Bug Hunting

[waaanial00]

Still killing Synapse in key areas is still the key to beating bugs, now more than ever. With assault bugs gaining rage after they are out of synapse range we can effectively stage multi assaults which play to our favour.

 

An example of this is my first outing against bugs (low points and with my Orks but its still valid).

 

I had my Nob bikers kill his only Synapse (Zoanthropes) with shooting, this then triggered his Hormagaunts and Rippers to charge them in the next turn. Needless to say I killed enough rippers to tip the combat in my favour and I caught the rippers in sweeping advance and was able to keep the hormagaunts from reforming.

 

Ok this example is relatively hard to pull off like for like with marines however think of shooting attacks killing the synapse creatures and the Nob bikers being something like Lightning Claw terminators and it would still work. Its all about stopping the Nid player from holding back his weaker units from multi assaulting with his stronger ones. It was the key to killing Carnifexes in 4th ed and can still be a valid tactic in 5th ed with taking down tough Monsterous creatures by focusing on kililng the weaker ones and forcing a large difference which eventually kills the MC with fearless rolls.

 

Wan

[Captain Idaho]

All it takes for a smart nid player is to place his objectives inside terrain, so even if his synapse is killed his termagants can just run into that terrain off their own accord, and end up scoring anyway.quote]

 

What I was refering to with Synapse is the Tyranid units can still hold an objective but are noticably easier to push off it without it. Termagaunts have Ld6 so even shooting can dislodge them off an objective. Hormagaunts, Ravenors, Gargoyles and even Lictors can all be broken in counter attacks (for a unit of Lictors it can even mean a single loss can mean the unit breaks and runs) and this means synapse is fairly important in keeping these units in the fight against Marines since quite often they will need to grind our units down in assaults that they lose but kill a few models or just to stop us from shooting them in the next turn.

 

To counter your example above, a single Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer can ruin the day for a unit of Termagaunts hiding at the back like this. Outflanking units or fast moving bikers can also ruin their day.

 

The important thing to remember is the threat of such a thing, even if you have no desire to use your army like that, can force a Tyranid player to invest his points in a skulking synapse creature at the back, which is points not used in an attack on your forces. And since Space Marines are an army that enjoys using all their forces against their opponents piece meal, this is only a good thing.