Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello Dakka,

I love playing nids, specifically I like fast lists, whether this be flying/winged and or Spores dropping out of the sky.
There is one problem that I seem to face repeatedly. Maybe you see this also with other styles of Nid lists..

My opponents tend to castle up in one section of the board. This means my army has to get to him and face a full onslaught of his firepower.
This with a wall of tanks can be very tough to crack.

Does anyone have any advice or experience with either trying to ensure your opponent doesn't castle in the first place or smashing the castle to pieces?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

The Doom can cause havoc in a castle. Get him there in a pod. Outflanking Genestealers used to be great at busting a castle, but 6th edition put a stop to that. Ymgarls could do it as they can pop out a piece of terrain near the castle nd assault the tanks blocking your path. Give them +1 str on the charge and they should open them up for the Doom to clean them out.

And I kinda like doubling down on Doom by giving it Psychic Shriek. Also gives you more range and the ability to ignore cover saves.

Have you considered Biovores? When it comes to a castle defense ‘vors can overload the area with wounds (barrage sniping) and glance rear AV -> more so when it comes to Chimera.

Cheers so far.

I guess Spore Mines can help alter your opponents deployment so he doesn't castle in the first place.

As you said above, Doom can sway your opponent not to do that against some non mech lists.

I do tend to think this is probably a heavily used tactic agaisnt Nids no matter the Nid List.

Please feel free to pour in further thoughts.

Spore mines are not your firends in castle defenses. The doom cannot really compete vs tanks witch is a big problem for tyranids. I would recomend fast units (like you use) Especialy gargoyles with A glands for glancing transports. Cheap and give cover, needs synapse.

I would also cinsider the mawlock in bigger games as it gets harder to castle up. Zoanthropes and Hive guards, simply because you need them.

DarthDiggler wrote:The Doom can cause havoc in a castle. Get him there in a pod. Outflanking Genestealers used to be great at busting a castle, but 6th edition put a stop to that. Ymgarls could do it as they can pop out a piece of terrain near the castle nd assault the tanks blocking your path. Give them +1 str on the charge and they should open them up for the Doom to clean them out.

This. The Doom is a great idea, enough to devastate most castling opponents (and cause much whining when half their army dies). Ymgarls are a good idea too, and Mawlocs can get the job done in a pinch. I would also consider a Mycetic Spore or 2 filled with Devourer Gaunts.

As mentioned above - Mawlocs, Ymgarls, Dooms. Podding a few Zoanthropes in front of a vehicle line will undoubtly open up some space. Blowing up their fortifications (see Building Dmg Chart) can give you some extra dmg and it's pretty nasty stuff.

I'm surprised you're having a difficult time. If you running a heavy flying monstrous creature list, castling should bring a big smile to your face. The sheer amount of Strangthorn Cannons from your Hive Tyrants and Harpys should be just fine. Harpys can drop spore mine cysts. Don't charge head on for vectors, come from both sides. If they're at the corner of the board they'd better hope they keep passing their morale and pinning checks.

Yeah, in 5th edition, mech castles (at least the non-GK variety) weren't the toughest matchup for my null deployment Tyranids. I just dropped, stunlocked as much as possible, took their best shot, and then went to work. Theoretically it should work even better in 6th...not that I really expect mech gunlines to continue to be the flavor du jour. Doom should continue to get better as players start putting more boots on the ground.

The rulebook missions seem to be still moving away from kill points missions. More objective missions means they generally have to send something out to mid-table or risk losing the same without taking a single casualty.

If you do have to go get them then Doom, Zoanthropes, Mawloc, Ymgarls and flying MCs can all do a job for you.

Yeah, Castleing is not as viable as it once was. 5/6 of missions are objective based.

Just grab the objectives and weather his barrage till the game ends.

As said, castling is not a good as it was with more objective games. On top of that we can easily take midfield with spawned gants.

What I do to face castles is keep Hive Commander on my Tyrant. This was I can reserve the tyrant and two trygons and reliably deep strike them in front of the castle. That is a lot of wounds with high toughness in their face, and they only get one turn to deal with it. I did not use that strategy in this game against Tau as I did not use a Tyrant, but you can see here how I alternated which units were vulnerable to survive long enough to break a split castle in hammer and anvil deployment.