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.

I am going to be fighting someone soon that, the last time I saw him, was running a very effective green tide. It will be a 1000pt match for the league, and I have no idea what the general strengths of his army would be. His 500pt army consisted of 2 full units of boyz with a big mek with Kustom Force Field with a trio of Kannons. So, how can I combat his tide with my Tyranid forces? Due to current limited model selection, my forces consist of the following:

6 Tyranid Warriors
40 Termagants
28 Hormagaunts
8 Genestealers
1 Deathleaper
2 Carnifexes
6(?) Ripper Swarms

I have been tinkering around with the idea of making a deathstar unit of Tyranid Warriors and 2 Primes, all with dual boneswords, toxin sacs, adrenal glands, and regeneration on the primes.

Are they shooty orks or slugga?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Are they shooty orks or slugga?

Have you tried both fexes and a Prime in a unit?

They appear to be just "regular" boyz. Crappy guns for the most part, but a ton of them. A pistol and a knife. On the subject of carnifex and prime combination, no. I tried to do that, but since I am relatively new to the hobby, the guy in my shop that happens to own about 4k nids says that a Prime can't join big monsters like that. Since I couldn't do a quick scan through the codex and find where it says I can or can't, I didn't press it. Mostly, I've been running a prime on its own, but hiding just behind the Carnifex, which is also on it's own.

Normally, an independent character cannot join a monstrous creature...any "group" of monstrous creatures (or monstrous creature + something else, like a Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guard) is fair game.

2 Dakkafexes (carnifex with 2x devourers) and a kitted out Tyranid Prime is scary. Slow moving, but 24 twin-linked strength 6 shots per turn...you should kill around 10 per turn. Plus you have a somewhat scary overwatch and you're still great in combat. They can even take out Killa Kans and Trukks with ease.

Hormagaunts with toxin sacs and adrenal glands are expensive (and probably overcosted) but will tear Orks a new one. If just half of your unit charges a boyz squad, he doesn't stand a chance.

The real trick would be getting my Tyranid Warrior deathstar into close combat with their KFF. I don't know what they can be outfitted with, but I think my Prime should be able to kill it before it can strike. Which basically, even if it meant sacrificing a warlord, would wipe out a near universal cover save. Speaking of which, what exactly are the rules for a KFF?

Against Orks? You'll just have to curl up into the fetal position and take the kicking of a life time

Nids always give my Orks a serious run for their money, tide list or otherwise. The real problem you're having is your list. Unless you're willing to proxy/convert up some of those models into other units you're going to be taking a pounding for a while.

Dakkafexes are great, but you need something along the lines of a Flyrant with TL Devourers, take advantage of their lack of shooting/range to blast them/tie them up.

Orks are scary in droves and in this ed a unit of 30 Boyz is enough to tie up/kill basically anything short of vehicles/dreadnoughts.

Poison+scything hormigaunts can do crazy damage, so can poison/scything stealers, so you may want to go that route, you're really going to need strong and mobile synapse to weather the storm however, and 2 primes is not going to cut it.

Take on one unit at a time. Once you reduce a mob below the mob rules, they will most likely fail leadership test and run away.

if they're pistol/ccw orks, that means they're sluggas, which are the ork close combat specialists. They're each putting out 4 S4 attacks on the charge, so for the love of god do not let him get the charge on you. If you can get the charge on him, you'll take a bunch of bolt pistol shots, but they won't do much.

Remember though, now that fearless wounds are gone, boyz mobs make incredibly effective tarpits. If you get something stuck in with them, you're not leaving combat till your unit dies or you can kill him down to 10 boyz or less.

Yea, that sounds about right. My problem has been not letting anyone assualt into me. I mean, your talking an 18 inch space. What is the optimal range to keep them from charging you? I mean, 6 inch move, and 2d6 charge. The average roll is a 7, so do I keep my units constantly outside roughly 14 inches?

 Unyielding Hunger wrote:
Yea, that sounds about right. My problem has been not letting anyone assualt into me. I mean, your talking an 18 inch space. What is the optimal range to keep them from charging you? I mean, 6 inch move, and 2d6 charge. The average roll is a 7, so do I keep my units constantly outside roughly 14 inches?

Well, he's got a WAAAAAGH! that he can call in that gives him fleet, which will bump that average up to around 9-10 inches. He can only use it once, but odds are he'll know when to use it and make it count.

I'd play it safe and just assume that if he's within at least 10 inches he's going to try and charge. Heck, if his sluggas are firing, he's probably going to go for it. Overwatch will help you immensly. All you'll need to do is kill a few guys in the front and he'll probably fail that charge.

You should be very happy that he is running sluggas and not shootas. Shootas pump out 2 str 4 ap 6 shots a boy, so in a thirty man mob, you are looking at 14 dead guants from just one round of shooting. But remember, a slugga is the same gun but just one less shot and 12" range, so you would still lose 7 guants from a round of those before they even charge. Don't underestimate ork shooting. Guants are horribly fragile, and ork boyz can shoot them away easily. Also, our bigger guns are made to take down monsterous creatures (lootas and Kannons, and tank bustas if he brings them).

An effective tactic for me vs. Orks is to take 3 warriors with a barbed strangler, I often take several squads. Two should do. Give a 'fex a stranglethorn cannon, and run some screening termagants. Given your force restrictions, I think that might do decently. Shooty bugs seems counter-intuitive, but you're shooting for 2-3 turns with impunity and that's going to kill a few. Once they're whittled down, you should have no problems focusing on one squad at a time in cc - tie up some boys with gants and pile your warriors and 'fex into the other unit. Maybe put devourers on the 'fex too, 18" is very acceptable.

I often run this with a Tervigon and Tyrant, both with large blasts, and Orks are no problem. Good luck!

What are the stats on stranglers?

Hmm, so keep 10 inches away at all times. Got it. Also, is this probably a bad time to say that I believe in melee 'nids and the only shooting attacks in my army are bio-plasma attacks and termagant fleshborers? I have been looking at some hive guard, biovores, and a Tyrannoex for ranged combat.

Does he have any dakkajets? My nids friend always gives me one hell of a beating at 1500pts unless i run dakkajets, green tide or armor or speedy doesnt matter against his flyrants and hive guards (could just be lucky, i guess).

Though i think, barring the dakkajet trick, orks and nids are the most evenly skilled races atm. I havnt faced anything from nids i had to dedicate half my army to deal with, and neither has he except my dakkajets.

Gotta admit though, those gargoyles scare the hell out of my boyz if im going green tide. Theyre just strong enough to give one hell of a punch, and he either takes a LOT of them or none at all. Pain in the arse.

EDIT: Yeah, i think assaulty nids got hurt worse than orks in 6th. Orks atleast have a crapton of range to counter their crappy accuracy, what do nids have besides that group of hiveguard that sits in the back waiting for something dumb enough to get close? Not much. Always funny when i see nids charge a 30man boyz team and overwatch takes out half of them rofl.

I can't confirm any dakkajets, or even any armor. The only piece of armor I have seen him field are kannons. I truly fear that he has nothing but Boyz. Truly, what I have been half afraid to expect are horde Boyz with a couple KFF scattered amongst them, with a ton of kannons with his grot loaders to the rear to soften me up. Sad part is, I was thinking of doing that exact same thing with horde gants and gaunts, and a crapload of biovores...

Things the tyranids have over the orks, at least when i play is character monstrous creatures. Your hive tyrant will be in valuable, but your playing slugga boys. So while i cant suggest a list i can suggest a style of play. Play the game of him coming into to you. Dont run at him into the fray, he will have an advantage of numbers. Work up your number of shots. Your hive tyrant can tarpit a full squad, just issue a challenge and rip the nob/leader to peices and then rip the rest of the squad up, they should do minimal damage. But lots of shots, and if you can weapons that ignore cover. They will ignore the KFF. the KFF is a 6" bubble if one model is in it, then the squad gets it, so suspect him to line them up sneaky like. But your main goal should be to out shoot him as much as possible, and then work for the position to charge and attempt to crush his orks. because orks with 1 less attack, and 1 less strength matter.

At least you'd both be pulling off models by the fistful! Fun times.

the guy in my shop that happens to own about 4k nids says that a Prime can't join big monsters like that. Since I couldn't do a quick scan through the codex and find where it says I can or can't, I didn't press it.

For future reference the rule it sounds as if he may be confused about is in the IC rules in the main rulebook. An IC can't join a unit which is always composed of one model (except other ICs)- which rules out almost all MCs, but Carnifexes are an exception because they can be taken in squads of more than one.

Frankly, your proposed deathstar unit of warriors with boneswords is overkill (thus wasted points) against orks. That's a lot of power weapon attacks that that you just don't need against orks with their low save.

I don't suppose your termagants have devourers? They can be pretty lethal against orks with poor saves.

Fleshborers. But my group is fairly relaxed when it comes to my Tyranids. I could probably get away with a simple upgrade to devourers. Because you almost never see devourer equipped gants because of their cost compared to running bare boned gants in large lists with tervigons, I've had my fleshborer units count as having devourers. They had a gun, and thats all my opponents cared about. We all sort of agreed that coming up with a way to actually magnetize each gant was impossible, not to mention overkill.