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I'll be playing Tau w/ 9 crisis suits, 3 sniper teams, 2 railheads, a decent kroot squad, and the rest firewarriors and pathfinders. I feel very good about my list, I feel it is well rounded against 95% of the field... except my local nidzilla player. He tools up all 3 of his heavy fexes with 5 wounds AND 2+ armor saves, and he is running at least 1 winged tyrant with TL Devs. The rest of his points are in a few small genestealer squads that he just hides behind his 3 heavy and his 3 dakka fexes. I guess I am just curious if anyone else has advice for playing against such a nidzilla list in 5e with Tau. Thanks

Broadsides, fusion guns, Commander Farsight

Well...I'll be on the other side of the table since I'm taking a Nidzilla list to Ard Boyz, so here are the types of things I wouldn't want to see you do.

With 5th edition you'll have a difficult time in objective missions since you can't really dislodge your opponent. You could try using the pathfinders to remove cover saves from the genestealers and then pie-plate them with the rail heads. You already know to shoot the dakkafexes with the sniper teams, and that should be slighty more effective now that it is harder for the TMCs to get cover saves.

Are your firewarriors in Devilfish? If so, I'd keep them inside. Nidzilla has a much tougher time with tanks these days, so save your scoring units unless you are sure they won't take return fire. Firewarriors die too fast, and have too low of a leadership to get into a protracted firefight.

If your firewarriors aren't in a Devilfish...put them in the pathfinders' Devilfish. I love seeing exposed firewarriors since they are static and just don't put out enough shots.

Remember that you can Go to Ground with the kroot. a 3+ cover save is nothing to sneeze at.

I assume you're keeping the standard 4th ed fireknife configuration on your suits. If so, resist the temptation to use the AP 2 on the heavy fexes until the 4 wound carnifexes are dead. Personally I have moved my dakkafexes to heavy, and run the strangler fex in elite. In this case I'd still go for the elite fexes if I were you since you still have to get past the T6, even if your gun ignores their armor.

Remember that you don't have to land a knockout punch. If you can scape by with a minor win, do it. Take 1 objective, contest the others. Run away if you have more Kill Points, and you should have more kill points early until they can close range. Once you have the game won, then look for ways to get a major win or massacre.

Other than that, hope for Annihilation/Dawn of War. I've found that is the toughest mission for a Nidzilla player. I loose a couple of units early and I'm playing catchup for the rest of the game.

Take care of the daks first and then move on to what ever else matters. Its not like he is going to be throwing a whole lot of stuff at you. Just focus fire and remove threat before they get to your lines because that is the key to his list. If he wants to shoot at you then let him because you can easily out shoot daks(range) and gunfex.

I play nids. I don't run dakkafexes, I run warrior deathspitter spam and I bet you will see more of that coming up. That and my gun fexes gives me a 30+ range. I would probably target your pathfinders or suits...not much I could do to those tanks as far as shooting goes. As Daydream said tanks are a pain, especially tau tanks with thier auto 4+ cover save. For that same reason I would keep as many units as you can in DF...your warriors aren't going to outshoot most nid armies...but in tanks they will be relatively safe. Only get out to put double tap pain on genestealers who by the way are probably the greatest threat to popping those tanks. I use lictors and flanking stealers so I would send them in if you had several units close to the edge on in terrain. That being said, if you put snipers in terrain make sure you cover said terrain with models. Also keep your tanks away from non-occupied terrain and board edges...they don't need it and it isn't worth the chance of a lictor or flanking stealers popping it. Oh and moving your tanks at least a inch every round is a given.

agree with daydream, but i know your dilemma, looks very hard to get through

The target priority answer is what I was really looking for; thanks. Yes I use Fire/Knife on my suits. The only devilfish I will have is my pathfinders one. Otherwise I play with 6 man FW squads with markerlights. Perhaps I should put my kroot in a long line in front of my FW's and suits and just go to ground on turn 1... unless of course there is a good patch of woods. Hopefully my 9 sniper drones with lots of markerlights will make taking down his fexes easier; the last time I played him I had 0 sniper drones and 6x 12 man FW squads.

My two tips on the matter are, prioritize(i cant spell we all know that) and the second is consentrate fire on it

what he said

im a nidzilla player, running 3 dakka fex's, 3 elite fex's, 2 winged tyrants and a few units of endless gaunts.

best thing you can do is pour fire into th biggest theat, if you have a winged tyant near by and fex i would shoot the tyrant, too many people seem scared to go all out, its worth killing what ever will be hitting your lines 1st.

also, take a unit of vespid, thier AP3 guns kill any fex from the eite section, and also any from the heavy if that person was stupid enough not to give it extended carapace.

If you're running more than one Hive Tyrant with wings prepare to have your list disqualified at the tournament. That biomorph is clearly labeled one per army in the codex.

If you're running more than one Hive Tyrant with wings prepare to have your list disqualified at the tournament. That biomorph is clearly labeled one per army in the codex.

i know, thats what i use in friendly games with consent, other than that ive got my broolord i take.

Tyranidlurker wrote:The target priority answer is what I was really looking for; thanks. Yes I use Fire/Knife on my suits. The only devilfish I will have is my pathfinders one. Otherwise I play with 6 man FW squads with markerlights. Perhaps I should put my kroot in a long line in front of my FW's and suits and just go to ground on turn 1... unless of course there is a good patch of woods. Hopefully my 9 sniper drones with lots of markerlights will make taking down his fexes easier; the last time I played him I had 0 sniper drones and 6x 12 man FW squads.

The kroot trick won't work. I'd shoot at them once, let them go to ground, and then direct my fire elsewhere. Most Tyranid weapons don't have an AP value, so the 4+ cover saves that the kroot would give you isn't any better than your normal armor save. Better to find them some cover.

You'll have issues with the lack of devilfish. I think by turn 3, you'll be playing for a draw since your troops will be dead.

Oh, and I remebered this this morning. Put SM on your devilfish. In a KP mission, the two man unit of drones that the DF transports are worth an easy KP...also gives you a hail of fire. Oh, it seems like 6 man firewarrior squads will give up easy KP...how many you planning on taking? At least one mission will be KP?

Tarval wrote:Take care of the daks first and then move on to what ever else matters. Its not like he is going to be throwing a whole lot of stuff at you. Just focus fire and remove threat before they get to your lines because that is the key to his list. If he wants to shoot at you then let him because you can easily out shoot daks(range) and gunfex.

This can work at lower points level, but good Nidzilla at higher points level, 2500 for example, just adds a lot more guys. When there are ~30 genestealers and ~100 gaunts running for your lines in addition to the TMCs, shooting the TMCs isn't always the best option. Especially in 5th where the troops are the only units that can score.

Tau also can't outrange the TMCs. Barbed Stranglers have a 36" range so they are always shooting. In order to double tap plasma (the only gun that really hurts) you have to get with the dakkafex 24" threat range. Honestly, if the Tau player wants to stay more than 24" away and single shot their plasma, I'll let them do it all game. 4 to hit, 4 to wound, possible 4+ cover save = not enough wounds for me to care about.

I agree with Day Dream, at the last Ard Boyz I was able to sweep my opposition in the first two missions for exactly that reason. My opponent went after my TMC and Warriors, allowing my 40* stealer to maul his front line. In the last game, the third player made sure to target my genestealers first and was able to fight me to a draw.

yea definitely attack the stealers and gaunts first

Daydream wrote:

Tyranidlurker wrote:The target priority answer is what I was really looking for; thanks. Yes I use Fire/Knife on my suits. The only devilfish I will have is my pathfinders one. Otherwise I play with 6 man FW squads with markerlights. Perhaps I should put my kroot in a long line in front of my FW's and suits and just go to ground on turn 1... unless of course there is a good patch of woods. Hopefully my 9 sniper drones with lots of markerlights will make taking down his fexes easier; the last time I played him I had 0 sniper drones and 6x 12 man FW squads.

The kroot trick won't work. I'd shoot at them once, let them go to ground, and then direct my fire elsewhere. Most Tyranid weapons don't have an AP value, so the 4+ cover saves that the kroot would give you isn't any better than your normal armor save. Better to find them some cover.

You'll have issues with the lack of devilfish. I think by turn 3, you'll be playing for a draw since your troops will be dead.

A lot of this depends on what sort of terrain the tournament has but keep in mind that Kroot in woods get a 3+ cover save.

In my local playgroup we play with a fair number of forrests so my Kroot tend to have a 3+ save by default since I can usually either setup, infiltrate or outflank into woods. With 3+ cover it usually isn't even necessary to go to ground. Keep in mind that you don't have to decide whether to go to ground until after your opponent rolls to hit and wound.

Also, assaulting 20 kroot in cover just isn't any fun for low armor save units that don't have frag grenades (or the equivalent).

Needless to say, I've been pretty impressed with Kroot so far in 5th edition.

Oh, I agree that Kroot in woods are tough to dislodge. I also think they are a good selection since they are cheap.

What I don't think they do well, is screen the rest of the army against Tyranid weapons. My suggestion is to put them in the woods, rather than using a line of them to screen the firewarrior squads.