Grey Knights: how to fight Nids?

[JasoX]

My regular opponent sold his eldar army and got nids now. Any good advice what to take and what not to take when facing Nids?

[DarkGuard]

We're going to need more than "my opponent plays Nids now". What army is he taking? Nids have many styles, and many different builds. We could tell you take lots of incinerators to combat horde, but if he brings Nidzilla then that's not going to help you.

 

However, considering that every unit of yours can shoot two shots at 24" range, psycannons will still be fine, for multitude of shots. Take Purifiers for any horde units, and give them halberds so they can even go toe to toe with Stealers. Shoot the big ones, disrupt synapse, then clean up. Psyflemen are horrible for Nids as they can insta-kill Warriors and take away their save, while Nids struggle against mech due to their best anti-tank only having a 24" range. However, do remember they can shoot round corners.

 

Stay away from him, in tanks if you can, shoot, retreat, shoot, retreat, and when he gets near counter-charge.

 

If you want to take an Assassin the Eversor will be of more use than the Vindicare. The Culexus is also worth thinking about, as the Tyranids can get a few psykers, but I'd prefer the Eversor.

 

You may also want to consider Orbital Bombardment, especially if he uses horde, as you'll hit something, even if you always scatter.

 

Just so you know, Shadow in the Warp doesn't work if you're in a transport. While that's useless for your combat powers, shooting powers and Summoning I believe should be fine in getting off.

[JasoX]

Atm i havent played against him yet. I know he got around 20-30 termagaunt and same amount of hormagaunts. 2 lictors, that thing that spawns gaunt. 5 warriors and some big leader dude. thanks for the general info, im up against him in sunday.

[DarkGuard]

That's enough to help out. It sounds similar to my list, I play with Warriors too, have the Tervigon (the thing that shoots out Gaunts), and lots of little guys, although I prefer Stealers and Gargoyles over Hormagaunts. You may have got off lightly here, as there's no Hive Guard or Zoanthropes to hinder your mech lists, and Hormagaunts aren't as good as Stealers in combat.

 

That being said, he's got a decent midfield base with the Warriors, Tervigon and Termagants. The Tervigon is T6 with 6 wounds and 3+ save, and while it'll find it hard to get a cover save, it won't need one against Grey Knights, as you don't have a lot of missile launchers and lascannons. Of course, rending psycannons go the trick, but then you're in danger of getting assaulted.

 

Those Hormagaunts could prove troublesome, as they have IB-Feed they don't really need synapse support. They're fast, with a 3D6 pick the highest run move, and if he's given them toxin sacs they have poisoned 4+ attacks. Adrenal glands on top of this means he's hitting with 3 attacks from each one at I6 wounding on a 4+ with re-rolls, which isn't pretty. However, if he's upgraded them they get pointy, fast, and so he'll have less of them, shoot them first. Storm bolters may struggle though as he can give them FnP with Catalyst, although your psycannons will still cut them down.

 

Lictors aren't that good, can't assault anymore after deep striking, enough said on that matter.

 

Warriors die quick to S8, and you've got Psyfleman Dreads which throw out 4 TL S8 AP4 shots, Warriors in the open don't like this. That being said they'll probably be advancing behind the Gaunt screen, but still, one failed save and that's a whole Warrior gone. They're also affected by your NFWs, so don't be afraid to get into combat with them, unless they have lash whips on them, in which case just shoot them.

 

Big leader dude I'm guessing is the Hive Tyrant. Watch out for his powers. He can either give Preferred Enemy to everything nearby or make a Troops unit Outflank, with a bonus to Reserve rolls. The first lets him nominate midfield and combat, the latter can be horrible, especially if its the Hormagaunts or combat Warriors outflanking, and you have no transports. If he's on his own he'll come down easy though, again, hard to get cover saves, although you don't have many krak missiles anyway. In combat though he'll be hard, and paroxysm is evil and stops you from hitting well.

 

If it's just the Tyranid Prime, then that's just a supped up Warrior that enhances the Warrior he's with. Shooting he's OK, in assault he can do well, especially with a pair of boneswords and toxin sacs, allowing him to hunt nearly any IC and take them out. An as he's an IC he's difficult to kill by shooting, so beware.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[spartan249]

In this case, I'd actually recommend you try out death cult assassins with grenade support. It's inevitable that you'll get into close combat with something, as tyranids are that kind of army. Take DCAs so that you're prepared for that eventuality with close combat power that makes a mockery of genestealers.

 

Inquisitor with Rad grenades, Psycho grenades, and Hammerhand - 80 pts

Henchmen: 12 Death Cult Assassins - 180 pts

Land Raider Crusader: Mmelta - 265 pts

 

They're striking at halberd speed with 4 power weapon attacks on the charge, also at augmented strength against lowered toughness enemies. Plus, it doesn't break your point bank as much as terminators would.

 

Back this up with a large amount of storm bolters and psycannons, and I think you'll be ready for anything he'll pull on you. Remember that deep strike deployment options are all nullified thanks to warp quake, so you don't have to worry about dooms dropping in the middle of your strikes. Also, since everyone's got storm bolters, you don't need rhinos to operate, as you can simply move and shoot to full effect.

[DarkGuard]

But yet Rhinos are good against Nids, they struggle to crack them open, and it protects your forces. Perhaps deploy out of them but then hide inside them when they get close?

 

You do like your DCAs don't you Spartan249? Would you stick a combat weapon on the Inquisitor too, or a Daemonsword? Sounds tempting to try, if only I were GKs.

[spartan249]

I don't think the Inquisitor really needs one. He's rather weak in combat already, and a powersword on him doesn't really add much to the unit's capabilities. There's already 48 power weapon attacks coming out of this unit. If you really want something on him, I suppose either a daemonhammer or the Ordo Xenos poisoned weapon would be the weapons of choice to overcome his low strength disadvantage.

 

Like I said, GKs don't need Rhinos to operate. They're a nice bonus to have as they give you mobile walls to put in front of your opponent's advance, but you are not hamstrung if you lose your rhinos, unlike Tactical Squads. I simply prefer to put in more bodies and guns then spend points on rhinos.

 

Yes, I love the new DCAs. These guys are dirt cheap, benefit greatly from all the new grenades and psychic powers, and make a mockery of many other expensive assault units. The full 48 attacks from the DCA can obliterate anything they charge when they're with a librarian granting them Might of Titan and Hammerhand, as they all become S6 and roll 2d6 for armor pen. While Arco-Flagellants gain a bonus of 1 strength using this tactic, they are not power weapons, which reduces their effectiveness vs hard targets like Nobs and Warriors. Also, given that a lot of things they charge are going to be T3, this means that they have the capacity to instant kill nobs and warriors, which is more then enough to make me drool over the possibilities. This is also why I'm going to pack a Librarian in my DCA so they can use this tactic. Hammerhand + Might of Titan + Quicksilver will give me 48 S6 power attacks at I10, which I think is pretty hard to beat for any army in both price and ability.