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How to take out shooty bugs?


LPetersson

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Hail Wolf Brothers.

Fresh from a glorious victory against the tyranid menace I ask you:

So, how would you take out an army of shooty tyranids?

 

A friend of mine tend to field shooty tyranids and although their accuracy is nothing like the finely honed shooting of the Emperor's finest the insane amount of re-rolls he get's to hit and then again to wound takes its toll rather quickly.

 

Just last night a unit of Wolf Guard Termies got rather badly mauled in a turn of shooting. Ok, rolling snake eyes three times in one turn was pretty annoying...

 

It seems like he can shoot further (Everything seems to be 36"+), is more accurate (re-rolls to hits) and wounds more (Living weapons re-roll to wound)...

3+ save is good, but not when a squad suddenly have to take 12 saves.

 

So, those of you who usually win against shooty bugs, What do you bring to the party?

 

 

Next time I play against this friend I have every intention of bringing 9 Land speeder Tornados, 2xWGBL/Cyclones, Sniper Dread, 2 or 3 GH swuads with TLLC Razor backs. Then let's see who's shooty...

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Well mate, i am playing the shooty bugs from hell as well and i tend to crush any sort of marines with them :)

 

The best advice i can give you is heavy armor! The only way nids can destroy a landraider is with monstrous creatures in close combat. and if he has a shooty list he won't have that many cc orientated big bugs. Even with predators or vindicators he will have trouble to take them down. sure, a venom cannon hit will make them not shoot for a turn but it only hits in 50% and glances front armor with a 66% chance, but he can't have more than 3 of those cannons (with strenght 10). 2 or 3 Landraiders will ruin his game anyway. Some shooty dreadnaughts will be a good thing to have as well.

And if the raiders can deliver those thunderhammer/ss terminaters next to any big bug he is dead meat, at least if he is not cc orientated or has strong support. If you have an idea of what is in his list i might give you more specific tips... does he also take outflanking genestealers? those an be a pain for any army. Other than that you will have to hug cover. He can't shoot what he can't see and as you stated the max range of tyranids is 36". The most deadly thing in the tyranid army, a twin devourer tyrant, has only 18" range however.

I agree with bringing a Landraider. You might want to think about bringing a Crusader pattern. The amount of shots it can load out at a 12" range is pretty nasty. I would also think about Grey Hunters in a drop pods with bolters and flamer. You can drop in close enough to use the flamer to good effect.

He usually eats armour like it's tasty IG infantry, and yup, there are outflanking stealers too.

 

Maybe I'll bring a Land Raider or two next time, they just don't tend to survive very long D:<

Shootyfexs may not be built for CC, but they can still tear a Land Raider apart pretty quickly...

 

Hmmm, worth a shot though.

One thing is for sure, don't do it with a Bike based army :lol: I have been playing vanilla Marines in order to hone some tactics and prepare for new Dex however I made this list for fun and the Nid player made his to win because he played the previous Sunday and got wiped out by Orks so he was not in a mood to play for fun. Had I brought my to win list you would have seen 2 Land Raiders with 2 Vindis and a horde of Marines all Tac Squaded out with Razorbacks and Templates everywhere with a smattering of melta and flamers for fun which should be a good enough list to take on any Army...

 

Enjoy my pain in this vid...

 

Shootyfexs may not be built for CC, but they can still tear a Land Raider apart pretty quickly...

 

They can't do it that quickly. They only got 3 attacks on the charge, maybe 4 if they have a pair of scything talons, and if they hit you on 6s chances are your raiders will survive a round of combat or two. and he should not be able to tear the raider apart at all if there are some assault terminators coming out and smashing the bug before he can even reach the LR. A Unit of Bloodclaws loaded with powerfists will also do fine since a carnifex has only WS 2 if he has no upgrades (wich he wont when he is a shooty one).

 

the thing about shooty carnifexes is that they are not so scary in close combat, even if they look like it. Thunderhammers and Fists will get them. He can counter your assault units with genestealers of course, that is where it gets tricky. If possible you have to stay away from the table edges as far as possible and have some dakka at hand. genestealers can't destroy a landraider, but any other tanks are rather easy meat for them. The worst thing for a unit of genestealers is to arrive at the table edge where a LRC is waiting for them. they will get rapid fired to death.

 

My general advice would be to stay in the back, use long range weapons to target his MCS one after another (if possible all AP2 weapons on the flying tyrant first (if his tyrant is with a tyrant guard rather focus on the carnifexes first). When his genestealers arrive make sure nothing soft is within 18 inches of the table edges. or to block their way with landraiders of some sort. once the genestealers are dealt with you can counter assault him and try to take down his remaining, hopefully wounded MCs with assault units that have been sitting in the landraiders till then.

 

It might not be a bad idea to take some scouts with rocket launcher and a few sniper rifles with you, since those also have a good chance of wounding a Carnifex.

 

In my shooty bug list i usually have trouble to control objectives. genestealers die really quick when they get shot, they don't make good objective holders.

 

I assume he takes some without number gaunts? My tactic is usually to let them run in a first wave and when they are dead use them to claim objectives which i of course put as close as possible to my own table edge so they can get there in a turn or two. you can't do much about that, except to try to kill his gaunts as late as possible so they might actually come back too late to reach the objective. or kill the Synapse unit that must stay in the back, since gaunts do not count as scoring units when not in synapse. any objectives far from his table edge will be hard to hold for him. if he puts gaunts on them kill as many as you can without wiping out the whole unit, and then finish the others off in your last turn if possible.

Blast weapons are your friends... whirlwinds and vindicators.

 

For big (shooty) bugs, I favour assault cannons and plasmaguns - they tend to die pretty quick. As you say though, 24" range makes positioning crucial.

 

Razorbacks of plasmagun Grey Hunters are a pretty sound bet, and at 150-180 points can usually be fielded on mass. The occasional pod might work, but might also be a disaster. A thunder hammer to the face out of a land raider will also do the trick...

Since you lucky Wolves get access to the new vehicles from Codex: Space Marines, you should consider Land Speeder Typhoons. Armed with a heavy bolter and missile launcher you shouldn't struggle to bring down any of the 'Elite' Fexes since there's no way to give them a 2+ armor save. Typhoons also double as Genestealer killers very well, since they're able to move 12" and fire both the heavy bolter and a pair of frag missiles (since the frags are classed as defensive weapons).

 

Grey Hunters in either Rhinos or Razorbacks should have a fairly easy time with most bugs, too. The big ones can be dealt with by repeatedly bashing them in the face with as many power fists as you can take whereas the little 'uns don't much appreciate bolter and flamer fire. Try not to have any of your units within 18" of the short table edges since outflanking 'Stealers can reach you otherwise. If that's impossible, try to bait them into attacking a light transport full of Marines. Move only 6" to give the 'Stealers a good chance of hitting and let them try to take out the transport. If they do, it's no big deal since you can pile out, pass your Pinning check with ease and then light them up in your shooting phase at close range. If the 'Stealers fail to take out the transport, fire at them with the tank's weapons as well as those of any passengers if possible.

 

In closing, you'll do best to take a largely mechanized list with strong counter-attacking potential. Most Tyranid players will walk even their shooty bugs toward you (it's like instinct to them or something!) so be ready to pounce when the moment is right.

 

Good luck!

Totally agree w/ Firedrake; the LS Typhoons work wonders. It's a double threat b/c the missile launcher can fire either frag or krak missiles, making it a threat to even the biggest of gribblies. Also agree with 'drake in that PFs are your friends if aforementioned big gribblies get up in your face.

 

Weapons w/ high rates of fire are good, too, especially HBs and ACs. I've found, though, that HBs are a little more useful against 'nids, as they have a longer reach. The fact that most 'nids' armor saves are crap makes the HB one of your best friends against the bugs.

 

Also agree w/ Nostromo about the WWs and Vindis. Gotta love the pie-plates!

 

I also love plasma; cannons are great, guns are great, pistols are great. Nothing quite like AP2!

 

If all else fails...try a can of RAID.

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