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So I know I created the Tau vs Eldar thread earlier but it turns out there are 7 (!) other Eldar players at the club (there are more Eldar than Space Marine players) so I decided to be a special snowflake and not play Eldar. I'm decided on the 'Nids cause I play Zerg in Starcraft and love the swarm idea.

So again I'm asking for help against Tau with the 'nids and just general Tyranid tips and tricks.

Thanks!

Good for you for resisting your Club meta! I tend to play both armies (Eldar and 'Nids) so I can understand.

As far as the Tyranids vrs the Tau; he will inevitably be packing a strong combination of long range shooty, and some highly mobile shooty.

Your horde broods will suffer against the Hammerhead (thier MBT) and Firewarriors (thier troopers) are potent enough to harm everything in the codex (even the MC's!)
The two extremes you want to avoid is pure horde and pure 'Nidzilla lists (heavy MC spam). While warriors don't rate highly on many players' lists they're a great solution in this predicament;

They can typically pack a great package of shooty and have a big presence in melee! Warriors are also pretty damn resilent and while the heavier guns can hurt them
something fierce, they usually survive in big enough numbers to break thru enemy lines. And suprisenly for the 'Nids the Biovores are rather effective against Firewarrior spam
due to the moderate str and ap on the spore mine (not to mention the potental threat of missed ones drifting into his gunlines). Plug and play with any of the 'pure' melee around
that core and beating Tau is just a matter of time.

A great tactic and one rivals will love is outflanking some Pant-thieves (Genestealers) into thier back lines! Now the Pant-thieves will die horribly to small arms, but if ANY of them survive, it's going to be a bad day for the unit that takes that charge. The only thing that the 'Stealers can't really touch is Land Raiders (str4 plus 6 plus d3 for rendering = max ap13) and thats only without adrenal glads aka furious charge! (which adds one more str to that tally!) Meaning there isn't a unit in the Tau army that the 'Steakers don't want to get in melee with! Now the Genestealers have the reputation of being the ultimate shock troop in the game, and it's well warrented; learn to yield those badboys and the psycological damage from thier presence alone will start to mess with opposing players where they will adjust to you! This gives you that much more leaway to get to grips with thier army.

I'm not saying that the other units in the list aren't worthwild and great to use; just that Warriors tend to trump the Tau's advantage of high str weapons, biovores make Tau gunlines hard to maintain and that having Genestealers present will put alot of pressure on his army to do damn well or die horribly. My last parting advice? When it comes the Tyranid units, if it's worth taking one, it worth taking two. Unlike many armies out there (Eldar in particular) the 'Nids get great milage from thier units and as long as you keep up pressure on the frontlines, you will usually win.

I don't get why if you wanted Eldar and Tau then deciding too many people play Eldar why not just go for Tau. Instead you are looking into another army just go with Tau if you liked them in the first place.

redkeyboard wrote:I don't get why if you wanted Eldar and Tau then deciding too many people play Eldar why not just go for Tau. Instead you are looking into another army just go with Tau if you liked them in the first place.

Oh I meant to say that my friend picked Tau, and I had originally picked Eldar but it turned out tons of other people play Eldar and none play 'nids, so I switched. Sorry for the confusion

thanks very much Bloody Adair, Do I want to just skip on all range weapons and rush to attack? like replace the devourers with rending claws and such? How are the winged warriors?

When using nids vs tau, in general you want to put as many units on the field as possible, and make them as fast as possible.

Tau excel in killing off single units, but if there are too many on the field, you will lose much less.

Outflanking genestealers are also excellent against tau. Spread your gaunt and hormagaunt hordes out and keep them in cover. Don't give your models ranged weapons, just keep running towards the enemy.

A good idea is to use a large block of carnifex, and then a few extra synapse around the field, then 2-4 hordes of stuff. The tau will have trouble causing instant death to toughness 6, since they can't.

I play tau, and my best friend plays nids, so I know a thing or two.

Battlesuits, Broadsides and hammerheads are your main problem. Battlesuits and Broadsides can be insta-killed with S8+
A tip - If he tends to place broadsides and hammerheads near a table edge, get some Genestealers to outflank and destroy them.
Doom of Milan'tai is a HUGE threat to tau when it is used with a mysedic spore.
Tau are terrible at CC so be sure to get up in his face quickly.

I he knows what your bringing, he will change his battlesuit weapons accordingly.
Bulk of carnifexes = he will bring more broadsides, and powerful battlesuits.
Hordes = High fire rate battlesuits + Infantry.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:I play tau, and my best friend plays nids, so I know a thing or two.

Battlesuits, Broadsides and hammerheads are your main problem. Battlesuits and Broadsides can be insta-killed with S8+
A tip - If he tends to place broadsides and hammerheads near a table edge, get some Genestealers to outflank and destroy them.
Doom of Milan'tai is a HUGE threat to tau when it is used with a mysedic spore.
Tau are terrible at CC so be sure to get up in his face quickly.

I he knows what your bringing, he will change his battlesuit weapons accordingly.
Bulk of carnifexes = he will bring more broadsides, and powerful battlesuits.
Hordes = High fire rate battlesuits + Infantry.

for short nids are no match to TAU? you just countered every unit of nids had to offer.

I say bring some carnifexes, hive gaurd, trygon, tervigons, genestealers and bash your way in! and say "COME ON! HIT ME!" its the fun part for nids if the fire power isnt enough to get rid of your bugs.
in CC they just fall like dry leaves.

When it comes to the melee verus range debate with the 'Nids you're forced to take middle field and bring a little of both. Mainly because a pure Tide list (I run two 7X Warriors broods and two 20x Genestealers with two 10x Genestealers as my typical core) without any range support will have to rely on cover and infiltraition/outflanking/deepstriking to work, and having to rely on random things won't work out well most of the time. I seriously recommend running at least a brood of the classic 'Huntsmen' warrior (devourer, talons) in addition to any other troop choices you make. Mainly so you don't have to rely on the meatshields (who have a huge footprint) to break thru and to be able to whittle down tougher foes. I love my Deathclaw warriors (deathspitter/rendering claws) because they're absolutely versitile; good range and damage potential, awesome melee and if you run warrior broods at or above 5 in a unit they tend to be able to tank alot of damage. At any rate Warriors are your workhorse for everything. Use thier power, I beg you!

Back on subject; the bugs have some damn awesome shooty units. You have the ever impressive Hive guard (str 8, need no LOS), the always popular Zoanthrope (warp blast aoe or str 10 pot-shot) the Harpy (T/L Stranglethorn cannon or HVC) and of course the resilent Tyrannofex and Carnifex broods. Unlike any other army, except the maybe the Eldar, all the firesupport weapons in a 'Nid army are assault. Basically meaning that no unit's potential is ever wasted just popping shots off in the backround. And since most of the monsterous creatures have relentless built-in you can be firing a lot of big guns while closing in for the kill. A big reason you'll see alot of competitive Tyranids lists use shooty Carnifexes (melee weapons don't really make a Carnifex any more scary than he already is) is they're packing some serious Dakka, and are still a major threat in melee.

Ultimately, you can Tide (pure melee), Swarm (high numbers, blend of close and long range) or Longball (mainly as a version of 'Nidzilla list) Or if you fancy a non MC list, the aforementioned Winged Host (Shrikes, Gargoles, Harpies, Wing Tyrants)

Oh and Shrikes (aka Winged Warriors)? Don't use them unless you're using a fast army with lots of gargoles, harpies or winged tyrants-reason? They have a crappy save and basic warriors have the same exact options, minus the wings for a decent save and without a Winged Host, they're easily target prioritized and wasted. (It's also a reason I don't like using my raveners often, but more of a personal failing in usage than any real reason there).