How do you beat tyranids?

[John_f]

I always struggle agains tyranids. Just last night i got my ass handed to me in a 1500 game. I was running bikes and jumpers and my opponent had dakka flyrant, dakafexxes and some venomtropes in the middle. He also had a screen of termaganst to provide cover. The huge amount of TL S6 fire just melted my core away, and then thenflyrant mopped up my supporting units.

 

Anyone have any advice?

[Karhedron]

I find the trick is to kill the Venomthropes on turn 1 or they will effectively rob your army of 1/3 of their firepower. This is easy with my other army (Eldar) as Wave Serpent fields ignore cover meaning that the Venomthropes die very easily.

 

For Blood Angels you have 2 options. You can either pod in some squads with flamers to deal with them or take Sternguard and use their ammo that ignores cover. I cannot think of much else in the BA codex that ignores cover but if anyone else can think of anything then feel free to add it.

 

Once the Venomthropes are dead, you can then concentrate on killing the bigger stuff. Again Sternguard are good here as they get Poison 2+ ammo in large amounts. Can Fexes still be upgraded to 2+ armour cheaply in the new dex?

 

Killing Gaunts should not be a challenge for most of your army. The only trick is doing it quickly enough before the big bugs cause you real problems. Can you post a rough army list so we can see what you have to play with?

[PowerKlaw]

^^ this

 

A combi-flamer stern guard unit could work for the drop or a frag dread :)

I've not played against a flyrant yet...how do stormravens do against them?

[Karhedron]

I have not met a Flyrant for a while and cannot remember their stats off the top of my head. I think they are S6 so would really struggle to take down a Raven as Vector strike is only D3 hits. That means they will only take off 1/3 of a hull point per turn. Storm Ravens have the firepower to really hurt Flyrants and as soon as you start hitting them, they take grounding tests.

 

I think that simple combat squaded tactical squads could do well here. Have the flamer units move forward to hose the Gaunts (prefferably in a Rhino as that gives them an extra layer of protection against shooting) and give flakk missiles to the missile launcher squad. Start forcing grounding tests on those Flyrants and they will come back to earth quickly enough as well.

[Gaweda]

Librarian dreadnought, couple of fragiosos in pods, stormraven and land raider with death company should crush them. Pod in a nice flamer tactical squad too and you should be golden. Key is to focus fire the dakka MC's first, then everything else. I face these guys a lot and have never lost if I bring 3 dreadnoughts and some armour.

[Vettanker]

Can Fexes still be upgraded to 2+ armour cheaply in the new dex?

 

Nope, carnifexen couldn't do that in the last codex either, just a walking hive tyrant which lost the ability in the newest codex. Only 2+ save MCs are the Tyrannofex and the FW Stonecrusher Carnifex

 

 

I have not met a Flyrant for a while and cannot remember their stats off the top of my head. I think they are S6 so would really struggle to take down a Raven as Vector strike is only D3 hits. That means they will only take off 1/3 of a hull point per turn. Storm Ravens have the firepower to really hurt Flyrants and as soon as you start hitting them, they take grounding tests.

I think that simple combat squaded tactical squads could do well here. Have the flamer units move forward to hose the Gaunts (prefferably in a Rhino as that gives them an extra layer of protection against shooting) and give flakk missiles to the missile launcher squad. Start forcing grounding tests on those Flyrants and they will come back to earth quickly enough as well.

Flyrants are indeed S6. When it comes to Nid vector strikes, watch out for Hive Crones. They're S5 but make their vector strikes at S8. Also, forcing grounding tests isn't as easy as it used to be. 6th Ed forced a test for each of your units that scored a hit. Now they only test if they're wounded and only once at the end of the phase.

 

The biggest advice I'd give for facing down the swarm is eliminate mobile cover and synapse creatures first. Others have mentioned Venomthropes, and to that I'd add Malanthropes if you see them. Same cover mechanic as Venomthropes but beefier with more buffs and synapse, available through FW. If you can eliminate his synapse, you'll force him to start testing for instinctive behavior which, on poor rolls, will limit the utility of his units.

[girot]

watch out for genestealers if u take dreads. rending claws ilare not your friend. :(

[Joasht]

To add to the list, Auspexes and Grav Centurions. Requires allies though.

[girot]

To add to the list, Auspexes and Grav Centurions. Requires allies though.

Just for the Centurions.  Most HQs can take Auspex.

[Joasht]

 

To add to the list, Auspexes and Grav Centurions. Requires allies though.

Just for the Centurions.  Most HQs can take Auspex.

 

Aye, just for the Centurions. A Sanguinary Priest isn't a bad Auspex buddy for them.