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So here's the thing: My friend and I have been battling, and I have yet to beat his space marine army once.

I'm fairly new to nids, and 40k. I've skimmed over some nid strategies around here for a while, but a lot of it is hard to understand. I do have a good grasp of the game in general, though.

All I have as of now is a battleforce, a carnifex w/ HVC, and a trygon prime.

Fielding it all I give him about 950 pts to play with, which he uses to bring out his Land Raider (among other things which I dislike.) One thing is, the only thing I have that can even do damage to the damn tank is my carnifex, but he focus-fires down my carni really early, and I'm screwed. He thinks I need more gaunts to be effective, but I'm thinking of going with some hive guards. Or maybe just more fexes, but they're so damn expensive, both in points and dollars.

Also, since we're beginners we play with basically no cover on the field (The most we've used is a battleforce box on the table) which gives his units - which includes a devastator squad with lots of rocket launchers, usually some sniper scouts, and a command squad - lots of time to pick me off from a distance. He also really likes hellfire rounds.

So, I'm at a loss. If I throw more units into the mix it just gives him more room to do the same, and it seems like he has the superior firepower here. So what am can I do tactically to even the playing field?

Can you give us a list of exactly what he uses? Devastators, Command Squad, Land Raider, Sniper Scouts in 950pts?

Damn.

The scout squad is almost always fielded.
He uses a full squad of tactical marines, and obviously the land raider.
He switches between a dreadnaught and the command squad.
And then there's the devastators.
He also usually has his chapter master fielded, the one with the orbital bombardment. That might be called something different.

What do you have in you list? if you run a flyrant with 6th edition rules then stopping that land raider wont be hard.

I fielded the Battleforce, so:

16 fleshborer gaunts (I regret not giving them devourers, but hindsight is 20/20)
16 hormagaunts
8 genestealers w/ ST
1 warrior w/ deathspitter + rending claws
1 warrior w/ VC + scything talons
1 prime w/ deathspitter + scything talons

then my trygon prime, and my carnifex with HVC.

Oh, and 3 useless ripper swarms.

A Zonthrope (or two) in a Mycetic Spore is always a great way for taking out Heavy Armour.

The biggest factor here - the game should be played with the table 25% covered by terrain features. Playing on a naked table where Nids cannot hide will be pretty much auto win for the marines!

First off, remember that your Trygon can kill the Land Raider too using Smash attacks. In fact I'd say it has a better chance than the fex does thanks to deep strike and fleet.
Also venom cannons are pretty terrible unless you're fighting light forces, such as Orks or (Dark) Eldar. They can't kill tanks in one shot, with just one HVC you'll be very lucky to kill a Land Raider by turn 5. I'd spend those points elsewhere.
You could try a devourer-fex (12 twin-linked S6 shots for killing marines), or just leave it plain for better melee performance.

Is he agressive with the Land Raider, or does it sit back and snipe?
You could try taking a spore pod and deep-striking the Trygon and Fex together, forcing him to shoot both at once. Chances are he'll only kill one and you can charge with the other next turn. Don't forget the fex gets a free 'Hammer of Wrath' impact hit of S9+D6 on the charge. Either MC can then half their attacks to hit at S10 with a re-roll, or hit at base strength plus D6. The Trygon prime also gets 12 S5 shots, so make the most of those to take out nearby threats like Devastators when it surfaces.

In the meantime, aim to engage those scouts with fast melee units like Hormas. The dread can be tied up by termagants to make it useless. If that fails, you could try proxying units like a Flyrant or Terivgon for more synergy.

But above all, bring more terrain!.

xttz wrote:First off, remember that your Trygon can kill the Land Raider too using Smash attacks.

This is a 6ed rule, right? Seems like it should put things slightly more in my favor. Also, I always forget that when attacking armor, MCs get an extra D6 to determine the power of their attack.

xttz wrote:Also venom cannons are pretty terrible unless you're fighting light forces, such as Orks or (Dark) Eldar. They can't kill tanks in one shot, with just one HVC you'll be very lucky to kill a Land Raider by turn 5. I'd spend those points elsewhere.
You could try a devourer-fex (12 twin-linked S6 shots for killing marines), or just leave it plain for better melee performance.

Hmm. I guess the high-strength-large-blast-radius was just a little too tempting for me. Thinking back, the HVC helped me take out relatively large chunks of his forces (mostly the scouts) because of this, and because of the long range. But, I can see how the TLD would be really, really helpful.

xttz wrote:
Is he agressive with the Land Raider, or does it sit back and snipe?
You could try taking a spore pod and deep-striking the Trygon and Fex together, forcing him to shoot both at once. Chances are he'll only kill one and you can charge with the other next turn. Don't forget the fex gets a free 'Hammer of Wrath' impact hit of S9+D6 on the charge. Either MC can then half their attacks to hit at S10 with a re-roll, or hit at base strength plus D6. The Trygon prime also gets 12 S5 shots, so make the most of those to take out nearby threats like Devastators when it surfaces.

I do love the idea of sporing in the fex, making him choose which one to deal with. Also, I did that exact thing: I assaulted his dreadnaught with my shooty gaunts. It was funny.

As for the Land Raider, he usually moves it to a spot where it's 48" range can basically reach anything on the table. Which brings us to the most important part..

xttz wrote:
But above all, bring more terrain!.

Yeah, I really kinda figured this was most of the problem. What ends up happening is that I'm sprinting across the field as fast as I can, with nothing to counter the endless barrage he's sending at me, and when I finally reach him I maybe have a few gaunts and a warrior left.

I'm thinking of using legos to craft some basic terrain for next time.

UncommonConfection wrote:

xttz wrote:First off, remember that your Trygon can kill the Land Raider too using Smash attacks.

This is a 6ed rule, right? Seems like it should put things slightly more in my favor. Also, I always forget that when attacking armor, MCs get an extra D6 to determine the power of their attack.

They got rid of 2D6 armour pen for MC's in 6ed. Instead you halve your attacks (rounding up), double strength (to 10, the maximum) and roll 1D6 to pen with an optional re-roll. Vehicles also got easier to hit, only needing 3+ if it moves and the Trygon can re-roll these too due to ScyTals. You're looking at this kinda math:
Trygon: 7 attacks on the charge = 4 smash attacks at 10 + 1D6 with a re-roll both to hit and to pen

Carnifex: S9 + 1D6 'hammer of wrath' impact hit, then either
5 regular attacks at S9 + 1D6, or
3 smash attacks at S10 + 1D6 with a re-roll.

Get 4 glances or 1 lucky pen and it's all over. Good luck!

Since no one else has pointed it out, your warriors must be fielded in 3-man-minimum squads. As for your problems with closing the distance, use spores, subterranean assaults, infiltrating, or anything else to avoid beginning on your own side. If buying new units is an option, get a winged hive tyrant with biomancy. if you roll well with iron arm, the thing is damn near unkillable!

Hunchkrot wrote:Since no one else has pointed it out, your warriors must be fielded in 3-man-minimum squads.

Yeah, this is how I've been fielding them. Also, the flyrant has been suggested a couple of times now and is definitely the next big unit I would be looking to purchase.

Alrigt, it's just that your army list gave the impression they were all separate. as for the the flyrant, definitely. Just hope you roll well on your iron arm, and it'll never die. the look on your opponent's face when he's got to kill a T9 Flyer is simply priceless. My Flyrant took a whole army's worth of shooting (what could wound it at least) in a 3k points game against Grey knights last week, and then he Life leeched the two wounds he lost next turn. WINNING.