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I've played a couple of games against the new Eldar, only one with my nids, and I was lucky my opponent only brought 2 wave. He usually runs a bunch of vehicles with Dark Eldar allies. It's a nasty list that can shoot you off the table in a hurry.

6th edition is so diverse these days it's hard to make a TAC list with any army. Tyranids struggle with AT so, understandably, AV12 fast skimmer spam is going to be hard for us. I'm getting lucky charging serpents that my opponent mistakenly placed too close to my lines (he's still learning the army) with gaunts with adrenal glands. Gargoyles too. I feel like whatever else Eldar bring we have an answer to, but with the Eldars dipping back into 5th ed transport spam armies I am feeling like we just kind of have to hope not to face these lists at tournaments.

Flyrants with 2 x TL Devourers. Youll get a couple of glances per turn with those I should think. Try Spore'd Fexes with 2 x TL Devourers too. Theyre great for assaulting vehicles if they survive the next turn.

Or Pod some Zoans with Codex powers. S10 AP1 Lance is always good. And SITW will mess with the Eldar Psykers.

Also, you could try Hive Guard. Though they are less likely to make it into range.

Hive Guard hard counter wave serpents, shame about the short range though.

Hive Guard are not bad vs serpents as they ignore the cover save but a serpent spam list will make them a priority target.
Serpents are so resistant to shooting that HtH is the most efficient way to deal with them, or shooting them in the rear armour.
A Flyrant is good at getting to the rear armour and Ymgarls (sp?) are good at assaulting tanks.
2x 5 man Ymgarl units are a pretty good TAC anti-tank for nids now anyway.

I wonder if it would be worth taking catalyst on the tervigons in this case...




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just worry that there won't be area terrain on tje board, hence, they can't deploy. The book defines area terrain very specifically and if look at a lot of tables there really isn't that much of it. Perhaps other places mount their ruins on bases but I've played games where I couldn't deploy my ygmarls

Tyranids deal with serpent spam by presenting varied threats. I use 2 units of hive guard, 2 flyrants, and three tervigons base. If the serpents focus on the HG, then the flyrants will creep up on them. If they focus on the flyrants, the HG make it into range. If they ignore the tervigons for too long, gaunts and tervies will start chewing them up in hand to hand.

Here's my 1750 list

Hive Tyrant, Wings, 2 TL Devourers, Hive Commander

3 Zoanthropes in a Pod
2 Pyrovores in a Pod
Doom of Malantai in a Pod

Tervigon, 2 powers, adrenal glands, toxin sacs
Tervigon, 2 powers, adrenal glands, toxin sacs
10 Termagaunts
10 Termagaunts

25 Gargoyles

2 Biovores

Firestorm Redoubt

It's 1745 right now. I've found it to be pretty effective against a variety of lists. I'm just not sure how to adapt to a wave spam list. The doom and the zoanthropes will melt units with psychic shrieks but AV 12 is a problem. The lascannons help but I can't control them. I might just need 1 pyrovore to burn away a unit of scouts on an objective or something but I really like them. I want 3...

I could drop the flyrant but he's the best AT I've got going right now.

I play Eldar serpent spam, but not Tyranids. But I wanted to add that as a serpent spam player, the thing I'm most worried about is having my skimmers assaulted.

Shooting up to str7 just bounces off wave serpents like crazy. Single shots like zoans or short range shots like zoans/hiveguard also have a good chance of either being converted to auto-glances, or avoided completely because of the crappy range.

But anything that can catch the serpent in HtH bypasses all its advantages--shields, cover, and AR12 mean nothing in assault.

Hive guard and zoes will just get their pens turned into glances on a 2+ by the shield.

Have to assault wave serpents. It's 6th ed and they are hit on a 3+ when moving 12" or glat out. A 160 point wave serpent goes down as easy as a land speeder in cc.

Thatguyoverthere11 wrote:

Here's my 1750 list

Hive Tyrant, Wings, 2 TL Devourers, Hive Commander

3 Zoanthropes in a Pod
2 Pyrovores in a Pod
Doom of Malantai in a Pod

Tervigon, 2 powers, adrenal glands, toxin sacs
Tervigon, 2 powers, adrenal glands, toxin sacs
10 Termagaunts
10 Termagaunts

25 Gargoyles

2 Biovores

Firestorm Redoubt

It's 1745 right now. I've found it to be pretty effective against a variety of lists. I'm just not sure how to adapt to a wave spam list. The doom and the zoanthropes will melt units with psychic shrieks but AV 12 is a problem. The lascannons help but I can't control them. I might just need 1 pyrovore to burn away a unit of scouts on an objective or something but I really like them. I want 3...

I could drop the flyrant but he's the best AT I've got going right now.

But... but... but there's Pyrovore's in that list....

Serpents have a few drawbacks.

They have a large footprint. This means if your playing with 6 of them plus 3 prisms, they are going to take up a LOT of board space.

They are very weak to any assault that can deliver mass STR 4 attacks, a decent number of STR 6 attacks, or a small number of high strength attacks.

Combined, these two elements mean that you can use troops to block the serpents ability to move. If they get close to you, you will tear it open and kill all the models inside. You can keep pinning them to the board edge and remove all their movement capacity.

Fast moving assault units can limit their movement more quickly. Serpents can't get anywhere within 19" of a gargoyle unit safley (with adrenal glands)

These should help you.

Do you think it's worth changing out my Gargoyles for 9 Raveners with rending claws?

I would try to find a way to put in some ymgarls. They are amazing reliable light to med tank hunters. With str 5 hitting rear armor 10 you can pop those tanks like candy .

The best way to deal with Serpent spam is to get up close and assault it. The amount of firepower an Eldar army can put out means you chances of actually getting there with any kind of infantry based unit is basically zero. Even the reliable Flyrants can't move up close to threaten an Eldar list without some other support with them, the traditional Tervigon based builds are definitely too slow. I wouldn't expect Hive Guard to be a huge threat either tbh unless you are playing on a really terrain heavy board.

Basically its the units with alternative deployment options which give Nids a chance against Eldar (and Tau for that matter). Ymgarls are amazing against Mech Eldar (not so much against Tau cause they get blasted with Interceptor), they easily have the punch to get through the rear armour of Serpents and can easily take any of the Eldar infantry units (its just stuff like Wraithknights where you are pushing your luck a fish for Rends). Mech Eldar has a pretty large footprint, so its usually going to be impossible to avoid ending up near area terrain with them, and the mind games Ymgarls play on people are great. The other units I expect to do well are Dakkafexes in Pods (drop in, hoping for rear armour, either way you have a decent shot at dropping a Serpent) and Mawlocs. If you get your timing right units like this will arrive at the same time as you Flyrants and other on board elements are close enough to be a threat, and your opponent won't be able to deal with all of them at once.

 schadenfreude wrote:
Hive guard and zoes will just get their pens turned into glances on a 2+ by the shield.

And that is why I drop 'thropes in on the rear facing. No downgrade for you!

Thatguyoverthere11 wrote:
I wonder if it would be worth taking catalyst on the tervigons in this case...

It is ALWAYS worth taking Catalyst on the tervigons. Guaranteed Feel No Pain is one of their main benefits to the army, in addition to swamping the table with scoring units.

 HerbaciousT wrote:
Flyrants with 2 x TL Devourers. Youll get a couple of glances per turn with those I should think.

12 shots, 8 hits, 1.3 glances, 0.66 hull points lost after cover save. Double Flyrants still only get you 1.3 glances a turn on a single Serpent. Not even close to good solution I'm afraid.

 Happyjew wrote:

 schadenfreude wrote:
Hive guard and zoes will just get their pens turned into glances on a 2+ by the shield.

And that is why I drop 'thropes in on the rear facing. No downgrade for you!

How is the Eldar player leaving this to be even possible? I always have my rear close to the board edge so nothing can get behind it, and it is perfectly viable to stay this way for at least the first 3 turns of any game.