DOA Vs. Tyranid death star

[lonedrow]

Hello all,

 

Looking to the forums for others experience with dealing with tyranid death star units. Specifically those of you who play DOA armies.

[Brother-Captain Lucius]

Im currently using a 4 Plasma Gun honour guard to great effect. 225 pts with 8 str 7 shots with FnP for the overheats. If that doesn't work i send in my SS equipped vanguard.

[breng77]

I would suggest staying away as much as possible as you are a good deal faster than the Tyranid Deathstar.

[lonedrow]

@breng77,

 

You are probably right. I should just avoid them, but there is this voice inside that says to go and fight that death star unit.

Now if I leave the unit alone, it winds up being a waste of points spent for my opponent, which also makes me happy. For some reason I always feel the need to throw units at the death star. Im gonna just try to stay away from it and see how that helps.

[Gumo9]

Although not DOA, my solution is of course Mephiston.

 

When not fielding the big guy I have also had superb results from DC dread and furioso in close combat.

 

G

[breng77]

ummm...a tyranid DS unit would likely kill mephiston, as it would go first, w/ instant death causing PWs.

[ancient god]

Newbie question time: What does he use for his Death Star? Alpha warriors plus warrior brood?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

It really depends on what is the Nid army. DoA does not have much long range shooting so it takes special tactics to kill a deathstar bubble wrapped with gaunts.

 

G :rolleyes:

[Stormbrow II]

Is it the Hive tyrant (Leech Wounds, Re-rolls to hit) with 2 Tyrant Guard and an Optimus Prime parked nearby for bombs of high S Force Weapon-equivalent attacks that can allocate incoming fire til the cows come home?

[breng77]

The Tyranid Deathstar generally refers to the following

 

Hive Tyrant (with Lash whip and bone sword, either scything talons or heavy venom cannon, armored shell, paroxism and another power, regeneration and old adversary(prefered enemy upgrade,)

 

3 Tyrant Guard w/ Lashwhips

 

1 Tyranid Prime w/ 2 bone swords, rendign claws, regeneration, possibly poison or furious charge.

 

This unit is usually screened by little bugs to get cover (as the guard and Prime are infantry), everything has a 3+ or better armor save (tyrant has a 2+), the unit has majority Toughness 6.

 

In close combat this unit reduces any models in base contact to initiative 1 (which means any scary IC are getting hit first), the tyrant is not an IC and cannot be picked out, This unit has 8 PW (10 on the charge) attacks at I 5 (all of which have a chance to cause instant death (4 are s 6 4 are s 5 or 6 (if furious charge is taken)). As well as 9 S 5 Rending Attacks (12 on the charge) at I 4. Rerolling all rolls to hit due to prefered enemy. If this unit charges the tyrant has usually cast paroxism reducing your WS to 1, making it hard for you to hit the unit in the first place. Even if you do manage to put wounds on the tyrant or Prime, both have a chance to regenerate those wounds.

[ancient god]

Holy crap that's evil.

 

Seems my Nid opponent has been going easy on me with only 6 hive guard and no death star. :rolleyes:

[breng77]

Well it is just a particular style of play, it is not exactly a small point expenditure, clocking in at 585 points as described. So while evil it is more than 25% of a 2000 point army, at lower points usually 1 guard will get dropped but that is only 65 points cheaper.

 

It is also very slow, as it can only move 6" and assault 6". If you are building a Tyranid deathstar then pretty much your whole army will be built around said unit. Things like Dawn of war make it even more of an issue as it cannot start on the table, and will have to walk across the table to assault your opponent.

[Stormbrow II]

@Breng77: Yeah that's the one. Lots of points spent in a few guys.

 

My answer: Jaws. Oh yeah, you're BA. LOL.

 

Avoid it like the plague unless you have a silly number of Storm Shields to absorb hits before slowly whittling it down I suppose.

[lonedrow]

From experience I believe that its best for a DOA list to stay away from tyranid death star. There seems to be no solid tactic which can be used to dispose of them. I just have to discipline myself not to attack the damn unit. Besides, I have those pesky genestealers to worry about.

[gustmic]

I have limited F2F DoA experience.

I've mostly tried out in Vassal40k and then not against a "Death Star" unit.

 

However, at 2000pts my list includes:

- 14 Meltaguns (using 2xHG w/ 4MG and 3x Assault squads w/ 2MG)

- 5 Infernus pistols

- 2 Blood Lances

 

Using mobility and targeting MCs (that usually don't get a lot of cover saves) you can usually down quite a lot before charging with S5-attacks and PFs/THs.

 

Also, if you are up against Tervigons that fart out Termagants and they are next to MCs, then I have found that focusing on charging multiple units to build a nice "multiple combat" work real well.

If only the PF/TH-guy charges the MC and you connect the others to Termagants, then you will be able to win the combat by quite a lot.

They being fearless will then suffer a lot of armour saves that will take them down.

Key is the set up before charge, choosing the balance between Termagants (Inflicted wounds by you) and MCs (inflicted wounds by the Nids).

Important is also to bring all you've got and try and take out dangerous elements such as Shrikes w/Boneswords and similar.

 

/gustmic

[breng77]

@Breng77: Yeah that's the one. Lots of points spent in a few guys.

 

My answer: Jaws. Oh yeah, you're BA. LOL.

 

While Jaws can work it is hardly a given since the unit will only lose a model on the roll of a 5 (for guard) or a 6 (for the tyrant or Prime). And then only if you are outside 12 inches.

[Judaz]

Im currently using a 4 Plasma Gun honour guard to great effect. 225 pts with 8 str 7 shots with FnP for the overheats. If that doesn't work i send in my SS equipped vanguard.

 

How do you run your honour guard against Tyranids? JP, rhino, razor or foot slogging? And do they start on the board?

 

Edit: with jump packs, why would they cost 225pts without jp's? I'm a dumbass.

[Brother-Captain Lucius]

Ah no bother. Nids so far havent been a bother for my DoA list.

[Stormbrow II]

While Jaws can work it is hardly a given since the unit will only lose a model on the roll of a 5 (for guard) or a 6 (for the tyrant or Prime). And then only if you are outside 12 inches.

And?

 

Its not beyond the realms of possibility to hit 2 guys when throwing Jaws depending upon how you and they have moved. The staying outside 12" thing is easy. You must be using DofA a lot to not have heard of/remember a Rhino. That backs away 6" a turn. Popping Jaws. Slowly luring them toward your Long Fangs. That are shooting Ap2/3 shots every turn.

 

BA are different obviously. I'd suggest a VV squad loaded up with SS to hold them up, or at least distract them by taking out nearby support units like Hive Guard so that you can draw them away from the rest of your units. If you're not confident of destroying them in your turn then at least force them to charge you in their turn so that you are dictating their movement on some level and buying you some time for the rest of your force to get away or buy time to chew through his units.

[Rybnick]

In my DoA army when facing my friends Nid's (granted it's not the "death star" unit described above) I've found Dev's w/ missile launchers to be extremely useful (the ocasional LC has payed off for me too), and abusing multi assault's to pile on a ton of fearless wounds on big nasty MC's to work excellently. I recently used this tactic to pile on 17 fearless combat resolution wounds onto a nasty Hive Tyrant. It's pretty funny to see your buddy roll 17 armor saves.

[Drachnon]

Hmm if limited to DoA my best guess be 2 plasma honour guards, 8 plasma guns should deal a decent amount of damage and you can just jump away if they try getting close.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

That deathstar sounds plain disgusting !! The Swarmlord is bad news as well. Luckily all their best cc units walk while DoA is one of the fastest and hardest hitting armies.

 

G

[breng77]

Its not beyond the realms of possibility to hit 2 guys when throwing Jaws depending upon how you and they have moved. The staying outside 12" thing is easy. You must be using DofA a lot to not have heard of/remember a Rhino. That backs away 6" a turn. Popping Jaws. Slowly luring them toward your Long Fangs. That are shooting Ap2/3 shots every turn.

 

Oh yeah long fangs will work, and Jaws Can work, I just would not rely on it. I actually don't even play BA. I generally play DA. Nids, is one of my other armies though.

[liberate_tutame]

Stay away from them, as someone else said, their weakness is their 12" possible charge range a turn, stay out of that, and use your speed to destroy the rest of the army. There's no winning against a Deathstar that forces you to hit last and instants deaths you before you do.

[JamesI]

Lets avoid the discussion of trolling. If you feel trolling is occuring, report the post rather than jumping on the poster.

 

Lets also try to keep this thread to the topic, not discussing Space Wolves, or even Mech BA, tactics versus Tyranids.

 

 

I would say the best thing to do is to stay away. Use much better mobility to make the fight occur where you want it to. I don't play pure DOA, so I allow shooting stuff to deal with slow enemies I don't want to fight at full strength. In pure DOA I'd go for plasma/melta honor guards in the place of the devs/attack bikes.