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hey all, im trying to figure out exactly what str you need to dmg the dreaded zilla army *have a few running around my local game area* And I was wondering. should I go with missle launchers for them or will h bolters be able to hurt them?

Uh... Are you playing Marines or what?

Fexes are either T6 or T7. That means bolters always wound on a 6, but lasguns can't scratch T7.

does it really matter XD just want to know if they will wound.

Sternguard and hellfire rounds.

Somnicide brought up a good anti-bug unit in te form of Sternguard. Make sure to equip them with combi-melta too.

Assault Terminators w/ SS and TH make short work of Big Bugs in HtH and thats where Zilla armies are weak at. I know it sounds insane but a typical dakka-fex only has 2 attacks and a dakka-tyrant will only have 3.

Shoot the HtH fexes and stealers and that you will kill the HtH power of that army. A typical Nidzilla at 1750 will have max big bugs and 2-3 squads of stealers for counterassault

Accualy the builds ive seen around here boast 2 ht's 3 elite carnys and3 h carnys. he uses ripper swarms for troops. Is this odd or something?

Golga wrote:Accualy the builds ive seen around here boast 2 ht's 3 elite carnys and3 h carnys. he uses ripper swarms for troops. Is this odd or something?

Sounds like he is playing a 4th edition list. The ripper swarms can't score so tear apart his other troop choices and sit back on any objectives.

Elite carnifex = dakka-fex (range) or screamer-killer (melee)

Heavy can be either or both, but will ussually choose.

Rippers are going to = auto lose if there are no other troops, basically ignore them and win via objectives.

Shoot the melee , melee the shooty ones.

Same basic theory as most other target choices, really.

Heck, drop the Tyrants and ID carnifex with force weapons or somesuch.

eh the list im running only has one force weapon so its kind of a temp solution until I miss something and he goes squish. ( the libby) but from the games Ive seen the ripper swarms dont slow him down. he can and does quiet often kill the whole opposing armie with his carnys. only exceptions ive seen is fast moving ones who just stay away and then drop last turn for the objects. (tau and eldar basically)

Its good to know that the hellfire rounds can easily wound them so im not to worried about it now.

Just tyring to figure what il do with the 240 points form my van squad I was saving for them XD

Sternguard are scary. Wounding on 2+ to everything worried me. Of course they still get their save (2+ or 3+).
I think nidzilla has a particular weakness against high armour tanks. Venom cannons are their only option (unless they drop an MC for some zoanthropes) and even then they are only glancing most of the time.

But hey if he's using rippers then as written above, just sit on objectives with tanks blocking LOS. Easy win.

I run drop pods, tanks are pretty hard to come by in my list XD

Lukus83 wrote:Venom cannons are their only option...and even then they are only glancing most of the time.

Actually venom cannons always glance.

Honestly, Nidzilla doesn't need to be very scard of tanks. It may take a while, but there are a lot of big guys rolling 2D6 to pen. S9+2D6? Just get a hit, and it's basically auto-Pen.

Nidzilla fears Plasma type weapons (the S7AP2 statline weapons tend to really tear them up). They have a hard time getting cover saves because they're MCs, so lists that can shoot a lot of "4e" weapons (ie. the stuff that was popular in 4e) they're in bad shape.

In my experience, using a volume of fire on the big bugs doesn't work. It's better than nothing, but in order to really effect them, you have to bring S6+ and AP3 or better. Even then, it takes a while to put them down.

@Firaxin: not against open topped

Kinda wish you had Railguns about now?

To beat zilla nids in 5th, all you need is scoring troops in vehicles.

If you can't figure out what strength weapons you need to actually wound a TMC, you have problems.

Traskel wrote:To beat zilla nids in 5th, all you need is scoring troops in vehicles.

If you can't figure out what strength weapons you need to actually wound a TMC, you have problems.

in all the years ive played 40k I have faced a nid army twice. Ussually because of gakky matchups and what not so I don't know them very well at all.

You don't have too many great choices running Drop Pods vs. Nidzilla. In killpoints you want to stay the hell away, and you'll wish you didn't have the stupid new pod models. You probably need to be fielding Sternguard and a Librarian to pull pods vs. the list you described.

I do have a liby and stern. I also have 240 points that I dont know what to do with XD

more stern.

eh most I could do for the sterns for the 240 points is 8, drop pod and 1 combi weapon. I think im gona go with a dev squad 4 h bolters and the drop pod for them.

The barbed strangler can still pop tanks at S8 and large blast template, unless i missed something [which means i have accidently cheated in 2 games ^^*]

4th ed nids in a 5th ed world die very easily. I used to run a typical nidzilla list with a Flyrant, Tyrant +guards, 3 dakka fexes, 2 Sniper fexes, and 3 Zoanthropes, with 6 ripper bases.

You will lose just to the updates in the marine codex.

Sternguards with hellfire rounds, HQs with Hellfire rounds, Scouts with hellfire shells, Plasma weapons, Lascannons, oh my!!

nids cannot get invulnerable saves except for those who can pick warpfield. Meaning the Tyrants and Zoanthropes. Meltas, Plasmas, and Lascannons allow no saves for the nids and it is easy to load up on them.

Cover saves are hard to get when everything is so big.

I haven't come up with a good 5th list yet. I'm still stuck in math hammer limbo.

Here's how you kill nids:

Land Raiders (or Crusaders)
Thunderhammer Terminators

You can play the waiting game, sitting back and shooting the shooty nids until the assaulty nids get close before you *smoosh* them.

or you can play the Squashing game, charging your mobile fortresses forward while putting minor wounds on the assaulty ones, and *smoosh*ing the shooty ones in assault.

Squig_herder wrote:The barbed strangler can still pop tanks at S8 and large blast template, unless i missed something [which means i have accidently cheated in 2 games ^^*]

Nope. The Strangler works just fine against tanks.

UsdiThunder wrote:
Cover saves are hard to get when everything is so big.

Try moving in this formation: (T = Tyrant, C = Carnifex, TG = Tyrant Guard, G = Gaunt)

G - G - G - G - G - G - G
TG - T - TG - TG - T - TG
C - C - C - C - C - C

Shooting through the gaunts will grant the Tyrant Guard a cover save. The Tyrant can then benefit from this as 50% or more of the squad is in cover. Good positioning of the Carnifexes behind the Tyrant Guard and Tyrants will obscure them 50% or more which means they too will get a cover save.


On topic though,
Definitely add more sternguard with those left over points. Devastators are no good in a drop pod (though I could see the use if you deploy them as normal and just use the empty pod to get more filled pods in first turn). Sternguard aren't only great against Zilla Nids, they perform quite well against nearly any unit in the game, especially the kind who have combi-meltas.

Mattlov wrote:

Squig_herder wrote:The barbed strangler can still pop tanks at S8 and large blast template, unless i missed something [which means i have accidently cheated in 2 games ^^*]

Nope. The Strangler works just fine against tanks.

About as fine as a missle launcher which isn't so fine.

5th edition is all about the AP1 +1 to chart. This way its possible to destroy vehicles on a glance

Better than nothing right?

I dotn knwo why this thread got revived. anyways as for eveyr one whose posting about shooty nid armies and ect. The topic was zilla armies.