First time facing the Nids.... Synapse

[Consul of Scorpions]

I have a friend who builds an Tooth and Claw army of Nids with the 5th ed rules and let's say his strategic and tactical analysis of both Tyranids and the Payoffs of the Assault Phases lead to some scary builds.

 

He runs large groups of puny horrors, mostly gants, backed up by a range of mid-cost uniformly equipped synapse selections, with a few nasty monsters like combined-arms Trygons and Raveners to deep strike any hostile elements that his main line can't hit right away.

 

The lynchpin of the Tyranid army is the synapse creatures, but be aware that those smaller gribblies can screen for their leaders and give them cover saves against even the most powerful elements of your arsenal (cover saves being identical to invulnerable saves).

 

Cutting through one brood at a time is the best tactic, assign fire priority to the weakest link in their synapse net, ussually a thin density of the big models (be sure to differentiate sledgehammers like the carnifex from the actual synapse creatures like the warriors). Pouring spare anti-vehicle fire from units that can't reach your primary target into things like Zoanthropes (these can provide synapse coverage as well) and the ever-deadly Carnifex is a good idea, and use any anti-personnel fire to thin out some of the foot soldiers.

 

The key is to focus your fire for maximum effectiveness on a few targets, spreading fire will definately get you killed in any battle, but most especially against Nids. Building dedicated fire missions for each squad helps too since you can't split heavy bolters and flamers from meltaguns and lascannons.

 

The missile launcher is your friend against Tyranids, since it is flexible enough that you can more effectively focus your fire between the large numbers of small troops that will drag you down under sheer weight of numbers and the nasty bastards keeping the little guys marching into your guns.

 

 

The Payoff of Assault-oriented aforces is that any unit in melee gets two assault phases per turn (i.e. your Assault Phase and theirs), so the really nasty options provided to tyranids makes them one of the best if not supreme in the assault phase. You will be hard-pressed to fight them off purely from a shooting perspective, so plan to have units tied up (and likely eradicated) in assaults. Also plan to be outflanked as any player would be stupid to not use infiltrating and depp striking units to surround you in a wall of melee combat.

[ShinyRhino]

Surprisingly enough, Tyranids are the army against which your humble bolters will be the most use. Nid swarms and mid-Toughness monsters fall like wheat before the scythe of bolt shells.

 

For example, it's actually FAR easier to murder a Zoanthrope with a barrage of bolter rounds, thanit is to kill it with a lascannon. Those floating heads have a 3+ invulnerable save, which massed bolter fire can cut through far easier than lone las and krak shots.

[Ming]

We've seen our fair share of bugs in my Sector. You cannot rely on the Synapse net collapse as a way to beat these xenos. In small engagements maybe, larger ones no. For all enagements the smaller creatures just act as a distraction until the larger ones can get into assault range. A monstrous bug can cause huge damage on its own to a marine squad or vehicle. Most of the monstrous, large bugs cannot be instantly killed.

 

As a marine commander, you must keep your forces in supporting range, but spread out, and take advantage of cover. Librarians are nigh useless in these engagements, as the warp shadow reduces their ability to cast their magicks.

 

Against bugs you may want to consider combat squadding every unit. The heavy weapon marines (plus preds, sternguard, etc) need to focus on the larger bugs where their high T needs to be met with high S (or hellfire) weapons. The sergeant and half squad (+/- special weapons - meltas, flamers) need to carry out the overall mission - objectives - or pursue lower T kill points. Assault terminators need to be dedicated just to killing all bugs T6 and higher. Assault marines and HF/MM speeders need to drop in the bug's rear to take down any gaunts/low T bugs left behind to lurk on objectives. Overall, beware of genestealer and lichtors able to "lurk" in your deployment zone terrain at the beginning of the engagement, as they can wreck your overall response plans if you are not aware of them.

 

Never let the bugs surprise you! If you have fought Ork Hordes, any list designed to beat an ork horde will do well against bugs.

[thade]

Okay, took me a few minutes, but now I remember what I was gonna post here back when this was only on the OR board.

 

I've faced Nids a half dozen times since the new codex came out, and I have seen Synapse be meaningful in exactly zero of those games. It seems like - for many viable lists - it's a non-issue for Nids now. Some units they have have to worry about it, some lists will be in trouble if the opponent is savy enough to exploit it...but many of their meaner units can just disregard it and get to work.

 

Long story short: you can completely ignore Synapse and you'll probably do just as well. Bolters and Flamers are very good against Nids. =)

[Zynk Kaladin]

We've seen our fair share of bugs in my Sector. You cannot rely on the Synapse net collapse as a way to beat these xenos. In small engagements maybe, larger ones no. For all enagements the smaller creatures just act as a distraction until the larger ones can get into assault range. A monstrous bug can cause huge damage on its own to a marine squad or vehicle. Most of the monstrous, large bugs cannot be instantly killed.

 

As a marine commander, you must keep your forces in supporting range, but spread out, and take advantage of cover. Librarians are nigh useless in these engagements, as the warp shadow reduces their ability to cast their magicks.

 

Against bugs you may want to consider combat squadding every unit. The heavy weapon marines (plus preds, sternguard, etc) need to focus on the larger bugs where their high T needs to be met with high S (or hellfire) weapons. The sergeant and half squad (+/- special weapons - meltas, flamers) need to carry out the overall mission - objectives - or pursue lower T kill points. Assault terminators need to be dedicated just to killing all bugs T6 and higher. Assault marines and HF/MM speeders need to drop in the bug's rear to take down any gaunts/low T bugs left behind to lurk on objectives. Overall, beware of genestealer and lichtors able to "lurk" in your deployment zone terrain at the beginning of the engagement, as they can wreck your overall response plans if you are not aware of them.

 

Never let the bugs surprise you! If you have fought Ork Hordes, any list designed to beat an ork horde will do well against bugs.

 

I literally just started playing against nids and I support everything you just said. Very good advise.

 

Adding to it, though, I recommend typhoons to thin out those T5 or higher nids. You're almost guaranteed initially to stay out of range of your enemy with those 48" missile shots so you dont have to worry about the typhoon's fragility. For 90 points, they're a steal.

 

The missile launcher is your friend against Tyranids

 

wise words, OP

[Koremu]

Surprisingly enough, Tyranids are the army against which your humble bolters will be the most use. Nid swarms and mid-Toughness monsters fall like wheat before the scythe of bolt shells.

 

For example, it's actually FAR easier to murder a Zoanthrope with a barrage of bolter rounds, thanit is to kill it with a lascannon. Those floating heads have a 3+ invulnerable save, which massed bolter fire can cut through far easier than lone las and krak shots.

The best thing to do to a zoanthrope is get into CC with it. Bolter fire is a good second choice though. Bolter fire with Null Zone in play is on a par, but risky due to SitW.

[thade]

The best thing to do to a zoanthrope is get into CC with it.

 

^This.