SW vs Tyranids at 1000 points

[VonMerrick]

This weekend I'm playing my first games in over 2 years against a tyranid player. Would you believe I haven't played against Nids ever? Even when I played back in third and early 4th edition no one in my group ever fielded them so I could use some advice.

 

I'm fielding my (in progress) new army :

Rune Priest

x5 Scouts w/melta

x10 Grey Hunters, x2 melta, PW in a Rhino

x10 Grey Hunters, x2 melta, PW in a Rhino

x2 Land Speeder Typhoons

Long Fangs: x3 ML, x2 Las

Heavy Bolter Razorback

_____________

 

I know my opponent is fielding a Hive Tyrant, Trygon Prime, Trygon, x10 Genestealers, and Termagants. There may be a surprise I don't know of but this is all I know.

 

I know his army is very light on troops for a 1k game, so if we're not playing Annihilation, objective holding will be an issue for him. My only tweak to my standard 1K list was thinking of exchanging the scouts for 5 Grey Hunters w/ special weapon and putting them and the Rune Priest in the Razorback. Maybe its my newness to this edition but I don't think the scouts fit here.

 

Please let me know how you would tackle these three monsterous creatures and please give me any tips or knowledge concerning how to handle the swarm.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Iacton Qruze]

This is a situation where I would do sniper scouts if you can.

 

Murderous Hurricane will be your best friend here as well. You need to control his Trygon, Tyrant and Genestealer assaults, and forcing him to take DT tests is the way to do that, since he will lack grenades and be at I1 in the assault. I would try to stay out of assaults against his MC's anyway, though, since you lack high-str melee.

 

Your LF unit and the Typhoons are solid, but make sure you protect the fangs from outflanking Genestealers or a deep-striking Trygon.

 

If you can afford it, I'd go double plasma on your GH squads over the melta; melta forces you to get too close to the things you'd want to hurt with it in this game.

[toonarmy]

I would swap out all melta for flamers.

 

Give the rune priest MH and Jaws.

 

Finally i would look at finding the points to turn my rhinos into razorbacks but this isn't a must given you could shoot flamers out of the top hatch of the rhinos :)

[VonMerrick]

All my other friends field armies with lots of armor so the meltas were my defacto choice when I built my army. Until now, I never really felt compelled to take Plasma or Flamers.

 

So sniper scouts would still be more viable over 5 Grey Hunters in the Razorback?

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

My other army is Tyranids, in fairness you should micturate all over him with that list as it stands. He's got 60% of his points total in three models that you can easily eliminate in three shooting phases. The only things I'd suggest are to swap the Meltas for Plasma if possible since against Tyranids you don't need the extra d6 AP but you do need range and to stay away from the board edges. Genestealers die very, very easily if you make them slog towards you.

 

Also, FYI if he only takes one brood of ten Termagants he's got about 200points left to spend.

[toonarmy]

I would say so as the only benefit of having the grey hunters in the razorback is it makes it scoring. Snipers could target the MC's or slow the grunts by forcing them to take make pinning tests. another thing you could consider to find extra points is to drop the las cannons in the long fangs and stick 2 missile launchers in there. missiles can still deal with MC's, can hit more troops if you fire a template and are cheaper. witht he extra points i would get a few more scouts to boost the number of riffle shots.

 

If you go the sniper route, make sure you decide to swap out the pistol and close combat weapon for the sniper, not the bolter. The codex lets you choose and the extra attack in close combat against kids is pointless. just shoot with the snipers until they get within 12" then blast a way rapid firing the bolters. if you get charged then you still have counter attack to get an extra attack and you should be in cover so have the initiative.

[VonMerrick]

I know he's got 40 Termagants. Two squads of 20.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Well then that's even easier. Once you've killed his Tyrant and Prime, all you need to do is inflict 5 casualties on each Brood (they're T3, 6+) in one shooting phase to send them running (they're Ld 6) and without synapse it's extremely unlikely they'll regroup.

[Iacton Qruze]

toonarmy has a point; Against those MC's, the Lascannons are overkill where another missle would serve just as well. all the MC's are T6 with a 3+ I believe.

 

That would net you another 30 points to put into... yeah I'd spend it on snipers. Against his list, they really are fantastic.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Tyrants can take an upgrade giving them a 2+. I'd keep the Lascannons if you can't take Plasma rather than Melta, just in case. Two rounds of dual Lascannon fire can kill the Tyrant.

[VonMerrick]

Just as a recap. The Hive Tyrant, Genestealers, and termagants weren't a problem and my Land Speeder Typhoons really were my best unit for laying down massed fire onto them.

 

I ended up short in Victory points by 1 as I lost my Long Fangs and in a subsequent turn, my Rune Priest. My opponent had a Mawloc that arrived via its special Underground attack and hit my Long Fang squad with its AP2 attack. While my Rune Priest survived that, the same turn saw the arrival of a Trygon Prime which through shadow of the warp really nullified my priest and he couldn't escape the ensarement of the two creatures.

 

So I had questions following this:

 

Is there advice on handiling the burrowing Mawloc as I never faced one before yesterday and it actually did the most damage?

 

Is there a better way to handle Shadow of the Warp with a Rune Priest?

 

Finally, it the rules state a Tyranid cannot have a Deep Strike Mishap, but scatters off the table what would happen?

[Nider]

Tyranid drop pods, the tyrgon and mawloc act like a SM drop pod for the rules of going off the table.

 

Mawloc can only do at most 3 shots if all he does is go back in and come out, which basically just serves as distraction. You could potentially have a durable but sacrificial unit so he can't run rampant. You also can get cover saves.

 

Shadow in the warp is fairly short range.