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.

So hey there,


i have very very little to no experience fighting Tyranids,.. I played a 2k battle last week and lost big time...

In my opinion genestealers are my main concern,.. The hit first, they hit a lot, they hit hard, i hate broodlord...
6 of em wiped a whole 20 man boy squad in 1 turn including the nob... they killed so many i had to take a morale check, failed it, rerolled it with bosspole, failed it... rest eventually ran off the table edge... and went bye bye boss.
Now i must say,.. he rolled very wel, i could just as easily not have rolled at all... but anyways, another 6 genestealers with broodlord took down a warboss and 6 nobs in one go as well,.. sweeping advanced them and they were gone...

And then o lord,... the doom of malen'ti or something... Hes real dead killy but not a real problem to take down if you commit enough fire..

The big ass dinosaurs like mawloc and such are not that much of a problem either, although they can inflict real pain... i have Powerklaws in almost every squad and enough bodies to guard the klaw.. Lootas helped very well against the T6 monsters...

So what i'm looking for is some advice against genestealers, i know i can shoot them but what to do when CC is right around the corner..

Some overall advice in case i am missing something.

I fielded 60 slugga boyz with nob bosspole eavy armor and klaw.
i fielded 20 shoota boyz same as above.
2 boomguns
warboss, pklaw 8 nobz incl painboy banner bosspole eavy armor and cybork. 3 pklaws and rest big choppa.. in b-wagon
warboss, big choppa twl shoota 6 nobz, waaghbanner, eavy armor, a big choppa and pklaw in trukk
8 loota's behind aegis defense line
5man burna squad on foot between 2 squad boyz.

Thats about it i think.

He had 2 genestealer squads incl broodlord.
hyve tyrant with sword/whip
same as above with a guard
hyve guard, 3 man squad
2 cc gaunt squads
warrior cc squad
doom of malen'ti via deep strike
Mawloc

Thats about it i think....

please help me out

Scorcher buggies/wartrakks are the way to go. They can't get tied down in HTH and it is a mobile heavy flamer template. Barring that, just ork shootas and big shootas. They - thankfully- don't have a good AC so they will die.

Against Genestealers one of the best things you can do is keep a piece of Terrain between you and them. Force them to Assault you over Terrain, so that they go at I1. If you can pull this off, it's better to bait the Genestealers into Assaulting you than to shoot and Assault the Genestealers. Most of the time you'll be successful a this, since a Tyranid player is unlikely to just sit back and let you shoot at him and NOT assault you.

Deff Dreads can wreck Genestealers. Genestealers CAN hurt a Deff Dread with their Rending, but they have to roll lucky. In 5th edition, I've had a squad of Genestealers kill my Deff Dread, and I've also had my Deff Dread tarpit and wipe out the Genestealers over the course of two turns with the Genestealers not being able to do anything in return. I have not tried this tactic in 6th yet, with the Broodlord Psychic powers and Hull Points.

You're already bringing the Boomgun, which is probably one of the best anti-genestealer weapon I can think of.

And whenever possible assault the genestealers yourself. Get the bonus attacks for yourself.

I would bring rocket buggies before scorchers. Templates get too close which is asking for them to be torn apart.
Where as rockets kill monsters nicely and are ap3.

Talking of which shoot rockets at the doom until he dies, all the klaw also instant kills him, I would definitely go for the instant kill. He will get two goes at sucking your souls before you can kill him, unless you turtle behind a wall of mech, which is an option.

Against this particular army I would just sit back and shoot. It hasn't much that can dynamically deploy like deep strike et cetera. You should get in two turns of shooting, the genestealers could get a second turn charge if they are lucky.

The other issue choosing what to charge in when. For example, nobs will should do all right against genestealers if they have been shot down a bit first, whereas monsters can instant kill them.

Synaspe and 'nid shooting would be things to think about but given the lists I feel they are not real concerns.

Sometimes it works to have some gretchen as a buffer. The steelers have to hit them first, likely wipe them out, then your nobs get to assault them.
The problem is often initiative. Steelers generally rule. Also steelers have brood telapathy, synapse is usually not an issue.

Flamers are a real bear. Vehicles tend to die when assaulted by steelers. Now and then I roll bad but on average, more rhinos and trukks have died than steelers..

Yea the Doom is doomed once every...thing shoots at it. Son figured that out after I sucked the life out of 4 squads.

Son does Blood Angels and Orks. He always adds some figure that gives Feel no Pain. Although I can wound, killing some of these orks is a bear.
Thanks for toxin.


Oh and my one steeler brood is painted yellow,black, white. The BroodLord is Scary Broadmaw.

After the removal of fearless wounds and assaulting from outflanking, genestealers have lost a lot of their scare factor. No longer can they pop up in your backfield and devour your lootas with no retaliation or charge a mob of 30 boyz and cut them down. They're still dangerous in large numbers (or if you don't greatly outnumber them) and things like deff dreads, kans, and battlewagons struggle with their attacks. I've found the best answers to them to be either burna's in a battlewagon, lootas with some good firing zones, or any size mob nobs. Even if they get the charge, the burnas will reduce them to cinders and lootas can gun them down either before they get the charge or during overwatch, as both weapons will be ignoring their armor. And nobz, of course, who either stock or mega'd up can beat them down regardless of initiative.