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So for those that don't know the rules, they:

Get Scout and Stealth on the first turn for Infantry that isn't Bulky.
Stationary Infantry can exchange a Bolter profile for Heavy 1 S4 AP5 Rending.

The Chapter Master also inflicts D6+3 Wounds on any model before the game starts, or D3 Haywire hits, as well as re-roll reserves and impose a -1 to enemy reserves.

I'm expected to play against these with my Tyranids in about a months time, while my friend who currently plays them with Tau keeps getting slaughtered, any tips on how to beat them with both armies?

Tau:

Tau's best option to to play the range game. If I recall, the Rending requires the Marines to remain stationary as the weapons become Heavy 1, so if they're shooting like that they're not moving. Park Fire Warriors 30" away with a Fireblade for as-good-as-rapid-fire, and watch as they face the choice of coming forward with the worse firepower or staying still and waiting for you to come to them (which, of course, you don't do, and hopefully he wastes a turn realising this) As he moves up, you fall back, keeping him at arm's reach and giving ground where you have to to ensure this.

As for the T1 Stealth/Shrouding, hit them with as many markerlights as you can, using them all to Ignore Cover with as many big guns as you can. As for Issodon's pre-game hits, unless they require LOS there's not a lot you can do beyond hoping he rolls poorly, and if you're bringing an ADL/Bastion, shoving a Comm Relay on there should get around that somewhat.



Nids:

Not so sure, but I think your best option if you can is to go with dozens of little'uns rather than the big bugs, as basically, they make the Rending perk useless, halving the shots for no real gain. If that's not an option, you can't really play at range either, so if you can get/proxy some Tyrannocytes you can at least minimise the turns it takes to get into combat, at which point he's really no better than any other armies. I don't think Nid's have that much Ignores Cover, so there's not a lot you can do about the T1 bonus other than hitting them with guns against which their Armour is better anyway so cover doesn't matter

Issodon's pre-game hits are likely to be gravy, to be honest. At worst, he'ls killing a few expendable bugs or taking maybe a wound off an MC unless he rolls very well indeed. The easiest answer to the reserve manipulation is just to not put anything in reserve if you can help it.


Hope that gives you some ideas.

I always forget how nasty Issodon can be.

As a raptors player I can say that what I would fear from the Tau would be their markerlights to ignore cover on their ap3 weapons as mentioned.

The strengths of the raptors are going to be their ability to infiltrate any non-vehicle units they want, and their general tactical prowess. If you had a list he typically runs it would help, because honestly you could take a list with 40 infiltrating assault terminators and call it a day, or you could run it thematically with a lot of scouts and such.

If we assume he plays a somewhat thematic army, I would recommend units in your deployment field with a long assault reach to swarm over his infiltrators so the rest of your board can move up unmolested and also strong forces like mawlocs which can disrupt their backfield shooters. The thing you'll have to worry about the most if you can minimize those two elements will then be the crisis management elements from reserves. Just figure out what he has and what they're good against and you'll probably know where they're going. You'll have to outthink your opponent, which will be tough, because the main strength of the chapter is tactical superiority. Hope that helped, post a list for more help.

For me, necrons, built into a phalanx.

Their chaplain sounds nasty, however if you keep your characters in reserve (and vehicles too) then the D6+3 wounds is pretty much wasted. Sure he can go after a lord or cryptek.. what evs.

Scout and infiltate are always a bit pointless when playing necrons. The rules don't really help since the phalanx will move regardless. Anything that deploys close to you should be dealt with by wraiths in the first turn.

Crypteks with solar flares can help against that stealth affect by shrouding your troops in darkness cover too. So if he wants a turn of sanding back and shooting, you get one too.

-1 to reserve models is annoying but hardly a game changing ability. Reserves simply become slightly less reliable. If your plan invovled reserves too heavily anyway you may need to rethink anyway.