Battle against Tyranids, what to use?

[Black_Crusader]

It is the same situation as before only this time it is against tyranids.

 

There is a big chance i will face a very strong tyranid player in the league i am having. I do not know when it will happen but i have a feeling that when it happens we will have something like a legue final.

He likes using 2 flying tyrands and the fact that we use double force means at least 4 elite slots.

When i get to play this game i will have 20 flesh hounds ready to use if necessary so that means anything but slannesh (except for 6 fiends and a keeper) can be used.

 

I would love any ideas to help me get a win. 

[JusticarErictheblue]

Missile launchers as many varieties as possible, assault cannons, las cons and auto cannons, plus lots of combat orientated infantry.

Deploy forward as possible and fire move backwards is a good tactic, but I have not played 'nids for ages.

[dragonknight4275]

I don't think he's using Templars, seeing as this post is in the Liber Malificorum.

[Black_Crusader]

The mention of flesh hounds should have given a hint...

Yes i am talking about daemons don't let my icon deceive you.

[minigun762]

I wouldn't rely heavily on anything with psychic powers, as you'll be up against Shadow. That makes me lean away from LoC and Horrors.

 

Sadly, I see Slaanesh as a good counter with lots of Seekers and some flying SDP using that S6 lash.

 

Screamers could be a good way to shred big squads of gaunts.

 

Grinders are the natural choice for hitting flyrants but I'm not convinced they can bring the weight of fire to knock them out reliably. You might have to just try to ground them and then pounce.

[Wolf Guard Dan]

Do you have Flying DP models? Bring keeper and as many flying demon princes of slaanesh as possible.  The flyrants are going to be tough to knock our of the air.  Rolling on biomancy to get iron arm and using a lash of despair can be effective.  It is CD's best anti air at this point.  Use your psychic powers at the beginning of the movement phase (to be out of Shadow range) then move and lash the tyrants.  

 

Only other way to ground them effectively would be to use horrors.

[hornywingythingy]

Fiends will stop him getting biomancy powers off, or you could run karanak! Flesh hounds should evaporate most of his units, especially if you grimoire them.... Oh yeah, just remembered no spec cha in your thing is there? Fiends will probably help then...

[Black_Crusader]

Yeah no special characters on this one.

 

Keeper of secrets, 3 DPs of slaanesh with 1 greater, 1 lvl, armour and flight, a unit of 6 fiends

With 2 minimum troops and no other upgrades i am at 1325 points.

 

 

I am thinking of adding a 9 man unit of screamers and 10 fleshhounds then buff the troops and take 2 exalted for portal and grimoire.

How about a second HQ? do you think i should try adding one?

Should i keep the keeper cheap or buff him?

 

Thanks for the replies i am sure they will prove useful.

[Sixestohit]

I'd definitely buff the troops out, as 5 out of 6 missions need scoring units and with 2 units of 10 they might die very fast if he concentrates on them, or if you roll Khornes splattery template of doom!

 

Fleshhounds could give you some nice outflanking potential to come on late game and pounce something, and as hornywingythingy has mentioned, they'll probably do a number on most nid units.

 

Skullcannon could be a great addition too, big strength hits and taking away the nids' cover save may come in very useful, not to mention getting assault grenades on your KOS before it charges a hive tyrant :)

 

James.

[hornywingythingy]

I'd keep the kipper cheap, then again, I'm not a fan of him other than to unlock slaanesh princes, if you have the portaglyph you probably want more kill stuff rather than troops, a second hq or some jugger riding khorne heralds in the flesh hounds might help....

[Wolf Guard Dan]

How did the battle go?

[Black_Crusader]

Got the battle yesterday.

I decided not to go for the Slaanesh build because i was afraid of not having enough bodies on the board. I also feared of the survivability of the Daemon Princes.

 

I used:

 

GUO lvl3 Greater, Exalted

Tzeentch Herald lvl3 Exalted reward, exalted loci

Khorne Herald juggernaught lesser, greater rewards, exalted loci

 

20 plaguebearers Banner, ridden lesser

20 Horrors

 

9 screamers

20 Fleshounds

 

2 Soulgrinder MoS torrent

Skullcannon

I took the portalglyph with the GUO and Grimoire on the Herald of Tzeentch

 

My opponent had:

 

2 Flyrants

2 Tervigons

2x10 Termagaunts

3 Zoanthropes

3 Hiveguards

10 Ymgarl genestealers

20 Gargoyles

3 shrikes

2 Biovores

 

It was a very difficult fight and in the end i beleive my decission on where to go with the Flesh hounds and screamers caused me to lose the game.

 

The Fleshhounds and up fighting an Iron Arm Tervigon for the entire game. My opponent didn't lose a single psykic power or ground test in the entire game, the portalglyph didin't sommon a single daemon and i failed the grimoire 2 out of five turns played. I rolled once 11 on the warp storm and between 2 tyrants 2 tervigons and a single remaining zoanthope the herald possessed the zoanthrope.

In short, a couple of bad moves on my part and difference in dice rolling and i lost.

 

On a side note the damned tyranids are the only opponent i haven't won since the codex came and i only recall losing or drawing a couple of times in almost 20 games... I really need to find a way to beat the damn bugs...

[Wolf Guard Dan]

That's a pretty standard tyranid list minus the gargoyles and the biovores.

 

How did other elements of your army perform? Did the Skull cannon, GUO, and Soul grinders do much?

 

That was bad luck about the portalglyph.

 

What did you do with the plaguebearers? Edit: The reason I ask is that plaguebearers would be ideal for Iron Armed Tervigons.

[Black_Crusader]

I forgot a 3 man unit of Shrikes my opponent had, they killed of the screamers.

 

The Skullcannon died fast because of the flyrants but i think it did good job by killing 2 zoanthropes and almost a dozen small tyranids.

 

The GUO was dissapointing the way i played him. Normally he should have worked fine but after two turns firing at a flyrant he could easy assault, the tyrant didn't fall so he ended up moving on an objective to contest it and killed off the shrikes in turn 5.

 

Soulgrinders could have given me the game, i was lucky to score 3 or 4 rending hits on the flyrants and burn some termagaunts but again since he didn't failed his ground test in the end it didn't matter. One was destroyed by a tyrant shooting the rear armour and the other fell to the Ymgarl after getting immobilized by the hiveguard.

Somethig i noticed about the grinders is that they could probably outperform the daemon princes in countering the flyrant. They are tougher to kill than the prince that probably won't have iron arm can shoot from 48'' their harvester and if the tyrant isn't grounded i doupt any of the two can actually neutralize it. That is my opinion conserning the two anyway.

 

The Plaguebearers where on an objective in an ironbark forest (3+cover 2+with shroud) and kept it until the end. My opponent simply didn't need to bother with them since he had more objectives than me.

 

The mission we where playing was big guns never tire with 5 objectives.

I lost 10-6 (2 objectives, line breaker and three heavy support for my opponent. One objective, first blood, linebreker and one heavy (a single biovore) for me)