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Ok my buddy has a crazy nid zilla list that seems near invincible. OK that is a stretch but it is no doubt an absolute monster (no pun intended)

I play vanilla marines; 2 dev with 4 MLs each, 2 stern, 2 tacs, and kitted out vanguard for counter assault. my list is very mobile as well.

My buddy has something like 4 fexes, shooty tyrant with guard, 3x zoanthrope choir, and deep striking stealers.

What should I target?! No matter what MCs I target the vast majority of the force will be in my grill not to mention the stealers are almost guaranteeing to be outflanking and handing out some rending attacks all evening.

Your 2 devastator squads basically cannot dent any of the zoan or fexes and their 2+ save.

So after ineffective shooting you get assaulted with the DS stealers :/

Invest in some las cannons!

plasma would work for tearing down some of the big ones, while still being able to use their blasts on the large groups

@ lunahound:

ummm krak missiles?

I must not understand what you mean

my all comers list has some combi meltas in the stern while the tacs have melta and MM. I rarely rely on the heavy weapon in my Tac. I like to play aggressive but I will combat squad if it is necessary to get off the MM.

should I replace some of the melta weapons with plasma?

1 More squad of sternguard, make sure they are all in drop pods! Nothing says I love you like rapid fire shots that wound everything on 2+ (this alone should win you the game)

If your tac squads plasma, combi-plasma, Plasma cannon

Have the missile launchers target anything with a 3+ save.

Deuce11 wrote:@ lunahound:

ummm krak missiles?

I must not understand what you mean

Yes krak missle are str 8 ap3.

zoanthrope and upgrade fex have 2+ save. both immune to instant death by it too.

Clthomps wrote:1 More squad of sternguard, make sure they are all in drop pods! Nothing says I love you like rapid fire shots that wound everything on 2+ (this alone should win you the game)

Unless he starts his big bugs in reserve and then eats them on the turn they come in.

Sternguard are overrated. I would never field more than one squad, unless it is in a Cantor list, and even then I would really have to think hard about it. Also, drop pods are a waste against nids. You drop in, are now stagnant, and oyu get eaten alive. If you are gonna use Sternguard against bugs, your best bet is to stick them in rhinos and rush up and double tap what you want o kill, then hop back an on your next trun and look for more targets. If they sit still against nids, they are dead.

I agree about Sternguard being over rated. You need more shots not a few elite shot. Start with the Zoathrops then work you way to the Tyrant. I am more afraid of you being out of position when he brings on the stealers. What are the fexes usually kited out with?

Basically take out his range attack first then dance around him.

Once I played this battle and we worked on something that did its trick. It was 1000 pts Iron Hands and my 1000 TAU against a 2000 pts Tyranids. What we did? We positioned defesnively our shooting units along all the front and my friend kept 2 close combat units in transport at readiness to act. First 2 Rounds exchanged shooting creating maximum damage to the Nids while they stormed closer and closer until on round 3 they were ready to assault...At that point The First Close Combat Unit with the transport Moved and stopped right in front of the spearhead of enemy advancing line, disembarged and fired with everything but did not assault... The enemy lost his momentum and attacked them while another force of his lines formed and readied to assault us a bit farther. So we repeated the same trick with the second unit and again stopped the advancement. All this time ofcourse we got another 2 rounds of clear shooting...guess what? We lost 2 Units and another 3 from the shooting exchanges, in order to make the whole horde target practise.

What, what? Boltguns that wound on 2s are bad against nids? Boltguns that ignore coversaves are bad against nids? Boltguns that are AP4 are bad against nids? What planet do you people live on? Sternguard are a hard counter to tyranids. Everything nids can do, sternguard can help with. Two squads of 10 in rhinos will be able to deal with just about everything a nid player can bring. Just make sure you dont leave them unsupported. Against shooting they die just as easily as a marine, so use your rhinos as mobile cover to limit what has LOS to them.

To deal with outflanking stealers you may want to deploy on an empty flank (only deploy on one side of the board) and put up a couple of sacrificial combat squads. If the stealers get the correct board edge then they will eat a combat squad but get shot to pieces on your turn.

MLs dont really do it in 5th. They cant guarantee to kill a tank and cover saves mean that there are better things for killing infantry (im looking at you sternguard). Probably better to invest in some lascannon or plasma cannon.

Tyranids can really kill vehicles of any description anymore so if you put all your guys is rhinos then he will have a hard time killing them at range, not to mention he wont be able to assault them directly.

Sternguard with combi meltas on the drop and 2+ to wound rounds from there on out.

Kill 'fexes and Tyrant

Your tacts should have meltaguns and sgt with pp

After reading everyone's advice i think the list will look like the following:

HQ: 2 Epostillary Libbis, GoI + ???

Elite: 2 stern squads with 2x melta each

Troop: 2 tac squads w/ melta and multi melta plus srg w/ plasma pistol
- rhinos

Heavy: 2 dev squads with 3xMLs + 1 LC each

Fast: 1 vanguard squad for counter assault.


i'll make room for those LCs by leaving the drop pods in the space hulk. I wish I could place some templates somewhere for those outflanking stealers though.

some of you may suggest more plasma guns in the stern. I agree but the dice gods have a tendency to hate me. I have taken more wounds to 'gets hot' than i'd like to admit.

i'll definitely have some pts to spare for 2000