Thousand Songs vs Tyranids - Suggestions?

[Black13]

With the new Codex out and gaining some play experience, I'm curious of everyone's thoughts on matchup's against Tyranids.  My primary opponent plays nids and our games thus far have been quite one sided in his favor.  I've been playing pure TS lists so far, but am open to feedback on mixed detachments. 

 

Some of my observations thus far: 

 

- Rubrics are tanky but lack the offensive power to clear hordes or wound MC's.  Mass bolters can clear hordes, but a rubric is expensive just to spam bolter shots.  I did like the Soulfrie Cannon and wish it could be taken 2x on 10 man squads.  

- Tzaangors can hold their own in melee, but are quickly crushed by focused shooting (gants, shooting fexes, etc).

- Psychic powers are more unreliable due to Shadows in the Warp.  High cost powers are extra difficult. 

- General lack of necessary shooting power while outclassed in melee.  Difficulty in bringing down MC's without vehicle based lascannons. 

 

I'm sure my general unfamiliarity with the codex is a strong factor, so I'm curious how others feel in this matchup.  Are you finding certain units useful or utilizing some go to tactics?  

[MoGuy]

Our +6" range on psychic powers should help to avoid Shadow in the warp penalties. I would strongly advice to taking some screening units like Cultists or Tzaangors. Forgefiends or Maulerfiends should be very good against MCs so I would include those. I am also very fond of Missile Launcher + Lascannon Helbrutes.

[Raven1]

+6 range will help you avoid thier defenses, plus if your worried about big characters you can

Webway 30 Tzaangors with blades

Deepstrike a Sorcerer for warptime

Send up a shaman for the aura

Maybe a mutilith

Use VotLW and Cycle of Slaughter

Your looking at 120 attacks S4 AP-2 hitting on twos, +1 to wound,re-rolling against characters. You can kill Magnus in one turn with that so you will likely get one or two monsters.

[Archaeinox]

NOT to say your buddy will cheat or anything, but keep in mind that Shadow is only for when you cast. If you can, take the Arrogance of Aeons warlord trait. You should be able to stop most of his stuff using that ability.

[Paladin777]

The biggest problem with Arrogance is that the characters you can give it to can only deny once per turn.

[Skerr]

Bring all the movement shenanigans we got.

 

18 inch range Shadow of the warp was mentioned so use the legion trait to stretch past 18.

 

Know which units are his synapse/shadow of the warp and make them a priority unless you have another immediate threat. Taking them out allviates the -1 to your casting, forces his other units to take normal morale bonus rather than be immune.

 

For All Is Dust purposes, in melee they have lots of multi wounds dmg output though ranged is more limited to 1 in 5 weapon upgrades, breath weapons or MC cannons.

 

Might consider some warp flemers or some deamon flamers...

 

Good luck man!

[Nym]

Spear enlightened make short work of any Carnifex or Prince. For bigger monsters you'll need to soften the target with a few Lascannons (bringing Defilers might not be a bad idea, as they still get 7 S12-16 attacks in Close combat).

Summoned Tzeentch flamers will take care of hordes.

 

If you want to win this match up, try to leave Rubrics and Scarabs at home...

Edited February 13, 2018 by Nym

[Raven1]

Or exalted flamers for monstrous creatures

[sneakybamsen]

Having played tyranids a lot myself with my DA, I know they really dislike flamers. If I had lost numerous games to the same tyranid player, I'd have a chat with him about list strengths, and see where that would lead for the next game. If he still just brought strong stuff, I'd match him tooth by tooth from then onwards. You wrote pure TS, that can be interpreted in a couple of ways.

 

One of those ways is going pure rubrics and SoT. That's not the strongest we can do. Cheaper units that are more easily thrown away but make a bigger dent is a better choice. Play some of his own tricks on him. As others say, for psychic, stay out of the bubble. Pure TS can also just be that you only have TS detachments with the choices that are permitted to us in the codex.

 

I'd definitely get 30 tzangoors with blades for this. Then probably some enlightened with bows or spears. Then you can mix in other things. Defilers are scary in melee, so definitely one or two of those. Also some flamers. Either rubrics that are rhinoed forwards at max speed or the daemon stuff. They are fast and nasty. I'd consider the mutalith beast too, as it does tricks of the mind without taking pscychic tests.

[Black13]

Excellent suggestions everyone, really appreciate the feedback.  This all gives me some solid ideas for my next few games.