakes, which makes the real cheaters REALLY hard to nail.

 

Be prepared for arguments and assault creep (moving just a little farther than you are allowed--with most armies it doesn't matter, but with nids, it can add as much as 3" to his movement). Remember, in 5E, vertical movement is treated just like horizontal movement. Get high into buildings if you can. If you get dawn of war, let him go first and don't deploy anything. When he wanders a little closer to your lines, bring everything in in the middle of the table and waste the little ones, because you don't have enough dakka to shoot the big ones.

 

Take control of the field, call him on it IMMEDIATELY if you see something wrong. If he doesn't have his codex there for you to look through, don't play him.

 

I should probably add the caveat that the above is a worst-case scenario and only describes about 90% of the nid players I have met. If you happen to encounter one of the good ones, play on and have a great game.

[eyescrossed]

Thanks, not to mention that fexes can also have 5 wounds. So that's 5 T7, 2+ save wounds.