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I am still a fairly new Nid player, and my list is nothing special (yet), but I have been finding each game an interesting learning experience so far. I have seen what does/does not work, as well as that the list lacks for different situations. One of my more recent games had me stumped.

My opponent (Smurfs) put down a Land Raider Redeemer filled with Storm Shield/Thunder Hammer Termies and a Termie Chappie. He once (mis-)fielded this against my Sisters, and I have never let him live that one down. Against the Nids, however, it was utterly devastating. The Land Raider was not a huge threat, as I just outmanoeuvred it all game, but I had no answer for the Termies. I guess this is just my inexperience showing, but I could not work out how to handle them. They chewed up a unit of Stealers, a Devilrant and a Boomfex, and would have probably made short work of my Warriors if he had not failed that charge (thank God for milimeters!). I have no idea how many Barbed Stranger, Deathspitter, Devourer and Venom Cannon shots they ate, but I barely made a dent. I am sure there would have been a strategy I could have used, if I had the right models, but I cannot see it. Does anyone have any advice for handling this unit?

My God fex usually works [stomps, rampages] over termies. Try a CC base hive tyrant with 3 guards

statistically, 30 hormagaunts on charge with +1 S should kill them.

120 attacks
60 hits
30 wounds
5 failed saves.

anyway, just spamming wounds and/or attacks seems to be the best solution vs TH/SS termis.

I wholeheartedly agree with the cc tyrant and guard outfit. Had personal experience with that one and we ended up killing each other. Of course softening them up first never hurts. And of course you should be keeping that raider stunned as much as possible to force the termies to bail (unless PotMS allows you to move as well as shoot...I personally don't know since I don't play against marines much).

Good luck

Usually using a lot of Genestealers or a lot of Hormagaunts will kill Terminators, often making the Terminators seem disappointing. Maybe use a large group of something to hold them up until you can add another squad or two into the combat. Never rely on just one squad.

Remember against anything with a good save, like Terminators, the best option seems to be to make them roll as many saves as possible. No need to use the big things on them, just use lots of little things while the big ones take out things like that Land Raider. Don't forget Power of the Machine spirit will allow it to still shoot one weapon even if stunned. The most likely weapon would be one of those Flamestorm Cannon. Instead of trying to just destroy it try to first destroy those cannons. Also, don't forget Assault Vehicle lets anything that gets out of it charge that turn, and they'll count as having Frag grenades from the Frag Assault Launchers. Maybe try to use some Crushing Claws to get rid of the tank I guess. If you beat that 2+ save they have that 5+ or 4+ invulnerable save left so it's better to make them fail that 2+ with a lot of small things than try to make them fail that 5+ or 4+ with the big things that would be more useful elsewhere.

As for getting them out of the Land Raider, maybe set up a trap for that. Make him thing that it's a good idea to disembark and attempt a combat, by placing your Tyranids just right. Then make him regret it by closing the trap and wiping them from the board in a sea of small Tyranids. Also, that supposed invincibility of the Terminators works both ways as well, he might just try charging them into the small Tyranids thinking that the Terminators would crush them. Terminators as well as most thinks with an air of invincibility all seem to work as a good distraction from the main plan. The key is to effectivly take them out without devoting too much attention to them. I guess a Genestealer brood or two should be enough for them. If you don't have the Genestealers, just use a bunch of Hormagaunts.

Oh and of course tarpit units are good. You don't have to wipe out the termies to necessarily win the game. Keep them bogged down with little bugs if you have no big guys to spare (WoN is great for this)

its Very hard to bog down TH/SS termies with a tarpit unit. I agree with the above, run a large number of weaker model units to take them down.

Don't leave home without your acid maw and feeder tendrils!

To be honest, a fex would be a horrible idea. The terminators have ST8 thunderhammers (str9 if they are BT and on the charge) and get rerolls to hit... They also have a 3+ invuln, your fex would be gone the first turn. To really counter them, throw hordes into them. A bunch of gaunts will do the job. As for the LR, a carnifex can rip one up pretty darn good.

VS. normal terminators, I reccomend a broodlord or just genestealers. I always lose 2-3 termies to rending when my deathwing get assaulted by the damn stealers.

Throwing a big expensive unit at them sounds a bit silly, unless it is coming in at the end after they are already softened up. Save that carnifex for tin canning the transport they just jumped out of, then maybe turn him around after. I would echo the thoughts as the Hormagaunt or Genestealers sounds like a good way to go. Throwing 200 points of Hormagaunts (20) at 200 points of terminators (5ish?) will certainly be more cost effective than loosing one of the few things on the table that can take out armor values (your carni).

Unless it's a Crusader they will be a really small squad also, use those cheap mobile gaunt swarms to your advantage.

Remember to always equip your monstrous creatures with implant attack, with the tyrant plus 3 gaurd, give him implant, and while they are focused on the tyrant gaurd, everywound you deal makes two which is really nasty for the one wound hardcases...

I usually handle them by backing up out of charge range until I have at least a couple dozen termagants close enough to walk up in a mass and shoot them. After they suffer what casualties this causes I charge them with stealers. Tends work more often than not.

Definitely softening them us is a necessity for me. Tyrants are great, especially since they're the only ones who get an invulnerable, and as everyone else has said--giving them 3 tyrant guard is especially nice. What's nice is to get a lictor/stealers/broodlord in with a big guys like carnifex or tyrant with feeder tendrils. Giving the tyrant/fex the ability to reroll hits is devastating and with the high initiative you might just survive. I couldn't have beaten them the last time had I not shot at them with twin-linked devourers/deathspitters/stranglers for 2 turns. Eventually there's going to be a one if you roll 10 dice from 2 boomfexes that land well. There's simply nothing that bugs have to take them on reliably without help from other units. It's all about teamwork for bugs in 5th I think.

Thanks for the advice. I feel like a real noob now, as I clearly got everything back-to-front. I had Hormagaunts on the table, just to try them out, but ran them around the Termies so I could attack a Combat Squad. The Stealers where my real plan for them, but it did work, and by the time they died I needed my remaining Gaunts for objectives (I did not take WoN because I wanted to try a real horde for just one game). I would not have had enough of them to do the trick, but I planned on buying some more anyway. I think I should be better prepared against these guys next time!

you would be suprised what 8-12 genestealers can take down, just about anything.
Rending is your best friend. i wouldnt recommend any carnifexes or tyrants with those
power fist and hammers and no inv saves, nid MCs will be taken down in no time, witch
you dont need to happen. Genestealers or Hormagaunts are a much better choice.

Don't not use MC's because your opponent has Termies, just be smart about where you place them and make sure you have your units in place to respond to how he uses the Land-Raider/Termi combo. You will probably need to focus your AT shooting at the Land Raider until it is at least stunned each turn.


Edited for redundancy.

The solution is like they outlined about BTID (Bury Them in Dice)

Don't waste carnifex shots on them you want to use volume of fire to kill them. Models or squads capable of large numbers of attacks and subsequenlty they disappear under a pile of attack rolls. Hence BTIDL Bury Them in Dice.

A carnifex only gets 3 attacks if it has guns. I understand there's melee builds but gun builds are most often used. The invulnerable save is really wasted on tyranids because we don't have much in the way of AP anyway, ESPECIALLY not AP 2. They get invulns against fex melee, focused warp blast, tyrant melee, genie rend, warrior rend, lictor rend and broodlord melee. Narrowing it down you can only take 3 lictors max, 1 lord max, 3 zoeys max, not all your hits even rend... they won't need that 3+ invul enough. Bury them in normal attacks. Any power weapon effect typically doesn't come in mass with a couple exceptions. I belive IG Rough Riders are power weapons and charge and Khorne Bloodletters in Demons can throw a mass of power attacks. Your most reliable bet is a round of shooting followed by assault with gaunts, hormagaunts (minus the shooting) and/or rippers (minus the shooting). Denying them the charge also keeps your survivability high. Remember, them wasting power attacks on things that already only has a 6+ save...

Mentally they're intimidating, just defeat their purpose. They want to attack high toughness and 2+ armored units, throw small weak units at them en masse and BTID.

How to kill terminators, a haiku by Broken Loose:

Terminators suck.
You ask, "How do you kill them?"
Twin-linked devourers.


Hive tyrants will wreck them. Ruin them. Do nasty things. Don't assault them, just shoot 'em. Well, you COULD assault 'em but you stand a chance of dying horribly and thunder+shield terms lack shooting prowess- PLUS you force them to take a The Horror test.

That said, any forced mass of saves. Warriors with scytals, a fresh brood of FT stealers on the charge, 20+ super hormagaunts (as ludicrously expensive and fragile as they are). Don't throw fexes at them, don't plop templates on them, and don't bother with anything unless it involves the opponent eventually rolling 10-30 armor/invulnerable saves. It just won't work.